Veeco Instruments announced today that KaiStar Lighting, based in Xiamen, China has ordered multiple TurboDisc® EPIK700™ Gallium Nitride (GaN) Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) systems. KaiStar, a joint venture between Epistar Corporation and Shenzhen Kaifa Technology Co., Ltd., will use the EPIK700 systems to ramp production of light emitting diodes (LEDs) for the general lighting market.

 “As an early adopter of Veeco’s new EPIK700 MOCVD system, we have seen its potential for significant production and cost-saving benefits for LED manufacturing,” said Dr. MJ Jou, President, Epistar Corporation. “Late last year, we were able to seamlessly transfer our LED process and rapidly qualify the EPIK700 system for LED production in our Taiwan fab. We have now decided to expand our LED production at KaiStar in China with this new, highly productive MOCVD system.”

Based on Veeco’s proven TurboDisc technology, the EPIK700 MOCVD system is the LED industry’s highest productivity MOCVD system. The EPIK700 system received the 2015 CS Industry Award for Innovation in March.

“Since its formation, KaiStar has been an important Veeco customer and a leader in LED production,” said Jim Jenson, Senior Vice President, Veeco MOCVD Operations. “Their decision to use the award-winning EPIK700 reflects the performance, reliability and production-readiness of our newest MOCVD system. We believe the EPIK700 is the best MOCVD system by far to accelerate the growing adoption of solid state lighting. We expect that 2015 will be the crossover year in which shipments of LEDs for general lighting will surpass shipments of LEDs for backlighting, with the Epistar companies being a significant driver of that trend.”