News

10 December 2009

 

Osram’s second LED chip plant starts production

Two years after breaking ground in July 2007, the last installation work has been completed and the test phase concluded in what Osram Opto Semiconductors GmbH claims is the world’s most modern LED chip production plant, in Penang, Malaysia.

Picture (above): Osram’s new LED chip plant in Penang.

Complementing its main facility in Regensburg, Germany (which was expanded in 2008), the plant makes the firm the first LED maker with high-volume chip production in both Europe and Asia. The Malaysian facility already hosts LED chip packaging, employing about 2600 of Osram Opto Semiconductors’ total worldwide workforce of 4400.

Picture (right): Cleanroom in the new LED chip plant.

The 35,000m2 facility has involved the investment of tens of millions of euros and created more than 220 new jobs in Penang. Now that the manufacturing processes have been established for the 4-inch-wafer-based indium gallium nitride (InGaN) chips, routine production is underway. The chips form the basis for the blue, green and white LEDs used primarily in architecture and general lighting, for display backlighting and in mobile terminal devices. Osram says that the new production capacity will enable it to respond flexibly to the demand for LEDs at competitive prices, as the market has begun to pick up again steeply.

“There is no question that the rise of the LED, which has only just begun, is set to sky-rocket in the coming years,” believes Osram Opto Semiconductors’ CEO Dr Rüdiger Müller. “This is why we are pursuing our investment and expansion course consistently and uncompromisingly, even in this difficult economic environment,” he adds. “With our production facilities in Germany and Malaysia, we are now in an ideal starting position in terms of quantity and quality.”

See related items:

Osram breaks ground on Malaysia LED chip fab

Osram Opto expanding with new LED chip fab in Malaysia

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