FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Barney O’Meara
The Fox Group, Inc.
Fax:
bomeara
http://www.thefoxgroupinc.com

Fox Group Solves Problem that Scientists “found impossible”
Achieves world’s first commodity-priced blue LEDs

Fox Group announces launch of commercial production in Montreal

Piedmont, CA – October 25, 2004 – The Fox Group, Inc. (Fox Group) has successfully adapted an industry-proven, low-cost semiconductor process to manufacture blue light emitting diodes (LEDs). The Company is pleased to announce the launch of commercial production at its Montreal, Quebec, Canada, facility, overcoming obstacles so difficult that scientific teams worldwide had not been able to solve them despite years of intensive effort.

Blue LEDs have myriad applications in consumer electronics products (stereos, TVs, DVD players), wireless devices (cellphone, PDAs, BlueTooth, WiFi), household appliances (refrigerators, stoves, washing machines, vacuum cleaners), personal care equipment (electric toothbrushes, shavers, hair dryers), automotive (interior lights, dashboard illumination, back-up and head lights), in addition to ever more ubiquitous displays and message boards – both exterior and interior – and in numerous industrial applications such as signs, illuminated switches, and indicators for temperature, pressure, liquid level, and other process parameters.

Blue was long considered the “holy grail” of LEDs – the missing color in the RGB triad (Red - Green - Blue) used to create full-color pixels in computer monitors and TVs. Blue was the missing color for more than 25 years after red and green LEDs became commercially available, because scientists failed to find a way to make blue on existing equipment. Scientists finally invented an alternate way to make blue LEDs, but the process requires far more complex and expensive equipment, involves much more expensive raw materials, and is considerably slower.

Until Fox Group’s commercial production breakthroughs, blue LEDs have been about ten times as expensive as the tried-and-true red and green indicator LEDs. Now Fox Group can offer blue LED indicator lamps at commodity pricing comparable to red and green.

Fox Group’s products have the added advantages of being more consistent and repeatable than currently available blue LEDs: rather than a color-spread of +/- 10 nanometers (nm), Fox Group’s LEDs are typically +/- 1nm; rather than a voltage range of +/- 0.5 Volt, Fox Group’s are typically +/- 0.1 Volt.

In announcing the launch of production at its modern, 18,000 ft2 facility in Montreal, Fox Group president Heikki Helava said: “By adapting the well-proven, hydride vapor phase epitaxy process to overcome significant obstacles to achieve blue light emission with consistent reproducibility, Fox Group can pioneer in offering commodity-priced blue LEDs for numerous standard-brightness applications in both the consumer and industrial markets. Now a freezer, refrigerator, fan, or air conditioner can have a low-cost blue LED to connote cool or cold, and an air purifier or water filter can have a low-cost blue LEDs to indicate that its output is clean and pure. Now manufacturers may brand-identify and differentiate their products with a blue LED or display at commodity-prices. Fox Group is very pleased tothe full palette of colors at comparable prices – manufacturers need no longer avoid blue indicator lights due to much-higher prices.”

“It is a rare historical occurrence that something as basic as a single color has proven so elusive despite years of intensive effort by very bright and talented scientists,” said Dr. Helava. “Fox Group is proud to have succeeded at this unusually daunting challenge, so that blue indicator lamps can finally be available at commodity prices. While we do not offer ultra-high brightness LEDs, Fox Group is pleased to join the ranks of companies manufacturing energy-efficient solid state lighting products. This production technology is exclusive and proprietary to Fox Group, and is well-protected by numerous US and foreign patents and patent applications.”

For further information or to request samples, contact:
Barney O’Meara
VP of Marketing, Sales, and Business Development

bomeara 

Initial products:

Blue LEDs: wafers, dies, and lamps in customer-specified packages
Up to 2000 millicandela output
Dominant wavelength (typical): 460 +/- 1nm
Forward voltage (typical): 3.5 +/- 0.1Volt
Pricing dependent on specs and quantity

The Fox Group, Inc. is a manufacturer of compound semiconductor products, and specializes in developing low-cost materials, processes, and equipment to serve consumer and industrial markets with high quality, high reliability and consistency, and excellent value in pricing.

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