Analog semiconductor producer Dongwoon Anatech has selected Tower Semiconductor as its sole manufacturing partner for the development of high volume, energy saving LED lighting devices. Dongwoon will use Tower’s 20V to 60V scalable LDMOS power management process technology, and intends to introduce four new devices this year.
As a result of these developments, Dongwoon will spread its market coverage to include China, U.S. and Japan. The LED lighting market looks to be growing at a steady pace, and, according to a Strategies Unlimited report, the LED market is forecast to exceed $5 billion in 2012, with an estimated CAGR of 28% from 2008 to 2012.
Further bolstering these reports is the Korean government’s recent announcement that LED will be used for all display and lighting from 2012 onwards. Dongwoon Anatech has shipped 155 million units to two of its major customers, Samsung and Sony, over the past three years. Recent product developments that set the company on the road to potential success are the DW8520 device, the first driver in Korea that can adopt both AC & DC power.
“We chose Tower’s power management platform for our LED lighting devices because it fully satisfied our requirements for quality, price, die size and best chance of design success,” said Dong Cheol, Kim, CEO and President of Dongwoon Anatech. “We have used many other fabs, but we found Tower to have the best customer support and superb design services, parameter, and modeling accuracy which is an extremely important element for a successful and on-time design.”