Trends

Trends

Technology | Jun 04, 2013
MIT Demonstrates New Method for Fine-Tuning Emissions from Quantum Dots
MIT Demonstrates New Method for Fine-Tuning Emissions from Quantum Dots Tiny particles of matter called quantum dots, which emit light with exceptionally pure and bright colors, have found a prominent role as biological markers. In addition, they are realizing their potential in computer and television screens, and have promise in solid-state lighting. New research at MIT could now make these quantum dots even more efficient at delivering precisely tuned colors of light. Read more »
Technology | May 24, 2013
New Family of Tiny Crystals Glow Bright in LED Lights
New Family of Tiny Crystals Glow Bright in LED Lights Light-emitting diodes, better known as LEDs, offer substantial energy savings over incandescent and fluorescent lights and are easily produced in single colors such as red or green commonly used in traffic lights or children's toys. Developing an LED that emits a broad spectrum of warm white light on par with sunlight has proven tricky, however. LEDs, which produce light by passing electrons through a semiconductor material, often are coupled with materials called phosphors that glow when excited by radiation from the LED. Minuscule crystals that glow different colors may be the missing ingredient for white LED lighting that illuminates homes and offices as effectively as natural sunlight. Read more »
Technology | May 08, 2013
Strain Engineering Improves Light Output from Green LEDs
Strain Engineering Improves Light Output from Green LEDs The Chinese Academy of Science reports that researchers in China have used strain engineering to improve the light output power of 530nm green light-emitting diodes (LEDs) by 28.9% at 150mA current injection [Hongjian Li et al, Appl. Phys. Express, vol6, p052102, 2013]. The research was carried out by Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Semiconductors, Beijing, and University of Hong Kong. Read more »
Technology | May 02, 2013
HD Retina, Martini's World Exclusive New LED Light for an Unmatched Color Perception Quality
HD Retina, Martini's World Exclusive New LED Light for an Unmatched Color Perception Quality All truly great inventions, the ones that really have affected the course of history and people’s lives, have changed the context of a world that was not ready to welcome them. Small and large objects have introduced new solutions and unprecedented perspectives that previously only existed in the minds of their creators. They are innovative, surprising, revolutionary products: in a word unexpected. Read more »
Technology | LpR Article | Apr 05, 2013
Interview - Optics Production Technology for Customizing LED Luminaires
Interview - Optics Production Technology for Customizing LED Luminaires Siegfried Luger and Arno Grabher-Meyer from LED professional discuss future trends and challenges of the LED lighting business with Richard van de Vrie, CEO of LUXeXceL, a young company that is growing quickly. Van de Vrie owes much of his 25 years of experience in the lighting business to the family owned lighting company that he worked in. Read more »
Technology | Apr 03, 2013
Cambridge Invests £1 million to Accelerate GaN-on-Silicon LED Research
Cambridge Invests £1 million to Accelerate GaN-on-Silicon LED Research Gallium nitride has been described as “the most important semiconductor since silicon” and is used in energy-saving LED lighting. A new £1million growth facility will allow Cambridge researchers to further reduce the cost and improve the efficiency of LEDs, with potentially huge cost-saving implications. Read more »
Technology | Mar 01, 2013
KIT Demonstrates Light from Silicon Nanocrystal LEDs
KIT Demonstrates Light from Silicon Nanocrystal LEDs ilicon nanocrystals have a size of a few nanometers and possess a high luminous potential. Scientists of KIT and the University of Toronto/Canada have now succeeded in manufacturing silicon-based light-emitting diodes (SiLEDs). They are free of heavy metals and can emit light in various colors. The team of chemists, materials researchers, nanoscientists, and opto-electronic experts presents its development in the “Nano Letters” journal. Read more »
White Paper | Technology | Feb 27, 2013
PI's New LED-Downlight Reference Design Achieves High-Performance Dimming While Further Reducing Component Count
PI's New LED-Downlight Reference Design Achieves High-Performance Dimming While Further Reducing Component Count Power Integrations, a world leader in high-efficiency, high-reliability LED driver ICs, today announced RDR-347, an LED-downlight reference design. The new circuit demonstrates the capabilities of the recently launched LYTSwitch™ IC family, which offers the industry’s best high-end dimming performance from a single-stage LED driver– together with all the associated efficiency, space and cost benefits that the single-stage approach brings. Read more »
Technology | Feb 27, 2013
Bluglass Produced p-GaN Films that Meet Industry Benchmark for the First Time
Bluglass Produced p-GaN Films that Meet Industry Benchmark for the First Time Australian clean technology innovator, BluGlass Limited (ASX: BLG) announced today that it has succeeded in producing p-type gallium nitride (GaN) films with industry equivalent electrical properties using its breakthrough low temperature Remote Plasma Chemical Vapour Deposition (RPCVD) technology when grown on top of MOCVD GaN templates. Read more »
White Paper | Technology | Feb 14, 2013
Cree Sets New R&D Performance Record with 276 Lumen-Per-Watt Power LED
Cree, Inc. delivers another industry first with a barrier-breaking 276 lumen-per-watt white R&D power LED. This significant milestone exceeds Cree’s previous R&D industry record of 254 lumens per watt and demonstrates Cree’s continued commitment to innovate and accelerate the adoption of LED lighting. Read more »
Technology | Feb 11, 2013
New Atomic Layer Deposition Process for Nitride LED Reflector Structures
New Atomic Layer Deposition Process for Nitride LED Reflector Structures Although some groups have developed DBRs for increasing output power of LEDs before, this approach is claimed as the first proposal and demonstration of DBRs grown using ALD rather than electron-beam (EB) evaporation. The advantages of ALD over EB evaporation include better thickness uniformity over large-diameter substrates and thickness control at the atomic level. Read more »
Standardization + Regulation | Technology | Feb 08, 2013
LEDOTRON: Digital Dimming Technology for a New World of Lighting Convenience
LEDOTRON: Digital Dimming Technology for a New World of Lighting Convenience LEDOTRON is the name of the new digital standard for dimming systems designed for LED and compact fluorescent retrofit lamps. The innovative digital dimming and regulation technology was developed in collaboration with OSRAM and is to be passed as the IEC 62756-1 standard end of this year.The participants at the LEDOTRON press conference at the BAU trade fair in Munich in January 2013 were presented with the advantages of the LEDOTRON technology. Read more »
White Paper | Technology | Jan 30, 2013
New Options for Transparent Contact Electrodes
New Options for Transparent Contact Electrodes Found in flat screens, solar modules, or in new organic light-emitting diode (LED) displays, transparent electrodes have become ubiquitous. Typically, they consist of metal oxides like In2O3, SnO2, ZnO and TiO2 . Read more »
Technology | Jan 10, 2013
Dimming with Warmer, Cozier White Light - NXP Transforms LED Color Quality
Dimming with Warmer, Cozier White Light - NXP Transforms LED Color Quality When comparing LEDs to incandescent light bulbs, there is a noticeable difference in light quality: LED lamps when dimmed are perceived to be “colder” than incandescents. At CES 2013 this week, NXP Semiconductors (NASDAQ: NXPI) is demonstrating a groundbreaking solution that allows LED lamps to closely mimic the traditional incandescent light bulb, to produce a warmer, cozier white light as they are dimmed. Featuring “sensorless sensing” technology, developed and patented by NXP, this solution also has the advantage of driving down LED system costs by eliminating external temperature sensors, reducing the size of the heat sinks required for LED system cooling, and significantly improving reliability. Read more »
White Paper | Technology | Jan 09, 2013
Scientists Mimic Fireflies to Make Brighter LEDs
Scientists Mimic Fireflies to Make Brighter LEDs The nighttime twinkling of fireflies has inspired scientists to modify a light-emitting diode (LED) so it is more than one and a half times as efficient as the original. Researchers from Belgium, France, and Canada studied the internal structure of firefly lanterns, the organs on the bioluminescent insects’ abdomens that flash to attract mates. The scientists identified an unexpected pattern of jagged scales that enhanced the lanterns’ glow, and applied that knowledge to LED design to create an LED overlayer that mimicked the natural structure. The overlayer, which increased LED light extraction by up to 55 percent, could be easily tailored to existing diode designs to help humans light up the night while using less energy. The work is published in a pair of papers today in the Optical Society’s (OSA) open-access journal Optics Express. Read more »
Technology | Dec 13, 2012
Nature Materials Study: Boosting Heat Transfer with Nanoglue Might also Improve LED Cooling
Nature Materials Study: Boosting Heat Transfer with Nanoglue Might also Improve LED Cooling A team of interdisciplinary researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has developed a new method for significantly increasing the heat transfer rate across two different materials. Results of the team's study, published in the journal Nature Materials, could enable new advances in cooling computer chips and lighting-emitting diode (LED) devices, collecting solar power, harvesting waste heat, and other applications. Read more »
Technology | Dec 07, 2012
Copper, Gold and Tin for Efficient LED Chips
Copper, Gold and Tin for Efficient LED Chips With gold, copper or tin and special galvanizing processes, scientists are improving the function of semi-conductors and making the manufacture of microelectronic systems a child‘s play. Especially the LED industry could profit from this. Read more »
White Paper | Technology | Dec 05, 2012
Power Integrations Sets New Standard for Power Density in LED-Driver Reference Design for T8-Tube Replacement
Power Integrations Sets New Standard for Power Density in LED-Driver Reference Design for T8-Tube Replacement Power Integrations, the leader in high-voltage integrated circuits for energy-efficient power conversion, today announced two new reference designs describing high-efficiency, non-isolated, high-power-factor (PF) LED drivers for T8 tubes. The designs feature low component count and leverage simple magnetics and single-sided boards yielding industry-leading power densities of 14.2 W/in³. Based on the LNK460KG LED driver from Power Integrations’ LinkSwitch-PL family of ICs, the circuits detailed in DER-337 (high-line) and DER-345 (low-line) use single-stage non-isolated topologies which result in a profile of only 8 mm - small enough to be mounted behind the LEDs in the T8 tube. Read more »
White Paper | Technology | Oct 10, 2012
Fan Efficiency, An Increasingly Important Selection Criteria
Fan Efficiency, An Increasingly Important Selection Criteria How important is fan efficiency in the selection of a cooling system? Selecting a cooling fan is no longer about airflow and noise. The true test for a design engineer is the understanding that by selecting an efficient cooling fan system savings in cost of ownership can be realized. NMB Technologies Corporation, a Minebea Group Company, has released a new white paper on that issue. Read more »
Technology | Sep 13, 2012
NTNU Researchers Commercialize Semiconductors Grown on Graphene
NTNU Researchers Commercialize Semiconductors Grown on Graphene NTNU researchers have patented and are commercializing GaAs nanowires grown on graphene, a hybrid material with competitive properties. Semiconductors grown on graphene are expected to become the basis for new types of device systems, and could fundamentally change the semiconductor industry. The technology underpinning their approach has recently been described in a publication in the American research journal Nano Letters. Read more »
White Paper | Technology | Sep 11, 2012
SMART-Project Aims to Develop Logic and Light on a Chip Using GaN-on-Si Technology
The research project Low Energy Electronics Systems (LEES) has started its work with a kick-off meeting. The program’s initiator is the renowned Singapore MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) Center based in Singapore. The LEES team consists of eminent research and science specialists and is targeting the development of cuttingedge technology to increase energy efficiency and advance high-tech industries that complement microelectronics. Two AIXTRON CRIUS® 1x200 mm systems, which the project managers ordered early this year, will form the technological foundation basis for the LEES project work. They will be available for use in the project from the fourth quarter of 2012. Read more »
White Paper | Technology | Aug 30, 2012
Power Integrations Unveils A19 LED Driver Reference Design Targeting 100 W Incandescent Bulb Replacements
Power Integrations Unveils A19 LED Driver Reference Design Targeting 100 W Incandescent Bulb Replacements Power Integrations (Nasdaq:POWI), maker of the most efficient, longest-lasting off-line LED driver ICs, today announced DER-323, a reference design for an 18W, 88%-efficient, non-isolated A19 LED driver based on LNK460VG, a low-profile IC from the company's LinkSwitch™-PL family. The design is suitable for a 100 W incandescent bulb replacement and is optimized for low-line (90 VAC to 135 VAC) operation. The circuit is low-cost, requiring only a simple single-sided board and 25 components. No potting is necessary and the transformer is replaced by a low-cost inductor. Read more »
Technology | Aug 14, 2012
ASSIST Released Calculation Guidelines to Avoid Stroboscopic Effects in SSL Lighting
ASSIST Released Calculation Guidelines to Avoid Stroboscopic Effects in SSL Lighting Flicker and stroboscopic effects have been a concern with solid-state lighting (SSL), and industry and the ENERGY STAR program have debated recently the effects of frequency and other driving modes on the perception and acceptability of flicker. To provide further data and guidance in this area, the Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has conducted human factors studies of flicker that were recently published in the Lighting Research and Technology journal. The studies, funded by the Alliance for Solid-State Illumination Systems and Technologies (ASSIST), will become the basis for future ASSIST recommends guidelines on flicker from SSL systems. Read more »
White Paper | Technology | Aug 02, 2012
SWITCH CEO Reveals Best-Kept Secret in LED Lighting
SWITCH CEO Reveals Best-Kept Secret in LED Lighting Tracy Bilbrough, CEO of SWITCH Lighting™, the first company to offer a full family of LED replacements to the incandescent A-Lamp, today revealed for the first time key details behind the company’s core technology to a group of industry insiders during a speech at the LED Show. Bilbrough also introduced SWITCH’s new LQD Cooling System™. Read more »
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