Applications of Microscopes in LED: A Strategic Emerging Industry
LED (Light Emitting Diode, abbreviated as LED) is the abbreviation for Light Emitting Diode. Since the second half of 2009, the LED market has experienced a major leap. As a high growth emerging industry, it is expected that by 2015, the scale of the LED industry will exceed 500 billion yuan, including 160 billion yuan for the general lighting industry, 120 billion yuan for the large-size LCD TV backlight industry, 20 billion yuan for the automotive lighting industry, 160 billion yuan for the general lighting industry, and 100 billion yuan for the landscape, display and other industries.
The LED industry chain can be roughly divided into three parts, namely upstream substrate growth, epitaxial wafer manufacturing, midstream chip packaging, and downstream application products. In the entire industry chain, the core parts are substrate growth and epitaxial wafer manufacturing, which have relatively high technological content and account for nearly 70% of the industry's output value and profit.
The current development trend of the LED industry is influenced by both international and domestic markets. Driven by the National Semiconductor Lighting Project, China's LED industry has initially formed a relatively complete industrial chain, including substrate materials upstream of LED, production of LED epitaxial wafers, preparation of LED chips, packaging of LED chips, and application of LED products.
As is well known, semiconductor light-emitting diodes have advantages such as high conversion efficiency and long lifespan, and are considered the next generation of light sources that will replace traditional light sources currently in use. However, based on the current performance of light-emitting diodes, there are still many technical difficulties to overcome in order to achieve this goal, and research efforts need to be increased in material analysis and characterization, device analysis technology, and other aspects. Optical microscopes, scanning electron microscopes, X-ray energy spectrometers, secondary ion mass spectrometers, and other equipment have become essential analysis tools for device failure and structural analysis, as well as monitoring, improving, and enhancing epitaxial processes in the packaging structure of light-emitting diode devices and the structure, composition, and interface conditions of chips.
