Nichia accelerates 150 lm/W LED production
Nichia says its 150 lm/W high-brightness white LEDs will be available by the end of 2007, bringing its highest-efficacy products to market two years ahead of schedule.
Speaking to compoundsemiconductor.net, the Japanese LED maker confirmed that it is planning a dramatic advance in its production timeline, with these devices originally slated for commercial release in 2009.
Nichia indicated that the products would be based on the low-current laboratory devices announced in December 2006, which deliver a 4,600 K color temperature and a 9.4 lm luminous flux at a driving current of 20 mA.
Although efficacy is impressive, actual lumen output per chip is much lower than the 100 lm devices recently introduced by Cree and Lumileds (see related stories).
Nikkei.Net says the move is part of an attempt to broaden appeal to car manufacturers, following Nichia s collaboration with Koito Manufacturing Ltd, who are mass-producing LED-based headlights for Toyota s luxury Lexus brand.
Koito is reported to be using Nichia s 100 lm/W LEDs, which the company has been marketing since April.
Cree and Lumileds have only recently made their 100 lm LEDs available but, unlike Nichia, they stress that this is the minimum luminous flux value which can be expected from their devices.
