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Direct-Lit LED TV Makers Switching to Higher Wattage LEDs
LIGHTimes News Staff
June 18, 2013...South Korea-based TV makers hope LED packaging houses can increase the wattage of packaged LEDs. The TV makers want to further reduce the cost of direct-lit LED TVs by using fewer LED chips in backlight modules. Specifically the TV manufacturers want the packagers to increase the wattage of the packaging to 1.2W per chip, according to a Digitimes article. This means the number of LED chips used in a 32-inch TV model can be reduced from 24 to 15. However, the high wattage requested by customers increases the entry barrier for LED packaging houses.
Digitimes reports that currently, only a few packaging houses in Taiwan that have been maintaining 90% capacity utilization rates, and the switch to higher wattage LEDs is expected to stimulate a market shuffle.
Part of the desire to have use fewer LEDs comes from the fact that lenses of direct-lit LED TVs accounts for a relatively large percentage of costs. So fewer LED chips means fewer needed lenses. In addition to Taiwan LED firms, China-based LED firms have also been aggressive in developing high wattage LED components. Competition is expected to rise.
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Luminus Devices Agrees to Merge with Sanan Affiliate, Lightera Corporation
LIGHTimes News Staff
June 12, 2013...Luminus Devices, Inc., based in Billerica, Massachusetts USA, announced that the company has signed a merger agreement with Lightera Corporation, a U.S.-based developer of LED components. Lightera is a wholly owned U.S. affiliate of Sanan Optoelectronics, Ltd., located in Xiamen, China. Under the agreement, Luminus will operate as an independent business unit and subsidiary of Lightera. Luminus Devices will reportedly have added and expanded capability, financial backing and access to Sanan Optoelectronics , and a global R&D team. Luminus says it will continue to focus on specialty markets and applications for its current and expanding product as well as customer portfolios.
Luminus reportedly gains access to an advanced R&D operation in California as well as the overall technical strength of Sanan’s Corporate R&D Technical Center. According to Luminus, the merger also gives it access to global specialty markets including projection display, medical, transportation, and ultra-violet, as well as general lighting markets and applications.
“Luminus has been searching for the right partner that would add to our extensive intellectual property, allow for expansion of our global operations and would be additive to our market-leading position in many segments of the worldwide specialty lighting market,” said Keith T.S. Ward, President and CEO of Luminus Devices. “This relationship with Lightera and Sanan will allow us to expand our capabilities through new access to technical and financial resources well beyond our current position.”
“As a leader in the specialty lighting market, Luminus Devices provides us with proven, state-of-the-art technology that will allow Lightera to expand both our U.S. and international offerings,” said Dr. Decai Sun, Chairman and CEO of Lightera. “We expect Luminus to continue to focus on new technology, specialty lighting markets, applications and superior customer service.”
Philips Lumileds Signs Distribution Agreement with KORE of India
LIGHTimes News Staff
June 12, 2013...Philips has signed a distribution agreement with Key Operation Electrocomponents (KORE) based in Dehli, India. KORE is part of the Ramakrishna Electro Components Group, a leading distributor of LED Components in India. The agreement will give Philips to immediate access to the growing Indian LED market. Under the agreement, Philips Lumileds, a part of the Dutch company Philips Electronics, a maker of LED products and solutions, will gain access to India's market through KORE’s network. Philips Lumileds said in a statement that all of its LEDs and LED solutions are now available in India through KORE.
“LED lighting is just beginning to take off in India. But we expect remarkable growth in this market over the next several years, in both commercial and off-grid applications,” said Pierre-Yves Lesaicherre, CEO Philips Lumileds. “KORE personnel will have full access to the products, services and people at Philips Lumileds, individuals who are committed to improving the customer experience with lighting.”
“Philips Lumileds has been in the forefront of developing best-in-class LED lighting solutions including indoor, outdoor, and industrial market segments and KORE is known for its experienced sales team, outstanding engineering support and large customer base in India providing innate synergies for both of us to partner,” said Praveen Mahajan, Director of KORE.
Lumex Introduces New Lumex TitanBrite Wireless Bonded LED
LIGHTimes News Staff
June 13, 2013...Lumex of Carol Stream, Illinois has launched its TitanBrite Wireless Bonded LED. Lumex claims that the new LEDs feature “flip chips” that are up to 15% brighter than any others in the market. Luxex says that in addition to the standard 3W and 6W LEDs, its TitanBrite Wireless Bonded LED is also available in 9W versions.
The RoHS compliant TitanBrite Wireless Bonded LEDs are available in 3W wireless bond light bar modules (cool white and warm white) and 6W wireless bond round modules (cool white and warm white) in addition to custom colors (including blue) and sizes for 3W, 6W and 9W.
Lumex says that because of the absence of a wire bond and a hard epoxy layer, the wireless bonded LEDs are five times stronger and more robustly designed than standard, high power LEDs. Furthermore, Lumex contends the its Wireless Bonded LEDs offer superior heat dissipation and are more adverse to shock and vibration than traditional high power LEDs. Also, Lumex claims that they can withstand higher temperatures without compromising performance and have a greater surface area for heat dissipation, making them more efficient at removing heat. Lumex asserts that due to the placement of junction pads on the bottom of the flip chip, heat can be transported faster than with a regular high power LED, keeping this technology 25% cooler than traditional high power wire bond technologies.
Lumex contends that higher light output is achieved in a more compact space and the light performance is not disrupted by shadows or other obstacles to consistent performance.According to Lumex, the wireless bonded technology enables the chip to directly emit light from the top and the side with no wire bond casting shadows or creating uneven light distribution, providing 15% more light output.
Lumex notes that wireless bonded LED technology, often referred to as “flip chip”, offers several key performance benefits over traditional SMT (Surface Mount Technology) LEDs including enhanced durability, enhanced heat dissipation and superior light performance. Lumex claims that its TitanBrite Wireless Bonded LEDs are the only flip chip LEDs on the market available in both standard and custom colors and shapes. Standard shapes are circular and rectangular. Lumex says it can also design custom shapes such as octagons and triangles in order to fit any application. Standard colors include warm white and cool white and blue is available for custom products.
CEA-Leti Wins Avantex Innovation Prize for Electronics Packaging Technology that Can Be Incorporated into Textiles
LIGHTimes News Staff
June 13, 2013...CEA-Leti, a company based in Grenoble, France, announced that two of its researchers received the Avantex Innovation Prize in the New Materials category of for the use of the company's E-Thread technology in textiles. CEA-Leti's researchers, Dominique Vicard and Jean Brun won the award for work in developing the E-Thread technology. The Avantex Innovation Prize was presented during the award ceremony at the opening of the Techtextil and Avantex Symposia in Frankfurt, Germany on June 10th. According to Avantex, the “innovation awards go to outstanding achievements in research, new materials, products, technologies and applications.”
Leti's E-Thread® is a unique microelectronic packaging technology that has the potential of incorporating LEDs, RFIDs, or Sensors in textiles and plastics. E-Thread® allows for a direct connection of a chip to a set of two conductors. These two conductors can provide the functions of antenna, power and/or data bus. The company claims that this allows a 10x improvement in size, assembly time, and reliability compared to classic microelectronic packaging. According to Leti, the E-Thread® assembly can also be incorporated inside a yarn and used by the textile and plastic industries using standard production tools.
The Avantex jury stated that, “…electronics integrated in textiles during the textile processing and not simply by adding the components in a last step will be a significant step forward." The jury also said the prize was awarded for “this development, as it shows that research and development is also for the textile industry of vital importance and that it can lead to the creation of new companies.”
E-Thread® is one of the technologies used within the European FP7 PASTA project (Platform for Advanced Smart Textile Application), and is the key technology asset of the Primo1D startup company, that will be created by Leti during the second half of 2013.
Vicard previously won a 40,000-euro startup award from OSEO, the French organization committed to supporting entrepreneurship, for proposing embedding electronic functions in textile yarns using the E-Thread® technology. Samples of E-Thread® will be on display during the symposia, Hall 3.1, stand B11.
RPI Researchers Demonstrate the Monolithic Integration of an LED and High-Electron-Mobility Transistor on a Gallium Nitride Chip
LIGHTimes News Staff
June 11, 2013...Researchers from the Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute report having successfully integrated an LED and a power transistor on the same gallium nitride (GaN) chip. RPI asserts that this technology could eventually enable LED technology that is less expensive to manufacture, significantly more efficient. Ultimately, the researchers say that it could allow functionalities and applications far beyond illumination.
RPI notes that today’s LED lighting systems are chips made from gallium nitride (GaN). LEDs require many external components such as inductors, capacitors, silicon interconnects, and wires that must be installed on or integrated into the chip for it to function. RPI contends that the large size of the chip, with all of these necessary components, complicates the design and performance of LED lighting products. Additionally, RPI says that the process of assembling these complex LED lighting systems can be slow, manually intensive, and expensive.
A new study led by T. Paul Chow, professor in the Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering (ECSE) at Rensselaer, sought to simplify LED device manufacturing, with fewer assembly steps and less required automation by fabricating some of the electronics on GaN. The researchers propose that LED devices made with monolithically integrated chips will have fewer parts to malfunction, higher energy efficiency and cost effectiveness, and greater lighting design flexibility. The researchers say that this study is the first step in creating what they call a Light Emitting Integrated Circuit or (LEIC)
Chow and the research team grew a GaN LED structure directly on top of a GaN high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) structure, using several basic techniques to interconnect the two regions to creating what they say is the first monolithic integration of a HEMT and an LED on the same GaN-based chip. They reported that device, grown on a sapphire substrate demonstrated light output and light density comparable to standard GaN LED devices.
“Just as the integration of many silicon devices in a single chip—integrated circuits—has enabled powerful compact computers and a wide range of smart device technology, the LEIC will play a pivotal role in cost-effective monolithic integration of electronics and LED technology for new smart lighting applications and more efficient LED lighting systems,” Chow said.
“This new study, and the device we have created, is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Smart Lighting ERC Director Robert Karlicek, a co-author of the study and ECSE professor at Rensselaer. “LEICs will result in even higher energy efficiency of LED lighting systems. But what will be even more exciting are the new devices, new applications, and new breakthroughs enabled by LEICs—they will truly usher in the era of smart lighting.”
The study, titled “Monolithic integration of light-emitting diodes and power metal-oxide semiconductor channel high-electron-mobility transistors for light-emitting power integrated circuits in GaN on sapphire substrate,” was published recently in the journal Applied Physics Letters. See the study at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4807125.
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Bundling up the lighting market
Tom Griffiths - Publisher
June 13, 2013...When transformational technology is introduced to a 100+ year old industry, one of two things happens: A) It changes the technology in the market or B) It changes everything. We've long held that LED lighting will change everything about lighting, but have only nibbled at the edges of how those changes will affect how the market operates (aka "everything", at least if you're involved in it). While we're not ready to make the case that all aspects of the market will change, an announcement this week has us pretty convinced that it's not unlikely that much of what we know about how "business is done" could be re-mapped from top to bottom.
This week's glimmer of "something on the horizon" came in the form of an announcement by Comcast and Osram Sylvania that Osram's remote controlled LED lamps will be offered as part of Comcast's Xfinity Home service, oulined in our article here. (The pronunciation is unknown, but I prefer making up a French version, juh-fin'-eh-tey'). As described in the coverage, Xfinity Home is a broadband and cloud-based platform that provides next-generation home security, control and energy management that allows customers to stay connected to their home and family using an interactive Web portal, mobile devices and/or theXfinity Home app. Comcast's Xfinity Home service offers 24/7 professional monitoring in addition to home control and remote energy management services that include lighting controls, digital thermostats, live video monitoring, custom text and e-mail alerts, remote arming and disarming capabilities, water and carbon monoxide sensors (their propaganda, here). Got it? Does everything... Got it.
While this was interesting as yet-another bit of evidence of the digital emitters and digital controls enabling the coming smart lighting wave, what I'm pointing to here is yet another example of shifting paradigms... In this case, it's the bundling.
Bundling is a common marketing strategy to bring two loosely associated items into a common "thought" for lack of a more specific, but more encompassing word. Think for a moment about product placement in entertainment. An example would be my watching a fun TV program (say "Warehouse 13") and where I begin to notice that the agents are zooming through the forest in a Prius. Conveniently (for the placemment) it later got melted, and the agent showed up at HQ in a shiny shiny new one. While hopping out he gives the mirror a quick buff and comments, "This is a much better color for me...". During a slow-thumb moment on the DVR, a commercial snuck onto our bargain-priced LED-backlit TV and low and behold, it was Toyota touting the Prius as the "official car of the Warehouse 13 agents". I'm having fun watching the show (that would be "the thought") and Toyota grabs a piece of that so my brain connects Prius and "fun" without them having to do any convincing at all. Much short of 300 horsepower, the brain planted in my head tends to reject the association (NCIS' Dodge Charger is more my style, which is probably why the Prius struck me as... interesting), but it's in there nonetheless. Next time I'm car shopping, I'll likely have to make a decision to either accept or reject that implanted association much as I have to wrestle with rejecting Frosted Flakes in the grocery aisle ("... they're gggrreat!"), while less well branded cereals get no thought at all.
Beyond thought-sharing, we also get business-sharing out of bundling. One expects Osram is getting volume, driving down the cost of components and products, while Comcast likely expects to get goodwill and "taking care of it all" types of association out of the bundling. More subtly, their customers actually begin to expect the Xfinity service to pretty much doing the thinking for them when it comes to their home environment. While someone may not initially "need" their iPhone to turn on their lights for them when they arrive home, once they play with it a little, and maybe set up that entry light to flip on when they hit the driveway, it will miraculously become something they really do miss as soon as they don't have it. (We're all children... we don't know we want a toy, but once you have handed it to us, you'll be hard pressed to take it away, even if we haven't played with it in months...). As the song goes, "You don't know what you've got til it's gone..."
So what's really the big deal on this bundling? Simply put, this is just the beginning. If I can become the "data repository" for your life, I can watch what you do, what you need, what you like, and I can usefully predict what else you will want and need from there. I can market to you; specifically to you, and I can entice you to buy more of the things you want or need from me, or through me. Google knows this. Microsoft knows this. Your internet provider knows this. And very soon, the lighting industry will know this. And in knowing they will be caught up in a very big wave that we can just call, "Predictive need fulfillment" (someone will coin something cooler, but I'll stick with that for now). Smart lighting, enabled by the myriad of sensors it will soon house, will not only respond to your requests "at the moment" but will begin to learn and predict what will make you happier or more productive or more fill-in-the-blank-with-whatever. Interestingly enough, the "bundling" will be quite natural as lighting is ubiquitous, so it will end up with the ownership of many more sensors than just matter to the lighting itself. Xfinity can monitor and adjust your thermostat and protect you from carbon monoxide. Other than cost (at this moment), what limits that to one CO sensor and one thermostat in the room? How about sensors that know where they are in the house, feeding back temp and CO and occupancy info and sunlight quanity which all arrive at the controller and suggest the predictive route to maintaining maximum comfort with maximum efficiency (sunlight now means heat soon... If the space is occupied, but the occupant is sitting at a desk: Is it better to autodim the windows and increase the articial light given the season, heating/coolling need and current demand-response energy rates or let in more sunlight, dim the lights and adjust the HVAC?). Somebody only has to think through the brain-twisting options once, and the programmed system will adjust things from there on.
The concept of bundling will also greatly impact the whole service value-chain in the commercial lighting arena, but in entirely different ways. Electrical service companies (ESCO's) have, for many decades, made their money from installation, maintenance and supplies for lighting systems. As replaceable lamps (bulbs) become an artifact of history, what do these lighting support organizations become? How about bundling installation, configuration monitoring and information technology? "We install the lighting systems, monitor, maintain and optimize your lighting energy management... Oh, and we can do the same for the high efficiency HVAC equipment that our partner can offer you a 20% discount on." Or it might just be Google calling up to bundle your lighting management with your new Google-fiber ultra-bandwidth service. Or Microsoft tablets bundled with the light bulbs they like to control to set up that dance club. Now the only question you'll need to know is "Where's the darn ctrl-alt-del on this bulb?" Don't worry, you'll just have to say out loud, "Xfinity! My bulb is locked up," and Comcast will get that fixed right up for you.
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