The average altitude is above 4500 meters, with the highest reaching 6000 meters; 1 meter frozen soil layer; The maximum daily temperature difference is ± 32 ℃, and it still needs to work normally at minus 30 ℃. The ultraviolet radiation is extremely strong... The high altitude and high temperature difference climate have put forward extremely high requirements for LED material structure, packaging technology, light color quality, and driving control power supply.

Now, more than half a year has passed, and the streetlight illumination rate has reached 100%. The scientific research achievements of the "Semiconductor Lighting Project" of the 863 Plan have been demonstrated and applied in Xizang for the first time, which has not only given satisfactory answers, but also created a world record of installing hundreds of sets of solar LED street lights in areas above 4500 meters above sea level.

LED lights up the long road ahead and also illuminates China.

Over the past 8 years, China's semiconductor lighting industry has grown from scratch and gradually developed and expanded. At present, breakthroughs have been made in key technologies that constrain industrial transformation and upgrading. The R&D and innovation capabilities of core technologies in the industry are rapidly improving, and a relatively complete technological innovation chain from upstream epitaxial chips to midstream device packaging, and then to downstream integrated applications, as well as an industrial chain with strong international market competitiveness, are forming.

Seize the opportunity and deploy research and development around industry demand

The LED devices used for white light illumination today are based on semiconductor nitride materials. The concept of this LED device was proposed in the 1960s, but due to limitations in preparation technology, its development has been slow. At that time, no one expected that this semiconductor material could be used for lighting.

Until the early 1990s, when Japanese scientists overcame the two major challenges of low-temperature buffer layers and P-type doping, nitride blue LEDs that could be used for lighting applications were truly manufactured. Subsequently, nitride materials sparked an international research boom, and industrial applications entered a rapid development stage, "said Li Jinmin, director of the Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

As a new lighting technology after incandescent and fluorescent lamps, LED has unparalleled application advantages over other traditional lighting sources. It has the characteristics of low power consumption, long lifespan, no mercury pollution, rich color, and strong controllability, presenting strong vitality and extremely fast development speed. It is known as a revolution in lighting sources and the light industry. Semiconductor lighting is widely regarded as the most promising strategic emerging industry in the 21st century. Developed countries such as the United States, the European Union, Japan, and South Korea have been focusing on national strategies to promote the research and development of semiconductor lighting technology and industry in the past decade.

But eight years ago, the upstream development of China's semiconductor lighting industry was almost blank, downstream applications were just starting, power chips relied entirely on imports, small enterprise scale, lack of industrialized technology, and the entire industry's sales revenue was less than 10 billion yuan.

In order to seize the opportunity of emerging industries and enhance the international competitiveness of new generation semiconductor materials and technologies, the Ministry of Science and Technology has taken the lead in supporting the development of semiconductor lighting technology and industry since the 15th Five Year Plan. In 2003, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the former Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Ministry of Education, the former Ministry of Construction, the Light Industry Federation, and others jointly established the National Semiconductor Lighting Engineering Coordination Leadership Group and urgently launched the "National Semiconductor Lighting Engineering". Through the deployment of scientific and technological research and development plans and other projects, the goal was to solve the urgent need for industrialization key technologies in the special lighting market in the near future, cultivate the white light general lighting industry in the medium and long term, promote development through application, and promote the formation of a core competitive Chinese semiconductor lighting industry.

When it comes to technology research and development, Li Jinmin has a deeper understanding: "In the past, when we developed technology, we mostly followed the path of free exploration in the early stage, basic research, applied research, and finally engineering and industrialization." However, in Li Jinmin's opinion, this is not entirely applicable to the semiconductor lighting field. It's not just technology that drives industrial development, in fact, the urgent needs of market applications and industries strongly drive the continuous progress of semiconductor lighting technology

He has repeatedly used the phrase 'constantly changing' to describe the research and development of semiconductor lighting technology and the industrial development trend. In this industry, the cycle of updates and changes is three months or even one month, and new things emerge every month, including new technologies, research and development achievements, as well as new products and applications. People constantly pursue higher light efficiency and more comfortable lighting experience, and this consumer demand and fierce competition among international peers in technology research and development have made researchers including Li Jinmin feel unprecedented challenges.

Therefore, at the beginning of the design of the national science and technology plan, the needs of the industry and market were fully considered, with the goal of breaking through some core key technologies and promoting substantive cooperation between upstream and downstream, deploying various links of technological innovation according to the industrial chain. At that time, the design and organization of scientific research projects were thoroughly researched by enterprises, and the project design was closely integrated with the urgent needs of the industry, which was very in line with the direction of enterprise development and the main battlefield for national economic development, "recalled Wu Ling, Secretary General of the National Semiconductor Lighting Engineering R&D and Industry Alliance.

In August 2006, the Ministry of Science and Technology established the "Semiconductor Lighting Engineering" major project in the field of new materials under the "Eleventh Five Year Plan" of the National 863 Program, based on the implementation of the "Tenth Five Year Plan" national semiconductor lighting project and the deployment of the "National Medium - and Long Term Science and Technology Development Plan Outline" and the "Eleventh Five Year Plan" scientific and technological development plan. The goal is to break through the core patents of white light lighting through independent innovation, solve the industrialization common key technologies urgently needed in the semiconductor lighting market, and improve the semiconductor lighting industry chain.

At the same time, the industry cohesion and influence of the National Semiconductor Lighting Engineering R&D and Industry Alliance promoted by the Ministry of Science and Technology are gradually expanding. In 2009, in order to form a close technological innovation chain, the Semiconductor Lighting Industry Technology Innovation Strategic Alliance was established under the guidance of the Policy and Regulations Department of the Ministry of Science and Technology, based on the executive director units of the alliance.