Thermal finalized Model K1 sapphire crystal grower sales agreement

Thermal Technology, a manufacturer of crystal growth equipment and high temperature furnace systems, finalized a Model K1 sapphire crystal grower sales agreement with Chongqing Silian Optoelectronics Science & Technology Co., Ltd. (Silian). "This new sales order signals continued industry acceptance of Thermal Technology’s high-productivity industrial tool for sapphire crystal growth and will benefit both Silian and Thermal Technology going forward,” says Matt Mede, Thermal Technology president and CEO.  Shipments of Silian’s multiple-unit order will begin April 2011.
Thermal Technology’s newly designed Model K1 Crystal Grower is intended for LED substrate production.  The tool's short cycle time makes it the most productive grower commercially available.  To satisfy the high demand of the rapidly growing sapphire market, Thermal Technology is shipping systems weekly.
Thermal Technology designs and manufactures crystal growing systems and high temperature vacuum and controlled atmosphere furnaces for the advanced processing of metals, ceramics, glass and quartz. Thermal Technology has 60 years of experience with more than 3000 installations in 40 countries.

Philips Wins Red Dot Design Award

Reinforcing its leadership in LED lighting solutions, Philips has received Red Dot product design and product innovation awards for its Jump luminaire from Philips Ledalite. Jump is a high performance direct luminaire which combines architectural elements, integrated technologies and patented optics in a contemporary form with a innovative new luminous endcap. Featuring Philips Ledalite's unique LEDLOGIQ design approach, Jump uses MesoOptics holographic nanotechnology, which makes spaces more visually appealing by optimally blending light and color, controlling high angle glare and creating a precise batwing distribution.
"As always, our jury cast a very careful eye over the products submitted. Design quality has asserted itself clearly in the judging process, with genuine and new creative solutions also being rewarded. Both of these criteria are not just yardsticks for good design, but also for the potential for success on the market. This potential is increased several times over by the targeted use of our renowned design award," said Professor Dr. Peter Zec, the initiator of the Red Dot award.
In addition to innovative design and the integration of LEDs and MesoOptics technology, Jump offers state-of-the-art sustainable technologies such as Response, an integrated daylight harvesting sensor that can further help reduce energy use by 30-35 percent. Moreover, Jump offers Airwave technology, which is comprised of integrated wireless and battery-less controls. By using organic sources of solar and kinetic energy, Airwave provides wireless individual personal control, daylight harvesting, occupancy sensing and full range dimming for private offices, open plan areas, classrooms and other spaces where the ability to control energy and lighting are essential. When combined, these technologies not only help designers and architects achieve LEED points, they ensure that energy is used in a sustainable, responsible way, while delivering the right levels of light.
"Jump is a smart fixture that is indicative of Philips' leading-edge professional lighting solutions, which extend far beyond just offering LED as a light source, combining design, sustainability and controls," said Tim Berman, General Manager, Philips Ledalite. "Integration with other leading-edge technologies, including building management systems, ensure that Jump can easily help a building meet today's energy-efficiency requirements, while giving owners the security of knowing their investment is future-proof and can be extended as needed."
The Red Dot design award dates back to 1955 and is now the world's largest and most distinguished design competition. The Red Dot design award jury of highly respected experts has awarded Jump the "Red Dot" seal of quality for high design quality and innovation. With more than 4,000 submissions from 60 countries, the competition distinguishes truly creative achievements and thus pays tribute to the high potential creative talents, designers and design companies around the world. With this internationally coveted award, Philips Ledalite now joins the ranks of the design elite and previous award winners such as Apple, BMW, Porsche and Herman Miller.

Brillianz supplies LED luminaires to jewelry retailer F. Hinds

Brillianz has developed the BayLite range of down-lights and track lights for the high-end retail display market.  Brillianz Electronic Systems Ltd, a UK-based electronics and lighting manufacturer, has launched a range of LED-based retail lighting products developed in close collaboration with F.Hinds, a family-owned UK-based jewelry business. Brillianz has supplied a number of the BayLite luminaires to the retailer. Addressing the exacting requirements of high-end retail display, the BayLite family of LED downlight and track-light products has been designed to provide light outputs better than currently achieved by the ubiquitous 75-100W metal-halide fittings.

OSRAM Opto Semiconductors Expands LED Light Site

OSRAM Opto Semiconductors announced that it has launched a new section within its LED Light Site  - "LED Fundamentals." The online tool is dedicated to providing instruction and educational tutorials on a range of subjects from LED lighting applications to LED system design considerations, and with a special focus on engineering discipline for thermal, optical and electrical applications. LED Fundamentals will offer training modules for users of LEDs with the goal of helping users to better leverage the energy and cost saving potential of LEDs.
LED Fundamentals is an expansion of OSRAM Opto's existing LED Light Site, which serves as the leading source of LED information, resources, tools, technology and LED lighting solutions for the solid state lighting, general illumination space. LED Fundamentals will help users find informative presentations on topics ranging from introductory sessions such as "LEDs Basics," to technical deep-dives on LEDs and solid-state lighting, such as "Radiometry and Photometry," "Resistor/Linear Regulators" and "External Thermal Resistance (substrates)." The training modules will be led by the product and technology experts at OSRAM Opto Semiconductors, a leading manufacturer of optoelectronic semiconductor components and technologies for a wide range of lighting applications.
"The LED Light Site was designed to provide our customers and partners in the general illumination market with the most up-to-date information and resources available about LEDs and solid-state lighting," said Kate Cleveland, marketing communications manager for OSRAM Opto Semiconductors. "We are very pleased to introduce LED Fundamentals as an expansion of the LED Light Site to provide information and instruction on a wide range of topics within solid state lighting."

R&D spotlight on LED grid lights

Grid light suppliers in China are looking at LEDs as the industry standard in the next five to 10 years. Responding to international and domestic support for “green” economies, companies are shifting more resources to the development of the line, which provides greater energy savings than older technologies. Another major advantage of LED bulbs and tubes is the absence of mercury, use of which is already limited in the EU and other markets. The material is present in fluorescent versions, the popular alternative to solid-state light sources. Even units adopting tricolor powder contain a certain amount, although most suppliers keep the level below 0.3mg.

Samsung LED, Sumitomo Chemical Tie Up

Samsung LED Co., a South Korean manufacturer of light-emitting diodes, will form a venture with Sumitomo Chemical Co. to make components for energy-efficient lights used in televisions and monitors. The two companies will invest a combined 80 billion won ($72 million) and have an equal stake in the venture, the South Korean manufacturer said in a statement on its website today. The venture will start mass production of sapphire ingots and wafers used in light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, in early 2012.

Forbes Joins Fight Against Money-Saving Light Bulbs

In a column for Forbes magazine, Steve Forbes endorsed Republicans' proposal to repeal light bulb efficiency standards signed into law by President Bush in 2007 and attempted to debunk the fact that compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) save consumers money by using less energy. However, tests have shown that CFLs can save households money even under the least ideal conditions.

LED financing options on the up

With incandescent bulbs heading for the recycling bin of history, Fairfield County is becoming home to a fast-proliferating collection of LED lighting suppliers and dealers – some of which are offering financing packages to help cover the upfront cost of installing the pricey fixtures. Light-emitting diodes are computer chips dosed to produce illumination, and have fast found favor in settings such as casinos and restaurants due to accompanying software systems that allow venues to create differing lighting effects.

Ann Arbor firm taps growing market with LED display ads

Liquor brands used to get themselves noticed in stores with cardboard displays that were animated by small battery-powered motors. Nowadays, the marketing idea remains the same — make those beverages look as appealing as possible at the point of purchase — but the technology involved has advanced by light years. Animated LED displays now lure shoppers to spirits brands in retail settings. And an Ann Arbor-based company, Estrakon Inc., has helped transform this next generation of shopper-marketing technology.

LED maker Cree flags another gloomy quarter

Higher customer inventories and pricing pressure forced Cree Inc to cut its third-quarter revenue and margin forecast, signaling another disappointing quarter from the LED maker. Supply of light-emitting diodes, used to light mobile phones and television screens, has jumped in recent times mainly due to generous subsidies in China. That, along with pricing pressures, have led Cree to post revenue below market expectations in the last two quarters.

LED shower heads let you know how hot the water is

If you’ve always liked the idea of showering in a disco, you might like the idea of the LED Color Changing Shower Head from Chinavision. This specially designed custom shower head is just like a regular shower head, except that it has LEDs that light up according to the temperature of the water flowing. For temperatures below 90°F it turns green, for temperatures 91 to 105°F it turns blue and 107 to 113°F will make it turn red.

SemiLEDs Introduces the New I-Do LED Chip

SemiLEDs Corporation announced the introduction of the new I-Do LED, an innovative new chip that will be featured in SemiLEDs’ ultra high brightness LED product portfolio. I-Do is the second generation of the I-Core AK series of LEDs from SemiLEDs, which are designed to provide further improvements in brightness, reliability and overall efficiency.
The I-Do LED features a new design with advantages in improved reliability, optimization of current distribution and lower forward voltages at high current operations of 700mA and 1A. The I-Do LED is not only more reliable, but significantly brighter as the creative design produces improved internal quantum efficiency. In a white light package, a 45 mil I-Do chip can deliver up to 135 lm at 350mA with CCT of 5000-7000K, more than a 10% improvement over the previous generation. With increased efficiency, reliability and the lowest thermal resistance in the market, the I-Do chip is ideal for small footprint, high performance applications

Energy Focus to Retrofit Two Navy Ships With LED Lighting

The light bulb you grew up with likely won't be the light bulb you'll grow old with unless U.S. Rep. Joe Barton has his way. The Arlington Republican is spearheading an effort to tell Congress to keep its hands off everyone's light bulbs, trying to repeal a section of a 2007 energy independence act geared to start phasing out 100-watt incandescent light bulbs next year. The act, passed by Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush, would essentially remove incandescent light bulbs by 2014, leaving consumers to mostly use the swirled, compact fluorescent bulbs.

United LED Selects Veeco’s MOCVD Tools

Veeco Instruments Inc. announced today that United LED Shan Dong Corp., (ULED) a China-based joint venture between United Microelectronics Corp (UMC) and Epistar, has placed a multi-tool order for Veeco’s TurboDisc K465i Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) Systems. The systems will be installed at ULED’s facility in Jining City, China for its high brightness light emitting diode (HB LED) manufacturing ramp.
Dr. Tzu-Chi Wen, Vice President, Epi factory of United LED, commented, “We are pleased to add Veeco systems to our production facility because of their demonstrated leadership in MOCVD technology. The K465i provides the process performance and lowest cost of ownership needed to advance ULED’s position as a provider of LED devices for various lighting applications.”

Steady growth for UV LED market

Thanks to compactness, lower cost of ownership and environmentally friendly composition, UV LEDs have started and will continue to replace traditional mercury lamps in current applications (See figure above), and will also open many new applications, especially portable ones. For these reasons, UV LEDs business is expected to grow from $25M to more than $100M in 2016 at a growth rate of almost + 30%. In 2010, LEDs continue to be sold mostly in the UVA/B wavelengths (especially in upper wavelengths, between 365 to 400 nm). More than 90% of the UV LED market (outside of R&D) was covered by UV curing, counterfeit detection, medical and instrumentation applications requiring UV A/B sources. UVC LEDs are mainly sold today for R&D and scientific instrumentation purpose.

How to Churn Out Cheap LED Lighting

A startup in California has developed a manufacturing technique that could substantially cut the cost of LED lightbulbs—a more energy-efficient, but also more expensive, type of lighting. LEDs are conventionally made on a relatively costly substrate of silicon carbide or sapphire. Bridgelux has come up a new process takes advantage of existing fabrication machines used to make silicon computer chips, potentially cutting LED production costs by 75 percent, according to the company.

Plumen Light Bulb Takes Home 2011 Brit Insurance Design of the Year Award

The annual Brit Insurance Designs of the Year Awards have named their top pick: Samuel Wilkinson and the product design company Hulger, for their creation of the Plumen light bulb. Essentially, it’s a compact fluorescent bulb, twisted into more fluid shapes to set them apart from those standard, boring CFLs you find in packs at Home Depot, thus hopefully making it more appealing to consumers who have been reluctant to make the energy-saving switch.

Are you hoarding incandescent light bulbs?

USA Today recently reported that thousands of consumers were hoarding incandescent light bulbs as the federal government continues to put the dimmer on Thomas Alva Edison's most famous invention. A new energy bill is requiring a phase-out of incandescent light bulbs in favor of more efficient compact fluorescent bulbs by 2020. The problem for me is, I live in a vintage home where some of the vintage lighting fixtures were designed to showcase the Wizard of Menlo Park's nifty invention: no shades, no globes, just the bare bulbs.

LED Stairway

Ever needed to get up in the middle of the night, only to struggle to find the light switch for the hallway? Or maybe you didn't want to wake family members with bright light? Or maybe you ascend or desend your stairs and wonder where your own red carpet is? The LED Stair Lighting Controller won't really give you a red-carpet moment, but it will make your home look amazing.

Energy Focus Receives Order Add LED Lighting to Two More US

Energy Focus (EFOI) announced that it has received a $446,000 order to supply its recently qualified LED lighting fixtures to retrofit two US Navy destroyers. EFOI will provide the US Navy Ships with its LED Berth lights that use its proprietary IntelliTube technology to replace fluorescent T-5 fixtures at half the power. IT will also supply its LED globe products that use state of the art white, yellow, red and blue LEDs to replace incandescent globe fixtures saving 80% or more energy. The products being supplied were developed and qualified under contracts from the Office of Naval Research (ONR) TechSolutions Program and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Shares are up 3.96% or $0.04 to $1.05.

New LED Driver From Supertex Protects LEDs

Supertex, Inc, a recognized leader in high voltage analog and mixed signal integrated circuits (ICs), today introduced HV9860, a boost LED driver that is designed to optimize LED performance and extend LED life in applications such as RGB or white LED backlighting, LCD TVs and monitors, and LED lamps for general lighting. The IC uses a peak current mode control scheme and includes an internal transconductance amplifier to accurately control output current over all line and load conditions.
HV9860 also includes LED wiring fault detection, which protects an LED string from high current in cases of accidental short circuit from any tap in the string to ground. A wiring fault scenario is created, for example, during production when a wire connecting the LEDs gets shorted to the chassis, and, as a result, a very high current is delivered to the operating LEDs. The built-in protection provided by HV9860 identifies this scenario and shuts the IC down as well as signaling a fault to the rest of the circuit.

Explosion Proof LED Light Tank Light

The Magnalight EPL-16C-1MLED explosion proof LED tank light provides operators in hazardous locations with an effective and versatile explosion proof lighting solution for confined spaces. The 16 inch diameter LED light head produces 10,000 lumens of light in a wide flood pattern and draws only 150 watts. This unit is multi-voltage capable and can be operated with 120VAC to 277 VAC. The wheeled cart is constructed of non sparking aluminum and includes 100 feet of explosion proof SOOW cord for convenient connection of the unit to power sources while providing high mobility.

LED work lamp

Hella Inc., the North American aftermarket subsidiary of automotive lighting and electronics supplier Hella, has released the Hella Power Beam 2000 LED Work Lamp. This new and extremely powerful work lamp delivers energy-efficient and economical lighting, providing 2,200 lumens of lighting output (at a light color of 5,700 ºK) while using only 43W of power.
The Hella Power Beam 2000 incorporates 16 high-performance, long lasting LEDs to create a powerful white light that's very close to daylight and delivers very good close-range illumination for a wide range of heavy-duty applications. In the Power Beam 2000's design, Hella also uses its Free-Form reflector technology, which is designed to deliver more lighting output and precise beam placement than conventional lamps. Due to its very low power consumption, the Hella Power Beam 2000 has a lifespan of over 16,000 hours and will last 100 times longer than a traditional halogen bulb.
The lamp is built to withstand rugged operating conditions and has a specially developed thermal management design that protects the intense light output from causing overheating. It is for use in highway, agricultural, construction, municipal, forestry equipment and heavy-duty work truck applications. Built-in shielding also helps protect against interference with other nearby electronic devices.
Completely sealed, no service is required.?The Power Beam 2000 has a multi-volt operating range from 9 – 33V. It comes completely sealed from the factory and requires no additional service. The lamp is encased in a sturdy aluminum die-cast housing, which is sealed to IP6K7 and IP6K9K for harsh conditions, and features a stainless steel mounting bracket.

N.S. looks at $90m switch to LED street lights

The Nova Scotia is reviewing the possibility of replacing 120,000 street lights across the province with more energy-efficient LED lighting, according to ministerial briefing notes. The notes prepared in January for newly installed Energy Minister Charlie Parker say the estimated cost of installing light-emitting diode technology provincewide would be $90 million.

Light Bulb Battle Heats Up

Statistical evidence of widespread light bulb hoarding has yet to emerge, but the anecdotes make such colorful copy that you would think everyone in the U.S. is rushing out to buy those good old fashioned incandescent light bulbs before they disappear. Seriously, let’s give ourselves a little credit for having some good old fashioned common sense. At least one survey shows that a significant majority of Americans are already trying new energy efficient lighting in advance of the federally mandated incandescent bulb phase-out.  There are a couple of obvious reasons – saving money and conserving energy – and there may also be some underlying currents at work, too.

Discovery could make LEDs brighter

An experiment in Salah Bedair's lab at N.C. State University generated curious holes in gallium nitride, a semiconductor material used to make light-emitting diodes. LEDs are microscopically small, square slivers that produce light when electricity runs through them. Each square consists of row upon row of crystals lining up like stitches in a knitting pattern.

Green Tips: Lighting

Think about how far lighting technology has come in the past century; from kerosene lamps to LEDs. Sure, we all need lighting to function, but often we're using more than we need and spending more on energy costs because of it. Compact florescent bulbs (or CFLS) are the most energy efficient way to start saving money and energy. Replacing one incandescent bulb with a CFL bulb of similar brightness will cost around $5.50 a year and save about $15 annually. This may not sound like a huge savings, but if you take into account how many lights you have in your home or business and add up the total number of hours a day they're on, your savings could be hundreds or in the case of a business; thousands of dollars a year.

Why All Your Bulbs May Soon Be LEDs

A breakthrough in producing light emitting diodes could see LED production costs tumble as much as 75%. That's thanks to research by a startup called Bridgelux, which has resulted in a radical shift--Gallium-nitride LEDs can now be grown on silicon substrates for the first time in a "commercial grade."

City of Asheville switch to LED streetlights up for vote

The city of Asheville is set to brighten its green image even more with what could be the largest installation of high-energy efficient street lights in North Carolina. The City Council plans to vote tonight on whether to buy up to 900 light-emitting diode, or LED, light fixtures to replace current lights. The issue is on the council's consent agenda, meaning it is expected to pass with no opposition.

How to Save Money with CFLs

One simple step to be more efficient -- and save money -- is to swap all your all your traditional incandescent light bulbs for compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) or light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The cost of CFLs has come down quite a bit in recent years (now about $5 a pop), making them an affordable choice. On the other hand, LEDs are quite pricey, at roughly $40 per bulb. For this reason, LEDs may not be a viable option at the moment.

The New Standard In LED Grow Lights

As LED grow lighting becomes increasingly popular for indoor gardening, so does the need to improve and refine the technology to ensure growers are confident that they have access to the best lighting solutions available. Committed to the most innovative and trustworthy products, HID Hut has done exactly that with their latest product release, the MotherShip LED.

To cut LED lighting costs, Bridgelux rides silicon

To get the same economics of the computer semiconductor industry, the LED lighting world needs to start manufacturing on the same equipment, says Bridgelux CEO Bill Watkins. The LED light source maker said this week that it demonstrated the production of LED light chips on silicon, a transition that will cut production costs by 75 percent and ultimately result in cheaper, energy-efficient light fixtures. Bridgelux intends to start making LEDs, which will be fitted into bulbs made by other companies, with the process in two or three years.

LEDs become IT appliances in smart buildings

When analyst Sam Jaffe began researching smart buildings, he figured his report would be about using IT systems to turn dumb buildings into smart ones. Heating and cooling systems in a modern building are full of chips and sensors, he noted, and "with the emergence of LEDs, the light bulb will make the leap to full-fledged IT appliance, capable of intelligent automated control and energy management."

The changing lighting landscape

For a century, the only acronym you needed to memorize to light your home was GE. Say hello to CFL and LED -- and make sure you're high in CRI if you want a bright future. In California, the familiar 100-watt incandescent bulb is being phased out this year in favor of energy-saving alternatives. Soon the 75-, 60- and 40-watt incandescent bulbs will depart, too, in a controversial cross-country wave that aims to end, by 2014, the national reign of Thomas Edison's brainchild.

Good riddance to old-fashioned light bulbs

Imagine if gas stations installed pumps that spilled four-fifths of everything you bought. You’d fork out $10 but only get $2 worth of gas in the tank. The rest would spill onto the ground, stinking up the joint and polluting the groundwater. Outrageous! We wouldn’t stand for it, right? Actually, we might – because this what happens every time we turn on a traditional light bulb.

Green Mountain Power to help towns pay for energy-efficient streetlights

Green Mountain Power Corp. is teaming with Efficiency Vermont on a program aimed at helping every town in the utility's territory change over to energy-efficient streetlights. The power company plans to offer financial assistance to towns so they change out their streetlights to light-emitting diode streetlights, or LEDs.

Solar Energy Powers Leaf-Shaped LED Lamp

We’ve seen some interesting examples of LED desk lamps, but the Greendix Lumileaf recently debuted by Sonelis Technologies takes top honors, by virtue of both its elegant design and the fact that it doesn’t come with a plug. Housed within this lamp’s brushed aluminum frame is a 1.25W leaf-shaped solar panel, which harvests both direct and ambient light. Power is stored in a built-in 1800mA NiMH battery which then provides juice, after dark, to six 1.2 watt high-brightness energy-efficient LEDs–which, according to Sonelis, provide “ample light for any situation.”

Ann Arbor officials tout latest LED street lighting project

Ann Arbor officials said a new LED street lighting project is saving the city money and reducing the city's greenhouse gas emissions. The city recently collaborated with DTE Energy to install 58 new LED fixtures in the neighborhood bounded by Hill Street, Packard Street, South Forest Avenue and Wells Street. The area includes mostly University of Michigan student rental housing. Neighborhood representatives approached the city to discuss ways to improve street light quality.

LED street light delivers high illumination output

Dialight has unveiled its latest innovation in LED roadway and area lighting with the new Dialight StreetSense Series LED Street Light featuring Dialight’s optics technology for precision light placement along with maximum energy efficiency and reliability for ultra-low total cost of ownership over the lifetime of the fixture.
The new luminaire is designed for easy change-out from existing HID fixtures to help municipalities and commercial property owners meet sustainability and energy efficiency goals and reduce maintenance costs. Each unit is manufactured at Dialight’s Roxboro, N.C. production facility to meet the Buy American requirements for projects funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).
Delivering up to 75 lumens per watt and 70 percent lumen maintenance over 60,000 hours, the new StreetSense fixture leverages Dialight’s own proprietary integrated precision driver design to maximize performance and thermal management within a compact and lightweight housing. Driven at just 350 mA for long-life LED performance, the high-output StreetSense streetlight utilizes the latest lighting-class Cree XLamp XP-G LEDs and operates at 100-277V to provide a superior quality, cool white light with a CRI of 70 and 6000K CCT.
“This fixture incorporates a number of Dialight’s industry-leading innovations, including our exclusive precision optics and angled design for more precise light placement that minimizes light trespass, especially in residential areas,” said Roy Burton, group chief executive at Dialight. “And, our exclusive in-house driver design ensures maximum energy efficiency and thermal management backed by Dialight’s reputation for innovative power supply optimization and reliability.”
The new StreetSense fixture is available with optional dimming capability and/or photocontroller for dusk-to-dawn operation. With instant-on and a power factor greater than 0.95, the StreetSense fixture provides flexible control options in a rugged, cast aluminum housing with UV and abrasion resistant polycarbonate lens (glass options available upon request). Available now with Type III optics; Type II, IV and V models will soon be available.

Light up the streets with these LED-lit skateboards

It's no skateboard with F1 tech, but Clear29's LT LED-lit skateboards still look pretty slick for such a modest mod. Each 29 x 8.5 inch skateboard has LEDs that are powered by a 9V battery, translucent wheels, 9-inch high response gullwing mission trucks and ABEC5 racing bearings.

AnalogicTech Launches Small, Quiet, Serial, Step-Up LED Backlight Drivers for Handheld Devices

Advanced Analogic Technologies, Inc, an analog semiconductor company focused on powering innovative solutions in consumer, industrial, and communications markets, today introduced the AAT14XX family of 31 mA step-up single-channel light-emitting diode (LED) drivers capable of driving up to 10 LEDs in a single string. The drivers' small size and quiet operation make them ideal LED backlight solutions for single cell Lithium-ion battery-based equipment, including mobile and smart phones, MP3 players, portable media players (PMPs) and portable navigation device-type applications with larger screens.
The AAT14XX family enables larger displays, allows higher efficiencies and offers filtered pulse-width modulation (PWM) dimming to eliminate interference with the radios in cell phones and other handheld devices. With a 1.15 x 1.55 mm wafer-level chip scale package (WLCSP) size, the devices require only 0.7 cm(2) of space on a printed circuit board, making them one of the smallest solutions available.
"The requirements and features for optimal backlight power management are constantly evolving in tandem with the growth of the LED market," said Roger Smullen, Director, Strategic Marketing at AnalogicTech. "The AAT14XX family brings to market one of the smallest solutions for serial LED drivers, strengthening our portfolio for handheld devices. These new products add new capabilities to our comprehensive LED offerings, which are rapidly encompassing a broad range of end products ranging from handheld devices to tablets to televisions."
LED brightness is controlled in one of three ways: 32 dimming steps using the S(2)Cwire™ interface and filtered or direct PWM control. PWM dimming frequency of 100 KHz eliminates audible noise and is compatible with content adaptive brightness control (CABC) to further reduce backlight power consumption by up to 50 percent.
The major source of power drain in portable systems with displays is the backlight in a liquid crystal display (LCD) screen. The AAT14XX family addresses this with three dimming controls, and an integrated precision, high voltage current sink that provides maximum flexibility in adjusting LED current from 10 to 31 mA regardless of the number of series LEDs. This approach achieves a high efficiency of 88 percent, significantly more than that offered by traditional LED drivers that use a ballast resistor. 

Mitsubishi debuts hybrid laser- and LED-lit TV

While Sharp's Quattron technology adds discrete yellow to standard red, green, and blue (RGB) primary colors to improve TV color fidelity, Mitsubishi has taken a different approach to achieve a similar result. Mitsubishi has developed a hybrid LED-edgelit LCD panel that utilizes red laser diodes on top of cyan LEDs. This new technology delivers a wider color gamut of about 1.3 times and "drastically" improves red vividness, according to the company.

Feds to study Elmira street light program

Representatives from the U.S. Department of Energy will soon visit Elmira to learn more about the city's program to change from energy-hungry streetlights to more efficient fixtures. The city began researching light-emitting diode, or LED, fixtures in May 2009. Subsequently, a gradual changeover started from standard mercury vapor, high-pressure sodium and metal halide fixtures to LED fixtures as funding became available through the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

LCD TV by Mitsubishi Electric is partially illuminated by laser diodes

Mitsubishi Electric, which is already selling a rear-projection laser TV, is now using red laser diodes in one of its edge-lit flat-screen LCD TVs to improve the color gamut.  The red lasers, used along with cyan-emitting LEDs, provide the backlighting. The TV will be commercialized in fiscal 2011 and will be introduced in Japan first, according to Tech-On.

WR trains to get LED display boards

Western Railways in India will soon replace the destination signboards on outstation trains with LED boards. The system will be supported by Global Positioning System and provide train number, next stop and station name. Initially the LED boards will be installed in 600 coaches at Rs. 8 crore and later used in all trains.

Are LED Lights Hazardous To Your Health?

Reds are the worst. They have eight times the amount of lead allowed under California law. But all of the light-emitting diodes (LEDs) tested by UC Irvine scientists were brimming with toxins – lead, arsenic and many other potentially hazardous substances – linked to cancer and other horrible diseases and maladies. The scientists tested – crunched, leached and measured – Christmas strands, traffic lights and car headlights and brake lights. They reported their findings about the Christmas lights in the January 2011 issue of Environmental Science & Technology and plan to publish a more comprehensive paper at a later date.