Technology News
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.
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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.
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The Possible Future of Lighting - Paint-On Semiconductors from Ornate Quantum Physics
LED lights and monitors, and quality solar panels were born of a revolution in semiconductors that efficiently convert energy to light or vice versa. Now, next-generation semiconducting materials are on the horizon, and in a new study, researchers have uncovered eccentric physics behind their potential to transform lighting technology and photovoltaics yet again.
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Colloidal Quantum Dots Make LEDs Shine Bright in the Infrared
ICFO researchers report on the development of a colloidal quantum-dot light emitting diode with unprecedented quantum and power conversion efficiencies in the infrared range. The ideal optoelectronic semiconductor material should be a strong light emitter i.e. should emit light very efficiently upon optical excitation as well as be an efficient charge conductor to allow for electrical injection in devices. These two conditions when met can lead to highly efficient light emitting diodes as well as to solar cells with the possibility to approach the Shockley-Queisser limit. Until now the materials that have come close to meeting these conditions have been based on epitaxially-grown costly III-V semiconductors that cannot be monolithically integrated to CMOS electronics.
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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.
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Researchers Push Perovskite LEDs' Efficiency To Rivaling Best OLEDs
Compared to OLEDs, which are widely used in high-end consumer electronics, the perovskite-based LEDs, developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge, can be made at much lower costs, and can be tuned to emit light across the visible and near-infrared spectra with high colour purity. Now, researchers have set a new efficiency record for LEDs based on perovskite semiconductors, rivalling that of the best Organic LEDs (OLEDs).
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New Algorithm Can More Quickly Predict Phosphor Materials for LEDs
Jakoah Brgoch, assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Houston, and members of his lab published a paper on Oct. 22 in Nature Communications describing how machine learning speeds discovery of new materials. By scanning a huge number of compounds for their key attributes they were looking for a new light conversion material that could be used in white LEDs.
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LED Lighting Requires New Approaches in Optics
LpR 67 Article, page 88: Even though LED technology has been established LEDs still need new approaches in electronics, thermal management or optics to make complete use of their advantages. Marek Škereň, Chief Technology Officer of IQ Structures, explains how new optical devices, with the trade name Nanoptiqs, based on principles of diffraction are applied to achieve improved performance of white light illumination systems. This unique solution is based on full control over the modulation of material and geometric properties of the optical elements at a nano-level. A combination of complex transmission diffractive elements, with specially designed systems of micro-reflectors (produced using an innovative mass-production technique) is also presented as a promising flexible building unit for the construction of new generation luminaires.
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Spanish Researchers Develop Sand that Produces White Sun-Like LEDs
The team led by the chemist-technologist Rubén Costa of IMDEA Materials (Madrid) and the chemists Jesús Berenguer of the University of La Rioja and Javier García of the University of Alicante has overcome one of the biggest obstacles in the progress towards new sources of healthier artificial lighting.
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Dynamic In-Car Lighting Scenarios - Osram's Osire E4633i Prototype with Inova's Serial Control Driver
The more autonomous a car becomes, the more the way in which it is used will change. As developments continue toward autonomous driving, more and more attention is being focused on the passenger cell. Light will become an integral part of the passenger cell, taking on functional and design-specific tasks. Previously static light, which could only be switched on and off, has now been given a dynamic dimension with the prototype of the Osire E4633i – with countless design options for car manufacturer.
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Electron Beam Patterning for Full-Color HR OLED Displays
OLED microdisplays are increasingly establishing themselves in consumer-ready wearables and data glasses. In order to meet the requirements for higher efficiency, higher contrast, and higher resolutions in these applications, Fraunhofer FEP scientists have developed a new micropatterning approach for OLEDs on silicon substrates. This might eliminate the use of color filters and shadow masks in the future and allow full-color displays to be developed by means of a new process. An increase in efficiency and considerably broader color gamut have already been demonstrated in first experiments.
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Liquid-Suspended White QD LEDs Achieve Luminous Efficacy Record
Quantum dot (QD) white LEDs that show a luminous efficacy of 105 lm/W have been developed. The QDs are liquid-based and, according to researchers, could help the LEDs achieve an efficacy double that of LEDs that incorporate quantum dots in solid films. With further development, researchers say the new LEDs could reach an efficacy over 200 lm/W.
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InteGreat Project Successfully Researched New Approaches to LED Production
In the InteGreat research project, Osram Opto Semiconductors coordinated a consortium comprising seven partners from science and industry. Between December 2014 and February 2018 the project partners investigated time-honored manufacturing approaches and know-how along the entire LED production process with the aim of identifying potential areas for optimization. The new insights allow for LED products to be given additional superior properties that would have been difficult or even impossible to achieve with the technologies previously used to produce LEDs.
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Intended for High-Performance Computer Chips - Maybe Also Useful for LEDs
The inner workings of high-power electronic devices must remain cool to operate reliably. High internal temperatures can make programs run slower, freeze or shut down. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and The University of Texas, Dallas have collaborated to optimize the crystal-growing process of boron arsenide – a material that has excellent thermal properties and can effectively dissipate the heat generated in electronic devices.
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KAIST Team Develops Flexible Blue Vertical Micro LEDs
In CES 2018, micro LED TV was spotlighted as a strong candidate for replacing the active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) display. Micro LED is a sub-100 um light source for red, green and blue light, which has advantages of outstanding optical output, ultra-low power consumption, fast response speed, and excellent flexibility. Professor Keon Jae Lee from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and his team have developed a low cost production technology for thin-film blue flexible vertical micro LEDs (f-VLEDs).
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Multi-Pixel LED Technology Opens New Horizons for Smart Lighting Applications
The evolution of Multi-Pixel LED technology has initiated a giant leap in the development of intelligent
lighting systems which are most visible in the automotive industry. Now the first hybrid LED provides
smart headlights with more than 1000 individually controllable pixels. Ralph Bertram, who is working on
advanced LED device concepts, and Norbert Harendt, who is developing optics solutions for general
lighting at Osram Opto Semiconductors, show that automotive lighting is just one of the potential areas
in which intelligent selective pixel control can be applied. Options for the use in general lighting, such as
information display for outdoor, indoor, retail or industrial applications, are very versatile.
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Smart Printing: Fraunhofer IAP Develops Power Generating Films and Luminescent Glass
New inks for inkjet printers make it possible to print organic displays or solar cells on film and glass for the use in architecture, the textile industry and many other industries.
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Scientists Reveal the Fundamental Limitation of In Concentration in InGaN Solid-State Devices
For the first time an international research group has revealed the core mechanism that limits the indium (In) content in indium gallium nitride ((In, Ga)N) thin films - the key material for blue light emitting diodes (LED). Increasing the In content in InGaN quantum wells is the common approach to shift the emission of III-Nitride based LEDs towards the green and, in particular, red part of the optical spectrum, necessary for the modern RGB devices. The new findings answer the long-standing research question: why does this classical approach fail, when we try to obtain efficient InGaN-based green and red LEDs?
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A New Technology Is Changing the Tunable White Solutions
Tunable white LEDs are one key element of human centric lighting. Until today, different solutions are
currently available but none of them is easy to apply or cost effective enough to speed up the diffusion
of human centric lights in building projects. A new approach for tunable white solutions is able to
provide flexible lighting for multiple occasions without sacrificing output or going over project budget.
Phil Lee, Senior Lighting Engineer from Meteor Lighting will compare this new technology, called
ColorFlip™, to conventional tunable white solutions, and talk about current tunable white issues.
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Realizing Highly Efficient QD LEDs with Metallic Nanostructures at Low Cost
The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) announced that a team of their researchers have discovered a technology that enhances the efficiency of Quantum Dot LEDs. Professor Yong-Hoon Cho from the Department of Physics and his team succeeded in improving the efficiency of Quantum Dot (QD) Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs) by designing metallic nanostructure substrates.
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VTT and Neonelektro Have Made LED Advertising Boards Light, Flexible and Energy-Efficient
Through a European project, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and Neonelektro have developed new types of LED displays that combine the flexibility, low cost and high technical performance enabled by roll-to-roll mass manufacturing technology.
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Supercomputers Aid Discovery of New, Inexpensive Material to Make LEDs with Excellent Color Quality
A team led by engineers at the University of California San Diego has used data mining and computational tools to discover a new phosphor material for white LEDs that is inexpensive and easy to make. Researchers built prototype white LED light bulbs using the new phosphor. The prototypes exhibited better color quality than many commercial LEDs currently on the market.
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100 Years Lighting IP Applications
These IP Snapshots show approximately 100 years of patent applications of the IPC class F21 lighting and the IPC class H05 electric techniques. Both IPC classes are the most relevant in the lighting domain. Annually, over 60,000 applications are filed globally and an increasing number of IP applications is predicted over the next few years. Lighting, in general, and the electronics are, therefore, quite similar in numbers.
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Fraunhofer IIS IoT-Bus: The Secure Communication Bus - Not Just for Lighting
The Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS is developing the IoT-Bus with IPv6 support and integrated security concept. It is a communication bus based on EIA/RS-485 and the IEEE 802.15.4 standard, which enables a secure and reliable data transmission of measured values and control commands and connectivity to the Internet of Things. The IoT-Bus forms a cross-media communication protocol and unites the two worlds of WPAN and fieldbuses without complex protocol conversion. The novel technology IoT-Bus is developed as part of the SEEDs project.
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LiFi - What It Is, How It Works, What It Provides, How to Apply, and Its Future Prospects
The acronym LiFi (Light Fidelity) was born at the beginning of the 2010s. Its name derives from the very
well-known WiFi (Wireless Fidelity). The term VLC (Visible Light Communication) is used in the restricted
instances of visible light. Mr. Luc Chassage who works for Oledcomm and the Versailles University is
also Scientific Committee President of the Global LiFi Congress that offers 20 lectures dealing with all
aspects of LiFi. He is a profound expert in this technology field. Mr. Chassage explains the functionality,
pitfalls and hurdles to overcome, the disadvantages and advantages, and best practice to apply LiFi.
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Measurement Seminar – from SSL to Displays
For the third consecutive year, Instrument Systems invited engineers from all industries that deal with light measurement of SSL products and different kinds of displays to their seminar. LED professional’s Editor in Chief, Arno Grabher-Meyer, was also pleased to receive (and accept) an invitation. In this article he shows what attendees can expect, who might find this event of interest, who would benefit the most and who should definitely not miss the next opportunity to attend.
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Atomistic Calculations Predict that Boron Incorporation Increases the Efficiency of LEDs
High-power white LEDs face the same problem that Michigan Stadium faces on game day -- too many people in too small of a space. Of course, there are no people inside of an LED. But there are many electrons that need to avoid each other and minimize their collisions to keep the LED efficiency high. Using predictive atomistic calculations and high-performance supercomputers at the NERSC computing facility, researchers Logan Williams and Emmanouil Kioupakis at the University of Michigan found that incorporating the element boron into the widely used InGaN (indium-gallium nitride) material can keep electrons from becoming too crowded in LEDs, making the material more efficient at producing light.
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LpS Gets a Younger Sibling to Foster a Holistic System Approach
For the most part our readers are aware of the fact that the LpS has a
strong focus on the component level, but after the 6th event, the Luger
Research team realized that it was time to find a way to push the more
holistic system approach. After much consideration and careful
planning, the Trends in Lighting (TiL) Forum and Show was initiated
and took place in conjunction with the LpS 2017. Arno Grabher-Meyer,
Editor-in-Chief at LED professional took a close look at both exhibitions
and the lectures to find out what the audience thought of the extension
and broader outlook.
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SoC Technologies in Lighting - Today’s Landscape and Tomorrow's Practices
A system-on-chip (SoC) quite suddenly became an important component in the lighting industry,
fueling IoT innovation and opening new opportunities, while at the same time bringing disruption and
new challenges. With rapid advancements in wireless communication, the impact of connected
technologies on the lighting business will only keep increasing. This means deeper integration with
SoCs and more attention from silicon vendors as they start competing for market share in this
promising segment. But what is the current state of SoC design from the lighting perspective?
Are chipmakers keeping up with the growing expectations for wireless lighting control solutions that
are mature and truly reliable? When developing its complete Bluetooth software stack for professional
lighting, Silvair worked with a number of different SoCs. Therefore, Piotr Winiarczyk, Wireless Solution
Architect, and Szymon Rzadkosz might have found the answers to these questions.
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Phosphors & QDs LED Downconverters Report for Lighting & Displays from Yole Développement
“Volume saturation, price pressure and a shifting intellectual property landscape are forcing the LED phosphor & QDs industry into a rationalization phase,” announces Dr. Eric Virey, Senior Technology & Market Analyst, Yole Développement (Yole).
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