PHILIPS LUMILEDS: Segmenting Packaged Devices is the Future Direction

In February 2012, PHILIPS LUMILEDS officially announced the launch of two major LED series, LUXEON M and LUXEON K, to the market for industrial lighting and downlights, respectively. Xie Wenfeng, vice president of sales for the Asia-Pacific region of the company, said in an interview: “Subdivided packaged devices are the future direction of PHILIPS LUMILEDS, and the company’s positioning of packaged devices in the subdivided areas is comprehensive.”

It is understood that the two new packaging devices introduced by PHILIPS LUMILEDS have not changed much in terms of structure, mainly in terms of parameters and product design.

Regarding the previous comment on the subdivision of packaged devices in the market that would break the original LED packaging concept and change the package structure, relevant industry insiders also expressed their own views: “This is actually only a conceptual hype, theoreticalization of subdivided packaging devices. Too strong, not much technical content, all companies can do." However, considering the R & D costs, supplier cooperation and product prices and many other factors, most domestic LED packaging companies are still in a subdivided packaging device Wait and see.

In fact, the reporter learned from many aspects that with the relevant government agencies in the country gradually introducing the relevant standards for subdivided application areas of LED lighting products, subdivided packaging devices are also becoming “clearly regulated”. For PHILIPSLUMILEDS, if the encapsulated segmentation market strategy is successful, it may even be possible to obtain the relevant standards in the future.

Grab the commanding heights of the market

As the world's leading LE D enterprise, PHILIPS LUMILEDS can not wait to launch the next generation of packaging products - segmented packaged devices, in order to gain market leadership.

Recently, at a public forum in China, Xie Wenfeng elaborated the requirements for the parameters of packaged devices in various lighting fields from the aspects of lumens, color temperature, and light distribution. He believes that different lighting application environments require different light sources, and the current general-purpose LED package is not suitable for the future segmentation of LED lighting.

As early as in 2007, LUMI L EDS introduced the concept of lumens for the first time. Subsequently, many of the domestic L ED companies, especially the lumen products of Zhongshan Packaging, basically followed the PHILIPSL UMILEDS architecture. “Now the efficacy and significa- tion (color rendering index) of imitation lumen products have been improved. By comparison, the competitiveness of PHILIPSLUMILEDS lumens products is constantly being weakened. Therefore, they have to embark on the development of the next generation of new products.” Industry insiders told reporters.

Shortly afterwards, LUMILEDS launched a ceramic packaged device (3535) that solves the contradiction between package size and heat dissipation. Once the product was launched, it was once caused by domestic companies to follow suit. And now PHILIPS

LUMILEDS can already do 2525. Although some companies have begun to innovate in terms of packaging area, the smaller the area, the more technological content will continue to increase, and the R&D costs will also increase.

This year, PHILIPS LUMILEDS clearly has to develop a new generation of products to occupy the highest point of the market. PHILIPS LUMILEDS's subdivided packaging device breaks the original packaging concept. The device also caused a variety of sounds before the relevant departments introduced standards. Once this theory is followed by many manufacturers, their subdivision devices may be defined as "standards."

"If the volume is large, everyone will follow this standard. Because once the standard is established, other ancillary products such as lamps, brackets, and power lights all need to be re-opened and they should be done according to this standard."

In fact, it is not just Philips that has implemented packaging segmentation strategies. Ruifeng, Hongli Optoelectronics and other domestic packaging giants are also pursuing this concept. Gong Weibin, chairman of Ruifeng Optoelectronics, stated that in fact, these general-purpose devices on the market are also based on personalized products. Personalized products have a large quantity, and many people use them to become general-purpose products. Prior to 3528, OSRAM produced personalized products. After a period of promotion, it became the mainstream packaging device in the market.

“Some subdivided packages will make some changes to the structure of the entire light source, and this puts forward more requirements for accessories, including power supply, driving, light distribution, etc.” said Xie Wenfeng. Different subdivided packaging devices require their package manufacturers to re-develop the modules, which will obviously change the production and market structure of the entire package surrounding the supporting area.

Currently, there are no unified product specifications for packaged devices, and some companies are trying light engine modes to meet the needs of LED lighting. The subdivided packaging devices have more detailed specifications and require the integration of supporting resources, including application-side vendors, packaging vendors, and all supporting vendors for strategic cooperation.

Gong Weibin said that the current headache is how to make the accessories market follow the thinking of packaging companies.

“The brackets, power supplies, lamps and other accessories must be redesigned. Enterprises must re-open molds and R&D. If the volume is not large, general enterprises are unwilling to bear. On the sales side, once a certain device has a problem, consumers can only To the designated manufacturer for replacement and maintenance.” A person in charge of a domestic power supply company told reporters that subdivided packaging not only increases the supplier's development costs, but also pre-embedded risk for the post-sale service.

According to the above-mentioned person in charge, for the supporting manufacturers, it is necessary to comprehensively consider the costs of product development, production, and the like, and assess the growth of customers. For those small and medium-sized customers whose orders themselves are not large, they rarely accept this kind of personalized lighting product supporting development.

“For most domestic small and medium-sized package companies, package segmentation is of little significance because the market share is too small.” A person familiar with the packaging industry said that for PHILIPS, which has been vertically integrated, Has its own procurement team and a mature supply chain system. Therefore, for PHILIPS LUMILEDS, segmented devices are of great significance both in terms of theoretical innovation and practical promotion.

Or into a mainstream package

According to report, PHILIPS LUMILEDS will introduce more subdivided packaging devices this year. Xie Wenfeng said that the demand for subdivided areas is actually very large. If companies do a certain number of subdivisions, then this amount is already very large.

In fact, it is not just Philips that has subdivided packaging concepts. As early as last year, Ruifeng Optoelectronics did an IPO road show, it has already launched modular subdivision packaging products such as downlights and bulb lamps. Today, these "special" products have been able to mass production.

"Everybody has the same concept of subdivided packaging, but the implementation is different. Philips uses a single chip to make the subdivision device, and Ruifeng Optoelectronics uses the module approach to practice this concept." Gong Weibin said. The subdivided packaging concept may be the future development trend, but the biggest problem at present is how to convert these personalized products into general-purpose products.

Subdivided packaging requires a relatively large R&D cost in the early stage. For segmented products, if the selling price in the market is higher than that of a general-purpose product, it is less attractive to customers. Therefore, in the early stages of development, segmented packaging was mainly directed at the overall lighting solution.

Gong Weibin believes that the process of transforming personalized products into general products requires a process. "The future cost-effectiveness of application vendors is even more attractive. Once the amount is large enough, the packaging devices will be easier to "standardize" and be followed by everyone." Therefore, at this stage, Philips and Ruifeng have chosen to do product design. Some innovations, in order to reduce costs, enable the segmented devices to rapidly increase in volume.

China National Semiconductor, another major domestic listed company, has adopted a relatively conservative approach. Yu Binhai, deputy general manager of the company, stated: "We have to research and develop the production of subdivided packaging devices, depending on the future market demand. At present, the company mainly makes personalized products according to the individual needs of customers."

In fact, not only National Star Optoelectronics, most of the domestic companies are still in a wait-and-see attitude toward subdivision of packages.

Yu Binhai said that the segmented packaging mainly depends on the market demand. If the volume does not rise, it will be difficult to promote. For individualized needs, companies must first undergo a comprehensive assessment, including costs for research and development, materials, and customer growth, and then consider production.