February 2012 Archives

Our Technology Editor Steve Bush has added anotherr to his series of 'Big Guides' to LED technology. His latest covers the issues of costing LEDs.

He begins:

Power LED makers have made great efforts to understand the needs of the lighting industry, resulting in a range of products which may look distressingly similar at first glance.

Seldom will only one LED fit a particular application, so even if bare minimum cost is the only requirement, designers will still have to ask themselves some questions to focus on likely candidates.

Cree is claiming 148 lm/W at 85°C (350mA) for its latest lighting LED, writes Steve Bush.

XT-E, as it has been named, will hit 162 lm/W at 25°C, it added.

"The XT-E LED more than doubles the lumens per watt of the XP-E LED family, in the same 3.45x3.45mm XP footprint," said Cree. "By leveraging the XP footprint, customers can incorporate the XT-E in existing XP designs."

LED Lighting guides

The Fortronic LED and Lighting Design Forum is a one day event free to engineers. It will be held at the Williams F1 Conference Centre, Oxford, on 27 March 2012.

Topics covered will include:
* LED colour/heat selection
* Thermal Management
* Driver Electronics
* Optics
* Light measurement & planning
* Applications aimed at Street, Building, Signage and Theatre,
* Light shaping (diffuser, Software Control/automation).

The organisers write: "The day comprises of 8 presentations in the morning given by speakers from leading manufactures and up to 9 workshops in the afternoon offer in depth design solutions and technical updates. 20 exhibitors support the event in our networking area where there is the opportunity to discuss your requirements with engineers from leading suppliers and network with your engineering colleagues in an informal and club like atmosphere."

Plessey has acquired University of Cambridge spin-out CamGaN, and will be using its technology to make white power LEDs in Plymouth.

Its critical intellectual property is a way of growing LED-quality GaN on silicon substrates.

"This technology is the product of substantial R&D investment over the past decade and the plans for its commercial development within Plessey have tremendous potential," said co-inventor Professor Sir Colin Humphreys, director of Cambridge's centre for GaN.

The power supply market for LED lighting is forecast to reach $10bn in 2016, according to a report from IMS Research, writes Richard Wilson.

The report predicts that the rapid uptake of LED lighting will result in a potential market of four billion power supply units by 2016, worth $10bn.

According to report co-author and senior market analyst, Ryan Sanderson: "Demand for LED lighting solutions is increasing rapidly for all applications from low-power residential retrofit LED lamps and bulbs to high-power commercial and industrial LED luminaires for applications such as street lighting."

LED Engin has announced LED light engines with integral connectors that eliminate soldering during the assembly, writes Steve Bush.

The poke-home connectors accept 18-24AWG wires to terminate the metal-core PCBs inside LED fixtures.

With a common 50mm footprint, the LuxiGen LZC 12 die and LZP 24 die emitters can be driven up to 1A and the boards feature mounting holes for LuxiGen TIR lens-holder legs for integration with secondary optics.

"There are mounting-screw cut-outs to facilitate attachment of a heatsink. The boards include one connector for the LED and one for an on-board thermistor to be used with common constant current sources with thermal feedback option," said the firm.

Global shipments of TVs based on active matrix organic light emitting diode (AMOLED) technology are expected to reach 2.1 million units in 2015, up from just 34,000 in 2012, according to market analyst IHS iSuppli. 

But even this large increase will mean that AMOLED TV shipments will still account for only 1% of the flat-panel market by 2015. The reason AMOLED will not make more of an impact on the TV market is high cost of manufacture.