Products, Materials + Tools | Jul 27, 2010

Seoul Semiconductor Unveils Warm White Acriche of 42 lm/W

Energy-Efficient Light Source Produces Near-Daylight Quality. - Seoul Semiconductor (KOSDAQ: 046890), a leading LED producer, announced that Acriche, the world’s first semiconductor lighting source for AC power outlets, can now achieve warm white of near-daylight quality, making it suitable for general and indoor lighting applications.

The warm white Acriche features 42 lm/W based on light source.

Actual System Efficiency – which takes into account luminous efficacy, ballast efficiency and luminaire efficiency – for the warm white Acriche is 39.9 lm/W. This is higher than 7.5 lm/W for incandescent lamps and 30.6 lm/W for compact fluorescents.

Warm white Acriche is a suitable replacement for DC-LED lighting. Compared to conventional warm white DC LED which has a luminous efficacy of nearly 35 lm/W, the warm white Acriche at 42lm/W is 20% more efficient. Warm white Acriche can also produce a brighter lighting environment without the need of a converter or ballast.

Seoul Semiconductor has also released warm white Acriche with a luminous efficacy of 33 lm/W which has a Color Rendering Index (CRI) rating of 90. The CRI measures the ability of a light source to produce vibrant colors in objects. A CRI rating of 100 suggests that the light source is equivalent to daylight, while a low CRI rating near 0 suggests that colors will appear unnatural under that particular light source.
 
Acriche Warm White’s high CRI ratings and superior color rendering capabilities make it an ideal solution for environments that demand vibrant and accurate lighting, such as museums, luxury hotels, art galleries, show rooms and displays.
 
For many years, the ability to produce a warm white semiconductor lighting source that can also offer a high quality CRI rating had appeared illusive. Today, that hurdle has been successfully negotiated.

“The need for alternative lighting sources has never been more pressing,” said Seoul Semiconductor CEO Cheong Hoon Lee. “Environmental pollution and oil prices are rising, and the effects of mercury and lead continue to take a toll on our ecosystems. We hope to accelerate the move towards energy efficient and environmentally friendly lighting by producing alternative lighting sources such as warm white Acriche that can match the capabilities of conventional lighting sources, but with less harm to the environment and at a lower cost in terms of energy consumption.”
 

Comparison Table by Light Source
Light Source/Classification Incandescent Lamp Halogen Lamp Compact Fluorescent Acriche Warm White 
Luminous Efficacy (lm/W) 15 20 60 42
Ballast Efficiency [1](%) 100
No Need of Ballast
100
No Need of Ballast
85 100
Luminaire Efficiency [2] (%)
<Based on Light Downside>
50 50 60 95
Actual System Efficiency [3](lm/W) 7,5 10 30,6 39,9
[1] Ballast Efficiency: Efficiency by the loss of ballast
[2] Luminaire Efficiency: The ratio of light emitted by a luminaire to the light emitted by the lamp or lamps within it. Effiency is presented as a percentage. Components of a luminaire, such as diffusers and reflectors, absorb some of the light of the lamps. A highly efficient luminaire absorbs very little of the light that the lamps emit. (Acriche’s ability to focus lighting makes it more efficient than incandescent and fluorescent, which emits 360 degrees of light.)
[3] Actual System Efficiency = Luminous Efficiency × Ballast Efficiency × Luminaire Efficiency
 
 
About Acriche
Acriche is a semiconductor light source that operates directly from AC power without converters. It offers improved power efficiency compared to incandescent and halogen lamps, and outpaces fluorescent lamps in terms of life span, power usage, and convenience. Acriche lasts 35,000 hours compared to 1,000 hours for incandescent lamps, 3,500 hours for halogen lamps, and 8,000 hours for fluorescent lamps. Acriche does not contain environmentally harmful substances such as mercury, nitrogen or lead like other conventional lights.
 
Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
Seoul Semiconductor is the largest LED lighting solutions manufacturer in Korea, and one of the ten largest in the world. Seoul Semiconductor has recently been named to Forbes’ and BusinessWeek's lists as one of the most promising Asian companies. Acriche, the company’s semiconductor lighting source, was named “Product of the Year” for 2006 by Elektronik, one of the most prestigious electronics magazines in Europe. The company’s other products include High Brightness Power, Side View, Top, Chip, Lamp, and High Flux LEDs, and custom type modules. Applications for the company’s LED products include general illumination, signage, street lighting, architectural lighting, back lighting for mobile phones, TVs, and notebook computers, cars, home appliances, task lighting, traffic signals, portable lighting, and custom module. Seoul Semiconductor has 927 patents and 83 licenses. The company reported US$200 million in sales in 2006 and has more than 1,000 employees, of which more than 145 are dedicated to research and development.
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