Articles & Interviews

Smart Lighting + IoT | Tech-Talks Bregenz | Resources | Outdoor Applications | Oct 12, 2018

Tech-Talks BREGENZ - Rico Kramer, Inventor, Founder & CEO, esave ag

In recent years there has been a strong focus on safe communication and controls in the lighting industry. The success story of esave ag, however, started much earlier, when Rico Kramer, the founder and CEO of esave, travelled to Taiwan due to his dissatisfaction with the quality of early LED replacement bulbs. What the former Apple employee learned there led to the development of the esave concept and its technology. In the interview he talks about his intentions, the beginning of esave, wireless technologies in general, system security, commissioning, system incompatibilities, markets and their peculiarities. Read more »

A Study on Aerosol Jet Printing in LED Module Manufacturing

LpR 68 Article, page 38: LED module manufacturing technologies have certainly improved over the last few years but the requirements have also increased. More components are packed on today’s modules causing additional thermal stress, and, at the same time, the demand for lower cost challenges module manufacturers. So the (re-) search for new materials and new manufacturing processes and manufacturing technologies is still on. Paul Hartmann, Director of the Institute of Surface Technologies and Photonics at the Joanneum Research Forschungsgesellschaft m.b.H., and his team, Andreas Rudorfer, Martin Tscherner, Christian Palfinger, Frank Reil, Franz P. Wenzl with Ioannis E. Seferis, Eugeniusz Zych from the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of Wroclaw investigated the opportunities of aerosol jet printing and proved the applicability for alternative ways of phosphor deposition and integration and to replace wire bonding of dies. Read more »

Resources | Commentary | Oct 19, 2018

UV-Light for Plant Development

Commentary from LpR 68: Since the development of the incandescent lamp, greenhouse farmers have been using electric light sources as a supplement to natural sunlight. Initially, light intensity was the major concern. Later, growers learned to manipulate plant development by altering the power distribution of the light spectrum for added value such as taste and appearance. Read more »

Laser Technology for Lighting Applications: A Review and Analysis of a Promising Technology

LpR 68 Article, page 44: LEDs are currently the dominating light source: efficient and cost effective. But LEDs also have some drawbacks. Another interesting technology developed slowly in the shadow of LEDs and has become an interesting solution for some specific applications: GaN based blue solid state laser devices. Although this technology offers some very interesting advantages, it also has challenges. Nicola Trivellin, Matteo Buffolo, Carlo De Santi, Gaudenzio Meneghesso, Enrico Zanoni and Matteo Meneghini from the University of Padova and its spin-off LightCube have been working toward the development of experimental systems and demonstrators and disclose their findings of the comparison between LED and LD systems. Read more »

Research Reports | Smart Lighting + IoT | Resources | LpR Article | Oct 19, 2018

Challenges of the Integration of Lighting Systems and Components in IoT

LpR 68 Article, page 50: Following the rapid penetration of LEDs, lighting is now becoming integrated into the Internet of Things. Over the past three years a consortium of leading European companies worked on the OpenAIS project, which was partly funded by the EU within the Horizon 2020 program, and now showing the results working at a full size demonstrator. In this follow up article to the introduction article of LpR 67, Ben Pronk, System Architect at Signify, and Stefan Verbrugh, Project Manager at Signify and Work Package leader in OpenAIS give deeper insight into the project. They explain the lighting specific challenges, describe the generic challenges for IP controlled lighting and present the approach to these challenges. They conclude by summarizing the findings from the pilot. Read more »

UV LED Technology for Emerging Applications in Agriculture

The Ultraviolet (UV) LED market has expanded five-fold in the past decade and is projected to grow to over $1 billion by 2025. A key trend expected to influence the market is the ability to expand into new applications, including agriculture. UV light, at proper frequency and dose, can increase the production of active substances in medicinal and traditional plants and it can also help maintain a healthy growing environment. But to fully take advantage of UV LEDs, some major re-design considerations are required. Terrance Berland, CEO of the Violet Defense Group, the parent company of Violet Gro, will explain which considerations these are; for instance, why it is crucial to incorporate the appropriate lens material. Read more »

Resources | Commentary | Dec 12, 2018

A New Lighting Scene

Commentary from LpR 69: I wouldn’t be telling you anything new if I said that technology is changing at an ever-increasing rate. But in the lighting industry there is a lot more happening, which makes these times truly disruptive and perhaps even inconvenient for some people ... but not for me. Read more »

How to Use the Technologies for Adaptive Lighting

The technologies to provide adaptive lighting are already in the marketplace and are accepted by some jurisdictions. Nonetheless, we have an inadequate understanding of how best to use these technologies, meaning that installations might not serve users well, and in the worst case, might lead to harm. Lighting researchers can generate the knowledge needed to support the best application of adaptive lighting technologies. The International Commission on Illumination (CIE) understands the importance and urgency to deal with problems of adaptive, dynamic and intelligent lighting in all application fields. Hence, this topic is a highlight of CIE’s research strategy. Read more »

Zhaga Enables Mechanical IoT-Upgradability for Outdoor LED Lighting Fixtures

LpR 69 Article, page 42: The Zhaga Consortium is a global association of lighting companies that is standardizing LED luminaire components interfaces. The latest specification from Book 18 defines a standardized interface between outdoor LED luminaires and modules for sensing and communication. Dee Denteneer, Zhaga Secretary General, explains how the New Book 18 helps bring the Internet of Things to the outdoor lighting market via smart, upgradeable, future-proof fixtures. Read more »

Evaluating Performance of LED-Based Luminaires

LpR 69 Article, page 48: The wide spread of performance data supplied by manufacturers make it difficult for the professional user to reach an “apple-to-apple” comparison, especially if the data is not based on standardized metrics. This is however critical for the preparation of lighting projects or tender specifications. Experts from LightingEurope have therefore developed a guidance document which recommends a fixed set of performance data for LED based luminaires, with particular emphasis to the useful life and the data which is necessary for lighting application design. Read more »

Resources | LpR Article | Research | Micro-Optics | Jan 15, 2019

Smart Design of Freeform Micro-Optical Elements for Thin Direct-Lit Luminaires

LpR 69 Article, page 64: Direct-lit LED luminaires consist of LED arrays. In order to achieve homogenous light distribution a diffuser sheet is placed at a certain height above the LED array. Usually the distance between the LEDs and the diffuser has to be greater than the distance between the LEDs on the array. To overcome this limitation, additional optical elements like freeform lenses are necessary. Christian Sommer, scientist at the Institute of Surface Technologies and Photonics of the Joanneum Research Forschungsges.m.b.H and his colleagues, Claude Leiner, Ladislav Kuna, Paul Hartmann and Franz P. Wenzl propose a smart design concept for an extremely flat, direct-lit lighting system, making use of mask-less laser direct write lithography. Read more »

Optical Designs to Improve LED Lighting Efficiency of Medical Endoscopes

Lighting efficiency for endoscopic instruments has been deemed very poor, at only about 20%. While laboratory tests demonstrate that fiber optics bending is not problematic, optical simulations clearly show that lighting efficiency is strongly limited by the Étendue. Because of strong geometrical constraints in the light coupling area of an endoscope system, only a radical new optical design can provide significant improvement. Alexander Gaertner and Paola Belloni from the Faculty of Mechanical and Medical Engineering and the Steinbeis Transferzentrum Lichttechnik und Beleuchtungsoptik at the University Furtwangen discuss these issues and propose possible approaches. Read more »

Rethinking the Photometric Data File Format

With increasing computing power, engineering disciplines cannot be imagined without simulations anymore. In lighting, photometric data and electronic processing of this data has become one of the most important tools for luminaire design and lighting design. This data is today provided in IES LM-63 format, a format that meanwhile has come to its limits. P. Eng. (Ret) Ian Ashdown, Senior Scientist at SunTracker Technologies Ltd., explains why the time for a change to a new standard has come and discusses the newly proposed standard and its properties in detail: ANSI/IES TM-33 respectively UNI 1603054. Read more »

Interactive Lighting Control is Opening New Doors for LED Applications

LpR 69 Article, page 98: Advancements in lighting control technology are allowing for sophisticated interactivity in LED mapping. These new technologies are bridging the gap between lighting control and AI, with the ability to analyze and map data input (such as audio) in real-time. Installations driven by interactive LED control technologies have their place in a variety of application spaces. Manjinder Benning, Founder and CTO of Limbic Media, explains how this new technology works, what its applications are, and what the future of interactive lighting control looks like – not only for end-users, but also for lighting designers and technicians. Read more »

Qualified Bluetooth Mesh – Making Lighting Controls Future-Proof

LpR 69 Article, page 88: At Lightfair USA, Siegfried Luger met with Patrick Durand, Worldwide Technical Director at Future Lighting Solutions. One of Mr. Durand’s striking statements was: “Basically, what we need is to future-proof lighting control.” This was the first time that this important aspect was so clearly addressed by a representative of the industry. This led us to asking Mr. Durand to provide LED professional with a technical article to clarify the current situation, explain the technical background that led him to making that statement and to give an idea of which requirements a controls solution must fulfill to be truly future-proof. Read more »

Resources | LpR Article | Engineering | Optics | Jan 31, 2019

Additive Optics Design and Fabrication for Smart Lighting Systems and Tailored Project Solutions

Since its initial invention back in 2009, printed optics has come a long way in the lighting industry. Additive optics fabrication is a future proof methodology of rapid prototyping custom LED optics by means of digital manufacturing technologies. Marco de Visser, Luximprint’s Director of Marketing & Sales, breaks down the technology and explains how its features add value to the design and manufacture of smart lighting applications. From one of Luximprint’s preferred optical design partners Physionary, Ramon van der Hilst, Founder and Business Development Manager, and Suresh Christopher, inventor of the state-of-the-art “target-to-source” optics design software, explain the benefits of an optimized design process. Read more »

Resources | LpR Article | Technologies | Thermal Management | Feb 01, 2019

Materials, Manufacturing and Technologies for Designing Passive Cooling Devices

Until recently, incandescent bulbs and fluorescent lights were the dominant light sources. Today it’s the energy efficient, durable and, in the meantime, cost effective, LED. But to achieve these attributes appropriate cooling is still necessary and due to progress over the last few years the need for active cooling solutions is limited to a few high power applications as long as the material and technology is carefully chosen. John Broadbent, Managing Director at Columbia-Staver Ltd., describes the different technologies and materials and gives practical advice on how to find the right solution for an application. Read more »

Resources | Commentary | Mar 25, 2019

An Industry at a Crossroads

Commentary from LpR 70: We often hear grumbles about the lighting industry suffering under low margins and high costs. Primarily, this is true for most traditional luminaire manufacturers but not as much for innovative controls and driver manufacturers, and even less so for innovative newcomers who understand the semiconductor business that has taken over a share of the luminaire manufacturers' revenue. Read more »

Health + Environment | Outdoor Applications | Resources | Tech-Talks Bregenz | Mar 25, 2019

Tech-Talks BREGENZ - Dr. Maja Grubisic, Researcher, Free University Berlin & Leibniz-Institute

Awareness of the ecological impact of technologies is becoming more important since climate change due to industrialization cannot be denied. LED lighting is one of the technologies that is deemed as a contributor in helping to reduce the impact caused by wasted energy. Unfortunately, light pollution, due to inefficient energy usage, is not the only problem. Besides the more recognized pollution from pesticides and chemical pollutants, light pollution also disturbs ecology and wildlife. Dr. Grubisic, Researcher at the Free University Berlin & Leibniz-Institute, has been working on this problem for more than five years now. She has written an article, also in this issue, concerning this. At the LED professional Symposium she was also good enough to grant this interview, providing some background information, explaining why light pollution is such an issue in biology and why this topic should be of concern to all of us. Read more »

Lighting and Emergency Dept. Clinician Wellness and Performance Improvement

LpR 70 Article, page 38: Short wavelength ("blue") light is known for its strong impact on humans covering "visual" function, wellness and performance of humans. Lighting has been recognized to have an effect on clinician wellness and performance as well as the occurence of medical errors. In a pilot study, Octavio L. Perez, Ph.D, WELL Accredited Professional and Adjunct Researcher at the Department of Population Health Science and Policy, and his team of scientists and physicians, Christopher Strother, Richard Vincent, Barbara Rabin and Harold S. Kaplan, from the Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, systematically investigated if and how a radically new lighting concept could improve wellness and performance in an emergency department. Read more »