reflect the encyclopedic tone used on wikipedia . see wikipedia s guide to writing better articles for suggestions . september 2009 learn how and when to remove this template message nichia corporation native name type private kk industry electronics founded anan japan december 1956 ; 59 years ago 1956 12 founder nobuo ogawa headquarters anan tokushima 774 8601 japan key people hiroyoshi ogawa president products light emitting diodes laser diodes fine chemicals battery materials magnetic materials number of employees 8 600 as of april 2015 website official website footnotes references 1 2 nichia corporation nichia kagaku k gy kabushiki gaisha is a japanese chemical engineering and manufacturing company headquartered in anan japan with global subsidiaries . it specializes in the manufacturing and distribution of phosphors including light emitting diodes leds laser diodes battery materials and calcium chloride . 3 the nichia corporation comprises two divisions division 1 responsible for phosphors and other chemicals and division 2 responsible for leds . in the field of phosphors the company has 50 % of the japanese market and 25 % of the world market . 1 4 nichia is the world s largest supplier of leds . it designs manufactures and markets leds for display lcd backlighting automotive and general lighting applications with the many different leds across the entire visible spectrum . nichia s invention and development of white leds have spanned several accomplishments throughout the history of the company . contents 1 history 2 major competitors 3 litigation 4 references 5 external links history edit the nichia corporation was founded in 1956 by nobuo ogawa 1912 2002 at aratano cho anan tokushima to produce calcium phosphate for fluorescent lamp phosphors . the majority ownership is still held by the ogawa family today . in 1966 nichia began production of phosphors for fluorescent lamps . in 1971 nichia began production of phosphors for color tvs . in 1977 nichia began the production of tri color phosphors for fluorescent lamps . one of nobuo ogawa s more well known decisions was to support shuji nakamura to do research on gallium nitride light emitting diodes when it was generally considered a very risky business . 5 the research turned out to be a great success ; however the company received scrutiny for awarding a bonus of 20 000 us 180 to nakamura for his 1993 invention of the first high brightness blue light led which was based on gallium nitride . nichia later settled out of court with nakamura for 840 million us 7 million in what was then the highest bonus ever awarded by a japanese company . 6 nichia supports financially a polish company ammono which is the current as of 2011 world leader in bulk gallium nitride gan manufacturing of 2 inch diameter high quality bulk c plane gan substrates as well as non polar m plane a plane and semi polar gan wafer . 7 nichia funds a joint research project with ammono to develop ammonothermal gallium nitride growth and in return nichia took a stake in ammono s intellectual property as well as access to the crystals that were made . 8 several of nichia s innovations have won awards such as the nikkei best products award . 1 japanese born u.s. citizen shuji nakamura won the nobel prize for developing the blue light emitting diode led while working for nichia corporation the missing piece that now allows manufacturers to produce white light lamps . according to reuters nakamura invented the blue light emitting diode while working at nichia but received next to nothing from the company for the work until 2004 when a tokyo court ordered nichia to pay him a record 20 billion yen 185 million . the company appealed and nakamura settled for about 8 million . 9 major competitors edit nichia corporation s competitors include seoul semiconductor cree everlight electronics lumileds epistar and osram . litigation edit in january 2006 nichia launched a lawsuit against rival led manufacturer seoul semiconductor co. ltd. alleging design patent infringement . 10 nichia and seoul semiconductor announced that they have settled all litigation on patent and other issues as well as other legal disputes currently pending between them in the united states germany japan united kingdom and korea . the settlement includes a cross license agreement covering led and laser diode technologies which will permit the companies to access all of each other s patented technologies . in accordance with the settlement terms all litigations are to be terminated by mutual withdrawal with the exception of litigation in germany involving patent de 691 07 630 t2 of ep 0 437 385 b1 which was resolved following a february 2009 hearing . 11 references edit a b c corporate information . nichia . retrieved september 10 2015 . company snapshot . bloomberg businessweek . retrieved september 10 2015 . company profile . hoover s. retrieved september 10 2015 . shuji nakamura ; stephen pearton ; gerhard fasol april 17 2013 . the blue laser diode the complete story . springer science & business media . pp. 19 . isbn 978 3 662 04156 7 . shuji nakamura ; stephen pearton ; gerhard fasol april 17 2013 . the blue laser diode the complete story . springer science & business media . p. 17 . isbn 978 3 662 04156 7 . zaun todd january 12 2005 . nichia settlement . new york city ny times . retrieved august 30 2009 . company history . ammono . retrieved september 10 2015 . stevenson richard june 30 2010 . the world s best gallium nitride . ieee spectrum . ieee . retrieved september 10 2015 . pollard niklas ; hirschler ben october 7 2014 . light bulb moment low energy led wins nobel prize . reuters . retrieved september 10 2015 . nichia asserts design patents against seoul semiconductor . ledsmagazine.com . bristol pennwell . january 19 2006 . retrieved february 25 2008 . seoul semiconductor and nichia settle litigation and enter into a cross license . bloomberg l.p. february 2 2009 . retrieved september 10 2015 . external links edit japan portal physical chemistry portal engineering portal companies portal official website millenium prize top prize for light inventor v t e electronics industry in japan companies current alaxala networks alinco alps alpine anritsu aor audio technica brother canon casio citizen watch cosina d & m holdings denon marantz daikin dainippon screen denso dnp eiki eizo elpida esp guitars fanuc fostex fuji electric fujifilm fuji xerox fujitsu fujitsu ten funai furuno futaba hamamatsu photonics hirose electric hitachi clarion hitachi maxell hoya ibanez icom ikegami tsushinki i o data iwatsu japan display jeol jrc jr propo jvc kenwood jvc kenwood kawai keyence kiramek konica minolta ko propo korg kyocera luxman mabuchi motor mamiya maspro melco minebea mitsubishi electric mitsumi electric murata manufacturing mutoh nakamichi nec nec casio mobile communications nichia nichicon nidec nidec copal corporation nikon nintendo nitto denko oki olympus omron onkyo orion electric panasonic pioneer pixela renesas electronics ricoh pentax rohm roland rubycon sansui sanwa electronic sega sammy sega seiko group pulsar seiko seiko epson seiko instruments sharp shimadzu sigma sony sony interactive entertainment snk playmore star micronics stax sumitomo electric taiyo yuden tamron tdk teac tiger tokyo electron topcon toshiba uniden wacom yaesu yagi uda yamaha yaskawa zojirushi zoom zuken defunct aiwa akai bronica chinon contax konica minolta national norita okaya optical sanyo other electronic industries association of japan incj japan electronic industries development association japan electronics and information technology industries association category authority control worldcat identities viaf 258529908 ndl 00946938 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title nichia & oldid 731097730 categories chemical companies of japanelectronics companies of japanlight emitting diode manufacturerscompanies based in tokushima prefecturecompanies established in 19561956 establishments in japanjapanese brandshidden categories wikipedia articles needing style editing from september 2009all articles needing style editinguse mdy dates from august 2015official website different in wikidata and wikipediapages using infobox company with unsupported parametersarticles containing japanese language textwikipedia articles with viaf identifiers navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages deutschfran ais portugu s edit links this page was last modified on 22 july 2016 at 23 22 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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