White Papers
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.
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EMerge Alliance Releases Version 1.1 of Occupied Space Standard
Progress continues toward integrated standards for DC microgrids in buildings SAN RAMON, CALIF. (October 2, 2012) – The EMerge Alliance – an open industry association leading the rapid adoption of safe direct-current (DC) power distribution standards for commercial buildings – today announced it has updated the EMerge Alliance Occupied Space standard, the first application platform model for the utilization of low-voltage DC power in commercial interiors. The EMerge Alliance Occupied Space standard creates an integrated, open platform for power, interior infrastructures, controls and a wide variety of peripheral devices to facilitate the hybrid use of AC and DC power within commercial buildings. Version 1.1 includes several important updates to voltage limits, recommended cable sizes and other requirements to assist companies developing products when using the standard. These changes are backwards compatible and maximize the interoperability and efficiency of EMerge Alliance Registered products. Read more »
EMerge Alliance Releases Version 1.1 of Occupied Space Standard
Progress continues toward integrated standards for DC microgrids in buildings SAN RAMON, CALIF. (October 2, 2012) – The EMerge Alliance – an open industry association leading the rapid adoption of safe direct-current (DC) power distribution standards for commercial buildings – today announced it has updated the EMerge Alliance Occupied Space standard, the first application platform model for the utilization of low-voltage DC power in commercial interiors. The EMerge Alliance Occupied Space standard creates an integrated, open platform for power, interior infrastructures, controls and a wide variety of peripheral devices to facilitate the hybrid use of AC and DC power within commercial buildings. Version 1.1 includes several important updates to voltage limits, recommended cable sizes and other requirements to assist companies developing products when using the standard. These changes are backwards compatible and maximize the interoperability and efficiency of EMerge Alliance Registered products. Read more »
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 »
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.
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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™.
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Researchers Study How to Avoid Charge Traps in Plastic Electronics
Plastic electronics hold the promise of cheap, mass-produced devices. But plastic semiconductors have an important flaw: the electronic current is influenced by “charge traps” in the material. These traps, which have a negative impact on plastic light-emitting diodes and solar cells, are poorly understood.
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Cree Announces 170 Lumen-Per-Watt LED Light Bulb Demonstrator
Less than one year after showcasing the 152 lumens-per-watt concept LED bulb, Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREE) delivers a new performance benchmark with the 170 lumens-per-watt (LPW) prototype LED light bulb. The innovations behind the high-performance 170 LPW LED bulb are enabling significantly higher efficacy and lower cost for Cree’s luminaire portfolio and demonstrate Cree’s continued commitment to accelerate the adoption of LED lighting by addressing initial cost and payback – key barriers to widespread LED lighting adoption. Read more »
DOE Releases GATEWAY Report on Museum LED Retrofit Lighting
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has published the final evaluation report from a retrofit of track lighting used to illuminate a special photography exhibition at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, California. During the demonstration, 12W LED PAR 38 lamps replaced 60W halogen PAR 38 30° flood lamps on a one-for-one basis across three adjacent gallery spaces.
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Diamond Brightens the Performance of Electronic Devices and LEDs
Two new studies performed at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory have revealed a new pathway for materials scientists to use previously unexplored properties of nanocrystalline-diamond thin films. While the properties of diamond thin films are relatively well-understood, the new discovery could dramatically improve the performance of certain types of integrated circuits by reducing their "thermal budget."
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Research and Markets Releases "Smart Lighting 2012" Report
The Research and Markets report provides an analysis of the worldwide smart lighting market and builds on NanoMarkets’ extensive six-year experience of analyzing the solid-state lighting industry. The report shows how new value is being created in the lighting market by adding enhanced electronics and intelligent luminaires and how such product strategies will be able to build on the massive trend towards introducing CFLs, LEDs, OLEDs and other forms of energy efficient lighting. Read more »
Flexible Organic LED (OLED) Lighting Reaches High Energy Efficiency
Chemical group Solvay and Holst Centre have demonstrated high efficiency flexible Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLED) lighting tiles with a surface area of 69cm². These large-area demonstrators contain several layers deposited by solution processing at Holst Centre and additional layers applied by conventional vacuum deposition at Solvay.
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At High Environmental Temperatures and at Very Low Power LED's Wall Plug Efficiency Exceeds 100%
For the first time, researchers have demonstrated that an LED can emit more optical power than the electrical power it consumes. Although scientifically intriguing, the results won’t immediately result in ultra-efficient commercial LEDs since the demonstration works only for LEDs with very low input power that produce very small amounts of light and emits primarily in the invisible IR range of 2.4 µm.
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Power Integrations - 15.3 W Dimmable LED Driver Design for PAR30/PAR38 Applications
The engineering team at PI just released an isolated, high power factor, TRIAC dimmable, LED driver design for PAR30/PAR38 applications. Design Example Report 314 (DER-314) is designed to drive a nominal LED string voltage of 36 V at 425 mA from an input voltage range of 185 VAC to 265 VAC.
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Success in Research: First Gallium-Nitride LED Chips on Silicon in Pilot Stage
Researchers at Osram Opto Semiconductors have succeeded in manufacturing highperformance prototypes of blue and white LEDs, in which the light-emitting gallium-nitride layers are grown on silicon wafers with a diameter of 150 millimeters. The silicon replaces the sapphire commonly used until now without a loss in quality. Already in the pilot stage, the new LED chips are to be tested under practical conditions, meaning that the first LEDs on silicon from Osram Opto Semiconductors could hit the market in just two years.
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DOE Releases Consortium Report on LED Street Lights
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has published the final report from a demonstration of LED technology in ornamental post-top street lights, conducted in Sacramento, CA. This report provides an overview of the evaluation of four different LED replacement products using computer simulations, field measurements, and laboratory testing. The evaluation was conducted by DOE’s Municipal Solid-State Street Lighting Consortium in collaboration with the Sacramento Municipal Utility District and the City of Sacramento, with additional support from City consultant Mary Matteson Bryan. Read more »
Independent Study Demonstrating that Pink Sapphire Produces Highest Transmission Colorless Epi-Wafers
GT Advanced Technologies Inc. announced the release of a case study that details the findings of a series of blind material studies conducted to evaluate the impact of sapphire color on the LED manufacturing process. The studies demonstrated that all sapphire, regardless of source, exhibits color at the core level, that the pink hue of GT Advanced Sapphire Furnace (ASF™) material is not indicative of impurities, and that pink ASF sapphire does not have an adverse affect on the LED manufacturing process nor does it require extra steps or incremental costs to remove the pink hue. In addition, it was demonstrated that GT ASF pink sapphire material makes the lowest absorption, highest transmission epi-wafers of the samples examined.
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New LED Driver Design from Power Integrations Maximizes Efficiency of Compact B10, GU10, E17 and A19 Bulbs
Power Integrations, maker of the world's most efficient, longest-lasting off-line LED driver ICs, today published a reference design (DER-297) describing a high-efficiency, ultra-compact driver for a B10-style LED light bulb. Based on Power Integrations' LinkSwitch-PL non-isolated, single-stage LED driver IC, the power supply is specifically tailored for use with high-voltage LEDs such as the recently announced XLamp XM-L and XLamp XT-E ranges from Cree. DER-297 provides the high-voltage output required by the LEDs, optimizing overall system efficiency by reducing power lost due to current flow in the driver inductor and output diode.
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Cree Study Shows LED Lighting is Best Bet for Energy Efficiency
A new report on the life-cycle energy usage of energy-efficient lighting by Cree, Inc. shows that LED lighting products are now more efficient than traditional lighting products when compared across the high-volume applications of recessed downlighting and display spotlighting. Evaluating light fixtures and applications, the white paper’s energy comparisons demonstrate that LEDs offer clear advantages in terms of energy costs and environmental impact over traditional lighting such as incandescent, halogen and compact fluorescent bulbs.
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Solid State Lighting for Incandescent Replacement—Best Practices for Dimming
This paper focuses on integrated LED lamps intended for replacement of general service incandescent lamps. Future white papers are planned to address other LED dimming topics, such as: color change; light output and efficiency (dimming curve); dimming protocols (Internet protocols, 0-10); LED modules with auxiliary drivers; and control architectures that dim without modulated power. Read more »
