LED Luminaries

Electronics Weekly - LED Lighting Guides

2012-02-10T15:51:39Z

LED Lighting guides

Here in one neat package is our collection of key LED lighting articles, covering white LEDs, coloured LEDs, OLEDs and Lighting LEDs...

* White LEDs

* Coloured LEDs

* LED Lighting (1)

* LED Lighting (2)

* LEDs General

* LED Optics

* OLEDs

* Costing LEDs

* LED heatsinking

* 50 year history of the LED

Fortronic to host LED and Lighting Design Forum

2012-02-08T10:07:42Z

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."

]]> Attendance to these events is free of charge to engineers but is limited to a maximum of 150 delegates. As the previous Forum was oversubscribed, say the organisers, they would strongly advise that you register your interest - visiting http://www.fortronicuk.com for more information and to register

Fortronic UK Forums for 2012

LED & Lighting Design, 27 March
RF & Wireless Design, 26th June
Power & Power Control, 23rd October

Plessey to make white power LEDs in Plymouth

2012-02-08T09:58:00Z

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.

]]> It if can be done commercially, growing LED-grade GaN on silicon offers significant cost savings over the more costly sapphire and SiC substrates currently used.

"Our solutions harness novel, patent-protected technologies that increase the epiwafer throughput of standard MOCVD reactors by more than 40%," claimed CamGaN. "By increasing throughput without compromising quality, this technology offers the ability to decrease costs of LED dies by up to 80%."

Belgian company EpiGaN and Welsh wafer maker IQE also have GaN-on-Si technology.

"We believe this acquisition positions us among the first commercial players to successfully manufacture high-brightness LEDs on 6in. silicon substrates," said Plessey.

White outputs of 150 lm/W are planned for late Q4 2012.

This is a high efficacy. Is Plessey sure?

"The 150 lm/W figure is based on the normal benchmark of 350mA input current - 1W input. Hence we have to achieve >600mW light output, which is over 60% efficiency from the combined blue light output and phosphor conversion to white light," Plessey marketing manager Derek Rye told Electronics Weekly. "This is recognised as a challenging target, but one we believe is achievable by around the end of 2012."

First samples have peak emission at 460nm, said Plessey, and the technology extends to other wavelengths such as cyan and green.

The firm also announced plans to release a range of chips for lighting: "These smart lighting products will enable intelligent energy management, remote control, controlled dimming and automated response to ambient conditions."

LED lighting to be a $10bn power supply market in 2016

2012-02-07T08:20:07Z

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." ]]>
"These design requirements, coupled with the lack of clear standards for LED lighting means that LED lamp and luminaire manufacturers need considerable power electronics expertise, either via employing specialists or from a merchant power supply manufacturer," said Sanderson.

Report co-author and market analyst, Jonathon Eykyn pointed out: "Some of the largest manufacturers of LED lamps and luminaires already have the capability to design and manufacture power circuitry in-house, either via subsidiaries or through the acquisition of power supply manufacturers. Philips Advance is a prime example".

Eykyn added, "Designing and manufacturing the power solution in-house, however, only really makes sense in high-volume, low-cost markets and where the design is simple; for example, LED retrofit lamps. In medium and high-power applications, design becomes more complex and it often makes more financial sense to outsource the power supply design to a merchant vendor."

As a result, the report from IMS Research forecasts that more than 50% of the market in 2016 will be controlled merchant power supply manufacturers.

Report - Opportunities for Power Components in LED Lighting

Light engines hand wire with ease

2012-02-02T08:22:48Z

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.

AMOLED TVs stand out but at a price - IHS

2012-02-01T08:50:16Z

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.

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"A 55-inch AMOLED TV will be priced at $8,000 in 2012, more than twice the $3,700 average expense for an equivalent LCD TV," said Jakhanwal.

"And although AMOLEDs deliver a dramatically superior viewing experience compared to LCDs, consumers are unlikely to buy large quantities of AMOLEDs until their prices fall to within a 20% premium of comparable LCD TVs," said Jakhanwal.

LG Display and Samsung Electronics at CES earlier this month showed what are currently the largest AMOLED 3-D TVs. These large, 55-inch displays represent a major departure from previous AMOLEDs, which mainly are focused on small/medium display applications like smartphones, at sizes smaller than 10 inches.

LGD and Samsung are expected to begin shipping their OLED TVs to the market by the third quarter of 2012, in time for the 2012 London Summer Olympics.

LGD's 55-inch AMOLED 3-D TV has a picture resolution of 3840 x 1260. The TV is only 4mm thick and weighs 17 pounds.

Samsung also showcased a 55-inch 3-D AMOLED television with similar specifications.

In comparison to these AMOLED sets, a currently available 3-D LCD-TV with an LED backlight offers a Full HD 1,920 x 1,080 pixel resolution, with the thinnest being only 1.2-inches thick and weighing more than 50 pounds.

The LGD and Samsung sets employed different AMOLED technology. Samsung's 55-inch AMOLED TV panel uses a horizontal red/green/blue (RGB) pixel structure, which requires a fine metal mask (FMM) for the patterning of AMOLED material.

LGD's 55-inch AMOLED television panel uses a vertical white-OLED (WOLED) pixel structure with a colour filter. The use of WOLEDs eliminates the need for an RGB mask, which makes it easier to have finer pitch pixels on the panel. However, this approach needs an additional colour filter.

Richard Wilson

Luxeon M aimed at outdoor lighting

2012-01-31T15:37:00Z

Lumileds has announced Luxeon M, aimed at outdoor lighting, writes Steve Bush.

With an 8mm² emission area producing 900 lm at 700mA (Tj=85°C Vf=12V) from its 8W package, application in high-bay lighting is also expected.

It will be released in three different colour temperatures: 3,000K,
4,000K, and 5,700K each with specified minimum colour rendering index (CRI) of 70.

]]> Each part is hot tested and specified at 85°C and the part is covered by the firm's Freedom From Binning programme.

Operated at lower power, "efficacy is greater than 120 lm/W at 350mA and 85°C junction temperature", said Lumileds, which is not yet releasing any more performance data, nor has it said when the part will be available.

It will be on show at Strategies in Light in Santa Clara (opening February 7).

Steve Bush

Soitec, Sumitomo demo 6in GaN wafers for LED lighting

2012-01-25T08:30:16Z

Soitec and Sumitomo Electric Industries have demonstrated four- and six-inch engineered gallium nitride (GaN) substrates and are launching pilot production lines as they move toward wider market adoption of GaN, writes Richard Wilson.

Developed as part of a joint research programme, the substrates are intended for manufacturing high-brightness light-emitting diodes (LEDs) for the lighting market and power-efficient controllers for the electric vehicles and energy markets.

"Our partnership's successful demonstration of four- and six-inch engineered GaN substrates' scalability is a critical milestone, accomplished by applying very strong innovative capabilities from both sides," said Frédéric Dupont, vice president of Soitec's Specialty Electronics Business Unit.

]]> "The advanced substrates we are developing will allow the introduction of a new materials platform with novel and advanced functionalities," said Dupont.

The substrates were produced by transferring ultra-thin high quality GaN layers from a single GaN wafer to produce multiple engineered GaN substrates.

Sumitomo has the manufacturing technology for GaN wafers and Soitec its Smart Cut layer-transfer technology. The alliance had originally produced two-inch wafers.

With the successful demonstration of GaN wafers' scalability, the partner companies are now proceeding with the next step to invest and establish pilot production lines in Itami, Japan, and Bernin, France.

The pilot lines will initially fabricate four-inch wafers with six-inch wafer production to quickly follow to support customers demand.

Sumitomo Electric will manufacture bulk free-standing GaN substrates in Japan for shipment to France, where Soitec will apply its Smart Cut layer-transfer process to generate the final engineered wafers with the same thermal expansion (CTE) as GaN wafers. The resulting wafers have low defect density, enabling the manufacturing of advanced semiconductor devices at lower costs than bulk GaN wafers.

"With layer-transfer technology's production readiness now proven for larger wafers, the substrates can be made even more cost effectively for large-volume production," said Yoshiki Miura, general manager of the Compound Semiconductor Materials Division at Sumitomo Electric.

Richard Wilson

50W LED offers near-perfect colour rendering

2012-01-20T11:31:22Z

Bridgelux has released an LED family with a colour rendering index of 97, writes Steve Bush.

Branded Decor, the multi-die devices deliver 1,200 to 2,500 lumens and "these arrays have been spectrally engineered to closely replicate the light quality of halogen and incandescent light sources", said the firm. "Decor is optimised for demanding applications such as retail, hospitality, museums and high-end architectural lighting."

As well as achieving CRI=97 with the industry-standard eight colour sample set (R1-R8), they also score high on the extended colour sample set. ]]>
Two colour temperatures are available: 3,000K and 2,700K

The LEDs are available in a 3-step MacAdams Ellipse colour bin.

Package options are the firm's existing rectangular ES (23x26mm) and RS (45x50mm) ceramic tiles, "delivering light output equivalent to a 75-150W halogen bulb, while using only 25-50W.

Read the original article >>

LED lighting expected to be a $30bn market in 2020 - SEMI

2012-01-20T11:25:28Z

For the first time in five years, investment in LED manufacturing is expected to decline 18% this year, after a 36% rise last year, says SEMI, but against a background of general decline, spending in Taiwan and Korea is expected to continue to grow, writes David Manners.

Although demand for LEDs used lighting continued to grow last year reaching a $2.5bn market, demand for LEDs used in backlighting TVs- representing 40% of the LED market - has not met expectations.

However LEDs used in lighting are expected to be a $30bn market in 2020.

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Worldwide LED manufacturing capacity is expected to reach two million wafers in 2012 (4" equivalent per month), a 27% increase over 2011.

Spending for non-MOCVD equipment, however, particularly in lithography, etch, test and packaging equipment will increase in 2012, as manufacturers optimize their production lines and improve their product designs.

"Similar to other microelectronics industries, LED manufacturing capacity and technology investments will vary year-over-year, but will correspond with the long-term demand driven by key applications; in LEDs, this will be primarily solid state lighting," says SEMI's Tom Morrow.

"Future equipment and capital spending will drive LED cost reduction through larger wafers, automation and dedicated equipment specifically designed to improve to LED manufacturing yield and throughput," says Morrow.

David Manners

IMEC, Holst Centre plot route to flexible OLED manufacture

2012-01-17T13:52:16Z

An economically scalable route to high-volume manufacture of flexible OLED displays is the objective of programme kicked off by two European labs, writes Steve Bush.

"The shared program will bring together partners from across the value chain to tackle challenges such as high resolution, low power consumption, large area, outdoor readability, flexibility and light weight," said Belgium research lab IMEC, which has partnered with Dutch lab Holst Centre.

Even though OLED technology is in its infancy, small rigid displays are already wowing consumers in high-end phones like Samsung's Galaxy.

]]> Many think the technology will not have reach its full potential until it is used in flexible displays - something that is not possible with LCD - but where OLED have so far proved unreliable.

"Flexible displays represent an enormous economic and technical opportunity for flat panel manufacturers and its supply chain. As such they are seen as an attractive landing place for many new technologies. Flexible displays are therefore becoming a top priority research effort for many companies worldwide, including many of our current industrial partners," said Gerwin Gelinck. Holst Centre OLED programme manager.

The programme scope includes development of manufacturing equipment such as fine patterning printers for backplanes and tools for integrated roll-to-roll manufacturing.

"We already have been working more and more towards integrating separate building blocks and have realised OLED displays using both organic and metal oxide TFT backplanes," said IMEC OLED research manager Paul Heremans.

"Thin, plastic substrates were used, and the displays were fully encapsulated using our state-of-the-art barrier technology. Part of this was done with other research institutes in a European project called FLAME, but we could really pull this off because of intense collaboration with some of our industrial partners. We will demonstrate some of these display prototypes in 2012."

Read the original article >>

CES: Sony shows 55in, full HD "Crystal LED" self-emitting display

2012-01-11T11:09:43Z

Sony has developed a self-emitting display technology, dubbed Crystal LED Display, which it demosntrated in a full HD, 55-inch prototype model at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, writes Richard Wilson.

It is claimed to be the first 55-inch full HD self-emitting display using LEDs as the light source.

The self-emitting display uses ultrafine LEDs in each of the red-green-blue (RGB) colours, equivalent to the number of pixels (approximately six-million LEDs for Full HD).
The RGB LED light source is mounted directly on the front of the display, which the company claimed improved the light use efficiency.

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According to Sony, when compared to its existing LCD displays, the 55-inch prototype exhibited at CES is has approximately 3.5 times higher contrast in light environment, approximately 1.4 times wider color gamut, and approximately 10 times faster video image response time.

Power consumption is approximately 70W.

Sony said it will continue its development and commercialisation of organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays.

Read the original article >>

Sharp LED module is 50W HID halogen replacement

2011-12-21T08:42:20Z

Ismosys has released details of Sharp Microelectronics 50W LED module which is capable of replacing traditional 50W HID halogen lamps in the same performance class, writes Richard Wilson.

The 50W Mega Zeni features a luminous efficiency of between 3590 and 4770 lm, a light output of up to 100 lm/W in standard operating mode and a long service life of 40,000 hours at an operating temperature of up to 90°C.

"Compared to halogen lamps the 50W Mega Zeni LED array exhibits a much lower decrease in brightness over time and at 40,000 hours, a much longer overall service life," said Ismosys managing director, Nigel Watts. ]]>
The round light emitting surface (LES) of the new 50W Mega Zeni module comprises a total of 160 LEDs, sub-divided into ten parallel-connected rows of sixteen.

"The flat surface of the ceramic plate and the soldering points provided enable the module to be easily attached to a suitable heat sink without additional connecting material, thus ensuring excellent heat dissipation," said Watts.

"The design of the module's electrical wiring also leads to lower thermal stress as heat is evenly distributed and dissipated across the entire surface of the matrix," said Watts.

The LES is fitted evenly with LEDs from edge-to-edge in order to avoid the formation of multiple shadows. This is intended to make it easier to focus the optics (lens, reflector) onto a single light emitting surface.

The colour temperature of the new white light LED lighting components ranges from 2700 to 4000 Kelvin.

The CRI values and colour temperatures of the new Mega Zeni LED modules correspond to the requirements of the international Energy Star programme.

The Sharp 50W Mega Zeni LED module is sampling today, initially in 3000 and 4000K colour temperatures versions.

Will Binning be consigned to the Bin?

2011-12-14T10:49:57Z

Welcome to the first post from a new contributor to LED Luminaries - Paul Ward, Opto Product Manager, Farnell.

It's always been a pain - the binning of LEDs whether by colour or lumens just made life awkward. If we imagine the wafer from which the LED dies are made as a Pizza, the edges of the Pizza are usually cooked more than the centre; and it's just the same with the LED wafers. The dies made from the edge will be slightly different from those in the middle.

To categorise them, they have to be illuminated and then flicked into one of many bins - hence binning. There could be many different bins from a single wafer. This leads to a complex and expensive selection process for the purchaser and design engineer who want to ensure a uniformity of supply and performance from one batch of LEDs to the next.
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In an effort to bring the 'wild world' of LEDs into a somewhat more ordered system, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) have established a bin standard (ANSI C78 377A), which has become a minimum requirement for Energy Star certification - the international standard for energy efficient consumer products.

Most of the major manufacturers now supply ANSI binned products therefore ensuring uniformity from one supplier to another.

One further advance is from Phillips Lumileds who are now marketing 'Freedom from Binning' with their Luxeon; S' LEDs meaning that there are no colour bin selections to be made. With a correlated colour temperature of 3000K and a CRI >80, uniformity and consistency within the light beam and between emitters is guaranteed from one batch to another.

This could be the first stage of binning hitting the bin!

Paul Ward, Opto Product Manager, Farnell

Cadmium-free quantum dot firm wins major LED lighting deal

2011-12-14T08:46:47Z

Nanoco, a UK-based manufacturer of cadmium-free quantum dots, has signed a joint development agreement with a global lighting company which is major producer of LED lighting products, writes Richard Wilson.

The collaboration will see the university spin-out's cadmium-free quantum dots (CFQD) technology used in high volume LED lighting systems.

The attraction of the quantum dot technology for commercial LED lighting is its colour performance. ]]>

The 12 month agreement with the lighting company is expected to be followed either by further development work or by proceeding to product launch.

The financial details of the agreement are not being disclosed.

Nanoco Group is a spin-out from the University of Manchester and earlier this year it produced the 1kg batch of red cadmium-free quantum dots (CFQD) for a major Japanese company triggering a $2m funding deal.

The production of cadmium-free quantum dots on this scale is a major technical achievement, hich underlines the scalability of Nanoco's patent-protected technology and the expertise of ts production and technical teams.

The 1kg of red CFQD was manufactured to specification at Nanoco's recently commissioned production facility in Runcorn, Cheshire.

Nanoco's quantum dots, which are free of heavy metals and comply with RoHS legislation, can be combined into a wide range of materials including liquids, polymers and glass. Nanoco forms strategic partnerships with major end users across a range of applications.

On Gary Nevison's Directive Decoder Blog - Breaking News-new RoHS cadmium exemption