Interview with Dow Corning: How to Survive in LED Material Industry ?

In recent years, LED become more and more popular in everyday life. As predicted by a market analysis institution, the annual growth rate of LED market in China will reach up to 26.9% from the year 2013 to 2018. China will become one of the most promising markets in LED industry.

Along with the technical and marketing development, manufacturers have to self-adjust continually to meet the challenge in LED industry. They need to control the cost strictly and diversify the lighting design. As one of the materials for LED products, packaging adhesive needs new changes accordingly.

 

Dow Corning, a joint venture of the Dow Chemical Company and Corning, both of which are among the global top 500 companies, is a market leader in LED material industry. From its foundation, it focuses on the silicon-based technology and the application of organic silicon. In the recent Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition, editors from OFweek has had an interview with Dr.Kaz Maruyama, Global Marketing Director of Dow Corning Lighting Solution and Makoto Yoshitake, the pioneer of the Dow Corning’s high refractive index (RI) phenyl chemistry for optical encapsulates.

Right 1 Makoto Yoshitake, Right 2 Dr.Kaz Maruyama

 

【Product】

Dr.Kaz Maruyama introduced that Among the various new products in the exhibition, the most outstanding one should be a new phosphor film technology, which can be used for next-generation LED chip-scale packaging. Toughness The product has good mechanical ductility and is easy to process. It is featured by it's strong function in gas barrier, long life span and high reliability. It can optimize the output of lighting and reduce the cost.

"In recent two days, I visited the exhibition at break and found many CSP products made in China, as well as some CSP solutions from USA and Korea. As far as I know, the trend of LED is to promote function, cut down cost and use new technology at the same time. So new materials with stronger functions are in need. And Dow Corning's new LED phosphor film just meet the market." said Dr.Kaz Maruyama.

"At the moment, researchers of Dow Corning are endeavored to develop new organic silicon material, since there are many subdivisions. For example, our hot melt adhesive can be melt under high temperature, as a result, it can be easily applied in LED component  and the cost of the overall CSP project is reduced."

 

【Technology】

As to the problems about light output and light of refinement, Dr.Kaz Maruyama and Makoto Yoshitake had explained in detail.

"The promotion of photic output rate is relyed on chip and packaging. Dow Corning's products is a good combination of both. Take our HRI products as an example, its refractive index can reach to 1.05 and it is slushing." said Makoto Yoshitake.

 

Regarding the light of refinement, Makoto Yoshitake believe that it is related to the quality of light while Dr.Kaz Maruyama believe that it is related to the function and quality of LED bulb. The quality and level of LED packaging are important factors while the other parts and component can affect the final performance.

 

【Patent】

When talking on patent,

Dr.Kaz Maruyama said: "Patent is very important to innovative enterprises, Dow Corning also respects patents and wisdom achievement of other firms. Patent is one of the fruits after long-term investment, which is an important base to promote the whole industry. Dow Corning consistently devote itself to technological innovation and invest in technological development thus help the whole industry to move forward by its products and technology. On the other hand, we want to gain respects in return, and a perfect intellectual property system can guarantee justice and continual investment."

Dr.Kaz Maruyama indicated that Dow Corning will keep on investing in research and once there's any new achievements, they will apply for patent in order to protect the products.

As to the "patent war", Dr.Kaz Maruyama had also gave his opinion.

He said that electronics industry in China is developing rapidly and it becomes more and more competitive. He believed that patent issue can be solved not only by law, negotiation and even cooperation are necessary.

 

【Market】

Except for the patent war, the price war is also intense in the recent two years. "Consumers want to buy good products by less money plus the rapid updates of products, that's the reason why the overall price is reduced. “said Dr.Kaz Maruyama. "CSP is a good idea to meet the price challenge. Because it is a way to cut down the cost and once succeed, it can simplify the process, which will reduce the cost dramatically. In the aspect of material, we'll make efforts to reduce cost as well. " China is still a major market for LED encapsulation. And South-East Asia market is regarded promising by many Chinese manufacturer. China will be a base to the future expansion in South-East Asia market.

 

Conclusion

LED is small and easy to be applied to achieve high value. LED lighting enterprises not only need to make LED lighting products, but also should consider its combination with other products to realize more functions. In a word, there is still great space to promote LED's value.