Inside the Most Famous Chinese LED Factory

See how LEDs are made! We're visiting World Semi's factory in Dongguan, China, just outside of Shenzhen. We'll see how the infamous WS2812 addressable RGB LED, aka the Neopixel, is made from bare silicon wafers to finished working LEDs. It's one of the coolest factories I've ever been to. They have amazing machines that do everything from bare die placement to wirebonding, to fascinating custom LED testing machines. Today we're going to see how it's made!

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[giant]

Seeing those machines operate so fast is truly mesmerizing!!

Great video, a joy to watch as always!

[LanceCSTCuddy]

I remember when the WS2811 came out, and I said “who the heck is World Semi?” Now, they own the market with their 5050s. Absolutely incredible.

[knightdeluxegaming]

As a maker and hobbyist and do alot of led stuffs, This video is amazing to see like how it was made!

[AmusementLabs]

Idk why, but seeing those little guys come to life for the first time inside that testing rig is really beautiful. Fantastic work.

[audiogek]

Great video! This learned me appreciate the relative high price for these leds.
The faster larger double pick and place machine was insane, never seen one with such long arms operate so precise at that speed.

[LevelUpYourFandom]

WS2812B LEDs are the thing that GOT me into electronics. they are fascinating little gemstones haha this is a very very cool tour, and im glad to see so much of the process. also Scotty, you giving the FULL tour and overview yourself is surprisingly great! i expected having the 'expert' or 'engineer' there to speak up was the best way, but it turns out just having you do and explain all of it yourself is much better in my opinion. either way i LOVE these factory tours!!

[SpencerPaire]

This may be my favorite factory yet! Super high tech, but still very easy to understand, and those machines are wild! It's crazy to see how fast they AND precise they are, to pick up stuff smaller than fine sand, and nail it thousands of times per hour! Scotty, the camera work in this video is sublime, your narration is tight, interesting and emotive, just all around the crème de la crème of factory tours here.

[termsofuniverse]

Super cool as always! People wouldn't think, but there's quite a bit that undergoes when creating an LED.

[Deja]

Wow... Automation really is something. Quite awesome to watch those little hopper machines work.

[leonardothefabulous]

I was the first person doing residential LEDs on Long Island (NY)-back in 2009 and I'm blown away at how far these things have come. But what really impresses me are the machines that make these LEDs (and many other objects). No one else ever talks about or seems interested in the incredible machines and the men who design and companies that build them. Perhaps Strange Parts could do some stories/videos about that???

[motionsick]

As an American I want to say that I appreciate the hard work of the common Chinese worker. It's not lost of some of us that Chinese quality has gotten better and better because this high-end trade work is becoming multi generational. Serious care and thought has gone into teaching the next generation.

[evilutionltd]

That's incredible how fast and accurate those machines are. It's amazing that people still assume that anything made in China is low quality.
I use thousands of these addressable LEDs and have only seen 1 fail.

[DarkArtGuitars]

This is awesome. Knowing quite a bit about semiconductor manufacturing, it always amazed me how every single one of these LEDs worked. I honestly didn't expect 100% inspection but it makes sense. The little comment about the rejects getting sold at a big discount is a bit concerning as that would explain shady too good to be true priced versions that work, but just not as well.

[MakeItHackin]

Strange Parts does the best factory tour videos and this one was so well done. I had no idea there were so many steps into making neopixels. seems like half of the steps is orientation!

[_BangDroid_]

Dude this was one of the coolest factory tours ever made! I have a few thousand of these LED and I always wondered about how they make them. Thank you for the insight and your ability to gain access to such awesome factories.

[Crafty]

The quality of this video is from another world. Thanks for the tour through this factory! The wire bonding was crazy.

[joonglegamer]

One of the best explanation videos of this process I've ever seen. Clearly the factory is experienced and proud of their process (rightfully so), I'm amazed.

[ReyArteb]

IM always amazed at the manufacturing machines.. who made it.. how did they figure it out..
what were the problems they had to solve while inventing a machine that has never been made before.
need a deeper dive into the people who make the machines that make machines!
thanks Scotty this was very educational.

[ZeroInDaHouse]

I wish western companies were this open in sharing their manufacturing processes. Good job man on providing us this insight.

[zakrzak]

Glad to see you doing well after your injury, hope you just get better and better on YouTube!