The new plant, an investment of “tens of millions of euros”, complements Osram’s main facility in Regensburg, Germany, which was expanded in 2008.
The company says the commissioning of the new plant enables it to respond flexibly to the demand for top quality LEDs at competitive prices.
At the Penang plant manufacturing processes have been established for 4in, wafer-based indium gallium nitride (InGaN) semiconductor chips. These chips form the basis for the blue, green and white LEDs primarily used in architecture and general lighting for display backlighting and in mobile phones.
The chips are manufactured in a cleanroom area of around 90,000m². The process involves growing the InGaN crystals on a Sapphire patterning substrate in a process called epitaxy.
Using its thin-film technology, Osram coats the top surface of the epitaxial substrate with metal. This metallised side is then soldered onto a thin carrier material and serves as a reflector. The original Sapphire substrate is subsequently removed.
After patterning, which requires many further steps, such as contacts, passivation and anti-reflex coatings, the light emitting epitaxial layer sits on a highly reflective metal mirror layer, stabilised by a carrier. The chip can therefore emit almost all of its light at the top, which Osram says is a major advance in the brightness of LEDs. All of these chip production steps need a cleanroom atmosphere.
Osram has created some 220 new jobs in Penang. The company employs around 2,600 of its total workforce of 4,400 at the Malaysian facility.
Rüdiger Müller, chief executive of Osram Opto Semiconductors, said: “There is no question that the rise of the LED, which has only just begun, is set to skyrocket in the coming years. This is why we are pursuing our investment and expansion course consistently and uncompromisingly, even in this difficult economic environment.
“With our production facilities in Germany and Malaysia, we are now in an ideal starting position in terms of quantity and quality. Regensburg, and now Penang, have become the most important global centres of LED technology.”
Contact www.osram-os.com