Seoul Viosys, the ultraviolet (UV)-focused business division of Seoul Semiconductor, has announced that it will soon commercialize UV LEDs based on chip-scale packaging (CSP) technology, and that it had been awarded a patent for the technology development behind the UV WICOP LED design. Presumably, the CSP implementation will lower the manufacturing cost for UV LEDs while also providing a path to improved performance and lifetime.
Seoul Semiconductor has been among the industry leaders in developing and selling CSP LED technology in visible-white-light components. The company refers to the portfolio as WICOP (wafer-level integrated chip on PCB) and Seoul began volume production for the general illumination market in 2016. The company had previously supplied CSP LEDs into display backlight and automotive applications.
As we chronicled back in 2015, CSP technology has been poised to impact the packaged LED sector, but the general lighting industry was slow to adapt the component that consists of little more than the LED chip. Still, the elimination of materials and manufacturing steps inherently equates to lower component cost in volume production. Moreover, the CSP technology is scalable in terms of performance.
Meanwhile, Seoul Viosys is among the industry leaders in UV-LED technology. The company first partnered with US-based UV startup SETi and then acquired that company in 2016. The company has pushed the technology forward and aggressively protected its intellectual property rights.
Seoul Semiconductor’s UV-focused Seoul Viosys division has been developing new UV-LED components based on the WICOP chip-scale package design.
“Conventional UV LEDs have difficulty in expanding applications with low light power, short duration time, and high price,” said Jong Man Kim, UV development executive and vice president of Seoul Viosys. “The new UV WICOP of Seoul Viosys is expected to be a leading product that meets the needs of customers and contributes to market expansion for UV LED”, he added.
The patent award is USP 8,242,484. It covers vertical high-powered package technology based on UV WICOP.
