Fifola

FIFOLA objective is to setup and provide the LED lighting industry with a complete low cost integration chain from the epitaxial layer equipment and process to the full integration of the optical device with its associated electronics packaged onto a flexible substrate.

As presented in 2011 Yole LED Packaging Survey, mainly due to manual serial operations, the cost is distributed among all the value chain and the packaging may reach up to 53% of the breakdown.

Energy conservation drives LED development as light sources for many applications. The 3 major ones are (1) street lighting, (2) automotive and (3) interior lighting.

Currently HB LEDs are mostly fitted on regular PCBs, often by a manual operation. This has a number of drawbacks:

• PCBs are rigid. Thus, as LED-based lamps gather many LEDs in order to reach the desired light level, they often have to be installed in a spherical (or so) way so that the beams light properly the target. Rigid PCBs cannot fulfil this requirement.
• LEDs and their associated circuitries, both optical and electrical, dissipate a high amount of heat, which may alter the optical performances. Heat sinks are needed to remove that heat and need to be integrated flawlessly in the manufacturing process.

In order to improve the industrial level of LED lighting, the following will be setup:

1. Wafer processing and metrology equipment will be improved to fit for the different substrates and accommodate dedicated specifications;

• GaN / Si technology will be refined
• Dies will be thinned to achieve low thermal resistance

1. Thermal conductivity between the LED and its command circuitry will be improved to increase device lifetime and to enable the construction of brighter devices.
2. Packaging will be developed in or onto flexible substrate enabling automated integration of all associated devices: electronic (drivers, safety diode, passives…) as well as optical (phosphor, lens…)

Setting up and Writing of the Project. Project monitoring.