Page 176 - How China Is Winning the Tech Race

Nanchang to work for a summer on developing financial projections for the
start-up business.
Advice was solicited from Richard Chang, president and CEO of the
Shanghai-based and NYSE-listed Semiconductor Manufacturing Inter-
national Corp. Chang, who has overseen the development of an impressive
production facility and nearby community for his employees, spent two
days in Nanchang, offering tips on everything from safety issues to building
on-site housing for workers like the one SMIC has in Shanghai’s Pudong
industrial area.
After an eight-month search, another building block was put in place
with the hiring of new CEO Liu. The experienced business manager Liu sup-
plements the research talents of Jiang, who is president of the firm. GSR’s Wu
says it was difficult to find a well-qualified candidate who would work in
Nanchang, a modern city of nearly 2 million people but off the beaten path
for most international executives. Luckily, it was easier to find a qualified can-
didate as board secretary and finance manager, Sophia Liu, a native of
Nanchang. She recently returned to her hometown to join the research start-
up after working in the venture business in Silicon Valley for many years. 19

Lattice mismatch

Professor Jiang is concentrating on the highest end of LED production: blue
LEDs, the most difficult color to produce and the key technology for making
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white light. Only a handful of firms can make blue LEDs, Cree and Nichia
included. 22
The trick in making such high-performance LEDs is to match up the
crystal lattice structures of two different semiconductor materials precisely at
the level of a nanometer (one-billionth of a meter). Each group uses different
materials: LatticePower works with silicon, and Nichia with the far more
expensive sapphire, whereas Cree uses silicon carbide, a compound of silicon
and carbon. If it is successful in mass-producing LEDs with the widely
available silicon, LatticePower will have a significant cost advantage. But
analyst Jed Dorsheimer has his doubts that LatticePower will succeed with
silicon. “None of the companies I have seen so far have been able to achieve
commercial production at a reasonable performance,” he says.

150 SILICON DRAGON