Despite rumors of reduction/suspension of the business, Samsung Electronics will continue to invest in their Light Emitting Diode (LED) business this year.
According to the business on the 12th, Samsung Electronics have began the process of shifting LED related facilities from fallen behind line 3 to line 5.
Line 5 is located in Gyunggi-do Giheung K1 region, which is the production line for Samsung’s system semiconductors. Samsung reformed this line and made it into LED chip production line. Until now, production was made from previous line 3 and SR line. Samsung plans to unite these two lines and make one production line. Line 5 produces both 4 inch and 8 inch products.
Samsung has 150 of MOCVD (Metal Organic Chemical Vapor deposition), which is one of the main parts in manufacturing LED chip. It is the most domestic holding amount for one company. The business views the shifting construction to take more than a year.
Samsung is planning to develop silicon-based LED chip along with sapphire-based LED on the line 5. Silicon-based LED prototype products have been partially produced from the previous line 3.
As of current wafer for LED, sapphire base is most commonly used. By inserting sapphire wafer and metalizing gallium nitride into MOCVD, an Epiro LED chip is produced. If silicon is used instead of sapphire, the production cost can be reduced greatly and can be easier to enlarge. Samsung Electronics is pressing on the 8 inch silicon wafer based LED research development. Although Toshiba had already mass produced, the function was degrading than the sapphire wafer based LED and failed to receive large attention.
Staff Reporter Sung, Hyunhee | sunghh@etnews.com