High brightness LED trying to completely replace the car incandescent lamp

From the early last century to the present, automotive exterior lighting has been using the filament lamp, however, the long history of the bulb may be in the next ten years (2011-2020) the final exit of car headlights and tail lamp market, because it is a new design led more bright body for automobile (LED).

Two LED supplier said they are design flux for 100 lumens of products, it can be a substitute for incandescent lamp in the lighting application (and the plurality of transistors instead of single incandescent bulbs for the opposite). One of the top suppliers said it is working with several car manufacturers to negotiate as soon as possible for the 2008 models configured LED headlights.

This new high brightness LED technology can not only replace incandescent bulbs, and can replace the current micro LED group, these miniature LED must use a group of 60, in order to provide enough brightness for automobile rear. By providing higher output power, the application of the new LED will be extended from the third lamp (high-mount stop) to the rear of the car lights, brake lights and direction lights. Similarly, LED will also be the first to be used in automotive headlight assembly.

"This shift is a milestone in the development of the automotive industry," said Jeff Erion, an external systems research and Development Manager at Visteon. The company recently demonstrated a configuration using a LED headlamp operation.

"Since 1914 there has been only one kind of car lighting." He said, "now, we are looking for a technology to replace each car's external filament lamp."

The supporters said that reasons for incandescent bulbs LED excellent is the faster response (so that other vehicles around the driver can have more time and distance in response to the brake lights or direction lights flashing), to prolong the life of the automobile, and has the advantages of energy saving and stronger shock resistance of higher.

However, automotive lighting suppliers have pointed out that the LED must be clear before the use of some obstacles. "From a cost point of view, there is no comparison between the LED and the bulb." "This is a few cents to a few dollars," said Jianzhong, a North American lighting company, a subsidiary of Keito, a Japanese manufacturing company based in Jiao."

In addition to the durability problem." He said, "the problem is not the LED itself, but in related electronic components, such as circuit boards. These remains to be seen."

Nevertheless, LED has been steadily penetrating into the automotive headlamp market over the past few years, especially for the third brake lights in the center of the car.

Vendors estimate that about third of the 80-90%'s brake lights in the current Asian models use LED. European models in the 70-80% third brake lights and the United States more than 50% of the car's third brake lights are used as a light source LED. In addition, this bright new product is expected to lead the LED into the rear lighting applications market. Up to now, people in the field of LED applications have become more conservative.

In the next few years, the use of LED in the brake light is expected to far exceed the current market share of 2-3%. In the direction of the lamp is also expected to increase the utilization rate.

Visteon's Erion predicts that in the next two to three years, all luxury cars will install LED signal lights."

The key to success is the popularity of high brightness LED. At least suppliers, including Lumileds lighting and Osram Opto semiconductor, are currently working on the design of the 100 lumens LED lighting, the first of its new products can be used in the model. They are 10 to 20 times more powerful than existing products (the brightness of the smallest components is typically between 1-5 lumens). Lumileds company also said that the company has launched 30, 40, 50 lumens of Luxeon series products.

When 100 lumens of products enter the market, a single such component will be able to take the algebra of ten smaller LED. In the next ten years, suppliers are expected to use the outside of the car (behind the 6, in front of the 4) or more diodes, and will create a single market in the United States each year up to 160 million needs of the huge LED market.

Lumileds engineers said that they planned to use indium gallium nitride (InGaN) and aluminum indium gallium phosphide (AlInGaP) of the two key semiconductor materials to achieve this vision. AlInGaP is the key material to produce red, mainly used in automobile tail light orange and amber LED; while InGaN can emit blue light, and in combination with a phosphorus conversion technology, InGaN can produce white light.

"If you want to get the best optical solutions, it must have the best materials, the best phosphorus, also must use P in the right way, so as to make a very strong white light generator," Lumileds automotive business development director Leonard Livschitz said.

Another key factor in creating higher brightness components is the larger size of the semiconductor wafer. "With the wafer size increasing, efficiency will be close to 100 lumens," Osram Opto semiconductor LED lighting product marketing manager Jonathan Wafer said, "to get this result, must have a large size wafer, and close to 1 amperes of current to drive them. Then, the challenges you face will be transformed into the problem of system thermal management."

Suppliers point out that higher power components are key to the success of LED in external lighting applications, as it allows manufacturers to cope with the limitations of packaging.

"On the assumption that you can use LED to do any lighting task," Livschitz said, "but because of the limited space in the rear of the car, you'd better use a component that provides more power."

LED supply for automobiles