With the aim of expanding and intensifying economic ties between Bavaria and Russia (its largest trading partner in Eastern Europe), as part of ‘German week’ in St Petersburg a delegation from the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs (focused on sustainable power generation and supply) included a tour of Optogan’s LED lamp production plant. The plant was opened last November by the Russian Federation’s deputy Prime Minister Sergey Ivanov, and visited in March by Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev).Optogan’s chip technology was created by Vladislav Bougrov and Maxim Odnoblyudov, who were PhD students of Nobel prize winner and Russian Academy of Science member Zhores Alferov at the Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute in St Petersburg in the 1990s before working at Finland’s Helsinki University of Technology, then in late 2004 (together with Alexey Kovsh) founding Optogan Oy in Espoo, Helsinki to develop GaN-based LEDs.
In addition to Optogan having an R&D facility in Helsinki, since founding Optogan GmbH in Germany in 2005 it has established epitaxy and chip R&D plus a pilot line in Dortmund and, last year, its Fab1 chip fabrication plant in Landshut. After founding CJSC Optogan in Russia in 2009, last May it acquired the plant in St Petersburg, where it has established LED packaging as well as luminaire assembly production lines.
During the Bavarian delegation's tour, Optogan Group’s founders described recent developments in LED lighting and outlined their development aims for the Russian and global market.
“Optogan is a prime example of a Bavarian–Russian high-tech company,” commented Dr Johann Schleicher, permanent secretary of the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, Infrastructure, Transport and Technology’. “The manufacturing plants in Germany’s Bavarian Landshut and St Petersburg in Russia are, through Optogan’s presence, economically and technologically connected,” he added.
“Our offices complement each other,” notes Optogan GmbH’s CEO Hans Peter Ehweiner. “Due to a Russian modernization offensive, the primary energy consumption should be reduced by 40% by the end of 2020. With the introduction of LED technology, Optogan is able to make a decisive contribution,” he concluded.

News source: Juno Publishing and Media Solutions Ltd
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