The conference featured industry-leading insiders delivering more than 30 presentations spanning six sectors. The presentations detailed breakthroughs in device technology; offered insights into the current status and the evolution of compound semiconductor devices; and provided details of advances in tools and processes that will help to drive up fab yields and throughputs.

GaN-on-Silicon technology offers potential to unlock cost savings in terms of wafer size scaling, reduced binning over conventional sapphire-based LEDs and the incorporation of advanced, yet low cost, chip scale packaging (CSP) techniques. The increasing popularity of advanced 'package-free' LEDs bodes well with GaN-on-Silicon, as higher yields can be achieved in a thin film process through wet etching of the substrate compared to laser lift-off for sapphire and the surface emitting nature of GaN-on-Silicon LEDs is a perfect match to take advantage of the smaller form factors that CSP offers.  

The company has developed a proprietary epitaxial and device architectures to exploit this technology. Using a depreciated CMOS manufacturing line also allows low cost semi-automatic operation and cassette wafer loading system
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Plessey's LEDs are produced using its proprietary GaN-on-Silicon technology. By using standard silicon semiconductor production techniques and process automation, the company is able to produce high-volume, high-quality, industry standard LEDs that are demanded in the consumer electronics market. Combining the inherent features of GaN-on-Silicon, such as low thermal resistance and surface emission, with advanced packaging technology will permit monolithic integration of LEDs with other component and provide differentiated solutions to the solid state lighting market. It is working with a number of blue chip lighting companies to develop application specific LEDs (ASLEDs) for the next generation of lighting solutions.

Plessey's MaGIC (Manufactured on GaN-on-Si I/C) High Brightness LED (HBLED) technology has won numerous awards for its innovation and ability to cut the cost of LED lighting by using standard silicon manufacturing techniques.