A powerful semiconductor chip used for illumination has been developed by a Chinese high-tech company in Shenzhen.

Two to three semiconductor chips of this kind are able to form a high-powered illumination, said China Fangda Group, a high-tech company based in Shenzhen, Monday.

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, the company said.

LED semiconductors, more durable, energy-saving and eco-friendly, will probably replace fluorescent lamps and incandescent lamps in the future.

A 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).

(Xinhua News Agency April 6, 2004)