Plessey Wins £1.3M Grant for LED Development

Plessey Semiconductors Ltd. will lead a £1.3 million (about $1.1 million) U.K. grant to accelerate high-volume manufacturing of LEDs created with GaN-on-silicon technology.

GaN-on-silicon wafers. Courtesy of Plessey Semiconductors Ltd.

Project partners are Aixtron Ltd. of Cambridge and Bruker U.K. Ltd.'s Nano Surfaces Division of Coventry.

"These improvements are required as part of our move to 200-mm silicon substrates," said Plessey Chief Technology Officer Keith Strickland. "A 200-mm wafer has almost twice the usable area of our existing 150-mm wafers and therefore will almost double the number of LEDs produced for the same relative cost."

The grant was awarded under the Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative, a funding competition designed to improve the global competitiveness of U.K. advanced manufacturers.