The Award Ceremony of International SSL Alliance (ISA) 2024 “Global SSL Award of Industry Development Outstanding Contribution” (AOID) was held in the morning of Nov. 20, 2024, at Suzhou International Expo Center, Suzhou, China, during ISA General Assembly 2024.

The award of AOID has been incepted since 2021, and this year is its fourth year. A total of 19 individuals and organizations have been awarded so far.

Mr. Xiaoming JIN, Co-Secretary General of ISA, Former Director General, Department of International Cooperation, Ministry of Science and Technology, China moderated the ceremony and revealed the winners.

In the year of 2024, a total of five SSL industry leaders were awarded.

The third winner went to Mr. Conglong JIN, president of Zhaochi Semiconductor.

Jin Conglong was born in 1976 and is currently a member of the Standing Committee of the Nanchang Municipal People's Congress. He is also an A-level talent in Shenzhen and holds over 30 invention patents. Mr. Jin Conglong joined Shenzhen MTC Co., Ltd. in 2012 as the Vice President of the company. Currently he is President/CEO of SMTC, which the most important sector in the LED industry of AMTC. He has over 10 years of rich experience in electronic information manufacturing management and marketing, focusing on the integration and management innovation of informatization, automation, and standardization. Having a solid theoretical foundation and rich practical experience in the field of LED semiconductor lighting chips and their packaging, possessing keen judgment and unique insights into the future development and trends of the industry. Fully responsible for the strategic development, operational management, technological innovation, and market expansion of the LED industry chain of AMTC, and serving as the decision-maker for the company's strategic development.

Mr. Jin Conglong led SMTC to become the world's exclusive company with four major technologies and production capabilities in the entire LED chip industry chain. With a forward-looking vision, the company continued to deepen its research and development in the field of compound semiconductors, gathered R&D strength in the semiconductor industry, actively promoted the digital and intelligent transformation and upgrading of the industry, and empowered high-quality development with technological innovation. In just five years, it has built the most automated LED chip production line in the industry, with the highest single factory capacity and the lowest cost, and has unique competitiveness, subverting the traditional production mode of the industry. Through continuous innovation and lean management, SMTC has doubled its revenue and profits in the past three years, with a production capacity and scale of 1.1 million pieces wafer per month (4 inches), ranking first in the world. It has created the miracle of the semiconductor LED chip industry's optimal cost, fastest mass production and profitability, and achieved high-quality leapfrog development for SMTC.

 

Brief introduction of the outstanding achievement of Mr. Jin Conglong

1.  Innovation leads, deeply cultivates technology, and builds a layout of the entire LED industry chain

Mr. Jin Conglong led SMTC to integrate the core industry chain technology upstream of LED chips, forming an independent manufacturing capability for the entire process of "sapphire wafer → patterned substrate PSS → LED epitaxial wafer → LED chip". This is the first of its kind in China, breaking the situation of single technology and regional dispersion, and achieving large-scale operation.

Mr. Jin Conglong focuses on talent cultivation and technological innovation. By attracting high technical talents from domestic and foreign industries, he promotes innovation among all members of the team and builds multiple national and provincial innovation platforms. In just three years, he has applied for more than 1200 technology invention patents, including patents in substrate, epitaxial, chip technology, as well as advanced technology products such as Mini/Micro LED, high-efficiency, high-voltage, and power inverter. The acquisition of these patents has enabled SMTC to be ranked fifth among the top 50 innovative giants in the field of specialization, precision, novelty, and innovation, providing strong technical support for Chinese LED chip companies to compete in the global market.

2. Lean management, cost reduction and efficiency improvement, and continuous promotion of industrial digital transformation

Mr. Jin Conglong advocates the concept of refined management and cost control, actively promotes the intelligent manufacturing and digital transformation of SMTC, builds world-class and internationally leading intelligent and digital production equipment and systems, creates a globally leading digital intelligent LED chip production base, realizes automation, lean, digital and intelligent management of the production process, greatly improves production efficiency and product yield, while reducing energy consumption and pollution, realizing green manufacturing, and making important contributions to enhancing the international competitiveness of China's semiconductor lighting industry.

Under the leadership of Mr. Jin Conglong, SMTC has continuously expanded its production capacity and invested 10 billion yuan to build LED epitaxial and chip projects, red and yellow LED chip projects, and Mini/Micro LED chip research and development and production projects, becoming the world's largest LED chip supplier in terms of production capacity. By purchasing advanced production equipment and optimizing production processes, SMTC's monthly production capacity has increased from hundreds of thousands of chips to over 1.1 million chips (4 inches), meeting the market's demand for high-quality LED chips.

His work not only drives the coordinated development of upstream and downstream enterprises in the semiconductor lighting industry chain, but also stimulates the technological innovation vitality of the entire industry and promotes the optimization and upgrading of the industrial structure.

3. Strategic leadership, precise layout, leading the development of the global semiconductor lighting industry

Mr. Jin Conglong has a keen insight into the market trends of the semiconductor lighting industry. He leds SMTC to become the world's exclusive company with four major technologies and production capabilities in the entire LED chip industry chain. With a forward-looking vision, he laid out a strategic plan, gathered the R&D strength of the semiconductor industry, actively promoted the digital and intelligent transformation and upgrading of the industry, empowered high-quality development with technological innovation, and based on the traditional lighting market. At the same time, he expanded into high-end lighting, TV backlight, Mini RGB direct display, backlight and other fields, forming a diversified market layout.

SMTC started production at the end of 2019 and has achieved rapid growth in production capacity from 0 to 1.1 million wafers in less than 5 years, becoming a leader in the LED chips industry. SMTC made its first profit in 2021 and steadily increased its net profit to 343 million yuan by 2023, leading the industry in production, sales, and profit margins. As a rising star in the LED chip industry, the company's CEO Jin Conglong is known as a "Chaser of light". Fearless of increasingly fierce market competition, actively seeking change, improving quality control, applying Chinese chips to the world, creating the world's first "little giant" in the chip field with single unit production, and winning the China LED Pioneer Award for Outstanding Contribution in Ten Years.

Mr. Jin Conglong also focuses on the integration and optimization of the global supply chain, and has established long-term and stable cooperative relationships with many well-known domestic and foreign enterprises. Through communication and cooperation with international peers, as well as cooperation with international clients such as Samsung and Seoul Semiconductor, we actively brought in advanced international technologies, while pushing the innovative achievements of China's LED industry to the world stage, injecting new vitality into the development of the global semiconductor lighting industry. His work not only elevated the international status of China's semiconductor lighting industry, but also promoted the common progress and prosperity of global semiconductor lighting technology.

 

Jury Comments

1.  Amazing achievements in the development of Zhaochi Semiconductor into a major SSL company based on research and development.

2.  Jin Conglong has been very successful in building the world’s largest manufacturer of LEDs and making a significant contribution to the global supply of LEDS at affordable prices.

3.  His leadership in SMTC and technical contributions for LED technologies are very impressive.

4.  The full-fledged development of the national LED lighting industry is impossible without its own mass production of semiconductor structures and chips for LEDs. Mr. JIN Conglong has a great achievement in the creation and development of CMTS production. Such production creates a powerful and independent foundation of the lighting industry in China.

Mr. Conglong JIN delivered his acceptance speech via video recording at the ISA 2024 General Assembly.

He said that it was a great honor to receive the ISA 2024 "Global SSL Award for Outstanding Industry Development".

This honor was not only a personal recognition for him, but also a lofty praise for the continuous exploration and unremitting innovation of the entire team of Zhaochi Semiconductor in the field of semiconductor lighting. In this industry environment, Zhaochi Semiconductor had been trying to explore and move forward, continue to increase research and development investment, and bring together a group of top semiconductor talents. Committed to improving the performance, reliability and energy efficiency of products, and constantly making new breakthroughs in chip design and manufacturing process. Always adhere to the development concept of "the ultimate fine management and the ultimate cost control, technology leading, technology pulling, technology driven" technology platform, committed to provide global partners with cost-effective products and excellent service, so as to lead the industry sustainable high-quality development of the enterprise core value! This award was not only an affirmation of the achievements of Zhaochi Semiconductor in the industry, but also a praise for their technological innovation, enterprise management, market development and other aspects of the work. However, for him, it was more of an incentive and spur, reminding that in the semiconductor industry with unlimited potential and fierce competition, Zhaochi Semiconductor should continue to play a leading role, actively participate in international cooperation and competition, learn from international advanced technology and management experience, and share results to promote the prosperity and development of the entire industry.

We would like to congratulate Mr. Conglong JIN being awarded this honor and thank him for his outstanding contribution to the global SSL industry.

 

Global SSL Award for Outstanding Industry Development

● Accept excellent applications

● Judged by worldwide authoritative experts

● Worldwide circulation and promotion

● Manifest outstanding leadership of people and organizations

 

ISA would like to invite the interested enterprises, organizations, research institutes and business leaders in the field of SSL to make their application of this award in 2025, with the aim to demonstrate these who made contribution to promote the process of advancing this industry and application, inspire new thinking, encourage the peers, and work together to promote SSL into a new period of development.