 Control of LED Light Via Smart Phone
Lumitech is now expanding the LED-Downlight E8 familiy of products by adding a DMX-type of LED-Downlight E8. Now control via Smart Phone is possible.
The LED-Downlight E8 provides high-quality white light and enables the color temperature to be individually controlled from warm white (2,700 K) to cool white (6,500 K). Moods ranging from “morning sun” to “full moon” to “firelight” with color rendering index of CRI 90, can therefore be created in the illuminated rooms. The lighting level of the 12 watt LED-Downlight E8 is comparable to that of 75 watt halogen lamps or 26 watt compact fluorescent lamps. The best possible cost-effectiveness is ensured by means of energy cost savings of up to 83 percent and due to its long service life of 35,000 hours. In addition to the 1 to 10 V type LED-Downlight E8 already established on the market, the new DMX variation of the E8 also offers the option to control individual light colors outside of the planckian locus, such as various red, blue or green shades and a wide range of mixed colors.
“The LED-Downlight E8 portfolio was developed for lighting applications where the crucial factors include not only the best possible color rendering, energy efficiency and cost effectiveness, but also where individuality is an important concern for the end user,” stated Erwin Baumgartner, managing director of Lumitech. “The E8’s individual color temperature control increases an individual’s feeling of well-being and can have a positive effect on human biorhythms, which makes it optimally suited for use in restaurants, hotels, wellness centers or in one’s own home. The LED-Downlight E8 based on DMX can now also be controlled conveniently and wirelessly via the Smart Phone.”
 EfficientLights Introduces New LED Lighting Products for Retailers’ Walk-in Freezer/Coolers and Open Refrigerated Shelves
PowerSecure International, Inc. has introduced two new LED lighting products to improve the energy efficiency and quality of light in grocery, drug and convenience stores. These products include a new light for retailers’ walk-in freezer/coolers and a new light for open refrigerated shelves. These products broaden the company’s in-store LED lighting product line, and complement its EfficientLights product for refrigerated case doors. The new lights are being brought to market at the urging of customers who have installed and experienced the benefits of PowerSecure’s flagship LED product, and who have identified a strong marketplace need for these additional in-store LED lighting applications.
The new lights were designed, tested and perfected in real world settings, including operating grocery stores of major chains who have installed the Company’s flagship EfficientLights product. Importantly, they are designed to deliver retailers an improved quality of light illuminating their products. In addition, the new lighting solutions will reduce lighting energy costs, reduce maintenance expense by extending light life five-fold over traditional lighting, provide a lower carbon footprint and eliminate the use of mercury-containing fluorescent lights.
Bryan Beatenbough, president of EfficientLights, said, "We are very excited to bring these new products to market. We have been blessed to have a wonderfully successful EfficientLights refrigerated case door product that is improving energy efficiency and lighting in stores across the country, and we can now bring retailers these benefits to additional areas of their stores. Similar to the process we used to develop our flagship product, we designed our new lights in partnership with our customers – to make sure our light addresses their real-world needs. The release of these new lights to the marketplace represents another major milestone in our plan to bring retailers a full suite of LED lighting for their stores.”
New Fraqtir Optical Technology Builds Upon the Elliptipar Legacy of Innovation
The Lighting Quotient establishes its presence as a manufacturer of LED lighting fixtures, demonstrating the viability and power of LED lighting for architectural applications. The concealed cove fixture, developed with the company's fraqtir optical technology, throws a clean, even and warm wash of white light in an asymmetric pattern that has not previously been possible to achieve with LEDs.
The Lighting Quotient's first foray into designing and manufacturing LED luminaires features the latest Philips Lumileds LUXEON Rebel emitters with advanced Lumiramic phosphor technology. The latest generation of LUXEON Rebel LEDs provides crisp warm white light with greater color consistency and higher efficacy, enabling a new level in LED luminaire performance.
"LED technology, to a certain extent, is still in its infancy stage and is just getting to the point where we can harness real effectiveness," said Allison Schieffelin, chairman and CEO, The Lighting Quotient. "At The Lighting Quotient, we've been waiting for the right time to demonstrate our design abilities using LED light sources. Previously, the uneven light output and life span was not up to our standards. That's changing now and we're ready to show a new way to leverage LED sources and create incredible results."
At the heart of the fraqtir technology is a proprietary optic that combines principles of refraction and total internal reflection to create an asymmetric distribution of light that illuminates the target surface. A unique diffusing media enhances the lateral light distribution and obscures images of the individual emitters without compromising the asymmetric performance. The result is an evenly illuminated surface of uniform color that is free of scallops, striations and unwanted glare.
The fraqtir luminaires feature an impact-resistant acrylic cover lens and extruded aluminum heat sink (housing). The optical housings can be interlocked together in continuous rows to aim as one. Aiming is adjustable and lockable. High efficiency drivers can be remotely mounted or integral to the luminaire, with dimming optional. The two-piece heat sink features a light engine assembly that can be removed for service or upgrade.
The extruded aluminum heat sink was designed specifically to conquer the thermal challenge of tight spaces and elevated ambient temperatures inherent in architectural cove lighting applications. Heat is conducted away from the removable light engine assembly to the outer housing extrusion, where an emissive coating promotes free convection and ensures long life, excellent lumen maintenance and color consistency of the LED emitters.
The Lighting Quotient will begin shipping the fraqtir cove fixture in September and is currently accepting first order entries. Pricing is available on request.
 LED Driver ICs Deliver Flicker-Free TRIAC Dimming in SSL Applications
Power Integrations has released two new families of TRIAC-dimmable, single-stage, power-factor-corrected LED driver ICs targeting solid-state lighting (SSL) applications. LinkSwitch-PH (optimized for isolated systems) and LinkSwitch-PL (optimized for non-isolated systems) deliver flicker-free monotonic TRIAC dimming and a user experience similar to that provided by incandescent illumination.
The LinkSwitch-PH and LinkSwitch-PL product families feature integrated single-stage power factor correction (PFC), enabling SSL luminaires to achieve PF > 0.9. LinkSwitch-PH devices incorporate primary-side-control technology, which eliminates the optocoupler and supporting components used in traditional isolated flyback designs. Non-isolated LinkSwitch-PL designs further reduce component count, resulting in improved reliability and a reduced bill of materials (BOM). Both IC families are monolithic – incorporating the controller and MOSFET onto a single silicon die, which simplifies PCB layout by minimizing component count and eliminating parasitics between the controller and power MOSFET. These new LinkSwitch products are optimized for high efficiency in simple flyback designs and operate at input voltages up to 305 VAC, enabling the development of both single-voltage and universal-input products suitable for residential and commercial lighting applications worldwide.
When operated within manufacturers’ temperature and drive-current guidelines, LEDs can be expected to operate for more than 50,000 hours. The weakest link in an LED lighting system is the driver circuitry, which is burdened with unreliable optocouplers and electrolytic capacitors. Power Integrations’ accurate primary-side-control technology, featured in LinkSwitch products, eliminates the optocoupler and the new LinkSwitch LED driver IC product families do not require the use of electrolytic bulk capacitors. Designers using the LinkSwitch-PL and LinkSwitch-PH for SSL products can expect the operational life of the driver to match that of its accurately controlled LED array.
“Both new product families are ideal for space-constrained LED drivers used in replacement lamps,” said Bill Weiss, lighting business development manager at Power Integrations. “The LinkSwitch-PH family, optimized for isolated designs and rated up to 50 watts output power, is also effective for external LED ballasts, often used in downlighting, architectural lighting, signage and outdoor lighting. Both devices reduce system BOM count and size, thereby increasing system reliability. These ICs enable designers to optimize system efficiency and meet or exceed all regulatory standards, such as ENERGY STARâ and EN61000-3-2.”
LinkSwitch-PH samples are available now in a halogen-free, ROHS-compliant eSIP-7C package, priced between $1.18 and $1.71 each for 10,000-piece quantities. LinkSwitch-PL ICs will sample in August 2010 in compact SO-8 and eDIP-12 packages.
SUSS MicroTec Releases Dedicated Lithography System
SUSS MicroTec, a supplier of equipment and process solutions for the semiconductor industry and related markets, has introduced the next generation of its MA100e mask aligner, a dedicated lithography solution for manufacturing HB-LEDs. Based on SUSS MicroTec’s production proven mask aligner design the automatic MA100e Gen2 processes wafers up to 4 inches and enables a throughput of 145 wafers per hour with reduced cycle times.
LED equipment manufacturers will need to support the significant growth of LED production that is driven by the exploding demand for LED backlighting for televisions, monitors and other systems. With the MA100e Gen2 SUSS MicroTec has designed a highly competitive automatic mask aligner solution that meets the cost-sensitive technology requirements of the LED industry. High-intensity exposure optics and pre-alignment options shorten precious process time while functionalities like proximity exposure for high resolution down to 2.5 µm maximize yield and cost-efficiency. The MA100e Gen2 provides exceptional process scalability and fast time-to-market for new device designs.
“We have clearly noted the growing demand for sophisticated HB-LED technology and see the trend towards lower cost of ownership resulting from higher automation in the LED industry,” said Frank Averdung, president and CEO of SUSS MicroTec. ”With the next generation of the MA100e SUSS MicroTec has developed a highly efficient automatic mask aligner solution for LED production that helps our customers to cut down cost per lumen and increase their production efficiency.”
 New Device Allows Engineers to Develop More Sophisticated Lighting Control Systems Through Simple Programming of Discrete LED Brightness Levels
ON Semiconductor, a supplier of high performance, energy efficient silicon solutions for green electronics, has released a linear regulator and controller product. The NCV7680 consists of eight linear programmable constant current sources. It is designed for use in the regulation and control of solid state rear combination lamps of vehicles, and is capable of supporting an LED driving current of up to 75 mA per channel.
Due to its high degree of integrated functionality, the NCV7680 allows support for two brightness levels ¾ one for stop and one for tail illumination. Optional pulse width modulation (PWM) control can also be implemented if required. System designers can set the output current (global set point) with the use of just one external resistor. An optional external ballast FET allows for power distribution on designs requiring high currents.
Qualified to the AEC Q100 automotive standard, the NCV7680 has a MSL 1 moisture resistance rating, and an operating temperature range of −40°C to 150°C. Typical applications for this device include rear combination lamps, daytime running lights, fog lights, center high-mounted stop lamp arrays, turn signal lamps and LCD backlighting.
“Automotive lighting systems are now expected to be more feature rich, and this requires the employment of highly integrated solutions, which provide superior current regulation,” said Andy Williams, senior vice president, Automotive Power Group, ON Semiconductor. “The release of the NCV7680 takes care of powering rear combination lamps in a single chip, delivering enhanced performance and higher levels of efficiency, in a smaller footprint than existing solutions on the market. It also allows better matching of LED outputs than would be possible with a discrete solution, as well as enabling fault identification.”
The NCV7680 is offered in a SOIC-16 Pb−free package. Pricing for these devices is $1.70 per unit in 10,000 unit quantities.
 Everbrite Launches New LED Luminaire for Parking Structures
Everbrite Lighting has launched its newest environmentally-friendly lighting product, the PSL125. The PSL125 LED parking structure luminaire features iDV (in-Direct View) in both a down light and down/up light version. This is Everbrite’s first product engineered for the parking industry market.
"The PSL125 is another sign of Everbrite’s commitment to engineering products that lessen energy costs and consumption,” said Jeff Gatzow, Everbrite product manager. “We’ve been in the healthcare industry for five years with hundreds of LED installations. That engineering expertise has helped us in the development of this product.”
Purposely designed to have the appearance more like a traditional parking structure fixture; however, it delivers improved illumination than traditional light sources.
Optional up-light feature developed to minimize “cave-effects” common in most parking structures.
- Generates more illumination with fewer components than competitors’ products; uses fewer LED’s and has less color shift.
- LED light sources are modular and easily changed out from below with the hinged lens.
- Choice of acrylic or optional high-impact resistant, solar grade polycarbonate lens.
- Thermal management is achieved by transferring the heat from individual light sources to the outer casing, assuring LED’s are operating at a cool temperature.
- Dimming capabilities for daylight harvesting and at night when there are fewer people using the structure, further reducing the structure’s energy footprint.
- Cast aluminum housing with durable, powder-coat finish.
- Ideal for power outage conditions; unlike traditional lights where lamp arc re-strike is of concern, LED’s are instant on.
The technology was designed to take the light from just a few high-power LEDs and distribute it with optimal uniformity and minimal loss. Visibility is dramatically improved, increasing safety for vehicle and pedestrian traffic.
“The proprietary technology inside the PSL125 luminaires helps create safer conditions by producing whiter light, better uniformity and brightness,” said Gatzow.
 Allegro MicroSystems, Inc. Releases a New LED Backlight Driver for Medium/Large Displays
Allegro MicroSystems, Inc. has released a new multi-output WLED/RGB driver for LED backlighting of LCD monitors and televisions. This device integrates a boost controller operating in operates in constant frequency (programmable) current mode control, driving an external MOSFET. It integrates six internal current-sinks capable of up to 80 mA each, and they can be combined together to achieve even higher currents. PWM dimming allows LED currents to be precisely controlled as a percentage of the maximum setpoint determined by the user.
Furthermore, multiple A8512s can be connected in parallel, with one master controller controlling the boost stage, and up to five slave controllers, which act as LED sinks. This allows up to 36 LED strings to be powered by just one boost converter significantly reduce the number of external components required.
The A8512 operates from a single supply of 8 to 24 V. It provides protection against overvoltage, open or shorted LED string, and overtemperature. A dual level cycle-by-cycle current limit function provides soft start and protects against overloads.
The A8512 is provided in a 28-contact 5 mm by 5 mm QFN package (ET), with an exposed thermal pad for enhanced thermal dissipation. For single-sided PCB manufacturing capability, the device is also available in a 24-pin SOICW package (LB), with internally fused pins for enhanced thermal dissipation. Both packages are lead (Pb) free, with 100 percent matte tin leadframe plating. The QFN version is priced at $1.65 in quantities of 1,000. |
“We needed to provide an LED screen that could have a very specific radius and it needed to be perfect when installed,” said Bob Magee, XL video account executive. “I am proud that we were able to do just that. What made it most interesting is that the whole screen hangs off of only two 2” pipes. With these dimensions, no other technology could have done what the Pixled tiles were able to do and still have the same great resolution. Others were tested but the F-11 was the right solution.” 
SEMICON West 2010
SPIE Optics + Photonics