"One enterprise, one policy" to break through blockages in the industrial chain and take the lead in layout, running out of the field of industry innovation "acceleration" | LED | acceleration

CCTV News: Nanchang, Jiangxi Province has drawn a technological roadmap around advantageous areas with independent intellectual property rights, such as silicon substrate LEDs. After more than 10 years of development, it has become one of the few cities in China with a full LED industry chain, including epitaxial furnace manufacturing, chip manufacturing, display screens, and lighting application products. How can Nanchang develop into a LED full industry chain research and development, manufacturing, and application base with international core competitiveness?

In the production workshop of this enterprise specialized in manufacturing silicon based LED chips in Nanchang, staff are conducting tests on silicon based LED chips.

The staff told reporters that this Micro LED technology has made phased progress in the laboratory. In the future, it is expected to solve key technical problems in multiple cutting-edge fields such as AR and VR.

LED, short for light-emitting diode, is the third-generation semiconductor light source. Although LED chips are small, they play a significant role. Compared to traditional lighting methods, they not only have high luminous efficiency, but also have a long lifespan. At present, it has been widely applied in the fields of lighting, backlighting, and display.

Collaborating with research institutions to transform the breakthrough scientific research achievements of the laboratory into industrial productivity and gain market recognition has been a successful path for this enterprise to achieve high-quality development over the years.

As early as 2006, with the breakthrough success of silicon substrate blue light LED technology in the laboratory, this enterprise decided to carry out industrial pilot and mass production of this technology with the support of the local government. However, the success rate of 60% in the laboratory encountered difficulties in pilot and mass production. In the first few years of the company's establishment, the success rate of product pilot testing was only about 5%.

In the past 10 years, from successful laboratory technology to large-scale production, enterprises have overcome various difficulties encountered in terms of funding, technology, and equipment with the support of the local government. This new LED chip production technology won the first prize of the the State Technological Innovation Award in 2015, making China's LED production technology have strong international competitiveness.

By seizing key breakthrough technological achievements and continuously cultivating key enterprises, Nanchang has seized the opportunity period of industrial development and introduced a series of policies to advance the layout of the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, driving the accelerated agglomeration of the complete silicon substrate LED industrial chain with the development of leading enterprises.

Based on the original technology of independently developed silicon substrate LED, Nanchang is the world's first to industrialize it on a large scale and develop it into an initial industrial cluster, breaking a path of independent innovation in the global LED industry. Nowadays, Nanchang has become one of the few cities in China with a full LED industry chain, with LED chip production capacity ranking among the top three in the world and becoming the largest high-power LED light source production base in China.

Transforming mindset from "selling lighting fixtures" to opening up "new tracks"

Based on the successful large-scale industrialization of silicon substrate LED technology, Nanchang continues to deepen its cultivation in segmented fields, giving rise to a large number of related enterprises. With the increasing competition in the downstream application market, how can enterprises maintain profitability and win market competition?

At the Nanchang High tech Industrial Park, the reporter visited this national level specialized and innovative "little giant" enterprise. The person in charge introduced that they are one of the earliest enterprises in China to produce street lighting equipment using silicon substrate blue light LED technology. On this smart lighting operation and management platform, the distribution and operation status of electrical boxes are clearly displayed, from every lamp on the city street to the entire circuit and area. The platform will adjust the lighting in different time periods based on changes in weather, day and night duration, and other factors. When a malfunction occurs, the platform will automatically dispatch work orders to the operating unit.

Journalist research has found that due to rising costs and intensified market competition, relying solely on single lamp sales has brought pressure to the operation of many downstream LED lighting enterprises. In recent years, with the support and guidance of government policies, many LED lighting enterprises in Nanchang have actively embraced the new model of contract energy management, and have carried out energy-saving operations on public road lighting in the city, paying project costs with reduced energy costs. They have transformed from "pure product manufacturing and sales" to "professional energy-saving lighting integration and operation".

In recent years, LED street lights with higher light efficiency, higher energy efficiency, and longer lifespan have become the preferred choice for energy-saving renovation and low-carbon transformation and upgrading of urban lighting systems in many cities in China. Many downstream LED lighting companies in Nanchang seize the opportunity and actively participate in government renovation project bidding. Invest first, renovate the existing street lighting devices on urban road sections, and be responsible for operation and maintenance, sharing and cooperating on the energy-saving benefits of the project for mutual benefit.

The person in charge of the enterprise introduced that now, the profits obtained through contract energy management and operation services have accounted for over 60% of the company's total revenue. This mode has also become a new profit growth point for many LED downstream application enterprises in Nanchang to expand high-quality development.

Accurately connect with "one enterprise, one policy" to break through blockages in the industrial chain

At present, Nanchang is attracting leading enterprises and high-quality projects in the LED sub field by strengthening industrial upgrading, technological transformation, and government services. We will focus on addressing the funding, talent, technology, and other issues and needs faced by LED enterprises during their development process, and continue to expand the "ecosystem" and "circle of friends" of the LED industry.

At the library of Nanchang High tech Zone, an afternoon tea symposium organized by the High tech Zone Management Committee attracted relevant enterprises from the LED industry in the zone and principals from various vocational colleges in Nanchang City.

With the continuous development and growth of the LED industry in Nanchang, on the one hand, the order volume of enterprises has surged, but they are struggling to recruit suitable industry talents. On the other hand, students from vocational colleges cannot match the employment needs of enterprises and cannot find suitable jobs. The government of the High tech Zone is attempting to combine school teaching with enterprise talent cultivation by creating a model of industry education alliance, in order to solve the "pain points" of talents in the electronic information industry within the zone. The person in charge of the High tech Zone Management Committee introduced that regularly convening enterprise representatives in the form of afternoon tea to collect the needs and opinions of all parties will provide more decision-making basis for the government to formulate specific optimization policies.

Many of the companies participating in this afternoon tea are leading enterprises in the domestic LED industry. This semiconductor chip enterprise only settled in the High tech Zone as an upstream chip enterprise in the LED industry of Nanchang City in 2017. After several years of development, in July 2023, its semiconductor production capacity reached 1.1 million pieces, making it the world's largest LED chip enterprise in terms of output.

At the beginning of its establishment, this company was expanding upstream chip manufacturing from scratch.

Although foreign equipment has mature technology and wide market acceptance, its prices are high. The Nanchang LED Industry Chain Special Team quickly found a company in the investment catalog that can provide domestic equipment for this enterprise.

On one hand, companies were eager to purchase equipment to expand production, while on the other hand, equipment manufacturers were expanding their sales channels for new research and development products. With the government's "matchmaking and bridging" efforts, the two sides reached the largest equipment purchase order in the industry at that time, which also facilitated the settlement of enterprises in the two industry supporting chains in Nanchang.

After several years of development, this domestically produced LED epitaxial core device has been widely recognized in the market and occupies a dominant position in the global gallium nitride based LED field. The reporter's research found that Nanchang promotes the market through the "one enterprise, one policy" approach, attracts enterprises in key links of the industrial chain to settle down, and precisely cultivates and strengthens the LED industry.

Pre emptive layout of deep integration of LED and virtual reality technology

In addition to encouraging LED companies to actively explore the integration and development path with emerging industries such as automotive electronics, aviation electronics, and mobile intelligent terminals. In recent years, Nanchang has focused on the future and explored the deep integration and development of LED and virtual reality industries in advance.

At the only national level manufacturing innovation center in the field of virtual reality located in Nanchang, staff told reporters that with the latest breakthrough technology in silicon based LED chips, researchers are testing and solving several key process problems in VR display equipment.

Nanchang is leveraging the technological advantages of the LED industry to drive the development of the virtual reality industry. It is reported that multiple key technologies for Micro LED micro displays aimed at virtual reality applications in the local area are expected to achieve industrialization within the next 3-5 years.

Although virtual reality technology has enormous potential, there are many technical difficulties that need to be overcome, which is difficult for a single enterprise or institution to accomplish. Since 2016, Nanchang has taken the lead in layout and has successively built Nanchang VR Science and Technology Innovation City, High tech Zone "5G+VR" characteristic industrial park, as well as Huawei Nanchang Research Institute and Nanchang Virtual Reality Research Institute. Building a technology innovation consortium, striving to connect the innovation chain from key common technology research to the first commercialization and scale industrialization.

In advance, planning and layout of the "track" has been planned. Since 2018, Nanchang has held five consecutive "World VR Industry Congresses", signing 303 projects and strategic cooperation agreements, with a total investment of over 200 billion yuan, attracting leading domestic and foreign enterprises to conduct VR industry research and application expansion in Nanchang.