Taiwanese LED chip manufacturer Epistar has showed steady revenue growth, accumulated revenue as of September 2014 has reached last year's total annual revenue of US $750 million, and its future revenue outlook remains positive. The company's merge with FOREPI is expected to further drive annual revenue growth to reach the $1 billion target soon, said Epistar Deputy Director of Marketing Center, Dr. Chiu-Lin Yao at LEDforum 2014 in Taipei, Taiwan last month.

Epistar produces both visible and invisible light LED chips, and has maintained an energy efficiency growth of 5% to 10%. The company developed High Voltage chips which perform better than DC LED chips to remove heat sinks in LED luminaires. Furthermore, to reduce the need of LED drivers, the company also offers AC LED and HV LED solutions for driver reduction developments to meet all kinds of lighting demands.

AC LED convenient to use, HV LED reduces system costs

AC LED is integrated with the bridge rectifier during semiconductor manufacturing process and turns on once connected to AC power. It is mainly applied in lighting that does not require electronic controllers, such as G9 LED lamps, mini lamps, Christmas lights and other small sized luminaire applications. Earlier this year, Epistar raised AC LED chip's Radiant Flux to around 360 mW, up from 340 mW in 2013. The company expects the chips to achieve 380 mW at the end of 2015.

However, AC LEDs are very costly. Hence, Epistar provides a low price option of placing the bridge rectifier outside of the HV LED chip. HV LED chip is applied to streetlights, downlights and widely used in advanced lighting such as 800lm omini-directional light bulb.

HV LED chip can reduce driver size and diminish driver costs effectively. Moreover, it can greatly lower high maintenance costs, an issue most often found in streetlights. HV LED chip has 10% greater luminous efficiency compared to normal chip with the same chip size and operating wattage. It can also greatly reduce the packaging process while raising yield rates, and can be applied in Driver on Board (DOB).

DOB Helps in Product Localization, Paving the Road for Smart Lighting

Despite the 10% to 17% tariff and putting their brand value at risk, a lot of Western lighting manufacturers often rely on Chinese LED suppliers for LED lamps, due to LED technology’s higher entry level, said Yao. DOB directly integrates the most important light source and driver, and can be shipped after tightening two screws, which greatly minimizes the lighting assembly process. Western lighting manufacturers can thus initiate localized automated production, save up on tariffs and supervise product quality.

DOB is also beneficial to smart lighting applications. Smart lighting requires a lot of space for sensor installation, multi-color LEDs and other components and features. Unfortunately spacing is very limited in light bulbs. With DOB's space-saving design, the key issue of smart lighting is addressed effectively, according to Yao.

In addition, DOB's penetration rate is faster in high-voltage applications that involve 10W and above. HV LED chip can lower driver costs by $0.5 and above, the higher the wattage, the more the cost reduction, said Yao.

Facing the LED market competition and changes, Yao stressed that the industry should collaborate and work together as a group. As for Epistar, the company has proposed the Co-Activation Service Model, a cooperation solution by virtual vertical integration. This has been Epistar’s long term goal, and the company’s core value.

(Author: Angela Yang, Reporting Editor, LEDinsidehttp://Translator: Lik-Chin Low, Editor, LEDinsidehttp://Editor: Judy Lin, Chief Editor, LEDinside)