Trends

Trends

Technologies | Smart Lighting + IoT | Apr 05, 2016
The “Internet of Light” – the Key to the “Internet of Things”
The “Internet of Light” – the Key to the “Internet of Things” The Internet of Things is the next industrial revolution. As a specialist for innovative lighting components and systems, Tridonic is convinced that lighting will play a decisive role in the Internet of Things (IoT). Therefore, Tridonic developed the toolbox net4more which will not only connect luminaires with each other, but deliver an added value that goes far beyond lighting. Where do we stand today? Read more »
Technologies | LEDs | White LEDs | Feb 25, 2016
Cree Announces Outstanding R&D LED Efficacy Combined with Superior Color Quality
Cree Announces Outstanding R&D LED Efficacy Combined with Superior Color Quality Cree, Inc. records another LED industry first with the demonstration of a single high-power LED delivering nearly 1,600 lumens at 134 lumens-per-watt (LPW) with similar color quality as an incandescent light bulb. With this result, Cree achieved a breakthrough 25 percent increase in lumens per watt (LPW) over production LEDs of similar color quality under operating conditions found in real-world LED lighting applications. This important milestone coupled with Cree’s latest SC5 Technology™ platform will lead to LED systems with increased performance, lower cost and better light. Read more »
Technologies | LEDs | GaN-on-Si | Jan 18, 2016
Plessey Builds LEDs in Cubic GaN on 3C-SiC/Si To Overcome The Green Gap
Plessey Builds LEDs in Cubic GaN on 3C-SiC/Si To Overcome The Green Gap Plessey, Anvil Semiconductors and the University of Cambridge announced today that they are working together to fabricate high efficiency LEDs in cubic GaN grown on Anvil's 3C-SiC / Si substrates. Cubic GaN has the potential to overcome the problems caused in conventional LEDs by the strong internal electric fields which impair carrier recombination and contribute to efficiency droop. This is particularly true for green LEDs where the internal electric fields are stronger and are believed to cause a rapid reduction in efficiency at green wavelengths known as "the green gap". The availability of cubic GaN from a readily commercialisable process on large diameter silicon wafers is as a key enabler for increasing the efficiency of green LEDs and reducing the cost of LED lighting. Read more »
Technologies | LEDs | Material Science | Jan 13, 2016
Uncovering Oxygen’s Role in Enhancing Red Eu-Doped GaN LEDs
Uncovering Oxygen’s Role in Enhancing Red Eu-Doped GaN LEDs Oxygen is indispensable to animal and plant life, but its presence in the wrong places can feed a fire and cause iron to rust. In the fabrication of solid state lighting devices, scientists are learning, oxygen also plays a two-edged role. While oxygen can impede the effectiveness of gallium nitride (GaN), an enabling material for LEDs, small amounts of oxygen in some cases are needed to enhance the devices’ optical properties. GaN doped with europium (Eu), which could provide the red color in LEDs and other displays, is one such case. Read more »
Technologies | Research | Light Generation | Health | Perception | Simulation Tools | Jan 04, 2016
Latest Research Publications in the Journal of Solid State Lighting
Latest Research Publications in the Journal of Solid State Lighting On December 24th and 29th, 2015, three new articles have been published in the SpringerOpen Journal of Solid State Lighting. The three articles are titled "Optical Role of Die Attach Adhesive for White LED Emitters: Light Output Enhancement without Chip-Level Reflectors", "The Importance of Intrinsically Photosensitive Retinal Ganglion Cells and Implications for Lighting Design", and "Towards Perceptual Accuracy in 3D Visualizations of Illuminated Indoor Environments". Read more »
Technologies | Luminaires | Outdoor Applications | Nov 26, 2015
Gunshot Detection for Lighting Fixtures
Gunshot Detection for Lighting Fixtures Cities and their emergency responders will soon have a new way to deploy gunshot detection technology and be able to respond to incidents and react faster to protect their residents. A memorandum of understanding (MOU) between GE Lighting and SST, Inc., developer of the ShotSpotter™ crime detection and location suite, lays ground to embedding sophisticated ShotSpotter technology into GE’s intelligent LED street lights. Read more »
Technologies | Light Conversion | Quantum Dots | Nov 25, 2015
Cadmium-Free Quantum Dot Technology in LED Lighting
Cadmium-Free Quantum Dot Technology in LED Lighting Nanoco and its partner Marl International, a pioneer of the LED lighting industry, demonstrated four product lines based on Nanoco’s CFQD® quantum dot film technology last week at LuxLive. The CFQD® Quantum Dot technology as a revolutionary solution for high-end lighting applications in retail and specialty, architecture, and agriculture, where maintaining true-to-life color representations maximizes user experience and value. Read more »
Technology | Sep 07, 2015
Background Information on the Luxeon C LED Family from Lumileds
Background Information on the Luxeon C LED Family from Lumileds In an exclusive interview, Rahul Bammi, Vice President of Marketing & Product Management at Lumileds, and David Cosenza, Product Manager for the Luxeon Color LED Family, disclosed some background information on why this new product family was designed and why the very specific, new, and unique properties were implemented. Read more »
Technologies | LEDs | Light Conversion | Sep 01, 2015
FAU Researchers Create the World's First White LEDs Based on Fluorescent Proteins
FAU Researchers Create the World's First White LEDs Based on Fluorescent Proteins LEDs are up to 80 percent more energy-efficient than normal light bulbs and last around five times as long as energy-saving light bulbs. As a result they are being used more and more frequently as a source of light. Nevertheless, white LEDs still have room for improvement, as current manufacturing processes are either very expensive or result in the lifetime of the LEDs being reduced. Researchers at FAU have now developed a new, rather unusual manufacturing method: their LEDs are partly made of fluorescent proteins. Read more »
Technology | Aug 21, 2015
Researchers Propose New Technology without Rare Earth Metals for LED Lighting
Researchers Propose New Technology without Rare Earth Metals for LED Lighting At the 250th meeting of the American Chemical Society a novel approach to generate white light without using rare earth metals was presented. The reaserachers claim that this approach will lead to cheaper warm white LEDs than the currently used technologies. A press conference on this topic was held on Wednesday, Aug. 19, at 9 a.m. Eastern time in the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. Read more »
Technologies | LpR Article
Solving the Phase-Cut Dimming Challenge
Solving the Phase-Cut Dimming Challenge The evolution of dimmable LED lighting is an ongoing subject and phase-cut dimming is often dissatisfactory. While some weaknesses may be acceptable in residential applications, they are definitely not acceptable in professional applications. Stage lighting, studio lighting, TV and movie lighting set the highest standards. Craig Sharp and Bill Trzyna, Research & Design Engineers at CCI Power Supplies LLC discuss which developments helped to overcome limiting obstacles and led to a solution that also satisfies stringent requirements. Read more »
Trends | LpR Article
Making Light Work – Light Sources for Modern Lighting Requirements
Making Light Work – Light Sources for Modern Lighting Requirements Solid state light sources are the core of modern lighting installations. To get in the right mood for the IYL 2015, Dr. James Gourlay, Chief Technology Officer with Design LED Products, looks at the ways to make LED lighting more efficient, satisfy user demands and to bring SSL design to the next evolutionary level. Read more »
Trends | LpR Article
LEDs are Revolutionizing Light – The Past and Future of Lighting
LEDs are Revolutionizing Light – The Past and Future of Lighting Light is a basic part of life as such and modern living relies on artificial light. Lighting is a constantly developing, even accelerating technology, with LEDs representing the current zenith. On the occasion of the beginning of the IYL 2015, Stephan Wegstein representing VESTEL, a leading contract manufacturer in Turkey, has been asked to explain the challenges this poses and how suitable strategies and technologies can assist in staying on top of developments. Read more »
Technologies | LpR Article
Street Lighting Evolution through LED Technology
Street Lighting Evolution through LED Technology Standard electronics is usually based on a relatively simple straight-forward technology. Outdoor lighting is more challenging in several aspects, especially robustness. This is also true for the electronics. Sandra Solán, R & D Manager from ELT Electronic Division has studied this technology in depth. To celebrate the IYL 2015 she will explain technical advances, benefits, strengths and technical challenges of current and future street lighting systems for an electronics manufacturer. Read more »
Technologies | LpR Article
A New Approach to the Design of Driverless AC LED Light Engines
A New Approach to the Design of Driverless AC LED Light Engines Driverless AC LED light engines have now become a commonplace item of commerce in the lighting industry. Nearly all of them use high voltage integrated circuit switching chips to intelligently change the number of LEDs in a string during a power line cycle so that the voltage of the LED string matches the instantaneous power line voltage. However, customers are demanding higher efficiency, lower cost, and especially a reduction in the flicker content of the emitted light. Peter W. Shackle, president of the consulting company, Photalume, describes some new circuits for AC LED light engines [1] that provide a non-dimming solution with reduced cost, increased efficiency and better light quality as perceived by the human eye. Read more »
Research | LpR Article
LED Office Lighting for Improved Well-Being and Performance
LED Office Lighting for Improved Well-Being and Performance The influence of artificial light in industry has been a topic of conversation for a while now but opportunities provided by LED lighting have made this subject even more important. Katrin Möller, Junior Researcher at the Competence Center Light, her research partners, Vincent Grote from the Human Research Institut, and Birthe Tralau from Zumtobel Lighting, investigated the effects of LED and fluorescent lamp lighting on human well-being and performance in an office environment, in a comparative laboratory study. Read more »
Research | LpR Article
Direct Current (DC) Supply Grids for LED Lighting
Direct Current (DC) Supply Grids for LED Lighting Since many alternative energy sources as well as electronics and controls technologies are based on DC current, DC grids have been investigated more intensely in the last decade. DC grids with a centralized AC/DC conversion have proven to be advantageous in server farms. While LED lighting is also a DC current related technology, an obvious choice would be to use DC grids for them. Prof. Eberhard Waffenschmidt from the Cologne University of Applied Science in conjunction with Philips Research presents the results of an office building DC lamp system installation with photovoltaic (PV) support. Read more »
Research | LpR Article
A Self-Compensation Approach for Maintaining the Chromaticity Coordinates of Phosphor Converted LEDs Upon Temperature Variations
A Self-Compensation Approach for Maintaining the Chromaticity Coordinates of Phosphor Converted LEDs Upon Temperature Variations Solid-state light sources for general illumination applications are currently becoming more and more popular. Maintaining chromaticity coordinates over temperature is a challenge. Wolfgang Nemitz, Franz P. Wenzl, Susanne Schweitzer, Christian Sommer, Paul Hartmann from the Institute for Surface Technologies and Photonics at Joanneum Research, and Paul Fulmek and Johann Nicolics from the Institute of Sensor & Actuator Systems of the Vienna University of Technology investigated this issue and propose a promising new solution. Read more »
Resources | Reports | Technologies | Controls | Jul 22, 2015
NLPIP Releases Report on Wired and Wireless Lighting Controls
NLPIP Releases Report on Wired and Wireless Lighting Controls The National Lighting Product Information Program (NLPIP) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Lighting Research Center (LRC) recently released its latest publication, Lighting Answers: Comparison of Wired and Wireless Lighting Controls for Single Rooms. Read more »
Technologies | Thermal Management | Jun 24, 2015
Litecool Turns LED Packaging on Its Side
Litecool Turns LED Packaging on Its Side Litecool has produced LED packages in a vertical orientation rather than horizontal. This means that the dielectric layers only have a minor impact on the thermal performance of the LED package and allow the heat to escape more effectively through the metallic parts of the package. This has significant benefits for flip-chip packaging where dielectric layers are usually very close to the diode. Read more »
Resources | Roadmap | DoE | Technologies | SSL | Jun 15, 2015
DoE: Solid-State Lighting R&D Plan
The solid-state lighting (SSL) revolution signals a profound shift in how we will use and consider lighting and represents a huge opportunity to generate significant energy savings. The energy being used for lighting represents a significant portion of global energy use. Rising electricity prices, mounting concerns about climate change, and desire for energy independence are causing the global lighting market to shift toward more energy-efficient light sources. Read more »
White Paper | Technology | May 27, 2015
BluGlass Demonstrates Improved Performance Results for Green RPCVD Manufactured p-GaN LEDs
BluGlass Demonstrates Improved Performance Results for Green RPCVD Manufactured p-GaN LEDs BluGlass has succeeded in its initial experimentation of applying low temperature RPCVD p-GaN to Green LED applications with highly promising results. These results show that the green LEDs produced using RPCVD p-GaN are demonstrating greater efficiency than the BluGlass grown MOCVD benchmark LEDs using the exact same MOCVD grown multi-quantum wells (MQWs), the critical light emitting region of an LED device. Read more »
Technologies | Electronics | May 27, 2015
Power Conversion Efficiency - Key for Stand-Alone Solar Powered Lighting in Nordic Regions
Power Conversion Efficiency - Key for Stand-Alone Solar Powered Lighting in Nordic Regions Stand-alone solar powered lighting solutions are made possible even in the Nordic region through a new, ground-breaking Danish project. An ideal collaboration between scientists from 4 different fields and private companies has succeeded in creating a system and a methodology that makes the impossible possible: Outdoor solar lighting which is not just a decoration. Read more »
Technologies | Optics | Material Science | May 12, 2015
ORNL Superhydrophobic Glass Coating Offers Clear Benefits - Maybe Also for Lighting Optics
ORNL Superhydrophobic Glass Coating Offers Clear Benefits - Maybe Also for Lighting Optics A moth’s eye and lotus leaf were the inspirations for an antireflective water-repelling, or superhydrophobic, glass coating that holds significant potential for solar panels, lenses, detectors, windows, weapons systems and many other products. The discovery by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, detailed in a paper published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry C, is based on a mechanically robust nanostructured layer of porous glass film. The coating can be customized to be superhydrophobic, fog-resistant and antireflective. Read more »
Technology | May 04, 2015
Configuration Via the Mains: Simple, Reliable and Professional
Configuration Via the Mains: Simple, Reliable and Professional As the heart of any LED luminaire, the LED driver not only has to meet strict requirements in terms of quality and reliability but also be flexible enough to adapt to different conditions. ready2mains – a new technology from Tridonic – helps enormously. The article explains what is needed and how it works. Read more »
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