This year, 12 start-up companies will be featured during the day-long Forum. Technologies represented by these companies range from devices, drivers and controls to light engines, luminaires and complete systems.
Market presentations
To complement the presentations by individual companies, several market and industry overview presentations will be provided. Ella Shum, Director of LED Research at Strategies Unlimited will begin the Forum with an overview of the worldwide HB-LED market. Later in the morning, Tom Hausken, Director of Optical Components at Strategies Unlimited, will give a talk on the dynamics of LED driver technology and markets.
To provide a perspective from the financial industry, Dan Coyne, Director of the Investment Banking Group at Canaccord Genuity, will discuss liquidity and valuation trends in LEDs and LED lighting. Presenting a view of the market at the LED lamp and luminaire level, Vrinda Bhandarkar, Director of Research, LED Lighting at Strategies Unlimited, will provide a global market review of the LED lighting market.
Devices
Giorgio Anania, co-founder and CEO of HelioDel, will provide an overview of the company’s GaN nanowire LED technology, which is scalable and compatible with high-volume CMOS foundries.
OnChip Devices will be represented by its president and CEO, Ashok Chalaka. He will outline the company’s activities in the production of ESD protection devices, transient voltage suppressor diodes, and submounts for LEDs.
Drivers and power supplies
iWatt is power-control IC company that designs and develops markets semiconductor products for various markets including the LED solid-state lighting segment. For SSL it is developing high-density, high-value AC-DC and DC-DC power supplies. Ron Edgerton, CEO, will give the company presentation.
Brent Marsh, CEO of Eutricity, will discuss the company’s principal focus on power architecture that enables multiple LED applications without the need for driver ICs and with the lowest power-supply cost per lamp.
Manufacturing and test equipment
Advanced Renewable Energy Company (ARC Energy) has developed an innovative sapphire crystal “c-axis” growth technology specifically for LED applications, called CHES (Controlled Heat Extraction System). CHES furnaces enable substrate manufacturers to produce large-diameter (4-, 6-, 8-, 10-inch and larger), LED-quality sapphire for mass production. The company’s senior VP, Sales, Customer Support and Operations, Hap Hewes, will provide an overview of the company’s activities.
Nanotronics Imaging develops and sells a fully-automatic optical-inspection system for high-resolution detection and analysis of defects in transparent and semi-transparent semiconductor wafers. The company’s technology and business model will be presented by Michael Zigman, COO and CFO.
Luminaires, light engines and systems
Xeralux is a Silicon Valley-based startup that designs and manufactures markets smart, sustainable outdoor-area LED-lighting systems for commercial and institutional campuses. The company’s product line consists of two related groups that share components and many design elements – luminaires and retrofit kits. The company’s story will be presented by its CEO, Rusty Cumpston.
Menko Deroos, CEO of Xicato, will explain the company’s focus on development and manufacturing of LED modules that are simply functional replacements for traditional lamp technologies, offering the life and energy-saving advantages of LEDs without aesthetic compromises.
TerraLUX has developed patented technology that enables simple integration of “plug and play” high-energy-efficiency LED light engines into lighting fixtures for both OEM and retrofit channels. President and CEO Mark Verheyen will provide the company presentation.
Calvin Wade Sheen, CEO of Cooledge Lighting, will discuss the company’s unique SSL solution that eliminates the cost of thermal management at both the package and fixture level of integration.
Nualight is a pioneer in the application of LED lighting to the food retail market, and has worked with leading retail customers such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s Tengelmann, and many others. The company’s presentation will be given by its founder and CEO, Liam Kelly.
Leddartech’s CEO, Mark Tremblay, will discuss the company’s advanced 3D detection and ranging systems based on LED lighting, which provides accurate, non-invasive detection of vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians for traffic management systems.
Investor panel discussion
At the conclusion of the company presentations, an investor panel discussion will be held, moderated by SSL industry veteran Robert Walker, Partner with Sierra Ventures. Panelists will include:
• Marc van den Berg, Managing Director, Vantage Point
• Ravi Viswanathan, PhD, General Partner, NEA
• Dong Su Kim, Director, Samsung Ventures Capital
• Dan Coyne, Managing Director, Canaccord Genuity Investment Banking Group
