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Previous Page | Contents | Zoom in | Zoom out | Front Cover | Search Issue | Next PageABE FMaGSconferences | CHINA SSLChina SSL highlights nationalfocus on solid-state lightingAt its annual forum, the Chinese LED industry showed it is addressing product quality and reliabilityissues, developing standards and trying to deal with patent issues, reports ROBERT STEELE.The Fifth China International Forum onSolid-State Lighing (China SSL 2008) washeld from July 24-26 in Shenzhen. As inprevious years, the Forum was organized by theChina Solid-State Lighting Alliance, with supportfrom seven Chinese government ministries andorganizations, including the Ministry of Scienceand Technology and the Chinese Academy ofSciences, as well as a number of domestic and foreignphotonics associations such as the ChineseOptical Society, SPIE and OIDA (US), OITDA(Japan), and KAPID (Korea).The Forum was accompanied inthe Shenzhen Convention Centerby an exhibition of 196 companiesdisplaying their solid-state lightingproducts. Overall attendancewas reported as 613 for the Forum(including 140 from overseas), and8,212 for the exhibition (including 525 fromoverseas). Although there are a number ofLED-related conferences and trade showsin China throughout the year, China SSLcan be considered to be the premier suchevent as determined by its breadth of contentand support by various governmentand professional organizations.The Forum was preceded by a day ofworkshops and a short course on MOCVDtechnology. The workshops included “InternationalSSL Standards and Measurements”and “Solid-State Lighting Patents”.Both subjects reflect the ongoing high level ofinterest in China. The standards and measurementsworkshop included discussion of effortsin China as well as internationally to developstandards for SSL ranging from devices to systems.The workshop on patents was conductedin Chinese only, whereas all other conferenceevents were bilingual.ROBERT STEELE is director of optoelectronics atmarket research firm Strategies Unlimited.Government supportThe main Forum consisted of two plenary sessionsplus two parallel tracks — one on Epitaxy,Chips and Equipment and one on Packagingand Applications. The beginning plenary wasaddressed by Cao Jianlin, the new Vice Ministerof Science and Technology, who was appointedto replace the former Vice Minister Ma Songde,who recently retired, and who had addressedall previous Forums. Like Minister Ma beforehim, Minister Cao expressed strong support forPhotos courtesy of Scott Riesebosch, CRS Electronicsthe Chinese national solid-state lighting programand confidence in the future growth ofthe LED industry in China.As was announced at previous Forums, thecurrent Chinese national SSL program runsfrom 2006-2010, and is funded by the nationalgovernment at the level of RMB350 million(~US$51 million). Also, local governments willbe contributing 2–3× the amount contributedby the national government. One of the program’snear-term goals is to produce a whiteLED with an efficacy in the 60–70 lm/W rangein 2008, up from 30–40 lm/W in 2006. The program’sgoal for white LEDs in 2010 is 100 lm/Win production and 130 lm/W in the lab.From the various presentations at theForum, it is clear that the Chinese SSL industryhas ambitious plans to become a major playerin the world market. There is a large domesticmarket in China, and the bulk of the progressis in the area of applications rather thantechnology. Therefore, there is a strong focus onstrengthening the LED technology base.The Chinese are keenly aware of some of theproduct quality issues that plague the domesticSSL market at present, both at the device andsystem level. They clearlyrealize that in order to fullyparticipate in the internationalSSL market, they willhave to come to terms withproduct quality and reliabilityissues, develop standardsthat are consistentwith those under developmentelsewhere and dealwith patent issues.At the same time, there area number of Chinese companiesexhibiting a high degreeof sophistication at the SSLsystem and application level.This was illustrated in severalpresentations at the Forum on applications developedfor the 2008 Beijing <strong>Olympics</strong> and plannedfor the Shanghai World Expo. The opening andclosing ceremonies at the <strong>Olympics</strong> in Augustwere an opportunity for the Chinese SSL industryto put its best foot forward, with a variety of colorfuland spectacular effects that illustrated a highlevel of creative imagination as well as sophisticationin control systems. The Shanghai World Expoin 2010 promises to be even more innovative in itsuse of solid-state lighting.LEDsmagazine.com SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008 31Previous Page | Contents | Zoom in | Zoom out | Front Cover | Search Issue | Next PageABE FMaGS