The company points out that it was relatively recently that industry players discussed employing larger than 2-inch sapphire substrates for LED production. At that time, the discussion reportedly revolved around advantages and benefits of switching to 3- vs 4-inch substrates. The use of 6-inch sapphire substrates appeared to be quite a remote prospect, and any talk of the 8-inch substrates was mostly a theoretical exercise. The company says that today, however, the world's leading manufacturers already produce LEDs using 6-inch sapphire substrates and they are beginning to approach the use of 8-inch substrates as well.