Research Consortium

IQE PLC
02 August 2007

2 August 2007


IQE plc


IQE in consortium to develop new energy efficient solid-state light sources


IQE plc, the leading global supplier of advanced wafer products and wafer
services to the semiconductor industry, has become a partner in a £3.3 million
research project which will focus on developing energy efficient solid-state
light sources.  The project, codenamed NoveLELS, is being backed by the UK
Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (formerly part of
Department of Trade and Industry).


Dr Drew Nelson, IQE Chief Executive, commenting:


'There is a growing need and urgency to develop energy efficient light sources
with a number of governments already taking steps to limit or ban the use of
inefficient incandescent lighting within the next ten years.


'The $100 billion global lighting market is dominated by three major companies,
GE, Philips and Osram, who, along with most G8 governments, are investing
heavily in programmes to develop alternative sources for illumination.'


The consortium of nine partners consisting of two universities, four SMEs and
three large aerospace companies will come together to develop high efficiency
and high brightness solid-state light sources, based on novel GaN LED chip
technology.  These will be trialled for use in aircraft cockpits, exterior
lighting and consumer LCD devices.  The UK Government and Technology Strategy
Board has shown strong commitment to the solid-state lighting sector and hence
towards energy reduction through the support of funding in excess of £1.7
million for this project.


In addition to IQE, the consortium comprises Airbus, AgustaWestland, GE
Aviation, Exxelis, Mesophotonics and Enfis.  Two world leading research groups
at University of Bath and Brunel University will lead the research of novel LED
chips and phosphor technology.



The project seeks to commercialise high power solid-state LED sources and is
focussed on the improvement of efficiency and quality of the light from these
new light sources. A major project goal is to stimulate the commercialisation of
advanced GaN epitaxy and LED chip manufacturing in conjunction with advanced
phosphors and thermally efficient packaging to create novel LED arrays and light
engines for solid-state lighting applications.



The use of photonic crystal technology will result in the achievement of high
luminous efficacy.  This technology was pioneered by Mesophotonics along with
novel epitaxial processes, pioneered at University of Bath in conjunction with
IQE and advanced phosphor technology, developed at Brunel University.  Tailored
spatial profile will provide key benefits in terms of energy efficiency and
optical coupling efficiency.



A significant spin-off from the project will be the trial of a new method of GaN
based LED chip production which is expected to dramatically reduce the cost per
Lumen of solid-state light sources.  The new methods will achieve this by
increasing the yield of LED chip production and allowing the scaling of
production to larger epitaxial wafer sizes without significant loss of yield
through new GaN epitaxial processes pioneered at the University of Bath.



The end users of the technology in this project are in the aerospace and LCD
backlighting markets and will provide a critical benchmark for the LED outputs.
The end users will also be evaluating the use of this new LED technology within
their applications.  Adoption of LED technology by the partners into these
markets will be a measurable output from the project.  In addition the expected
improvement in light quality and energy efficiency will allow the LED arrays and
light engines to be used in other markets such as architectural, commercial
office, entertainment and retail lighting as well as eventually being used in
the home.



NoveLELS project manager; Dr Gareth Jones, CTO of Enfis Group plc stated that:



'By supporting this large collaborative project, the UK Government is
stimulating both essential research and IP generation which will promote the UK
to the forefront of leading research on a global level along with enabling a
commercialisation route for epitaxy, chip fabrication and LED array manufacture
within the UK.'


Enquiries:

IQE plc  www.iqep.com.                           + 44(0) 2920 839400
    Chris Meadows, Investor Relations

College Hill
    Adrian Duffield/Ben Way                      [phone]


About the Partners


IQE plc

IQE is the leading provider of epitaxial foundry services to the compound
semiconductor industry. IQE's strategic focus is to become the number 1 player
in each of its targeted markets, so as to maximise economy of scale benefits
deriving from its large scale commercial epitaxy tools.  IQE has an unrivalled
track-record in successfully commercialising epitaxial innovation across a
number of market segments.



AgustaWestland

AgustaWestland, a Finmeccanica company, is a technology leader in its markets
and has an unrivalled range of rotorcraft products designed to satisfy the
requirements of commercial and military customers. The Company's products range
from the innovative 2.5-ton light single-engine AW119 Ke to the 16-ton
three-engine AW101 helicopter. AgustaWestland has its main operations in Italy,
the United Kingdom and the United States of America.



Airbus UK Ltd

Airbus UK is responsible for the design, development, and manufacture of high
technology wings for all the Airbus family of aircraft including the External
Lighting system, which includes such lights as the high output Landing, Taxi,
Take-Off and Runway Turn-off lights.



Brunel University

The phosphor group at Brunel was established 38 years ago and is the only
academic group in Europe/USA that has carried out research on phosphors over
this period. The Group specialises in the design and synthesis of novel
phosphors with tailored size and morphology for a wide variety of uses.



Enfis Ltd

A wholly owned subsidiary of Enfis Group plc.  Enfis specialises in the design
and manufacture of high power LED arrays and light engines for solid-state
lighting and backlighting applications.  Enfis has expertise in the integration
of LED technology into high power and high efficiency LED arrays and integration
into high efficiency plug and play digital light engines to control and power
the LED arrays.



Exxelis Ltd

Exxelis Ltd is a Glasgow based developer of materials, processes and components
for LCD display industry. It is developing novel, highly efficient LCD
backlighting solutions which combine the functions of several layers in the
backlight into a single film, addressing the key issues of cost, performance,
size and weight. Exxelis was started in April 2004.



Mesophotonics Ltd

Mesophotonics Ltd was launched in 2001 to design and develop photonic crystal
nano-devices and take them to market. A University of Southampton spin-out
company, its team has unique skills in modelling and understanding
sub-wavelength structures. Mesophotonics specialises in the development of novel
photonic quasicrystal structures and their applications to photonics and sensing
in general.



Systems division of GE Aviation

As a major avionics supplier, the expertise of the Systems division of GE
Aviation (formerly Smiths Aerospace) lies in aerospace applications of hardware,
software and systems. GE is a recognised leader in Flight Display products, both
for main displays and standby instrumentation.  GE has the optical and
environmental test facilities and skills necessary to evaluate the resulting
products suitability for use in an airborne end system.




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