LED lighting: commercialization is coming

With the continuous improvement of LED luminous efficiency (LM / W) and the price continues to decline, LED is driving some new lighting applications. Today, high brightness LED is becoming more and more popular in a number of applications that are suitable for general lighting applications, such as flash, garden / landscape lighting and small reading lights.

Professional indoor lighting products, such as portrait lighting, also began to combine wireless, battery powered, high flux LED lamps. The advantage of LED in the indoor lighting system is that the lighting device can be easily mounted on the wall without any expensive wiring. LED is also increasingly being considered for a variety of other professional lighting applications, such as surgical lights, machine vision, military lighting and concert lighting.

In many cases, LED has begun to replace fluorescent and incandescent lamps in existing applications. This is because the LED only light from the front of the device, so a 60-70 LM LED lamp can be comparable to the traditional 100 LM /W full range of fluorescent lamps. Table 1 Comparison of general lighting solutions

Mainstream general lighting includes corporate lighting and consumer home lighting. The ultimate potential market for high flux LED is aimed at developing a cost-effective white light lighting solution for billions of dollars in indoor and outdoor homes as well as the enterprise general lighting market.

According to iSuppli statistics, in 2006 the global lighting market reached about 170 u.s.. In addition, in 2006 the global lighting accessories market is about $3 billion.

The potential advantages of solid-state lighting in general lighting market:

Reducing energy consumption: research institutes and the U.S. Department of energy has pointed out that residential lighting accounts for between 25% to 30% of global energy consumption. LED is more efficient than the existing incandescent and fluorescent lighting solutions, and save a lot of energy throughout the life of the bulb. It is estimated that the use of LED lamps instead of 1 million incandescent lamps can save about 230kmW/h or about $25 million per year (at a unit price of 0.11/kwh).

Higher reliability: LED is more reliable than other light sources, the LED lamp life is 40 times of incandescent bulbs. Compared to compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) that do not contain mercury contamination.

Higher design flexibility.

improve performance

However, in order to successfully enter the mainstream market, such as residential and enterprise general lighting applications, LED must be based on the cost and performance of existing incandescent and fluorescent lighting technology competition. At present, the cost of the LED lamp is 1 dollars higher than the conventional lamps for most general lighting. ISuppli estimates that the current cost of LED bulbs as a general lighting is at least 25 times that of a fluorescent lamp. In order to successfully enter the market, it is necessary to improve the efficiency of power conversion, color index and the ratio of light output and cost (using $/lm).

Table 1 provides a comparison of mainstream lighting technologies. Although LED is becoming competitive, it needs to be further improved to increase acceptance, which is believed to be in place soon.

In order to meet these challenges, the three major international suppliers of lighting products have set up a joint venture solid state lighting company. With the progress of LED technology, these lighting companies have acquired a complete ownership of the joint venture.

PHILPS: PHILPS and Agilent set up a joint venture company Lumileds, the development of high flux LED, and in 2005 acquired Agilent's shares. The company has been the most active commitment to the introduction of solid-state lighting systems to the general lighting market. Earlier in 2007, the company announced that it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire Color Kinetics for $7 million 900 thousand. The merged entity will operate under the name of PHILPS solid state lighting solutions, the product line using PHILPS /Color Kinetics joint brand.

OSRAM: OSRAM has established Opto semiconductor company, in the automotive, construction and general lighting market development of high brightness LED lighting solutions. As mentioned earlier, the company has worked with several car manufacturers to jointly develop solid state lighting systems for vehicles. OSRAM has also been working with several leading lighting design companies to develop internal and external lighting LED. And developed a series of high power Golden LED Dragon for moderate brightness lighting and beam lamp applications. The company has announced that one of the 20 Dragon lens with a Golden product in the case of operating current of 350 mA typical brightness of 60 LM, and the efficiency of up to 54 lm/W. The LED product achieved a 155 CD luminous intensity. OSRAM also released the OSTAR lighting, which is a high brightness white 1000lm can generate more than LED. Its efficacy in 350mA operating current can reach 75lm/w. OSRAM has started mass production in the second quarter of 2007.

General lighting: Ge and EMCORE joint venture set up GELcore. In August 2006, General Electric announced the purchase of EMCORE shares. The company has signed an agreement with Nichia to develop and promote high flux LED. And also announced the supply of LED lighting products for WAL-MART refrigerator.

Several other leading manufacturers are also targeting the general lighting market to develop high flux LED products. Many of these companies are adjusting the focus of development, from low power brightness enhancement to high power consumption, while for the consumer terminal market quietly developed supply chain relationship. To this end, like CREE and Toyoda Gosei is to reduce the concern for the development of pure chip, and turned into a high power LED suppliers. These companies are also seeking to acquire targets or alliances with regional companies to seek new opportunities in the general lighting market.

Cree: high flux LED yuan