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Published on: 10/9/2008
Last Visited: 10/15/2008
Clearly focused on expansion, LED-lighting maker ColorStar Group, headquartered in Bay City, Michigan, will launch initial public offering (IPO) this year in the U.S. "With infusion of more capital, which is critical to any serious development program, we would be poised to acquire more necessary facilities and technologies to enhance LED manufacturing capabilities," stresses Jimmy Chen, president and CEO.
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Preferring the design-flexibility concept, Chen believes the ideal way to build his outfit is to combine lighting-fixture manufacturing and LED packaging, bypassing the thermal-module stage.
"Such combination will allow chips to be directly packaged onto lighting fixtures, removing the limits that have long confined design flexibility.
I believe this arrangement will be realized soon as packaging technologies have improved considerably, with thermal issues becoming less thorny at this stage," he explains.
Chen also feels packaging-service providers is the most likely candidate to realize the combination for having better knowledge of process integration relative to lighting-fixture manufacturers.
"Module manufacturing will vanish once the two sectors combine," Chen predicts.
Manufacturing Plans
ColorStar has plans for four product categories-emitter and controller, lighting system and controller, driver-editing software, lighting fixture-and looks to setting up four branches to individually take on the fabrication.
"LED lighting being a huge sector composed of several specialized segments, so I believe the feasible strategy is to recruit more professionals, via M&A, from the four fields," Chen says.
ColorStar has its work virtually cut out.
Taiwan`s well developed lighting, semiconductor, and electronics sectors, Chen says, provide the world`s most suitable backdrop for LED lighting integration, boasting as proof that "For instance, we`ve built a wirelessly controlled, dimmable thematic lighting system by tapping the island`s wireless and dimming technologies."
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Chen says delivering quality underlies the company`s successful brand marketing, which in turn advertises the company`s products by word-of-mouth.
"Our LED bulbs emit the industry`s most consistent brightness," he stresses to prove the company`s quality.
"Such excellent performance is realized by our constant-current drive IC in the control system," Chen says, adding that his company spent NT$2 million (US$64,500 at US$1:NT$31) developing the control chip.
Without taking all the credit himself, Chen lauds his management team for achieving such high quality, with the team members, including himself, being electronics, telecom and lighting specialists who have worked for Acer, Philips and Westinghouse.
Stressing his company completely focused on technology R&D in 2002, the year of establishment, and began production in the second year, Chen notes that the company chose the hardest applications for LED lamps, with thematic-lighting systems falling in such group.
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"Employing an American native smoothes doing business by setting up the solid American image for world buyers," Chen explains.
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Chen says his company`s products are always market leaders that end up being copied.
But introducing innovative products yearly somewhat protects the company from imitators, as only older products are duplicated.
He stresses that LED-lighting quality hinges on three elements-lens, thermal module, and drive current.
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