The real importance is that we can actually offer our customers

These heat sinks, which are offered with different diameters and contours, are available in different sections of different lengths to suit specific heat dissipation applications.The LEDs are fastened onto the heat sink using thermally conductive, double sided adhesive tape, 2-component thermally conductive adhesive or screws. In the standard version, the surface is black anodised or of natural colour.

‘LEDs are a fascinating new technology,’ said Michael P. Simonis, president, Unilux, ‘but they are not for every printing or labeling application. Their softer light makes them best suited for inspecting labels and packaging with highly reflective coatings, foils or metalized substrates or on high-speed lines. Pulsed LED lights can replace strobe lights with Xenon lamps, where inspectors sometimes need to dial down the intensity or use frosted glass to avoid harsh reflections. When combining the light with our unique reflector designs, Unilux can provide even illumination across the entire surface.’The Unilux LED family of inspection lights carries a higher initial cost than the strobe lights with Xenon lamps, but the LED lamps do not have the same replacement costs.

‘The selection of pulsed LED or stroboscopic inspection lighting really comes down to the application,’ Simonis said. ‘The pulsed LED is better for high-speed, highly reflective printing, and the strobe for most other printing applications. LEDs can have a better light output than Xenon lamps when you have a flash rate greater than 15,000 flashes per second. The costs are about the same over a 3-5 year operating period, with the cost savings on the LED units being better after that. The real importance is that we can actually offer our customers the best lighting solution to meet their exact needs. It is not about developing an LED light or a Xenon lamp; it’s about being able to guide the customer to which light is best for them and to help produce the best final product. Only Unilux can do both.’

The company executives said that the company had begun supplying LED

The company executives said that the company had begun supplying LED backlights for notebooks since last quarter. And they project six to eight out of 10 Notebooks to use LED backlights sometime in the second half this year.The company’s LED production ran close to 80% capacity last quarter, accounting for 10% of the company’s total revenue. The company depends on cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFL) as major revenue source.Wellypower’s Taiwanese peers, including Light House Technology Corp. and Sintronic Technology Inc., also plan to boost output capacity this year. According to Light House executives, the company had begun supplying LED backlights for Notebooks and big LCD screens.Sintronic plans to expand its output capacity of SMD LED packages this quarter to 50 million units, parts of which to be for light bars and lighting fixtures.

LightTools 6.3, the newest release of the illumination design and analysis software from Optical Research Associates (ORA), delivers an expanded, more powerful tool set for optical system modeling and optimization. The software now features an Alternate Optimization Engine, which supplements the existing optimizer and enables users to successfully address an even broader range of design problems. In addition, LightTools 6.3 permits optimization with user-defined variables, merit functions and constraints, utilizing either of the optimization engines, to further expand the classes of systems for which the software can converge on an efficient solution.

 LightTools 6.3 also adds important new functionality for LED modeling and simulation. An expanded LED library has been incorporated that contains mechanical models for hundreds of LEDs from all major manufacturers, including apodization files that allow accurate far-field modeling of source output, as well as ray data files for both near-field and far-field output. Furthermore, LightTools ray data files now include color information to model the spatial and angular output characteristics of the source as a function of color.

LED supplies are much tighter than LCD supplies since its applications in cell phones

A unique feature of austriamicrosystems’ AS1115 is the built-in LED error detection. Simple and intuitive to use, the user-friendly software interface allows the error diagnostics to be easily accessed during normal operation. This solution can detect any open- or short-circuit within the multiplexed 8x8 LED array, and a detailed error report can be read out with the exact position of the broken LED, this is especially helpful to reduce test time during production.The company scored a total sale of NT$964 million (US$29.426 million) for the second quarter, with quarterly growth rate reaching 84%, the highest among its peers on the island. The company indicated that orders for LED backlights and LED lighting have fueled the growth recently.
The company has been engaged in manufacturing and developing of LED backlights for years and effectively carving out niches from this year. In light of growing concerns about environmental protection globally, Unity Opto has stepped up developing a variety of LED backlights for display panels used in handsets and notebook PCs, which have helped to drive up shipments by over 50% in the second quarter.Unity Opto’s LED lighting products, with enhanced brightness and improved color temperature, has been well-recognized by major international buyers recently. The company projects sales of the product line to triple this year from last year.
Unity Opto is also optimistic about the third quarter outlook, believing that the popularity of Netbooks and emergence of CULV (consumer ultra low voltage) platform-based laptop will further drive up demand for LED backlights in the second half of 2009. The company’s procurement list includes items like LED chips, LED backlights, display panels, monitors and TVs. And the estimated value of the procurements increases by 7-10% from 2008.LCD panel supplies are reportedly running short, and Samsung Taiwan’s executives said that LED supplies are much tighter than LCD supplies since its applications in cell phones and TVs as backlights have sharply increased.

LED solutions enabling a compelling payback

The installation of three hundred and two (302) Albeo C-Series garage fixtures reduced energy consumption by 55% while improving both the light distribution and increasing the light levels. The project will payback within 1.5 years and reduce CO2 emissions by over 2,000,000 pounds over ten years.The Renaissance is in the heart of one of Dallas' finest neighborhoods. Quality lighting is important even in the garage. Albeo's products reduced energy consumption and improved the safety and ambience of the garage," said Duane Bates, General Manager, Premier Communities. "The Albeo fixture outperformed several other LED solutions enabling a compelling payback."

"The performance of Albeo's C-Series LED light fixtures is a result of circuit design, board construction, and fixture design that delivers high light levels with fewer LEDs at lower temperatures," said Paul Winker, Product Manager, Albeo Technologies. "Superior product lifetime is achieved by minimizing the junction to ambient temperature differential and using toroidal transformers, the most durable power conversion device."

In addition to lighting for parking garages, Albeo manufactures Atmosphere(TM), Brilliance(TM), and Talea(TM) LED Lighting solutions for cove, display, and task lighting; Security LED(TM) fixtures for high-abuse applications such as transit, correctional, and institutional facilities; and Albeo's award winning C-Series(TM) LED light fixtures for general lighting applications. Details for the entire product line are available on Albeo's website at www.yahamlighting.com.

It is the icing on the cake on this design

Willie Williams, U2 show designer, says “Video is the most powerful tool you can have on stage. But now that video is so ubiquitous in rock stage setting, we needed a very extreme change of canvas to be heard. The transformable LED gave us the chance to create a transparent 360° moving video element, unprecedented in this industry. It is the icing on the cake on this design.”

“It is thrilling to see the work I have been doing with transformable structures expressed in such a whole new way,” Chuck Hoberman adds. “The screen is like a living thing, it continuously changes shapes and forms and the video acts like live skin on it. It is one of the most fascinating objects in the world now.”

“We wanted to create something that was bigger than a conventional stage. This tour was big enough to make a purpose built structure,” says Mark Fisher, U2 stage designer. I wanted to create a transparent stage and really needed a video screen that would fit in that environment, a round screen that would not block the view for the audience. Barco's FLX gave us the chance to create this. We were happy to be working with Barco again; they have helped very well in the past and delivered an extraordinary product for this show.”

Frederic Opsomer, Vice President of Barco's Innovative Designs, adds “There have been many evolutions in the LED video market for concert touring, from a fixed IMAG screen to moving screens to transformable screens now. This is the fifth time I have been working with U2 and it is again a big honor to be part of it. The entertainment business is constantly asking for new and innovating products, even in these difficult times and the U2 360° tour is a perfect example of this.

will mainly be used in general lighting applications

Founded in 2005, Lagotek Corporation develops residential and commercial building automation systems based upon patent pending, and company-owned intellectual property. Applications for this technology include audio, climate control, security systems, intercom systems, lighting, video monitoring, window coverings, IR control, and irrigation systems.In addition to manufacturing LED StandAlone and controlLED (dimmable) lighting products to replace fluorescent lamps, Advanced Control Technologies, Inc. (ACT) designs and manufactures powerline carrier products to control lighting and other electrical loads which include programmable transmitters, coupler/amplifiers (for multiple phase power) and receivers. ACT also designs and manufactures a family of Z-Wave home and office automation products that use radio frequency signals to control lighting and other electrical loads.

With the fast growth in LED outdoor displays and backlights, DisplaySearch forecasts that display LEDs, including 24 billion for active outdoor display and 34 billion for LCD backlights, will have a 34.7% share of the global 167 billion unit LED market in 2012, making display LEDs the largest market segment. Low-current LEDs will be the mainstream type used in large-area LCD backlights, due to cost, thermal management and luminance efficiency requirements. High-power LEDs, with a driving current higher than 350 mA (more than 1W), are not well-suited for LCD backlights due to thermal issues, and will mainly be used in general lighting applications that require high brightness.

 The penetration rate of LED backlights in notebook PCs will reach 52% in 2009, and DisplaySearch forecasts penetration will grow rapidly to 81% in 2010. In LCD TV, the penetration rate will ramp up from 3% with 3.6 million units in 2009 to 10% with 15 million units in 2010. Leading LCD TV brands including Samsung, Philips, Sharp, Sony, Toshiba, Vizio and LG are planning increased use of LED backlights starting in the second half of 2009. A driving factor is the change in LED backlight structure from direct to edge light type, which reduces the cost premium over CCFL backlights. Finally, LED backlights in desktop monitors are expected to reach 31 million units in 2012.

the product in the fourth quarter of this year

Optimistic about industrial prosperity in the second half of this year through next year, Yeh stressed that demand from notebook PC, TV and lighting sectors has infused strong growth momentum into the LED industry. Increasing popularity of LED-backlit LCD (liquid crystal display) TVs will also serve as major driving force, he added.At the show, Everlight unveiled its newest AC LED, which can work without transformers and last for 50,000 hours. The company is scheduled to start shipping the product in the fourth quarter of this year.

The company had raised $10.5 million in March in its first round of funding, and is expecting an additional $20 million early in the summer, according to CEO Matt Thomas. The product is expected to reach full production in September.The company hasn’t disclosed details of its technology. But it essentially uses optics with a different shape that more efficiently extracts light out of the chip, Thomas said. “We think of [it] as an optical light-emitting device, as opposed to a semiconductor process that happens to create light,” he said. “We truly have some breakthrough physics.The chip structure extracts more lumens and reduces the internal refraction, delivering more watts in a smaller package, using conventional manufacturing methods, the company claims. Illumitex has reached more than 100 lumens per watt already, expects to reach 150 lumens per watt by the end of the year — which would make the lights 50 percent more efficient than other LEDs — and wants to hit 250 lumens per watt by the end of next year, Thomas says. That last goal would put it 15 years ahead of a U.S. Department of Energy target of the technology reaching 160 lumens per watt by 2025.

Illumitex’s LEDs also produce more uniform light than other LEDs, according to the company. And the light all comes out of the top of the device in one direction, which means the lights don’t need reflectors. This simplicity makes the lighting package smaller, a plus for manufacturers looking to make thinner devices. Additionally, as Illumitex delivers three times the usable light, manufacturers also can use fewer LEDs, making the footprint smaller still. Altogether, the LEDs get 10 times the light out of the same sized package, said the company.