A future of OLEDs

While LEDs have become the developing star of the lighting market, OLEDs remain a technology of high potential.

The aesthetically pleasing technology will improve over the next decade, and become much cheaper than today, but it will only be making a significant penetration into high-end applications such as designer lighting, casinos and up market bars and restaurants.

If correct, it will mean that the wider market for OLEDs will be mainly dominated by display applications such as phone handsets and televisions.

Bridgelux $60 Million to Develop LEDs on Silicon Surfaces

Recently, Bridgelux is announced to receive $60 million in venture capital -- funding ,aiming to bolster the East Bay cleantech company's quest to develop cheaper LED.

According to the company, silicon-based production could slash the cost of LEDs by 75 percent. Therefore, instead of producing LEDs on more expensive sapphire surfaces, it hopes to use the cash to develop LEDs on silicon surfaces.

The company's products include LED chips that deliver electrical impulses to activate a light bulb or other lighting device. Currently, it has raised $180 million in venture funding.

Source: LED Inside

Compact Goniophotometer for Packaged LEDs and Small LED Modules

The compact LEDGON 100 Goniophotometer was specially developed for analysis of the spatial radiation patterns from individual LEDs and small LED modules. The entire hemisphere can be measured in the forward direction of the LED. The angular resolution of 0.1° means that exact measurement values can be obtained for narrow-angled LEDs with excellent reproducibility.


Combined with a spectroradiometer from Instrument Systems, all spectral parameters, for example color coordinates or color temperature can be measured as a function of angle. This is particularly relevant for white LEDs where these parameters can undergo significant change depending on the radiation angle.

The LEDGON 100 setup is located in a light-tight enclosure with a folding lid which eliminates the need for a dark room. If larger measuring distances are required, an opening in the side wall also allows light to be measured from the outside. The goniometer unit is mounted on a small optical bench in type C configuration allowing the test specimen to be rotated in phi and theta axis. An optional sample table also permits measurement of LED arrays and small modules. This sample table can be upgraded with an XY translation stage that allows the optical axis of an LED module to be positioned in the center of rotation. Optical probes with diffusers and a cosine corrected optical probe optimized for modules can be supplied.

The LEDGON 100 is operated using SpecWin Pro Software from Instrument Systems. A graphics window is used to visualize the measurements in five different display modes. The measured data can be exported in the IES and EULUMDAT format for further processing in simulation programs. By integrating of the scanned measurement data the luminous flux of the test specimen can be determined automatically.

Source: LED Inside

A Material to Revolutionize Electronics - Small Transistors, LEDs and Solar Cells

A discovery made at EPFL could play an important role in electronics, allowing us to make transistors that are smaller and more energy efficient. Research carried out in the Laboratory of Nanoscale Electronics and Structures (LANES) has revealed that molybdenite, or MoS2, is a very effective semiconductor. This mineral, which is abundant in nature, is often used as an element in steel alloys or as an additive in lubricants. But it had not yet been extensively studied for use in electronics.

100,000 times less energy
“It’s a two-dimensional material, very thin and easy to use in nanotechnology. It has real potential in the fabrication of very small transistors, light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and solar cells,” says EPFL Professor Andras Kis, whose LANES colleagues M. Radisavljevic, Prof. Radenovic et M. Brivio worked with him on the study. He compares its advantages with two other materials: silicon, currently the primary component used in electronic and computer chips, and graphene, whose discovery in 2004 earned University of Manchester physicists André Geim and Konstantin Novoselov the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics.

One of molybdenite’s advantages is that it is less voluminous that silicon, which is a three-dimensional material. “In a 0.65-nanometer-thick sheet of MoS2, the electrons can move around as easily as in a 2-nanometer-thick sheet of silicon,” explains Kis. “But it’s not currently possible to fabricate a sheet of silicon as thin as a monolayer sheet of MoS2.” Another advantage of molybdenite is that it can be used to make transistors that consume 100,000 times less energy in standby state than traditional silicon transistors. A semi-conductor with a “gap” must be used to turn a transistor on and off, and molybdenite’s 1.8 electron-volt gap is ideal for this purpose.

Better than graphene
In solid-state physics, band theory is a way of representing the energy of electrons in a given material. In semi-conductors, electron-free spaces exist between these bands, the so-called “band gaps.” If the gap is not too small or too large, certain electrons can hop across the gap. It thus offers a greater level of control over the electrical behavior of the material, which can be turned on and off easily.

The existence of this gap in molybdenite also gives it an advantage over graphene. Considered today by many scientists as the electronics material of the future, the “semi-metal” graphene doesn’t have a gap, and it is very difficult to artificially reproduce one in the material.

Source: LED Professional

Dimmable LEDs Excel at Creative Lighting

Dimmable LED lights are great because they make it possible to upgrade a building’s lighting system to energy-efficient, low-heat lighting and still enjoy the option to dim the lighting as mood or practicality dictates. But as with all LED lighting, the versatility of dimmable LEDs means that their distinctive features can be put to use in a number of creative ways that are not possible with other types of dimmable lights. The main attributes of dimmable LEDs that make them ideal for this type of creative use are their high brightness to energy consumption ratio, the ease of use that stems from the physical flexibility, adhesive backing, and cuttability of LED light strips, and their light weight. Here are four inventive and fun ways to take advantage of this technology.

With larger vehicles such as vans or big SUVs, Dimmable LEDs can be installed as extra lighting throughout the vehicle. Hooked up to the car battery or a separate, rechargeable battery, LED lighting will be easy to install, draw a very small amount of electricity, and last for several hours on the small battery or have a minimal effect on the car’s battery. This lighting will enable other uses of the vehicle. Obviously this wouldn’t be a useful tool while driving, but large vehicles can be used as mobile campers that sleep a few people in the back. Dimmable lighting makes the experience far more comfortable and can turn the van or SUV into a much more enjoyable place to experience a road trip. And because LEDs generate almost no heat, there will be no risk of injury due to accidently touching the lights. Most types of dimmable LED lights would work well in this application, depending on what the inside of the car looks like and what lighting scheme is preferred. For example, strip lighting could be easily hidden from view, providing even, soft lighting, or puck lights could be attached in plain sight, because they feature attractive housings and are effective at providing area lighting.

The second idea is to simulate the feel of a movie theater at home. This is hardly a new idea, as dimmable, high-quality lights have been available for as long as home-theater quality projectors and TVs have. But using LEDs makes this somewhat hedonistic experience far less wasteful. Turn the lights all the way up to show off the features of the home theater, then dim them down for comfortable viewing, all while consuming a fraction of the electricity of incandescent lights.

Due to the availability of dimmable, waterproof LEDs, a number of outdoor applications are also possible. Dimmable LED strip lights can be installed up the trunk of trees to create an exciting lightscape. This could be a permanent upgrade to a home’s landscaping, hardwiring the LEDs to the outdoor electrical system and turning the trees into bright – but not too bright due to the dimmers – focal points in the yard. Or it could be a seasonal installation. Colorful, dimmable LEDs will be far less expensive to power over the holidays and can be run off of LED batteries, eliminating the need for ugly, unwieldy extension cords. And their durability means they won’t burn out after one or even several seasons, which means an end to the frustrating process of checking lighting strands for dead bulbs each year.

Or dimmable LED lights could be used to make camping in the back yard easier and more similar to actual camping. If the purpose of camping in the yard is to expose a young child to the joys of sleeping in a tent without all the extra work, then a little extra light in the form of a few LEDs certainly wouldn’t go amiss. Or they could be set up outside the tent to simulate the light of a campfire, dimmed down over time to reflect the soft light from the embers after the fire dies down. And best of all, this pleasant lighting effect comes without any of the risks or pollution as a real campfire or a standard camping lantern.

Source: ElementalLED

US Commits $14.8M to LED Lighting Research

Latest funding intended to advance both inorganic and organic forms of solid-state lighting, and reduce the cost of the technologies.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded another $14.8 million in funding for development projects aimed at advancing solid-state lighting technologies.

The latest round is the DOE’s seventh to be focused on the core technology of LED lighting, and the second to include awards directly aimed at improving manufacturing.

Although LEDs have already made major inroads into some commercial lighting applications, where the extra up-front cost of the technology can typically be recouped inside two years, it is widely acknowledged that a significant cost reduction is still required for uptake in the most cost-sensitive applications, such as residential and office lighting.

Meanwhile, three academic institutions and a start-up company will share $4.3 million made available for core technology research, which is intended to fill key technology gaps.

Source: LED Professional

University of Illinois Creates 3-D Photonic Crystal LED with Electronic, Optical Properties

Researchers from University of Illinois have utilized an epitaxial approach to develop a 3-D photonic crystal LED, the first such optoelectronic device.

According to Paul Braun, a professor of materials science and engineering and of chemistry who led the research effort, "We've discovered a way to change the three-dimensional structure of a well-established semiconductor material to enable new optical properties while maintaining its very attractive electrical properties."

Photonic crystals can control or manipulate light in unexpected ways with their unique physical structures. However, previous attempts at making 3-D photonic crystals have resulted in devices that are only optically active that is, they can direct light but not electronically active, so they can't turn electricity to light or vice versa.

The Illinois team's photonic crystal has both properties. To create a 3-D photonic crystal that is both electronically and optically active, the researchers started with a template of tiny spheres packed together. Then, they deposit gallium arsenide, through the template, filling in the gaps between the spheres.

The GaAs grows as a single crystal from the bottom up, a process called epitaxy. Epitaxy is common in industry to create flat, two-dimensional films of single-crystal semiconductors, but Braun's group developed a way to apply it to an intricate three-dimensional structure.

"The key discovery here was that we grew single-crystal semiconductor through this complex template," said Braun, who also is affiliated with the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and with the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory at Illinois. "Gallium arsenide wants to grow as a film on the substrate from the bottom up, but it runs into the template and goes around it. It's almost as though the template is filling up with water. As long as you keep growing GaAs, it keeps filling the template from the bottom up until you reach the top surface."

The epitaxial approach eliminates many of the defects introduced by top-down fabrication methods, a popular pathway for creating 3-D photonic structures. Another advantage is the ease of creating layered heterostructures.

Once the template is full, the researchers remove the spheres, leaving a complex, porous 3-D structure of single-crystal semiconductor. Then they coat the entire structure with a very thin layer of a semiconductor with a wider bandgap to improve performance and prevent surface recombination.

At present, the group built a 3-D photonic crystal LED the first such working device to test their technique.

Source: LED inside

Japan Creates Solar Power and LEDs Shelter for Public Applications

Recently,Sekisui Jushi Corporation, Kyocera Corporation and its wholly-owned domestic solar energy sales subsidiary Kyocera Solar Corporation have joined force to develop a multi-purpose solar power shelter called the Eco-Shell ,which combines with a Kyocera solar power generating system for the roofing material and LEDs for lighting.

The new product is designed for use in bus & taxi stops, benches and walkway coverings and other public spaces. It is set to sell from July 20, exclusive to the Japanese market, targeting municipalities and private companies. And the two manufacturers also propose its use for a wide range of applications across Japan.

Its key features including:Firstly the shelter's solar power generating system can supply electricity for surrounding electrical needs, such as lighting for advertising displays, with excess power being sold to the power utility companies, thus helping to meet expected power shortages in Japan during the summer. Secondly, LED lighting to reduce both power consumption and CO2 emissions at night. Moreover, the shelter can play as emergency power supplier in the event of a disaster, as it has an independent power outlet that could be used to charge mobile phones or other vital electronics.

Source: LED Inside

Shandong Weifang City Increased LED Lights Proportion up to 84%

Reportedly,LED lights have placed a position in Shandong Weifang city limits.

According to the Weifang City street management office,currently, there are 12 million street lights and landscape, and the proportion of LED lights is up to 84% with the amount of 95,653.

During the several years, LED lights have gradually grown in the city. Shandong Weifang functional lighting in the city to make a pilot LED light source applications, since the beginning of 2006, and the first pilot in the North Sea Road, LED light source used in the calculation to obtain energy-saving effect, in 2007 Cravens, Nursery, Fangzi, Hanting four districts and high-tech economy, the coastal zone within the three new installations and replacement of street lights, LED light. Weifang city road lighting project in the proportion of LED light sources only 24% in 2008.

It’s estimated that with LED lights, Weifang can save energy 58.65 million per year degrees, equaling to 23,600 tons of standard coal.

UK Council Installed Its First LED Street Lights

UK's first LED street lights are installed in Bath and North East Somerset Council at the Hicks Gate roundabout at the Bristol end of the Keynsham, Somerset.

Previously, Bath and North East Somerset used 250 watt high pressure sodium lighting on the Hicks Gate roundabout. On June 10, they were replaced with the 169 watt LED lights, saving 40 per cent of its energy and a further 20 per cent due to the dimming technology.

Each lamp contains more than 80 tiny bulbs, which have a life span of 60,000 hours or around 16 years when lit for 10 hours each day - five times that of a traditional street lamp.

The lights are expected to save taxpayers more than £4,500-each-year - as well as 25 tonnes of carbon emissions.

It will take eight years for the LED lights to repay the costs of their manufacture and fitting, which currently stands at £36,000. The trial is set to finish by the end of the year.

Source: LED Inside

The time for intelligent LED-based lighting systems is now

LED–based light sources are uniquely controllable, and intelligent SSL systems with adaptive controls can greatly enhance energy savings, so what are we waiting for?

We have the technology pieces that are required to broadly deploy intelligent LED-based lighting systems. Sure there are issues to be resolved such as the multiple wired or wireless interconnects that we might use to network a lighting system. But workable networks exist, mainstream LED-based luminaires support dimming and control, and intelligence is the key to really delivering the energy-saving potential of solid-state lighting (SSL).

Intelligent SSL technology was also a recurring theme in the Lightfair International (LFI) educational program. The “Incorporating lighting technologies of today with buildings of tomorrow” session yielded insight into intelligent lighting and perhaps afforded a view at the direction some industry leaders will take. Speakers included Osram Sylvania executives Makarand Chipalkatti and Karl Jessen; Mark Bauserman, executive director of engineering at Paramount Pictures; and Nadarajah Narendran, associate professor at the Lighting Research Center (LRC).

The crowd was sparse at the early-Sunday session and Chipalkatti used that fact to make a key point about the energy-saving potential of LEDs. Noting the two empty rows in front, Chipalkatti suggested that an efficient intelligent-lighting system would reduce the CRI of the lights that were directed at those empty rows and hence drop the energy those lights used by 25%, without affecting the attendee experience. It’s not just output level that’s controllable in SSL.

Still, first-level savings should come from supplying light only where it is required. Narendran stressed that efficient light sources alone aren’t sufficient saying, “Light source efficacy does not tell you whether you are going to save energy.” Narendran stressed the need for using sensors, and leveraging daylight to minimize the need for artificial light.

Bauserman provided insight from the user side of the equation. He said that when Paramount upgraded lighting with dimmable fluorescent lamps with a CRI of 85, he found that the lights could be set at lower output levels yet workers perceived an improvement in the lighting. And he believes that workers will save energy given the option. He said, “If you give an occupant the ability to control light in their space, normally they are going to save energy.”

Financial story is paramount

Bauserman is planning a major lighting retrofit across the 64-acre Paramount campus. His focus is both saving money and improving light quality. Discussing the pitch he will make to management, he said, “I have to tell the story financially, or there is no story to tell.” But he also added that the lighting must maximize worker productivity and mitigate any worker health impact.

For new lighting, Bauserman is looking for bidirectional communications so that he can automatically detect failures and monitor operations. Other goals include a lighting system that is easy to install and commission, as well as long life, and low total cost of ownership.

The speakers were careful not to provide too many details, but Narendran earlier had mentioned research that the LRC had done with a technology called Future Tiles in which the researchers used LED-based tiles in the walls and ceilings of a room. Jessen also mentioned “LEDs integrated into things like building materials” as a next phase in SSL. It appears we will have a compelling case study to cover later this year, although the speakers declined to provide more details at LFI.

Every retrofit or new lighting installation in commercial applications should include intelligence going forward. Not every case needs the type of technology that we may see from the Paramount installation, but sensing and controls should be universal requirements and LED sources deliver the best user experience and maximum energy savings.

Source: LEDs magazine

LED Video Jacket for Bicycle Lighting

There is a 60” LED video display installed over a jacket’s body and sleeves,which is desigend for wearable and interactive bicycle lighting.

LED jackets can provide a high-tech alternative to the luminous yellow tabards favoured by soem cyclists.

The jacket gives off more than enough light for the urban cyclist. In addition,the moving images could display messages to other road users.Large flashing arrows be highly-visible turn signal and messages such as ‘too close’ , ‘thank you’ and ‘stopping’ would prove useful.

Currently, this LED video jacket is a prototype for a costume for the Burning Man festival – an annual art event and temporary community based on radical self expression in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada.

Source: LED Inside

US DOE makes LED reliability recommendations

The LED industry has no accepted protocol for measuring and characterizing luminaire lifetime, but a new guideline from SSL Quality Advocates considers the key issues.

A recently formed Solid-State Lighting (SSL) Quality Advocates working group, a group of 32 industry experts on reliability, sought to determine a series of recommendations for LED reliability, or methods for estimating LED lifetime.

Experts Fred Welsh of Radcliffe Advisors (Chestertown, MD), Terry Clarke, CEO of Finelite (Union City, CA), and Steve Paolini of Lunera Lighting Inc. (Redwood City, CA) headed up a panel discussion on reliability at the DOE Solid State Lighting Workshop held in Seattle, WA this week.

Jointly developed by the US DOE and the Next Generation Lighting Industry Alliance (NGLIA), SSL Quality Advocates is a voluntary pledge program formed over two years ago to assure that LED lighting, as it reaches the market, is represented accurately. The Advocates encourage the continual development of high-quality products that perform as claimed to help drive market acceptance of SSL products.

The SSL Quality Advocates working group, comprised of 32 industry professionals, released a supplemental guide to Reporting LED Luminaire Product Performance, entitled LED Luminaire Lifetime: Recommendations for Testing and Reporting. The group determined that reliability based on lumen depreciation is the most significant and quantifiable cause of LED and luminaire failure. Color shift, while a very real factor in luminaire performance to the customer, is too difficult to quantify at present. As a result, “it has been taken off the table,” as Clark explained. He said that the group deliberated extensively over ways that color stability might be included as a lifetime metric, but a method for doing so could not be determined.

What constitutes a luminaire failure?

Welsh began by differentiating between catastrophic failures and design flaws that can cause luminaire failures. Design flaws can include poor thermal management, overdriving the LED chips, thermal driver failures, mechanical failures and unreliable seals. Such flaws should cause early failures during testing and typically can be fixed from the design side. Real failures, on the other hand, are caused by electrical failure, lumen depreciation and color shift. With appropriately designed drive current, operating temperature and driver components, LEDs should follow a traditional electronic component failure curve, also known as a bathtub curve.

The bathtub curve is characterized by a rash of early failures, typically due to design issues, which can precede delivery of the device to the customer, followed by a very low failure rate until the device nears its end-of-life, when failures occur very quickly. Welsh commented, “Manufacturers should state if a luminaire is serviceable, or if one or more components including the driver, optics, light strip, etc., can be replaced.” Serviceability, of course, depends on whether the parts are available when needed and can be easily accessed for replacement.

Paolini presented interesting data from Appalachian Lighting Systems (Ellwood City, PA) on the cause of 29 field failures from 5400 outdoor luminaires: the driver (power supply) caused 52% of the failures, the luminaire housing caused 31%; LED packaging caused 10% and the driver controls caused 7%.

After considering many recommendations for lifetime assessment based on current standards or testing methods, the Quality Advocates working group recommended that manufacturers report a lumen depreciation value for a given time, say 25,000 hours. They further recommended that manufacturers can offer reasonable warrantee periods, such as 3 years, on products. However, the group emphasized the important difference between lifetime estimations and lumen depreciation. “The industry needs to stop referring to LM-80 as relating to lifetime, it’s only lumen maintenance and it looks at one failure mechanism at L70, not lifetime,” said Welsh.

Paolini recommended that purchasers of luminaires should request data of the manufacturers. This data should include LM-80 tests done at operating temperature; temperature cycling tests; highly accelerated standardized testing (forcing failures, then determining causes) and long-term reliability testing at use conditions for 10,000 hours or more. “It is also useful to visit installations that have the fixtures you are interested in to see how they are performing,” he suggested.

Call for industry participation

In addition, the US DOE is preparing to release a new TM-21 standard, a Method for Estimation of LED Lumen Depreciation as a Measure of Potential LED Life, due out within a month. This method, when combined with data from LM-80 for the luminaire system, will allow estimations of LED source lifetime (only) inside the luminaire. Notably, it will say nothing about the lifetime of the whole luminaire, which is essentially an electronic system made up of multiple components including a dimmer, power supply, LED, optics and interconnections, each with its own reliability issues.

The group concluded that because the LED lighting market serves such a diverse array of applications, from indoor replacement bulbs to streetlights, it recommended that industry participants might best form three working groups with like interests: replacement lamps; specification-grade luminaires and standard-grade luminaires. Within each working group, realistic goals and measurements of reliability can be devised and tested, while being honed for the specific lighting application.

Source: LED magazine

Get the Best of Both Worlds with Dimmable LEDs

With the energy-efficiency of LED lights and their improved ability to effectively replace standard bulbs, they are beginning to be incorporated everywhere. One of the more recent developments in LED lighting replacement is the introduction of smooth LED dimmers and dimmable LED light bulbs and fixtures. The result is the ability to easily install consistent, affordable lighting that performs just as well if not better than the replaced lighting, whether the Dimmable LED is replacing older bulbs or being installed in a new location to take advantage of LED versatility.

So what? Beyond the desire to avoid installing an outdated technology, what do dimmable LEDs bring to the table? One of the main reasons many people like the option of dimmable LED lights is that they want to create specific moods in their homes. Perhaps obvious, but it’s worth taking a moment to consider things we take for granted. Think about one specific example, cooking a romantic dinner for that special someone.

Typically, a romantic dinner means candles, but candles don’t fit every scenario. And when the situation calls for steamy mood lighting, nobody wants the fact that they chose their lighting based on a desire for a reduced carbon footprint to get in the way and make that impossible. This is where dimmable LED light bulbs and LED dimmers come in. The result is the best of both worlds: the opportunity to simulate a private little restaurant’s intimate feel with complete and easy-to-use control over LED lighting that still uses a fraction of the energy that standard lights do.

But the benefits don’t stop there. With lighting options such as dimmable LED lighting strips which can be installed literally anywhere with their adhesive backing and flexibility, dimmable lighting to light a home theater, bedroom ceiling, or piece of art has never been easier to set up. The same level of control and ease of use, the same energy-efficiency, and none of the draw backs of older LEDs or of incandescent lighting.

Source: ElementalLED

US House votes down incandescent bulb-ban bill

The H.R. 2417 “Better use of light bulbs act” won a majority of votes in the US House of Representatives but didn’t achieve the two thirds of votes required to repeal the 2007 legislation that will mandate more efficient 100W lamps, such as LED-based lamps beginning next year.

On Tuesday, the US House of Representatives voted on the H.R. 2417 “Better use of light bulbs act” that was proffered by the Republican party, members of which believe the government has no place legislating what type of light bulbs citizens buy. The bill failed to achieve the two thirds vote required to repeal the 2007 legislation that mandates more-efficient light bulbs starting next year, and the failure is generally good news for proponents of LED-based solid-state lighting (SSL).

The House voted 233 to 193 in favor of the act. The vote was largely along party lines, although 10 Republicans voted against the legislation while 5 Democrats voted for the repeal.

The new bill ran contrary to the escalating green movement. Lighting is responsible for more than 20% of the energy used in the US. And most see lighting as one of the easiest places to save energy. But the savings come with higher upfront cost of SSL products that must be recovered through savings over long lifetimes.

Republicans created the EISA

Ironically, it was Republican President George W. Bush who signed the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) requiring more efficient light bulbs into law back in 2007. The legislation requires that 100W lamps, or more specifically lamps that produce output in the range of 1700 lm, operate 30% more efficiently.

In successive years the efficiency requirements will be applied sequentially to 75W, 60W, and 40W lamps. And an even more stringent set of efficiency requirements will kick in later in the decade. The EISA doesn’t ban incandescent lamps but realistically only technologies such as SSL and compact -fluorescent lamps (CFLs) will meet the requirements.

Despite the fact that more efficient lighting will save significant energy, Republicans, urged on by conservative celebrities including Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, sought to allow citizens to make their own lighting choices. An editorial in the BostonHerald.com joined the protest and called for passage of the new incandescent bulb bill.

In actuality many people who oppose the lighting aspects of the EISA don’t fully understand the details of the legislation. A recent New York Times article described how people are stocking up on incandescent lamps, although in many cases the new bill would not even impact the type of lamps discussed. Indeed the EISA accepts many lamp types including 3-way bulbs, and many decorative-lamp styles.

EISA supporters

The EISA also has strong supporters and there was intense lobbying leading up to Tuesday’s vote that may have been responsible for the defeat. Lighting Sience Group CEO Jim Haworth said, “Lighting is the low-hanging fruit in reducing energy consumption: it accounts for 19% of the world’s energy use – and in the United States, 22%; public and commercial buildings represent 60% of the power used for lighting; up to 80% of offices are lit by outdated and inefficient systems; and lighting accounts for 15% of household electricity use. There are 4.4 billion traditional light sockets in the United States alone offering a rapid and practical path for billions of dollars in energy savings through the installation of more efficient lighting.”

Of course many proponents have a vested interest. Lighting Science Group hopes to be a major player the LED-based replacement lamp market. The National Electrical Manufacturers Association, among others, also lobbied to leave the EISA standing.

If you would like more details on the reaction from House members and other interested parties after the vote, the New York Times ran an excellent article with reaction from Texan Republican Joe Barton who proposed the repeal. Many others are quoted in the article.

California and Texas

It’s unclear whether this is the end of the story with the EISA federally, but states within the union are also active in legislation – and headed in vastly different directions. California had passed legislation that accelerated the EISA guidelines starting the transition this year.

Texas, conversely, has acted explicitly to allow manufacture and sale of incandescent lamps in the state going forward. In July, the state passed a measure that essentially makes lamps stamped with "Made in Texas" exemped from the EISA.

Quantum Light™ Platform

QD Vision's Quantum Light™ product platform enables breakthrough performance and significant systems cost savings without the cost/performance trade-offs typical of other materials and lighting technologies. The Quantum Light™ platform exploits the unique light-emitting properties of semiconductor nanocrystals to deliver a new value proposition for LED-based products, including extraordinary color quality, high-power efficiency, manufacturing versatility and design flexibility.

Color, Power, Cost and Design Benefits

The Quantum Light™ product platform will deliver unparalleled color and brightness and require significantly less power than current technologies for flat-panel displays, solid state lighting, consumer electronics products, and national security applications. It combines advanced material and device technologies to deliver substantial benefits:

Color: Quantum Light™ products emit pure, finely-tuned colors, enabling better color saturation and color rendering than other technologies.

Power: The Quantum Light™ product platform uses significantly less power than other solutions, making it an attractive option for clean-tech applications, and an optimal choice for consumer electronics applications.

Cost: Quantum dot materials are inherently efficient light emitters, enabling improvements in bills of material and reduced manufacturing complexity for most types of displays and solid-state lighting products. Quantum Light™ technology therefore lowers the overall cost of production in addition to enabling solutions that can dramatically reduce ownership costs by delivering higher performance while using far less power.

Design: The Quantum Light™ product platform opens up new possibilities in the design and manufacture of consumer and industrial products, including the potential for extremely thin displays and compact lighting fixtures.

The first products incorporating Quantum Light™ technology are LED lamps and fixtures that deliver savings in energy of up to 80%, best-in-class color quality, and lifetimes in excess of 50,000 hours.

Source: QD Vision

AGC Releases Glass-ceramics Substrate for High-power LED Lighting

In July 2010, AGC (Asahi Glass Co., Ltd.) will start sales of a new glass-ceramics substrate that enables high-brightness and high-durability for LED lighting. This new glass-ceramics substrate will expand LED applications in the lighting and illumination sector, including 3D televisions and automotive lighting, in which high-power output is increasingly in demand.

Starting the volume production at a newly-built factory in Taiwan, AGC aims to achieve a market share of 20% or over in the glass-ceramics substrate market for high-output LED lighting, which is expected to grow into a 100-billion-yen market by 2020.

So far, LED applications have been limited primarily to products with extremely small power output, such as liquid crystal display televisions and home interior lighting. In the future, however, the demand trend is expected to shift toward high-output LED applications that require high-brightness, such as 3D televisions, automotive headlights and other automotive lighting, and outdoor lighting and illumination.

In addition to high-brightness, high-durability is also a prerequisite for high-output LED applications as heat generation becomes greater as the power output increases. Conventional resin substrates are susceptible to high temperature and are not considered suitable for high-output LEDs. In contrast, alumina substrates are heat-resistant, but the reflectivity deteriorates over time as the silver reflective film, which is used for enhancing high-brightness, becomes sulfurated over a prolonged period. In addition, due to the poor moldabiliy, alumina substrates are considered to have only limited usage.

AGC's new substrate that is created through the integration of our glass technology and ceramics technology enables both high-brightness and high-durability for high-output LEDs, and has excellent moldability into compact shapes. The product features are as follows.

1) High-brightness: High-reflectivity enhanced the brightness by 20%-30% as compared to alumina substrates(reflectivity varies depending upon the thickness of the substrate)
2) High-durability: Excellent heat dispassion design allows higher heat dispassion rate than alumina substrates. Also, the reflectivity does not deteriorate over a prolonged period.
3) Excellent moldability: Excellent moldability enables a compact and complex cavity structure.

Leveraging our strengths, AGC is determined to move into the field of LED lighting and various other next-generation lighting materials, and introduce new products to the market at an accelerated pace.

Source: LED Professional

ETC Selador Lights Paul Cocksedge Studio Exhibition in Milan

Creating a celebration of light, lighting designer Paul Cocksedge used 80 LED fixtures in an exhibition space as part of the Salone del Mobile home furnishing exhibition in Milan, Italy.

The project involved projecting light from the blue part of the color spectrum from concealed Selador fixtures onto an 82-foot-long, curved white wall extension of a lighting showroom in the heart of Milan’s design district. When visitors viewed the wall through a red light shade, a previously hidden video of a car appeared to the viewer.

Cocksedge says: “I was very ambitious about what I was proposing; we were really pushing the boundaries of what is achievable. I wanted a lot of light and a very certain, precise light. Only the Selador Ice unit gave that precision: Other manufacturers gave what the eye perceived was the same, but when you look closely at it, wasn’t exactly right. When I first came up with the idea to use light in this way, I was put in touch with Adam Bennette at ETC, who became our color consultant. I’ve known and worked with him for many years, and ETC is often one of my first points of contact for brainstorming ideas.”

Adam Bennette, technical director at ETC, says: “The car is invisible until you view it from inside a shade. For this effect to work, we needed to have a very specific cyan blue. ETC Selador fixtures, with their x7 Color System, have three different shades of blue LEDs in them – cyan, blue and indigo – which can create very specific and pure shades with a very high degree of saturation, whereas many other manufacturers’ fixtures make intermediate shades by mixing only green, blue and red.”

The fixtures were supplied by rental company Volume in Milan for the exhibition booth. Some 300,000 people attended the show from 154 countries. The Salone was established in 1961 to promote Italian furniture and furnishing accessories on the export market and has since become a benchmark for the country’s furniture sector.

Source: LED Inside

LEDs Conquer Luxury Yachts

With LED technology, new and unique lamps can be realized in short times. Because exclusivity and speed matter most in the luxury yacht business, LED lighting solutions are being used more and more.


A warm summer night, the yacht is at anchor and no mosquitoes are buzzing around the lights? It must be an LED light. Studies have shown that insects fly less toward LED lights than to traditional lamps. However, this is not the main reason that LEDs are increasingly used on board.

LED Allow Uniqueness:
Those who buy a luxury yacht want something exclusive. Until recently, boat builders had few choices to help them build unique, exceptional solutions. The forms and types of lamps available were limited. Today, however, LED technology has completely changed this situation.
Using LED technology allows a light source to be completely custom-designed regarding form, color and brightness. Specialized companies develop and produce LED lights exclusively for one yacht. They produce lights in very small series but excellent quality.
This is possible because LED lamps are produced using surface mount technology (SMD). Circuit form and size are not limited and LED types can be selected according to customers’ desires.

Ideal for Use at Sea:
LEDs are well suited for use on boats where the conditions are very rough. Other lamps have difficulties surviving water, salt, wave impact, vibration, UV radiation and the big temperature differences on board. But a correctly constructed LED light can withstand the harshest conditions.
It is much easier to build a watertight housing for LED lights than for others and if assembled correctly, the LED will withstand any mechanical load. Its life expectation is much longer than the one of fluorescent lights or incandescent lamps and their operation is almost maintenance-free.
Other strengths of LED include the ability to dim the light without flickering, which is in sync with the quality thinking of a yacht builder. Furthermore, LEDs use less electrical energy, which, on a boat, is the same as less diesel consumption.

React Quickly:
“Exclusivity and a short reaction time are of great importance in the yacht building business,” said Paul Leestemaker, founder and director of Paleco LED Applications in Eindhoven, Netherlands. The company specializes in LED lighting solutions for boats and yachts. Leestemaker's goal is to answer customer requests within one week, providing fast turnaround and a high-quality solution.
Therefore, Paleco builds its products entirely themselves: mechanics, software and electronics. The company has reduced its dependencies from external suppliers to a minimum. As such, they can offer maximum flexibility and exclusivity for their customers.

Quick Manufacturing and Modification of Prototypes and Qualification Samples:
Flexibility is especially important in electronics production and LED assembly because if a new light shows the expected effect, it can only be said when it is finished. Therefore, Paleco runs its own SMD assembly line with machines from Essemtec, Switzerland.
The flexibility of the automatic Essemtec Turnkey Line allows Paleco to build LED lamps in both small and large series quickly and at highest quality. Lamps with different colors or brightness can be completed fast and customer requests can be implemented on short notice.

New Possibilities:
LEDs are a great design element and also can be used to influence mood. Light planners often make use of the different LED colors and the possibility of programming them. Applications include the modification of pool illumination or a lounge light that changes according to the time of day.
New LED types are released almost monthly, offering yacht builders new possibilities to build something exclusive for customers. So while insects flying less toward LED lights may only be a side effect, it is a thoroughly enjoyable one.

Source: LED Pofessional

LOS ANGELES Completed LED Conversion

Recently, City of LOS ANGELES has completed a five-year LED replacement of all traffic lights and pedestrian signals.

According to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the LEDs are about 85 percent more efficient than traditional lights, and the conversion will save the city about $4 million annually.

The city also is under the process of converting 140,000 of its about 210,000 street lights to LEDs, being financed by a $40 million loan by the Department of Water and Power. City officials expect that the new lights will save about $10 million a year after the completion.

The mayor announced the completion today of a traffic light synchronization program in San Pedro. The $7.3 million Automated Traffic Surveillance and Control project, which monitors traffic conditions and changes signals in real-time, linked 64 intersections and added 17 new left-turn arrows in the harbor area.

Source: LED Inside

Lighting Science Group's Products Supports Four U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2011 Teams for the Competion

Lately, Four U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2011 teams have announced to rely on Lighting Science Group's lighting solutions for their solar home prototypes competing in final testing and judgment this fall.

The four teams are Parsons The New School for Design and Stevens Institute of Technology, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Old Dominion University and Hampton University, and Middlebury College .

According to the Parsons The New School for Design and Stevens Institute of Technology team, "The nature of the U.S. Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon competition and our partnership with Habitat for Humanity of Washington, D.C. charges the Empowerhouse design team to deliver the right amount of high quality lighting at the best value to a homebuilder and homeowner. It's reassuring to know that Lighting Science Group is an active participant in the Department of Energy's Lighting Facts program, and that Lighting Science Group provides a wide range of solid state lighting products for retrofit and new construction. Lighting Science Group products are a natural fit for Empowerhouse."

These findings aren't isolated—independent tests show that the lumen (light) output of these LED bulbs is unrivaled—outperforming comparable products by 25-30%. In addition, the bulbs are more energy efficient than equivalent CFLs and contain no mercury, are "instant on", are completely recyclable, and offer outstanding light quality.

Source: LED Inside

LED Lights to Spruce up the Nebraska Neighborhood

Recently, some West Main Street residents in the Nebraska neighborhood will embrace a brighter future.

The city's Board of Public Works was to consider carrying out a project of adding dozens of high-quality streetlights along the West Main Street corridor to improve light levels, energy efficiency and safety.

According to Herb Berg, design coordinator with the city's streetlight engineering department, by replacing existing lights with 48 LED units, the city could benefit from a higher quality of light with only half the electricity required by older lights.

At present, the official hasn’t put out the project for bid, Berg would not reveal its exact cost, but he said it would be “well over” the $100,000 range. Funding will come from the Community Economic Development Income Tax.

Asides from LED retrofit, the installation of historic light fixtures, is also part of an ongoing community development plan to spruce up the Nebraska neighborhood.

Source:LED Inside

LED drivers and light sensors enable compelling displays

LED-based display backlighting continues to be the largest market for high-brightness LEDs despite the fact that the general-illumination application gets more notice. New LED driver and sensor products promise to enable displays with the latest solid-state-lighting (SSL) technology for optimal image quality and minimal power consumption.

Indeed light and proximity sensing is needed in devices based on LCDs to set the appropriate backlight level for maximum display quality without wasting power when ambient light is sufficient or when no one is present to view the display. Companies are targeting mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, although they also expects the sensors to be used in computer-display and HDTV applications.

To serve in mobile applications, the sensors must work in very bright environments and the new products are designed for use in full sunlight at levels to 60,000 lx and beyond. “Mobile device vendors are continually striving to deliver more compelling products with an improved user experience; therefore, they demand ALS and proximity detection solutions capable of operating in a very wide range of lighting conditions".

The sensors work with any type of light source including fluorescent and at virtually any lighting level. Moreover the dual-diode architecture can provide accurate results even when mounted behind glass that can distort the spectrum.

The LED driver market is certainly a significant one as Strategies Unlimited details in a new report on the LED driver market segment. A research firm projects that driver sales will grow to $3.5 billion by 2015 from $2 billion in 2010.

It confirms that display-backlight applications will dominate the market through 2015. But the firm expects general-lighting to be the next major market mover for LEDs and associated technology such as drivers.

Source: LEDs Magazine

Outdoor LED Luminaires help minimize light pollution

Suited for parking lots and walkways, Tersen Ratio 1.5 supports 48 LEDs that produce illumination equivalent to 175 W metal halide lamp. Unit has finned shape that serves as both heat sink and architectural statement, and luminaire achieves 50,000-hr life at 1,000 MA with 70% lumen maintenance.

Source: LED News

LED Lights Helps Covent Garden Market Reduce Cost

Currently, lighting costs have tumbled 84% in areas of Covent Garden Market where new LED lights have been installed by two small London companies in April.

The LED Lighting System .has been installed on the second floor of Covent Garden and will be extended to retail areas of the first floor.

The new system has an automatic "daylight harvesting" system that uses sensors to raise or lower light levels, responding to the natural light coming through the windows. The controls for the system are wireless and can be adjusted for different zones of the building through an iPad.

According to some merchants, the new LED lighting system has even reduced spoilage in their fruit and veggies. And air conditioning costs also are down because the light produces half as much heat.

Robert Blenkinsop, a food scientist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, said cooler temperatures and the absence of some UV rays in LED lights could help slow the spoilage of fruits and vegetables.

Source: LED Inside

Three More Ways LED Sign Lights Are Superior

A store owner or manager’s main responsibility is to attract people to the place of business and successfully encourage them to purchase a product, whether it includes goods, services, or some combination therein. There are countless strategies to do this and the number of variables that must keep straight is incredible, but marketing is surely one of the most important strategies. This is where LED sign lights can surprise a store owner with their versatility, effectiveness, and unexpected benefits. Though LED signs may be better known for the shiny, somewhat tawdry signs popular in convenience stores, with contemporary LED lighting a store’s sign or signs can have a small but significant impact on how successfully they draw in customers.

First, consider the likelihood of a sign lighting burning out during business hours. Conventional sign lights use incandescent bulbs, which often have a lifespan rating of less than 1000 hours. That means for a business such as a bar that uses its signs to attract customers at night, or a retail shop that leaves signs on after closing to maintain its marketing presence in the community, sign bulbs burn out very quickly. At four hours of use per day, a small amount, a 1000 hour lifespan bulb would last only 250 days. This lifespan is further decreased by the number of times an incandescent bulb is cycled on and off.

So if that burnout happens early, or just unexpectedly during business hours, the store is left scrambling to get inside the sign and replace the bulb or lose out on precious peak-time marketing, and that’s only possible if they have a spare on hand. Contrast that with LED sign lights, which have a lifetime rating of 50,000 hours. At the same usage levels as the above example, they would have over thirty years of use. In other words, the first unexpected benefit of using LEDs to light a sign is being able to virtually forget about the lighting and never worry that it might go out at an inopportune time.

Next, think about the heat that incandescent lights emit. In fact, these old lights are only about ten percent efficient, with the other 90 percent of the electricity they consume wasted as heat. Many businesses, including restaurants and retail shops, keep some of their signs inside the store. The extra heat generated by signs kept inside small buildings can make them uncomfortable, and can in certain circumstances pose a significant safety risk. Many incandescent light bulbs get hot enough to start fires if they are touching a flammable surface. LED sign lights on the other hand, produce virtually no heat, at most 5 to 10 degrees above ambient temperature in many cases. The added safety and comfort of lights that produce no heat can be very important for many types of businesses. Lastly, LED lights are more durable than incandescent bulbs. They don’t shatter when dropped or hit. This means that with signs in bars or movable lighted signs there is a far smaller risk of damage when using LED sign lights. Knowing that a sign is unlikely to be broken by accident may provide employees and store owners with some extra peace of mind, and will certainly cut down on replacement costs.

Of course, these three unexpected benefits of LED sign lights come in addition to the biggest value of LEDs: they consume roughly one fifth as much electricity as incandescent bulbs, meaning significantly lower electricity bills. This is the most direct way that LEDs impact a business’ bottom line, making its marketing efforts more affordable.

Source: Elementalled