On January 26, Philips Lumileds restarted production of certain specific Luxeon Rebel (using TFFC) and Luxeon K2 with TFFC LEDs. As we reported two weeks ago (see Related Stories), Lumileds stopped production of these devices, and issued a recall request to all affected customers for devices manufactured between October 28, 2007 and January 12, 2008.
Lumileds has now concluded that a batch of epoxy used to make the devices in question was contaminated. The "non-conforming" epoxy had the potential to cause the TFFC LED die to crack and fail during short term operation.
The rogue epoxy has now been replaced with fresh supplies, and production has restarted. Device shipments are expected to begin again in the first week of March.
During the production stop, Lumileds continued to manufacture TFFC chips. Using the fresh epoxy, which performs as expected, products are being manufactured and quarantined in the company's Finished Goods Inventory, where they will wait for the completion of Outgoing Quality Assurance testing.
This includes accelerated reliability testing and various other performance tests. Lumileds has told its customers that final qualification is expected on or before February 28.
