Onexim, RusNano, and the Ural Optical and Mechanical Plant establish a joint venture to manufacture new generation lighting products
An agreement was signed by Anatoly Chubais, General Director of the Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies (RUSNANO), Mikhail Prokhorov, President of “ONEXIM Group” Ltd. and Sergey Maksin, General Director of the Ural Optical and Mechanical Plant (UOMP) on Wednesday 3 December in Moscow.
The joint venture will produce new generation lighting systems based on gallium nitride semiconductor chips. The final product will be LED chips, LED lamps and lighting systems, the brightness of which is comparable with the best world analogues. The record low amount of defects in the semiconductor layers will allow the devices to work without losing effectiveness with high-density currents, enabling a good brightness to price ratio for LED chips.
The unique chip production technology was created by Vladislav Bugrov and Maxim Odnoblyudov, the founders of the Finnish-German company OptoGAN, who studied under Zhores Alferov, the Nobel prize winner and member of the Russian Academy of Science (RAS). The venture will allow the return of one of the most perspective projects developed by Russian scientists back to Russia.
Onexim’s stake in the venture will be 50% + 1 share, RUSNANO’s 17%, and UOMP’s share will be 33% - 1 share.
The production of heterostructures (multilayer structures consisting of semiconductors with different zone structure and varying lattice parameters) will be situated in Saint-Petersburg. The production of LED chips and the assembly of lamps and lighting products will be located at Yekaterinburg, at the site of the lighting products subdivision of UOMP.
The production of LED lighting products is considered very perspective, due to increasing consumer demand. Lighting products based on semiconducting nanoheterostructures are substituting the traditional light sources, such as incandescent, fluorescent and other lamps, and will allow to reduce significantly the costs of electric power being consumed and lighting systems’ operation. It will also liberate considerable amounts of power generating facilities.
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LEDs or light emitting diodes are semiconducting units emitting light when the electric current passes through them.
LEDs were invented by Oleg Losev, a Russian scientist, who first discovered and studied the crystal diode fluorescence in the middle of 1920s. The developer of LEDs based on the multilayer nanometer heterostructures was Zhores Alferov, who was awarded the Noble prize in 2000 in physics and is a member of Russian Academy of Sciences.
LEDs have no glass bulbs and filaments thus having high mechanical durability and reliability. The absence of heating elements and high voltages guarantees a high level of power and fire safety. Subminiaturization and light distribution built into the LEDs allow for the production of lighting devices which are flat, compact and convenient for installation.
The market for LED lighting products is actively developing and drives out other light sources. The world market of LED lighting products is growing at 37% per year as the growth of the world lighting engineering market (all light sources) reaches 5% per year. Nowadays LED lamps occupy already at least 3.5% of the Russian lighting systems market.
The world market of LEDs equaled $4.2 bln. in 2007 and is forecasted to reach the level of $12 bln. in 2012 growing at an average annual rate of 23%. The Russian market of lighting products comprised more than 50 billion rubles in 2007 and is growing annually by 13% on average.
At the present state of the Russian market, LEDs are mainly used in the light signalling devices (traffic lights etc.), for illuminating architectural facilities, in the automotive industry (headlights and taillights). The lighting products based on the traditional light sources will be most likely substituted with LEDs, at first, in the segments of HCS object illumination, street, commercial building and industrial object illumination.
The Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies (RUSNANO) was founded under Federal Law No.139-FZ dated July 19, 2007 for «implementation of the government policy in the sphere of nanotechnologies, innovation infrastructure development in the sphere of nanotechnologies, implementation of projects on creating perspective nanotechnologies and nanoindustry». The Corporation resolves this objective acting as a co-investor in nanotechnological projects with a significant economic or social potential. The Corporation’s financial involvement at early stages of projects reduces risks of its partners – private investors. The Corporation participates in establishment of the nanotechnological infrastructure objects, such as shared use centers, business-incubators and early-stage investment funds. RUSNANO chooses the first-priority directions in investment based on long-term development forecasts (foresights) developed by the leading Russian and world experts. In 2007 the Government of the Russian Federation allocated 130 billion rubles for the Corporation’s activity. The management bodies are the Supervisory Council, Board of Directors and Director General. RUSNANO Director General is Anatoly Chubais.
ONEXIM Group is a private investment fund founded by Mikhail Prokhorov in May 2007. The company invests into mine and metallurgic sector, power engineering branch, including hydrogen power engineering and nanotechnologies as well as in the sphere of financial services, mass media and real estate.
FSUE “PA “The Ural Optical and Mechanical Plant named after E.C. Yalamova” (UOMP) is a leading enterprise in Russia in the sphere of designing and manufacturing the optical and electronic complexes for all types of armed forces and military structures as well as has a wide range of civil instrument engineering. UOMP creates the optical and electronic equipment for all-day-round operation using the last achievements in optics, microelectronics, laser, thermal image engineering and precision electro-mechanics. The plant has got a high production potential. The enterprise structure includes the Central Design Bureau, branched chain of service & sales and design affiliates in the Russian regions as well as in Switzerland, China and Belorussia. The scientific and technical potential of UOMP allows for manufacturing up-to-date devices and equipment certified as per the European quality standards and meeting the strictest requirements of the customers.