Blue LEDs are now a fundamental part of the LED lighting industry, so Soraa isn’t actually using Nakamura’s established tech for its fundamental innovation. Soraa’s bet is on using the semiconductor gallium nitride for the substrate part of the LED.
LEDs are usually made by putting gallium nitride onto sapphire or silicon carbide substrates, but Soraa’s light product places gallium nitride onto a gallium nitride substrate, which enables the core of the light itself to create better uniformity. In a factory tour back in 2012, Soraa’s then-CEO Eric Kim showed me an ultra high-quality and consistent LED light compared to competitors.
The company is now on its third generation of lighting products. Soraa says the combo is more cost-effective and can produce more light per lamp than the traditional methods.
LED chip, Image courtesy eike, Flickr Creative Commons
LED chip. Image courtesy of eike, Flickr Creative Commons
LED lighting startups are actually somewhat rare. That’s because LED manufacturing can be a high-capital business, and venture capitalists have moved away from investing hundreds of millions of dollars into early-stage energy tech companies. Soraa might not have emerged were it not for VCs’ willingness to back some of these companies back in 2007 and 2008.