Analog Devices Introduces WLED Charge-Pump Backlight Driver

Analog Devices, a provider of high-performance semiconductors for signal-processing applications, said it is introducing the ADP8870 white LED charge-pump backlight driver that lowers the power consumption of battery-operated handheld devices by up to 45 percent without compromising viewing quality. According to a release, the ADP8870 combines three key functions: a programmable backlight LED charge-pump driver with inputs for a photo transistor to automatically control the LED brightness and a pulse-width modulation input to manage the scale of the output current. This combination automatically changes the current intensity based on the ambient lighting levels and the white content of the displayed image. By performing this function automatically, the ADP8870 eliminates the need for a processor to monitor the phototransistor.

Taiwan’s big chip daddy plunks $318 million on LEDs

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the big, relentless and hugely successful semiconductor manufacturer, committed $318 million for LED and solar manufacturing facilities this week. Roughly $100 million will go into LEDs and another $218 million will go into solar.

Cree XLamp MX-3 LED Delivers Lighting Class Performance

Cree, Inc. announces commercial availability of the new 100+ lumen XLamp MX-3 LED. The MX-3 LED extends Cree's lighting-class performance to a broader set of applications with enhanced light uniformity and LED-to-LED color consistency. MX-3 delivers luminous flux of up to 122 lm at 350 mA in cool white (6500K) and up to 100 lm at 350 mA in warm white (3500K). The MX-3 offers design simplicity and flexibility, sharing a common footprint with Cree's XLamp MX-6 LED, and is ideal for LED bulbs, retail display lighting and high-flux distributed illumination such as cove lighting and wall washing. XLamp MX-3 LEDs are available in sample quantities immediately and production quantities with standard lead times. To locate a distributor, please visit

Controlling a Jacket’s Flashy LEDs With Your iPhone

Company pushing LED signs

Local municipalities are being asked to allow a Frankfort company to place a sign in their village, town or city that displays public messages and advertisements with light emitting diodes. James Gelose, of Fiberdyne Labs Inc., of Frankfort, went over the details of the proposal during a presentation Thursday to the Frankfort Village Board.

Sun-powered bulbs to improve lives

A Denver inventor is hoping to bring light to people without electricity, with his solar-powered light bulb. The bulb has a battery that gets charged by the sun. A one-day charge will power it for about two hours.

Worlds first LED ceiling lights

Sharp today announced six models of worlds first LED ceiling lights into the Japanese market.Using Sharp’s proprietary light diffusion technology, these ceiling lights achieve a thin design that is 43 mm at the thickest part and just 8 mm at the thinnest. Three

Creative Technology Hong Kong Partners with Future Lighting Solutions

Future Lighting Solutions announced a joint development project with Creative Technology Hong Kong Limited yielding a new line of solid state downlights manufactured under Creative Technology's Mabushi brand. The luminaires utilize LUXEON Rebel LEDs and were designed with thermal, electrical and optical support from Future's engineering team.  With Future's assistance, Creative selected LUXEON Rebel LEDs for their industry-leading reliability and 50,000-hour useful life. Future also aided in driver selection and overall system design, using proprietary tools to accelerate and optimize LED system development including maximizing LED output and lifetime. Tools used for the project included Future's SSL Designer for defining, calculating and optimizing baseline system requirements and costs; Usable Light Tool (ULT) for analyzing LED performance under specific operating conditions; LED Reliability Tool (LRT) for determining LED lifetime; and QLED for detailed thermal analysis of the LED solution design. The collaboration resulted in 23 downlight models that last 25 times longer than incandescent bulbs and reduce both power consumption and CO2 emissions by more than 80%. The fixtures are being distributed in 10 countries throughout Asia and Europe.

High-Efficiency Multi-String Backlight LED Drivers

Advanced Analogic Technologies, Inc. (AnalogicTech), an analog semiconductor company focused on powering innovative solutions in consumer, industrial, and communications markets, introduced its AAT1409/7/5 family of multi-string LED backlight drivers. Offering integrated boost converters and precision current sinks that can support up to 88 LEDs at 360mA total LED current, the AAT1409/7/5 drivers are among the most powerful in the marketplace. These new drivers bring to market a fully featured solution that reduces the number of backlight PCBs, reducing costs, yet is capable of driving high brightness LEDs and ensuring uniformity across the display by precisely controlling the backlight intensity.
The AAT1409/7/5 drivers operate from DC inputs, cigarette lighter adapters or multi-cell Li-ion batteries over the 4.5V to 26V range. The family is available in 8, 6 and 4 channels making them ideal for driving white LED (WLED) edge backlighting for LCD panels ranging from 10 to 22 inches in size. The drivers also support up to 100 kHz PWM dimming frequency to ensure silent operation.

GE Introduces New Reveal CFL Bulb

They say good things come in small packages, and for consumers, GE Lighting is delivering in a big way. GE's new Reveal Glass Covered CFL is now available in 9-watt, 15-watt and 20-watt bulbs and produces the clean, beautiful light consumers have come to expect from Reveal products, with the look of standard incandescent bulbs.  They use less wattage than Reveal incandescent bulbs, with 9-watt, 15-watt and 20-watt Reveal CFLs the equivalent of the 40-watt, 60-watt and 75-watt incandescent bulbs, respectively. This translates to 75 percent less energy usage and, based on an electricity rate of 10c/kWh, energy savings between $24-$44 in electricity costs over the life of the bulb, depending on which wattage is used. While the outside appearance looks like a standard incandescent bulb, energy-efficient Reveal(R) Glass Covered CFLs last eight times as long, or about five years (based on four hours use per day for the 8,000-hour rated life).

LED lighting cuts Wind Cave's electric bill

The light bill at Wind Cave National Park is about 80 percent cheaper now than it was just a few weeks ago. A $2-million project, which was completed in June, replaced the incandescent lighting system that was installed about 1950 with an energy-efficient, compact florescent LED lighting, park spokesman Tom Farrell said Saturday.

New Dutch industrial plant features Cree LED

A new packaging plant in the Netherlands is entirely lit with LED lighting from Cree (Nasdaq: CREE). The firm Kompak chose Cree XLamp LEDs, which were installed by LedNed, a Dutch firm

Slowdown seen in LEDs

There is slowdown in one of the hottest markets to date: LEDs. Based on Cree Inc.'s results this week and other trends, analysts are worried about the segment. ''Cree indicated that general lighting demand continues to be strong and channel inventories are benign. However weakening LED TV demand trends along with a seasonal Europe is impacting its growth prospects for the September quarter,'' said Hans Mosesmann, an analyst with Raymond James & Associates, in a report.

LED bulb for general lighting priced below $20

The Home Depot is now offering a 40-watt equivalent LED bulb online for under $20. Spotted by The New York Times, the bulb--made by Lighting Sciences Group and sold under the EcoSmart label--will be available in stores in September.  Lighting Science Group's A19, which puts out as much light as a 40-watt incandescent and uses about eight watts. The $20 price tag, which Home Depot has been offering since at least June, won't necessarily open the floodgates to LED replacements of incandescent and compact fluorescent bulbs, which still cost far less.

Habitat for Humanity to create first all-LED home

International charity organisation Habitat for Humanity has commenced construction on its first home to be built using only LED-based lighting sources. The organisation, which provides housing for homeless and disadvantaged people, has allied with electronics manufacturer Cree to create the home, which is being built in Durham in the US.

Indianapolis getting brighter

More than 500 Marion County intersections will be getting brighter, more energy efficient stoplights. The project to retrofit existing lights with Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs), which require less maintenance. The City of Indianapolis will spend about $1 million on the change out of the $8,032,300 it received to make energy efficient changes.

Light years ahead

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) properties at Dubai Festival City is in the process of replacing all of their interior lighting with LED solutions. A total of 35,000 light points – in hotel rooms, suites and public areas – will be replaced with sustainable alternatives.

Fairchild Semiconductor's Linear LED Drivers Conserve Space

Space-constrained applications, such as handsets, glucometers and other portable devices that require illumination of LCD displays and keypads, now have a linear LED driver option that can save up to 60 percent board space compared to alternate solutions. The design of Fairchild Semiconductor's  FAN5622/24/26 reduces overall component count by eliminating additional passive components used in charge pumps and series boost LED drivers. Fairchild's linear LED drivers simplify design with an easy-to-use control interface and a minimal amount of components. The FAN5622/24/26 are two-, four-, and six-channel current-sink linear LED drivers, ideal for backlighting the main LCD displays or keypads in mobile electronics.
With a very low dropout voltage of 50mV, the FAN5622/24/26 facilitates driving LEDs without an inductor or flyback capacitors. The brightness levels of the LED outputs are programmed through a single-wire control interface. The user can program 32 linear dimming steps and turn on and off the LEDs through this interface by applying digital pulses. This allows for greater dimming resolution using a simple methodology to control this functionality. These LED drivers also have a high peak efficiency (92 percent) thus extending battery life in portable applications.
For design and component engineers, Fairchild's LED drivers are cost-effective and offer a simplistic-design, minimizing the overall solution space compared to a charge pump solution or an inductive boost solution. The FAN5622/24/26 reduces the overall bill of materials (BOM) and accelerates time-to-market for portable designs that do not require a complex lighting solution.

Optiled and Cree light Singapore public housing with LEDs

Optiled Lighting International will deploy LED-based solid-state lighting (SSL) as a retrofit in 400 of the 588 buildings that comprise the Jurong Town public housing estate in Singapore. Optiled will ultimately install 64,000 SSL luminaires that use Cree XLamp XR-E LEDs in what the company proclaims to be "the largest public LED lighting makeover that the Singaporean government has ever conducted."

SC442 Boost Device Drives up to 120 White LEDs for Large Panels and Ultra-Bright Displays

Semtech Corp  announced the SC442, its first 10-channel white LED driver with an integrated 3A boost power switch. The device is capable of driving up to 120 LEDs at up to 30mA per channel and is packaged in an ultra-small, low-profile 4x4x0.6mm, 28-pin MLPQ package. The high-density package, small external filter components, wide operating voltage range and high efficiency satisfy space constrained LED backlights serving LCD monitors and LCD-TVs. The high density LED driver is also ideal for ultra-bright displays exceeding 500Nits which serve medical, industrial, avionics and navigation markets, as well as digital signage applications.
The device extends Semtech's popular SC44x LED driver platform to address large LCD backlighting applications. The SC442 operates across a wide input voltage range of 4.5V to 21V for use with lithium ion battery packs or regulated 5V, 12V or 18V power supplies. The SC442 is capable of up to 42V output for driving up to 12 white LEDs per channel. The device is compatible with boost (step-up), or SEPIC (step-up/down) topologies. It also transitions seamlessly to bypass (or linear) mode; when the input voltage is greater than the output voltage. The synchronization feature eliminates inter-modulation noise found in backlight systems utilizing multiple driver ICs -- such as those found in large LED backlit LCD-TVs. Other features include over-temperature, overload, open and programmable short LED protection.

San Diego State University adopts Lithonia Lighting RTLED

San Diego State University took the first step toward LED lighting by installing Lithonia Lighting RTLED in a new 215-person lecture hall.  This is the first LED lighting project the University completed as a long-term solution to reduce energy, reduce costs and achieve sustainability.  The University installed more than 80 Lithonia Lighting RTLEDs for general ambient lighting and 30 DOM8 LEDs for downlighting. To support the LED lighting, the University specified Acuity Brands Lighting controls as part of the system.RTLED is a high-quality, volumetric recessed luminaire that delivers ambient white light throughout an entire space while reducing energy costs, maintenance costs and a building’s environmental footprint. Powered by an advanced Samsung LED light engine, RTLED delivers a 50,000 hour system life and a superior lighting environment: high color rendering (80+ CRI), 3500K color temperature, and full range dimming with 0-10V DC control.

Canton moves to LED lights

More energy-efficient lights will be installed in decorative streetlights in the city of Canton. A total of 326 streetlights will be retrofitted with LED lights in phase one of the project. The decorative lights are in the downtown area, including Tuscarawas Street W, Market Avenue, Cleveland Avenue, McKinley Avenue, Walnut Avenue, the Timken High School campus, the Millennium and Cornerstone parking decks and some neighborhood areas, according to the city engineer’s office.

Cheaper light in Manteca

Changing 4,800 light bulbs will save Manteca taxpayers at least $150,000 a year. Work will start in the coming month on the first phase of a $685,830 project being financed in part with federal stimulus recovery funds to switch street lights to high-efficiency induction lamps. They will allow the city to trim its PG&E bill for street lights by at least $150,000 on an annual basis.