A new semiconductor chip used for illumination has been developed by China Fangda Group, a high-tech company based in Shenzhen, which uses just two or three of the chips to form a high-powered illumination. Usually over 100 semiconductor chips are needed to make a reading lamp.

The illumination industry worldwide has agreed that LED (light-emitting diodes) semiconductors will be a trend for the industry's future development but without powerful semiconductor chips they are not widely used as a light source. LED semiconductors, more durable, energy-saving and eco-friendly, will probably replace fluorescent lamps and incandescent lamps in the future. An LED semiconductor lamp uses one tenth of the electricity that an incandescent lamp of the same power needs and lasts 100 times longer.

The Chinese government has listed high-powered LED semiconductors as one of the major scientific and technological research projects during the period of the tenth Five-Year Plan (2001-2005).