Technical Insight
Omron and Stanley boost LED brightness (LED News)
Two Japanese companies, Omron and Stanley Electric, are to collaborate on the development and production of high-luminance LEDs using Omron s double reflection (DR) LED technology, which yields LEDs with approximately twice the brightness of conventionally packaged LEDs (see ). Omron s proprietary optical system improves the extraction of light from packaged LEDs. Light that is prevented from escaping from the surface of the LED package by total internal reflection at the airepoxy resin interface is reflected from an internal mirror at the back of the package. The optical system allows the efficient use of light from LED chips with a wide emission angle, and is also suitable for creating geometrical shapes such as large circles and ovals. Using the external optical system to improve brightness, instead of changing the properties of the light-emitting semiconductor material, means that improvements are independent of emission wavelength. Omron has successfully doubled the brightness of red, infrared, blue and white LEDs (see ). Stanley Electric is an established LED manufacturer, and has developed heat dissipation and device production technologies that allow the use of large drive currents of up to 250 mA, some five times higher than conventional lamps. The companies expect these technologies, in combination with the DR-LED optical system, to achieve a ten-fold increase in brightness enabling products such as signal lamps to contain significantly fewer LEDs. The collaboration will see Stanley Electric take responsibility for production of the new DR-LEDs, combining technologies from both companies, with Omron and Stanley Electric responsible for marketing the product. In more news, Stanley Electric expects consolidated operating profits to drop 25% in the six months ending September 30, compared to the same period one year ago. Sales of lighting products for electronic equipment, such as LEDs for cellular phones and light sources for personal computer LCDs, will fall by 2030%.
