Sharp Takes Stab at Multi-Chip LED Modules

Sorry I’ve been away from blogging lately. Great to be back. Well, let’s start out with a neat little piece about Sharp. Sharp has recently introduced a line of LED modules each consisting of 30 LED chips divided into 10 parallel-switched groups of 3 LED chips on an aluminum ceramic substrate. The modules range from standard white to warm white up to what Sharp calls “High Color Rendering” (HCR) modules. These have CRI (Color Rendering Index) of 90. These new modules range in output from 170 lumens for the HCR modules to 280 lumens for the standard white module when driven at 360 mA. I’d like to see how well these can handle being driven to 720 mA on a graphite heat spreader. Anyrate, stated efficiencies are 80 lumens per watt for the standard white down to 50 lumens per watt for the HCR. Stated life cycle is 40,000 hours for all modules in the line.

Now all Sharp has to do is come up with a really spiffy name for these things and they’ll be all set. Maybe, Sharp Light Sabers…no,no,no….Sharp Star-O’s….Sharpeon’s? Super Sharp’s? Sharpstone? Hmmm….

Anyrate, you can check out the entire press release at LEDs Magazine

Technorati Tags: leds , led modules, led technology , leds in the news , warm white leds, color rendering index, cri, high color rendering, sharp leds, shapr microelectronics

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Finally, Germicidal UV LEDs for the Rest of Us!

I was recently asked if I knew where one could get Germicidal UVC LEDs since I had blogged about the technology a while back. Well, I do so I am blogging it here for all to see in case you may be interested. Now I am talking “commercially available” not some pie-in-the-sky R&D type of availability.

Sensor Electronic Technology (S.E.T.) is commercially shipping deep UV LEDs that they call UVTOP LEDs that range in output wavelength from 247 to 365 nm. The output power is typically 0.5 mW at 20 mA forward current. They are typically multi-die, single can LEDs mounted in TO-39 or TO-18 cans. The cans in this case are specially designed with internal reflectors to maximize output. The LEDs are available with or without ball or flat lenses to boost output power and narrow the beam profile.

Being as S.E.T. is the basically the only game in town right now (they have partnered with Seoul Semiconductor so I imagine we will start to see these coming out through Seoul’s distribution channels, especially in Asia and perhaps even see the die technology licensed off) you don’t really have a choice of deep UV LEDs so you’ll have to pay the gigantic price of nearly $300.00 each in single quantities for 250 nm LEDs (they get cheaper the further up toward the UVA you go).

Beyond price, this is still very good news for both S.E.T. and the rest of us in the LED industry since up until now, there wasn’t an alternative so kudos to S.E.T. for the way cool technology and making it available to the rest of us! 8)

Click here to check out the line of UVTOP deep UV LEDs from Sensor Electronic Technology, including datasheets and their pricelist.

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Novaled Produces Super Efficient, Super Bright, Superlicious OLEDs

Novaled has announced that they now have OLED panels capable of producing 1,000 candela per square meter with an efficiency of 35 lumens per watt with a reported lifetime of 100,000 hours. Thats no small feat. The Color Rendering Index (CRI) was 90. The testing was done with consideration for only the forward light emissions, that is to say all light coming out the back and the sides of the panel was blocked. This accurately mimics a real-world application since these are almost exclusively used ad backlights. Evidentally, they were able to crank up the brightness to 4,000 candela per square meter and the efficiency only dropped to 31lumens per watt with no change in color or CRI.

Kudos to Novaled! 8)

Click here to read the whole story on LEDS Magazine

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Cree To Install Cree LEDs In Cree’s Facilities

Cree announced their plans to convert all lighting in their headquarters and manufacturing facility to lighting fixtures with Cree XLamp LEDs.

I don’t know…..does anybody else out there feel like Cree’s announcement to adopt LED lighting in their headquarters and manufacturing facility seems a bit odd? Don’t you feel like Cree should have already been using LEDs everywhere? I mean, the CEO should have XLamps surgically implanted in his forehead. Hay! Headlamps! Get it? <insert groans here> That was my initial reaction and I suspect that might be the initial reactions of a lot of people, including Cree’s customers.

Releasing this announcement to the newswire does illustrate Cree’s commitment to developing efficient LED technology that will eventually replace traditional lighting but at the same time it highlights the fact that LED luminaires are fairly new and LED technology costly (initially)as compared to traditional lamps which is something that not even Cree, who makes the darn things, could ignore ,further illustrating that Cree hasn’t been using them which can be disconcerting to customers. On a more positive note: Kudos to Cree for launching the LED Workplace website (www.ledworkplace.org) which looks like it will be a terrific place to exchange information about LED luminaire data and cost savings on workplace LED installations.

Also, in the release it says “in total the new LED lights use 48% less energy than the incandescent, fluorescent and high-pressure sodium lights they replaced” Uh…commercially available Cree XLamp LEDs are not more efficient then HP Sodium lights and produce nowhere near as much light over as broad an area. I don’t think we’ll be seeing LEDs replace sodium vapor lamps anytime soon. Perhaps chock that up to an over-zealous PR writer?

Click here to read the full announcement at LEDs Magazine

Technorati Tags: leds, led modules, architectural lighting, architectural lighting design, solid-state architectural lighting, led architectural lighting, architectural led lighting, lighting design, solid-state lighting design, lighting designers, lighting artist, artistic lighting, lighting engineering, architectural lighting industry, designing with light, architectural design, office lighting, solid-state office lighting, office lighting design, leds , solid-state lighting , lighting industry news , lighting industry market , lighting market , solid-state lighting market , lighting market analysis , global led market , global led news, global lighting industry , global lighting fixtures , global lighting , led technology , leds in the news , Cree, Cree XLamps, XLamp LEDs, XLamp

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It’s a Bird..It’s A Plane…No It’s Novaled OLEDs of Steel!

I couldn’t resist. Sorry. Interesting technology, really. Essentially you deposit OLEDs onto thin, electrically conductive, flexible steel instead of the current thin glass designs and presto-change’o! You’ve got LEDs that can be rolled out by the zillions rapidly onto gigantic rolls like steel for the automobile industry. Try that with glass. BLAM!

Click here to checkout the full Novaled and ArcelorMittal OLEDs on steel article.

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Deep UV Leds for Germicidal Water Treatment? Maybe…

 

Sorry it has been awhile since my last post. I was out of the office for awhile and came back to a massive pile of “this is THE top priority” projects to do. So here we go:

 

The NIST ATP Program which funds innovative R & D projects announced several LED-based awards for this year. Two of interest are the awards to Crystal IS, Inc. in NY and HexaTech, Inc. in NC. Both are working to develop efficient deep-UV LEDs. This is of particular interest because deep UV (normally referred to as UVC) is germicidal. That is to say, it can kill bacteria, certain viruses, and other contaminates. Traditionally UVC germicidal sterilizers and water purifiers use fluorescent or compact fluorescent type tubes (no phosphors are used so nothing is really fluorescing but they are the same type of lamp) mercury tubes to produce germicidal UVC at the 270nm (most effective wavelength) or 254nm (next most effective wavelength). While these traditional lamps are efficient and have a low cost to operate, they don’t like to function in cold environments and are bulky. In water purifiers that use them, they are typically encapsulated within a a chamber where the water can flow all around the tube to maximize exposure. When the lamp dies, you have to shutoff the water and dig the lamp out. If a company can produce UVC LEDs that have enough output for effective germicidal effect, it would mean that users of water purifiers and other remotely located UVC germicidal equipment would not have to change the light source nearly as often since LEDs have a typical lifetime of 20,000 hours and up although it will remain to be seen what the lifetime of a deep UV LED will be. There is also a huge potential for energy savings, particularly when multiple water purifiers are used. Municipal water treatment plants will uses 100′s or thousands of low-pressure mercury water purifiers (this number can be reduced to 10′s or 100′s if medium-pressure mercury purifiers are used) depending on the amount of water flow. Assuming the output of the LEDs is good enough and efficient enough, municipal water treatment facilities could see massive energy savings. Cost will be a big issue. right now low-pressure mercury lamps are fairly cheap, but LEDs will likely be quite expensive. They may come in at around the same price as medium-pressure lamps. Who knows. Even beyond the cost, municipal treatment plants will save massive amounts of cash on reduced maintenance costs by not having to tear down purifiers all the time to replace tubes. LEDs also function with no ill effects in cold environments so cold water rushing around them will not shorten their life. Also, fluorescent type mercury tubes don’t like to be turned off and on (it shortens their life) where LEDs don’t care. So if a plant operator needs to shut things down, it doesn’t matter. They can do it as many times as they want, it won’t shorten the LED lifecycle, although it may shorten theirs.

Anyrate, these projects are slated for a 3 year run so it will be awhile to see if anything becomes of them. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Here’s my last thought about deep UV LEDs: take a handful of deep UV LEDs and stick them in one of these multi-LED flashlights you see all over the place now and voila!You have an instant, portable spot tanning booth! Uh…maybe not.

Technorati Tags: leds , led modules, uv leds, deep uv leds, uv led research, deep uv led research, lighting research, ultraviolet leds, deep ultraviolet leds, ultra-violet leds, low-pressure mercury, medium-pressure mercury, uvc, uvc light source, uvc leds, mercury water purifiers, , mercury lamps, mercury water sterilizer, water purifier, uvc water purifier, germicidal water purifier, 254 nm, 270 nm, effective germicidal, germicidal light sources, germicidal leds, water treatment leds, uv water treatment, uv led water treatment, nist, n.i.s.t., nist atp, nist advanced technology program, nist technology award, Crystal IS, HexaTech

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Bare Die Attachment? Yes, Please!

I pose a question to all of my readers (OEMs, engineers, developers, or anyone else for that matter): Have any of you worked on any LED bare die attachment projects? I would be very interested to know what the project entailed and how it went? Please comment this posting or, if you feel more comfortable, email me using the contact me tab above.

Thanks!

Technorati Tags: leds, led die, led dies, led chips, led manufacturing, bare die, bare die attachment, led bare die attachment

Cree to Obsolete The Light Bulb?

Hmmmm….could be. Cree just announced they have achieved 1000+ lumens from a single-die XLamp LED driven at 4 Amps yielding a luminous efficacy of 72 lumens/watt which is about the same output level of a standard fluorescent lamp. Wowza! That is a lot of light but at the same time, that is a lot of current when you consider that most of today, commercially released high-power LEDs are driven at about 350 mA. I would really like to see the cooling that was employed. I’m thinking cryogenic perhaps or BHF’s (Big Honking Fans) maybe? How long did the XLamp last before it ruptured the space-time continuum and disappeared or melted into a pool of molten semiconductor?

Anyrate, the disclosure is very positive news for Cree and the LED industry at large. It’s only a matter of time now before LEDs are the defacto-standard in home lighting.

Click here to read the entire story

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Osram supplies LEDs for street lights, unveils new Golden Dragon

Osram just released a new Golden Dragon LED with oval-shaped lenses with 20 or 40 degree viewing angles specifically for roadway illumination. Head over to my Architectural Lighting Blog to get the rest of the story. Hopefully I’m not dating myself with the Lucky Charms joke I posted. Let me know.

Technorati Tags: leds , solid-state lighting , lighting industry news , lighting industry market , lighting market , solid-state lighting market , lighting market analysis , global led market , global led news, global lighting industry , global lighting fixtures , global lighting , led technology , leds in the news , OSRAM inc, OSRAM leds, OSRAM modules, dragon leds, ostar leds, record breaking leds, brightest red led, brightest green led, dragon leds, golden dragon leds, road lights, pathway lighting, footpath lighting, lensed golden dragon leds, osram roadway lighting

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Flowchart Shows Just Who’s Who In The LED Industry

Recently, Seoul Semiconductor and Osram came to terms regarding white and visible LED technologies, both agreeing to share their patents (click here to read the full story from LEDs Magazine). While it is nice to see to rival companies, in such a hotly contested and highly competitive arena, come to an agreement to avoid a long, protracted lawsuit, I can’t help but get the feeling in reading this article that neither company likes the other and neither really likes the deal but it was the only way to stop the cash-bleeding and get on with the business of protecting patents..er..I mean making LEDs. What really grabs me from the article is the flow chart showing LED patents and who sued over them, who is currently suing, who has resolved the issue (ie gave up and handed over a mountain of cash), who licensed the technology BEFORE putting it out on the market, and who came to one of these new-fangled cross-licensed patent deal thingies. From this chart you can really see who the big players are in the LED technology field and who the big distributors are, and who just barely matters.

Click here to view flowchart full size

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