Nichia
| Nichia Corporation
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| legal form | Kabushiki kaisha |
| founding | 1956 |
| Seat |
Anan , Tokushima Prefecture , Japan
|
| management | Eiji Ogawa, President and CEO |
| Number of employees | 8,400 (April 2012) |
| sales | EUR 2.75 billion (2011) |
| Branch | Chemistry , semiconductors |
| Website | www.nichia.com |
| Last updated 2012 | |
The Nichia Corporation (日 亜 化学 工業 株式会社 Nichia Kagaku Kōgyō Kabushiki kaisha ) is a Japanese chemical and semiconductor group with headquarters in Anan , Tokushima Prefecture , Japan, and worldwide subsidiaries. He specializes in the production and sales of LEDs , fluorescent , laser diodes , pharmaceutical , magnetic, battery and coating materials . The company is divided into two divisions, one for fluorescent and other fine chemicals, while the second is responsible for LEDs and lasers.
With the invention of the blue LED in 1993 and the white LED in 1996, Nichia has advanced to become one of the world's largest manufacturers of LEDs and has thus contributed significantly to the sustainable success of efficient, durable and environmentally friendly LEDs on the world market. The company develops, manufactures and markets LEDs for displays, LCD backlights , the automotive sector and lighting with a wide range of products within the visible spectrum, as well as UV LEDs.
With over 8,400 employees (as of April 2012) and numerous subsidiaries worldwide, Nichia generated sales of 2.75 billion euros in 2011.
Nichia is also one of the largest LED suppliers for Apple products. All iPhones and iPods are equipped with Nichia LEDs, the iPads are around 50 percent.
history
The company was founded in 1956 by Nobuo Ogawa (小川 信 雄, 1912–2002) in Aranto-cho, Anan, Tokushima. It has been majority owned by the Ogawa family ever since. The current president, Eji Ogawa (小川 英 治), is the founder's son-in-law.
In 1956, Nichia began producing high-purity calcium compounds. Ten years later, the production of phosphor for fluorescent lamps was added, which also found its way into color televisions. In 1993 LEDs followed as another successful business area.
One of the most famous decisions of the founder Nobuo Ogawa was to support the engineer and later professor Shuji Nakamura in the development of gallium-nitride -based LEDs (GaN-LED), which was considered risky at the time. The venture turned out to be a great success with the breakthrough of LEDs. Shuji Nakamura was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2014 for this work.
Nichia supports the Polish company Ammono , currently the world market leader in the GaN-based production of high-quality bulk C-plane substrates with a diameter of 2 inches, as well as non-polar M-plane, A-plane and semipolar GaN wafers . Nichia is also funding a joint research project with Ammono to develop ammonothermal GaN. In return, Nichia has access to some of Ammono's intellectual property .
Some of Nichia's inventions have won awards such as the Nikkei Best Product Award .
Competitor
Nichia competes in the LED field with companies such as Osram , Cree , Samsung , Seoul Semiconductor and Lumileds .
Web links
- Website of Nichia (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f http://www.nichia.co.jp/en/about_nichia/info.html
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from August 9, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/materials/the-worlds-best-gallium-nitride/0
