We have recently learned of a Chinese LED manufacturer developing their own MOCVD system with plans to install more than a dozen systems this year. Interestingly, this company also hired Shuji Nakamura, the inventor of GaN LEDs while at Nichia, to consult on the tool design which met with his approval and has the largest capacity in the industry.

The Chinese LED manufacturer, Yangzhou Longyao, currently utilizes more than 10 Aixtron systems at two different facilities in Shanghai and Yangzhou. In addition to producing LEDs, it created a company focused on building MOCVD tools under the Yongsheng brand. MOCVD tools are the most critical tools for manufacturing LEDs. In fact, two of the leading LED manufacturers, Nichia and Cree, build their own tools. Now, an emerging LED manufacturer in China, Yanzhou Longyao, is also building their own tools and has plans to sell them to other LED manufacturers as well. We have heard that the Yongsheng tools will have the largest process chamber in the industry when brought to market later this year with more than a dozen tools expected to be installed in their Yangzhou facility. It is expected to have capacity for 100 2” wafers per chamber, 31 2” wafers larger than the Aixtron CRIUS II-L. Once they have demonstrated the tool’s quality, they will look to sell their MOCVD systems to other companies as well. But, this doesn’t mean that Yangzhou Longyao will just sell tools. They intend to build a 3^rd factory in Anhui Tongling and will utilize their systems in this factory as well.

We expect other MOCVD suppliers to emerge in China given China’s rapidly growing LED market along with subsidies for buying MOCVD tools. However, Yongsheng has the largest chamber, is owned by an existing LED manufacturer and utilized the expertise of the pioneer of blue LEDs, Shuji Nakamura. As a result, they appear to have the best chance of success. However, they are far behind Veeco and Aixtron with Aixtron recently announcing delivery of its 2000^th MOCVD system.

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