LED high bay chip industry has a very high technical threshold. The scarcity of professional LED technicians restricted the further development of domestic LED chip manufacturers. Relevant departments proposed solutions on this issue: an industrial reconstruction is necessary. Just like what happened in Taiwan ten years ago, there may be 6-7 enterprises can be survived at last. Those who cannot produce high quality products will be inevitably eliminated.
More than 80% high power LED STREET LIGHT chips are expected to be improved by introducing advanced foreign technology. Our LED chip industry developed from 1995. In 1998, there are only three domestic LED chip manufacturers. Nine in 1999. From 1999 to 2009, about 2-7 companies would enter this industry each year. Currently, there are more than 100 LED chip manufactures in China. They have different focuses. For instance, Sanan Optoelectronics produces chips for low power LED lighting applications and display products, ChangLight only makes chips for outdoor LED landscape lighting applications, and AquaLite is a specialized manufacturers for red-yellow LED chips.
At present, many domestic LED companies have their own LED chip technology in low power LED field. But their high-power high-light-intensity LED technology cannot keep path with international level. More than 80% high power LED chips still relied on import. High power LED chips require much better materials. Take the cooling section for instance: high power LED lighting products generate more heat than low power LED lighting products does. Materials with lower thermal conductivity will cause LED chips work in high temperatures, consequently leading to light degeneration and work life reduction. In addition, high power LED chips have other technological difficulties: the secondary optics design and the power supplier design. However, patent problem has become a main obstacle for domestic LED chip manufacturers. All evidence so far suggests foreign rivals are trying to restrict our development in high power LED industry. Low power LED application market has saturated, while high power LED market is not yet. They attempted to control the entire market though controlling LED chips manufacturing technique. This further explains why Chinese LED chip companies need to own independent LED chip technologies. In consideration of currently technological resources and technician resources in China, without the help of government, it is very difficult for Chinese LED chip manufacturers to produce their own chips.
