Cree: From chip suppliers to device suppliers
-- Interview with Bob Pollock, Senior Vice President, Global Sales, Career
CREE is the world leader in high-power LED chips and devices. "In the field of high-power LEDs, Cree takes up 35% - 40% of the market." Bob Pollock, senior vice president of global sales at Cree, proudly told the "High-Tech LED" reporter. Cree does have its proud capital, and the data is evidence. Bob estimates that Career's sales will more than double this year, and sales from July last year to June this year are expected to reach $854 million. At the beginning of 2010, the laboratory light efficiency of Cree LED white light packaged devices reached 208lm/W@350mA, which is about 4600K color temperature, far ahead of other LED industry giants.
Bob Pollock, Senior Vice President, Global Sales, Career
Cost per lumen has dropped
In 2010, the global demand for MOCVD equipment will reach 600 units, while Aixtron and Veeco currently have a capacity of only 400 units, which will result in 200 out of stock. In the last seven months, the price of sapphire has increased by as much as 20%. These numbers all prove the fact that LED chips and devices are out of stock.
According to the investigation by the reporter, the price of some chips in the market began to rise, especially for low-power chips, which rose by 5%-50%. The larger increase is the backlight chip, and the high-power LED chip for lighting is relatively stable.
In this wave of price increases, the prices of Cree LED chips and packaged devices remained relatively stable, but the overall decline in chip prices has not changed. Bob believes that the efficiency of the chip is now improved. If the calculation is based on how much money is per lumen, the overall price of the chip is declining. It is not possible to look at the price from the device level.
In the past year, the price of Cree LED devices has been steadily declining, while chip efficiency has increased by about 10-20%. The price per mile is reduced by 20%.
Doing lights is not for selling lights
In February 2008, Cree announced the acquisition of LED lighting fixtures LED lighting fixtures with a total value of approximately US$100 million in stock and cash, and later changed its name to Cree LED Lighting Solution. At that time, many people believed that Cree was in line with Philips. Through a number of acquisitions, Philips has completed vertical integration from chip to package to application and has a pivotal position in every field.
But this is not the case. Bob told reporters that Cree focuses on chips and devices. Cree does not sell lights, but tells customers to use Cree's chips and devices to make such demonstrations. Cree wants to provide customers with a model. "Creek not only manufactures chips and devices, but also places great technical support on customers."
Career's strategy is undoubtedly successful. Bob believes that Cree accounts for approximately 35%-40% of the global high-power LED chips. Currently 2/3 of Cree chips are sold in Asia, especially China. . "Three years ago, we successfully acquired Huagang and entered China from Huagang's marketing channel. The original team of Huagang was very good, which made Career achieve such brilliant achievements in China," Bob said.
At present, the top fifteen lighting companies in the world only account for 30% of the market, and the other 70% of the market is occupied by many small and medium-sized companies, they have their own different characteristics. Bob said that Cree will provide personalized device solutions based on their different needs.
Transition from chip to device
Cree was mainly engaged in the development of SiC, GaN and Si substrates. In many people's impressions, Cree is a supplier of chips and materials. Currently, the products sold by Cree include EZBright Gen II, ETCTM, XThin and other chips.
Bob said that Cree will shift from chip suppliers to device suppliers. At present, the sales of Cree's XLamp series of high-power LED devices are also hot, which confirms Bob's statement. "We tend to offer the entire device solution, and now the chip makers are moving in this direction," Bob said.
Earlier this year, Cree introduced the XLamp MP-L EasyWhite LED, a heavyweight high-power LED light source. MPL uses a breakthrough package design with up to 1500 lumens at 20W.
New product mass production speeds up
Earlier this year, Cree announced that the chip lab efficiency reached 208 lm / W. "The future will definitely reach 250lm/W. It is Ke Rui's strength to develop high-efficiency chips and corresponding packaged devices," Bob said. He believes that the time from 1985lm/W chip to laboratory production will be shortened, 130lm/W takes 3 years, and 160lm/W takes only 2 years. Time shortening is a trend.
On the technical route, Cree is preparing to transition to a six-inch SiC substrate wafer. In 2009, Cree has already used four-inch technology in half of its chips. Bob believes that six-inch technology will be the focus of development in the next two or three years. He also believes that six inches is not a two-inch technology upgrade, which is two different technologies.
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