Seoul Semiconductor Co. Ltd. (Seoul, Korea) has named Shuji Nakamura, widely known as the “Thomas Edison of the LED industry,” as a scientific adviser. Nakamura, a professor at the materials department of the College of Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), developed the high-brightness, blue LED based on GaN in 1993, while working for Nichia Corp. in Japan. At that time, developing a blue LED was considered impossible; only red and green LEDs had been available for the prior 20 years. Nakamura’s innovation allowed LED manufacturers to produce LEDs with three primary colors, which, in turn, could be mixed to express 16 million colors. Also, it led to the commercial production of white LEDs.
In 2006, Nakamura won the Millennium Technology Prize of Finland, known as “the Nobel Prize in the technology field.” In 2004, he received the Benjamin Franklin Medal in the engineering segment, previously conferred upon Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein. In addition, he won The Economist’s Innovation Award, given to only six scientists who have made an outstanding contribution to innovation of technology. In 2009, he received the Harvey Prize from the Technion in Israel.
As a professor in the material department and co-director of the Solid State Lighting and Energy Center (SSLEC) at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Nakamura is leading the effort to develop the next-generation LED and laser diode based on the blue LED, as well as a GaN-based solar cell.
Seoul Semiconductor is the fourth largest LED company globally, holds more than 5,000 patents and owns technology such as Acriche (which was developed internally); deep UV LED; and non-polar LEDs.