Lighting companies are rapidly recognizing the benefits of LEDs and incorporating them into a wide range of products, writes Robert Steele of Strategies Unlimited.

LightFair International, North America s largest architectural and commercial lighting trade show and conference, was held this year on 29 May 1 June at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Over 400 exhibitors were on hand to display the latest in commercial lighting products to the more than 17 000 attendees. While the vast majority of exhibitors and products had nothing to do with LEDs, it was clear that LED-based products are increasingly making inroads into the lighting industry. Approximately 10% of the exhibitors offered products in which LEDs are used. In general, LEDs are not being employed in applications that could be considered "illumination" they are still too expensive for that purpose. However, they are used in a variety of decorative, architectural, theme and accent lighting applications. Many of these applications involve situations in which the frequent replacement of incandescent lamps is physically difficult and/or costly. While some companies specialize in LED lighting, other conventional lighting companies are introducing LEDs as part of a broad spectrum of lighting products, some of which happen to use LEDs. In addition to the exhibit floor, three LightFair conference sessions had significant LED content, and one was entirely devoted to LEDs. A workshop entitled "Understanding new and emerging light source technologies" featured a presentation by Makarand "Chips" Chipalkati, marketing and technical manager for LED light sources at Osram Sylvania. Another workshop entitled "LEDs what the technology delivers today for architectural applications" offered an overview by Nadarajah Narendran of RPI s Lighting Research Center, as well as presentations by Osram Sylvania, GELcore, Philips Lighting/LumiLeds and Color Kinetics. A seminar entitled "Competitors or compliments: will LEDs replace fiber optics?" offered a panel discussion and spirited debate on the pros and cons of each type of light source. From the content of these sessions, and the audience response to them, it was clear that there is a great deal of interest in the lighting community regarding LEDs. There is also a thirst for knowledge about LEDs their properties and operating characteristics, cost, reliability, luminous efficacy, lumen maintenance, and many other issues. For white lighting, issues of color rendering and color temperature are of keen interest. The LED supply industry has been slow to come to terms with the needs of the lighting community, and further penetration of lighting applications will require the LED suppliers to do a better job of educating lighting companies on the attributes and benefits of LEDs. Some suppliers have started to do this, but there is still a long way to go. An amazing variety of LED lighting products were on display at LightFair 2001, and some of these are summarized in the following paragraphs. Signage Perhaps the most ubiquitous product was the LED EXIT sign. Because of their energy efficiency and long lifetimes, high-brightness LEDs have virtually taken over the EXIT sign lighting business, and numerous companies offer these products. Interestingly, one company, LightPanel (West Lebanon, NH), thinks it has a solution that will replace LEDs. LightPanel makes a green electroluminescent material for EXIT signs that has a 30-year life, and is more efficient than LEDs. The company claims to be doing a lot of LED replacement business, and says that these signs are getting a good reception in California because of the energy crisis. LightPanel uses a direct view technology, rather than indirect view in the case of LEDs, so a high level of light emission is not required for good visibility. Teledyne Lighting and Display Products (Hawthorne, CA) has a background in custom LED displays for military aircraft. On the civilian side it has been manufacturing LCD backlights, including microdisplays and displays up to 6 inches in width, and has also provided the LED backlit red diamond symbol for all 5000 Arco gas stations. Teledyne is now entering the commercial LED lighting business, with a focus on signage (both channel letters and backlights). The company has a channel letter system with LEDs interconnected along a wiring string. It can use several types of LED, including standard T-13/4 and high-flux lamps, which are placed in a lensed housing. Teledyne is working with sign OEMs, and it believes LEDs are competitive with neon if all costs are properly accounted for. The company is also making chip-on-board sources and socket-compatible incandescent replacement assemblies. Architectural and accent lighting Color Kinetics (Boston, MA) has been a pioneer in the use of LEDs in architectural, retail and decorative lighting applications using its patented Chromacore technology that can be used to digitally produce up to 16.7 million colors. One of its latest products on display at LightFair is an underwater version of its ColorBlast digital lighting fixture that can be used for illumination of swimming pools, fountains and reflecting pools (see ). Color Kinetics also introduced a new line of LED consumer products, including Sauce a color-changing wand for children and a multicolor nightlight. Tokistar Lighting (Anaheim, CA) focuses on accent lighting using LEDs, especially strip lighting. The lamps are widely spaced so the cost is low. Tokistar uses special optics to get better directionality of the light, and also has custom color-changing garden and path lights. LEDs are used because of their low power consumption. Tokistar says that white is still a problem with LEDs they look like "dirty yellow" so it still uses incandescents for white light applications. FarLight (Torrance, CA) makes obstruction lights, architectural lights, transportation lights etc using LEDs in fixtures that are very heavy duty in appearance. The company s specialty is optics, and it has a patented process with which light can be directed in any pattern in any direction. The company has used fiber optics in the past, but now uses LumiLed s Luxeon LEDs (see below) exclusively. Most of FarLight s products use just a single Luxeon source, but some use multiple Luxeon sources. The main drivers for LED applications are ease and cost of maintenance and low energy consumption. Most uses are in areas that are hard to access, such as airport runways, and the LEDs themselves are expected to last the lifetime of the fixture. Louis Poulsen (Fort Lauderdale, FL) makes products such as architectural lighting, area lights, path lights and market lights. It has introduced a new line of LED lights in the US in different colors, including white the company has had success with these in Europe and especially the UK. One fixture that has 172 blue LEDs won an award at LightFair. The fixtures are constructed from stainless steel throughout, and the LEDs are mounted on a printed circuit board along with the transformers, which are very compact. This is a modular unit that can be removed and replaced as a unit. The lifetime of the transformers is estimated at 65 000 hours, which makes them the limiting factor in the lifetime of the fixture. The company reports a high level of customer interest and a high level of awareness about LEDs. Tempo Industries (Irvine, CA) is working exclusively with LEDs to make products for theater (cinema) lighting and strip lighting. It considers LEDs to be more reliable and more energy efficient than incandescent lamps, and the cost is "acceptable". The company switched to LEDs about three years ago. One year prior to that move, there was a big change in the theater industry, when it switched to stadium-style seating with more stairs. Theater stairs all need to be lit for safety, and LEDs provide a high-reliability source (see ). Tempo is now also doing exterior contour lighting of buildings, cove lighting, etc including RGB color-change lighting. Tempo sees RGB lighting with color changing effects as a big driver in the LED lighting business. Modular International (Pittsburgh, PA) has been making LED products for about three years and offers LED marker lights, path lights, accent lights, etc in all colors, including white. It has ruggedized versions that can be placed in roads and can stand up to vehicle traffic including large trucks; these have been used at an airport in Germany. One line of products, including the ruggedized version, runs off a 24 V source, while other products have built-in transformers so they can run directly off 120 V AC. One of Modular s products is a circular blue marker light. There is now a law in Pennsylvania that all wall-mounted fire extinguishers in buildings have to be designated by a blue marker light, and this is Modular s target market for this product. Special-T Lighting (Burbank, CA) has been manufacturing fiber-optic lighting systems for 13 years and is now making LED lighting products as well, mainly for commercial venues such as fast food restaurants. It has strip lights in all colors, plus RGB assemblies with which it can produce color-changing effects. According to Special-T Lighting, there is a growing interest in, and requests for, LED sources among architects and other customers. The low maintenance aspect of LEDs is a real driver. High cost is still an issue, but this applies mainly to blue and white LEDs rather than red and yellow. However, the company acknowledges that fiber-optic systems are also expensive. Super Vision (Orlando, FL) has been in fiber-optic lighting since 1998 and has used LEDs since the beginning of the year. It is making LED strip lights, flexible strips, and neon replacements. It thinks neon replacement is a good application for LEDs because neon requires high voltage, is breakable, and is subject to failure from bad weather. Reliability is a major factor in favor of LEDs. RSA Lighting (Chatsworth, CA) has a new strip lighting product for which it developed a special reflector package for the LED chip: this is being manufactured by a Japanese company. The strip light is viewed as a source for multiple lighting applications. TIR Systems (Vancouver, Canada) introduced its new Destiny series of architectural lighting products, which incorporate Luxeon LED arrays from LumiLeds (see below). The first two products in the series are an illuminated pole for decorative landscape and public area applications, and a matching wall-mounted "color bar" that can be used as a vertical design element on the exterior of almost any commercial or corporate structure. Bruck (Costa Mesa, CA) is a German lighting fixture company that obtained a line of LED outdoor architectural lights as a result of a recent acquisition. Bruck s LED fixtures have been used on bridges, at the San Diego Zoo, on Nordstrom stores, and many other sites. These are decorative lights in various colors that can be used as a low wattage source to replace 50 W incandescent bulbs that burn out frequently. Bruck focuses on applications with high replacement costs. Its LED fixtures have a built-in "smart chip" transformer. The company also offers an LED MR-16 lamp, which is used for color accents, for example in the children s reading area of a library to give a color splash (see ). Specialty lighting Watt-Man (Charlottesville, VA) makes LED assemblies for incandescent bulb replacement. EXIT signs comprise its biggest business, but it has a number of other products as well, including all kinds of signal lights, among which are offshore navigational aids. Maintenance is the biggest issue for its customers, and the company is selling to applications that have high maintenance and replacement costs. Watt-Man guarantees its LED products for five years. Illumination Polymer Technologies (Naperville, IL) makes a polymer diffusing material for LEDs. It is using this material to make a variety of products such as displays and signs, and light wands for aircraft ground control (e.g. for the navy). Portable products such as wands have very high battery life. IPT also makes battery-powered point of sale displays, and is working with the toy industry on new applications. Lighting and Electronic Design (Henderson, NV) has a Turbo Flare LED-based emergency flasher product that is being used by 1200 police departments around the world. It is made from a special plastic, is very rugged and can be run over with a truck. In addition, the company has been doing theater lighting for years. It also makes rope and strip lights with LEDs, which can be used for cove lighting. The company developed a cluster light with a special lens that is being used on the roller coaster ride at the new Disneyland California Adventure. These are in white and blue, and outline the shape of Mickey Mouse. Disney needed a very-long-life product because of the height of the roller coaster. LED also has an MR-ll lamp product and is doing cluster-changing-effect cove lighting with a RGB strip. Boca Flasher (Boca Raton, FL) is doing a lot of LED sign work, such as marquee replacements for incandescent bulbs. It targets applications where replacement costs are high. Boca equipped all of WalMart s distribution centers with LED red/green "jelly jar" signal lights. This was a case where replacement costs for incandescent bulbs were a significant problem, since a worker had to go up on a scissors lift every time a bulb needed changing. Boca is also selling to companies that work under lighting maintenance contracts. LED incandescent replacements are a real money saver for them. Technical Consumer Products (Aurora, OH) makes LED cluster lamps for signs, color bulb replacements, signal lights and night lights. It targets applications where maintenance costs are high, mainly in industrial and commercial settings, such as signal lights for factory floors. The company has sold amber signal lights to the US Navy for use on its dockyards. TCP is experimenting with different applications, such as a white LED lamp cluster for use in elevators. LED suppliers GELcore (Cleveland, OH), the joint venture between GE Lighting and Emcore, has offered LED traffic signals since its acquisition of Ecolux last year. At LightFair it exhibited LED crosswalk signals, as well as its new line of channel letter lights and MR-16 lamps. LumiLeds Lighting (San Jose, CA) used the occasion of LightFair to introduce its new Luxeon line of high-flux LEDs. These devices are available in blue, green, blue-green, amber, red-orange, red and white, as both single devices and in the form of linear, rectangular and circular arrays. Some of the amber, red-orange and red devices are based on LumiLeds new high-efficiency truncated inverted pyramid structure (see Compound Semiconductor April 2001, p59). The fluxes obtainable from single devices range from 11 lumens in blue to a maximum of 55 lumens in red-orange. Luxeon arrays can produce up to 792 lumens in red. LumiLeds is working with lighting OEMs in Europe and the US to introduce its new Luxeon line. The Luxeon products will be in full production by mid-summer, and the performance will be improved from current versions. In particular, the output of the white version is expected to be significantly higher than the current 18 lumens. Osram Opto Semiconductors (Regensburg, Germany) is now offering its LED lamp module products on a commercial basis. These modules integrate discrete high-brightness LED lamps into forms and functions targeted for specific lighting applications. In the US the Osram Sylvania sales force is being used to sell these products. Osram offers strip lights, channel letter lighting systems, marker lights, traffic signal modules, etc. It also offers "effect lights", which are a 2 n array with lensing to achieve a four-degree viewing angle for architectural lighting effects. Oriol (Santa Clara, CA) is a start-up that makes GaN chips and lamps. It claims a capacity of 17 million units per month. The company says that its approach has many fewer process steps than the conventional GaN process and so is cheaper. Oriol s intellectual property has been developed through several universities, including Berkeley, the University of Illinois, and two universities in Korea. It has 13 patents applied for and 20 more in process. The company is over one year old, but it has just started production at its facility in Santa Clara. Packaging is being done in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Korea. Opto Tech (Hsinchu, Taiwan) has two principal LED businesses. It is the world s largest producer of LED chips, with a capacity of 1.5 billion chips per month. It also has a full-color LED sign business. At LightFair 2001, Opto Tech introduced its line of new lighting products. These include strip lights, channel letter lights, neon replacements, and cluster lamps. Norlux (Carol Stream, IL), a subsidiary of Uniroyal Optoelectronics, is using a chip-on-board approach to mount multiple high-brightness LED chips to get high flux. It has developed a low thermal resistance package for this purpose. It appears to be a PCB-type material, but uses a special layer with low thermal resistance. Norlux also employs an encapsulant to cover and protect all the chips. The red package produces 120 lumens, and is priced at $35 in large quantities. The company has other single colors as well as a three-color package that can produce varying colors, including white. Norlux is working with lighting OEMs to develop custom applications and products.