August 2011 Archives

Fujitsu MB95F430 MCU.jpgFujitsu Semiconductor has introduced a range of 8-bit microcontrollers with embedded flash memory.

Intended for use in control systems for lighting and industrial equipment, such as LED ballasts, induction heating, DC-DC converters, power tools and battery chargers, the MB95F430 MCUs have four channels of built-in analogue voltage comparators as well as an operational amplifier.

Cree has bought Ruud Lighting, a supplier of LED outdoor lighting systems, for around $525m, writes Richard Wilson.

The deal is being seen as an important move in the lighting market and will increase opportunties for Cree's LED systems and components.

Specifying white LEDs can be far more complicated than you think...

Make sure you bookmark this article by our Technology Editor Steve Bush about LED lighting, and particularly the role of colour.

He writes:
Start to look into LED lighting and quickly it becomes obvious that one type of LED will not suit all situations.

After a while, you get sophisticated enough to take colour-rendering index (CRI) and colour temperature into account, and even then you are only about halfway down the check list.

A little colour science

There is no scientific definition of white light because, like beauty, white is in the eye of the beholder.
LED developer Bridgelux is claiming breakthrough power efficiencies for gallium nitride on silicon (GaN-on-Si) devices.

The company claims LED performance levels comparable to high-end sapphire-based LEDs.

According to Bridgelux, warm white LEDs constructed from the GaN on Si chips delivered 125 Lm/W at a colour temperature of 2940K and CRI of 80.

Cool white LEDs showed efficiencies as high as 160 Lm/W at a CCT of 4350K.

A US-based LED start-up, Illumitex has signed a collaborative agreement with Gerard Lighting Group, the manufacturer and distributor in Australia and New Zealand, writes Richard Wilson.

GLG will invest $3m in Illumitex for a small minority interest as part of the LED supplier's latest round of private equity financing.

Illumitex has developed an LED package that emits light in a uniform, precise beam directly from the source.
Philips LED.gifPhilips has won a category in the US government's competition to demonstrate the highest efficiency high quality lighting.

In 2007, the US Energy Independence and Security Act directed the Department of Energy to establish the 'Bright Tomorrow L Prize' competition.

The competition has three categories:

21st Century Lamp, a partially-defined category whose initial parameters were bettered by Cree last week.



Cree has made a one-off light bulb technology demonstrator, pulling out all the stops to exceed performance goals set by the US Department of Energy (DOE) for its '21st century lamp' concept, writes Steve Bush.

Made by the firm's research and development team, the lamp delivers more than 1,300 lumens at 152 lm/W with good colour rendering and warm white emission.

Cree has released its XT-E royal blue (450nm) LED, aimed at remote-phosphor white lighting sources, writes Steve Bush.

"In addition, Cree announces a remote phosphor component patent licensing program that provides access to remote phosphor patents," said the firm.

The LED delivers up to 525mW at 350mA and 85°C, and is available in 2.5nm wavelength bins.
Flickering lights are annoying but they may have an upside. Visible light communication (VLC) uses rapid pulses of light to transmit information wirelessly. Now it may be ready to compete with conventional Wi-Fi, writes Jamie Condliffe of our sister-site New scientist.

"At the heart of this technology is a new generation of high-brightness light-emitting diodes," says Harald Haas from the University of Edinburgh, UK.

"Very simply, if the LED is on, you transmit a digital 1, if it's off you transmit a 0," Haas says. "They can be switched on and off very quickly, which gives nice opportunities for transmitting data."

LED Lighting guides

See also Electronics Weekly's roundup of content related to LEDs, with a special focus on both white LEDs and coloured LEDs, and Lighting LEDs.

* White LEDs

* Coloured LEDs

* LED Lighting (1)

* LED Lighting (2)

* LEDs General

* LED optics

* OLEDs

* LED heatsinking

* Costing LEDs

* 50 year history of the LED








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Author Profiles

Paul Ward
As Opto Product Manager at Farnell, Paul is overseeing the company's involvement in the rapidly evolving and high profile LED lighting market sector.

As well as ensuring that Farnell offers the latest technologies and products related to solid state lighting, Paul is also responsible for ensuring that the resources are in place to make it easier for design engineers to specify and design-in LED solutions for their applications.

Educated in Production Engineering and Design at Sheffield Hallam University, Paul has worked in various engineering, training and marketing roles for companies including C&K switches, ITT Cannon, Cherry and LED specialist Chicago Miniature Lighting.

Away from the world of LEDs, Paul is a Founder of the charity RTTW, Photographer and Harley Davidson rider; he has ridden and snapped across Europe, New Zealand and the USA on his chrome hog!

Gordon Routledge
Gordon Routledge is one of the original pioneers in LED illumination having worked with LEDs in illumination applications since 1996. Currently VP of Illumination at Dialight, Gordon founded Lumidrives in 2001, having previously been managing director at ACDC Lighting Systems. Gordon has a degree in Electrical & Electronic Engineering from university of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology.

Ian Bryant
ian bryant.jpgIan Bryant is Business Development Manager LED Division at Carclo Technical Plastics. He has worked on and off at Carclo (Formerly Combined Optical Industrial) since leaving school. He has worked through the company from Toolmaking to starting the company on the road of LED optics business some 6-7 years ago, starting with a standard range and more in line with the business of custom optics. In between all this he has worked in engineering and as a works Director for a hydraulics company but kept getting pulled back to the optics industrial. We are able to offer the full solution from idea to parts so have a very good understanding on what is needed. You will see some posts from our design team also under my name.

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This page is an archive of entries from August 2011 listed from newest to oldest.

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