Ledsmagazine Novdic2011 PDF

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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011
LEDsmagazine.com
SIL Europe
Conference highlights
P.21 & P.29
Standards
TM-21 and LED
lifetime P.37
TECHNOLOGY AND APPLICATIONS OF LIGHT EMITTING DIODES Edge Lighting

Learning from
backlights P.61
Modules
Standardized and
replaceable LEDs P.43
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THE WORLDS NEWSSTAND
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Spotlights

Hong Kong Office:
Rm. 223-231, 2/F., East Wing, TST Centre,
66 Mody Road, TST East, Kowloon, Hong Kong Worldwide Offices:
N28650
Tel: (0755) 3309 3752 / (852) 2723 2302

Fax: (852) 2722 1040 www.viribright.com
_______________
E-mail: lighting@matrix.hk.com www.viribright.com.cn
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ISSUE 47
Photography: Martin Hhn.
november/december Cover Story
2011 The NRW parliament building in Germany is

lit by concentric rings of LED downlights from
Hoffmeister Leuchten that contain Fortimo
DLM 2000-lm modules from Philips. See
www.ledsmagazine.com/casestudies/33420.
features
21 CONFERENCE REPORT Tim Whitaker
SIL Europe focuses on LED lighting and market
transformation
columns/departments
29 CONFERENCE REPORT Laura Peters
SIL Europe technology track focuses on design, from 4 COMMENTARY Tim Whitaker
optics to luminaires European focus in a global LED industry
37 STANDARDS Eric Richman, PNNL

8 NEWS +ANALYSIS
The elusive life of LEDs: How TM-21 contributes LED highway lighting project in China
to the solution features a million Cree LEDs
HB-LED revenue growth will
43 LIGHTING Maury Wright reach nearly 10% in 2011
LED modules simplify luminaire design while Zhaga closes
Bridgelux raises $15 million
on initial specifcations
Cintelliq releases OLED market report
51 NATIONAL FOCUS Philip Jessup, The Climate Group PennWell acquires The LED Show
LED revolution advances in China with government backing EcoSense closes $13 million funding
Osram, Acuity make acquisitions
55 CONFERENCE PREVIEW Robert Steele
Strategies in Light 2012 to highlight LED market dynamics 17 FUNDING + PROGRAMS
EPA releases first draft of
57 DRIVERS Tom Hausken, Strategies Unlimited Energy Star Lamps spec
LED drivers represent a critical but confusing market China unveils plans for
incandescent lamp phase-out
61 BACKLIGHTING John Langevin & Kendra de Berti, Rambus
LUMEN coalition launches website
LED backlight technology offers promising choice for
lighting DOE consortium publishes LED
street-lighting guidelines
65 OPTICAL SAFETY Leslie Lyons, Bentham Instruments Ltd.

LED-based products must meet photobiological safety 78 DESIGN FORUM Christopher Glaser
standards: part 2 Analog technique simplifies LED
dimming in portable applications
71 LED PRODUCTION Mark Cejer, Keithley Instruments Inc.
Production testing of HB-LEDs and LED modules demands
the right hardware
80 LAST WORD Ella Shum
LED industry tales from Taiwan
75 DRIVERS Gyan Tiwary, iWatt

Matching driver design with LED backlight scheme
optimizes energy savings
LEDsmagazine.com NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 3

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commentary
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT Christine Shaw

& PUBLISHING DIRECTOR cshaw@pennwell.com
European focus in a EDITOR Tim Whitaker

twhitaker@pennwell.com
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Nicole Pelletier
global LED industry nicolep@pennwell.com

SENIOR TECHNICAL Maury Wright
EDITOR maurywright@gmail.com
SENIOR TECHNICAL Laura Peters
I
EDITOR laurap@pennwell.com
MARKETING MANAGER Luba Hrynyk
PRESENTATION MANAGER Kelli Mylchreest
PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Mari Rodriguez
n early October, LEDs Magazine held its access to the details. Th is is perhaps under- SENIOR ILLUSTRATOR Christopher Hipp
second Strategies in Light Europe con- standable, as Zhaga members want to pro- AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT Jayne Sears-Renfer
ference, which featured a wide range of tect their interests and gain a fi rst-mover
presentations on subjects relating to mar- advantage. However, this demonstrates a
ket transformation and technology in the surprising feature of standardization efforts EDITORIAL OFFICES PennWell Corporation,
LEDs Magazine
LEDs and lighting space (pages 21 and 29). in most cases, the organizations respon- 98 Spit Brook Road, LL-1
The LED lighting market in Europe is pre- sible do a lousy job of telling industry and Nashua, NH 03062-5737
dicted to grow at a CAGR of 41% from 2010 to other interested parties when new standards Tel: +1 603 891-0123
Fax: +1 603 891-0574
2015, according to the market-research firm are finalized. TM-21, covering the projection www.ledsmagazine.com
Strategies Unlimited. A key driver will be the of long-term lumen maintenance of LED SALES OFFICES
growth in sales of LED retrofit lamps, driven light sources (page 37), is a good example. SALES MANAGER Mary Donnelly
(US EAST COAST) maryd@pennwell.com
by the European directive that has already Th is is hugely important for the LED light-
Tel. +1 603 891 9398
phased out various types of incandescent ing industry, but there was little or no fan- SALES MANAGER Allison OConnor
lamps at 60W and above. As our article dis- fare when it was finally published after years (US WEST COAST) allison@jagmediasales.com
Tel. +1 480 991 9109
cusses, there are a number of other policy- in development. And the IES charges $40 to
SALES MANAGER Joanna Hook
led actions that are promoting the adoption download a copy. (EUROPE) joannah@pennwell.com
of solid-state lighting throughout Europe. Strategies in Light Europe also heard from Tel. +44(0)117 946 7262
SALES MANAGER Masaki Mori
For example, 2 or 3 major demonstration two organizations that are working on a (JAPAN) mori-masaki@ics-inc.co.jp
projects are set to be announced shortly, global basis; the Global Lighting Forum, and Tel: +81 3 3219 3641
and public procurement will be encouraged the IEA Annex on SSL (page 24). Both are SALES MANAGER Mark Mak
(CHINA & HONG KONG) markm@actintl.com.hk
to lead by example by making use of energy- examples of how global cooperation is work- Tel: +852 2838 6298
efficient products and services. ing towards harmonization of standards, SALES MANAGER Diana Wei
(TAIWAN) diana@arco.com.tw
The European Commission has also and test and measurement protocols, while
Tel: 886-2-2396-5128 ext:270
introduced an EU Quality Charter, also building a strong consensus with SALES MANAGER Young Baek
which is a voluntary set of criteria that respect to the benefits of LED lighting. (KOREA) ymedia@chol.com
Tel: +82 2 2273 4818
is intended to promote high-quality LED Another organization, the China-based CORPORATE OFFICERS
lamp products and raise customer aware- International SSL Alliance, has similar aims. CHAIRMAN Frank T. Lauinger
ness. The criteria have been used by EU And speaking of China, the recent announce- PRESIDENT AND CEO Robert F. Biolchini
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Mark C. Wilmoth
member countries to develop their own ment of a fi rm schedule for incandescent
TECHNOLOGY GROUP
quality labels for LED lampsbut ulti- lamp phase-out (page 17) had a positive
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT Christine A. Shaw
mately this might result in 27 different effect on the share prices of a number of US- & PUBLISHING DIRECTOR
labels! Industry groups, notably the ELC, based companies with an interest in the LED SENIOR VP OF AUDIENCE Gloria S. Adams
DEVELOPMENT
are calling for a standardized Europe-wide market, demonstrating again the global
SUBSCRIPTIONS: For subscription inquiries:
approach to lamp labelling. dimension of the LED lighting industry. Tel: +1 847 559-7330;
Standardization provided a major dis- Fax: +1 847 291-4816;
e-mail: led@omeda.com;
cussion point at Strategies in Light Europe, ledsmagazine.com/subscribe
with particular emphasis on the efforts by We make portions of our subscriber list available to carefully screened
companies that offer products and services that may be important for
the Zhaga Consortium to provide standard your work. If you do not want to receive those offers and/or information
interfaces for LED light engines (page 43). via direct mail, please let us know by contacting us at List Services
LEDs, 98 Spit Brook Road LL-1, Nashua, NH 03062.
Three light-engine specifications have been Tim Whitaker, EDITOR Copyright 2011 PennWell Corp (ISSN 2156-633X). All rights
approved to date, and Zhaga members are twhitaker@pennwell.com reserved. Contents of this publication may not be reproduced in any
form without prior written consent of Publishers.
busy designing products according to these
specs, although non-members dont have
4 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 LEDsmagazine.com
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GE
Lighting
From a Tiny Twist Grows a Full Revolution.

The GE Infusion LED Module is more than exible, its built for the future. As LED technology advances, you can twist in newer
generations of the Infusion module without replacing xtures. And with a full line of lumen packages up to 3500, multiple color
temperatures, and CRI and dimming options, the energy efcient LED module paves the way for a revolution in lighting design.
Explore the GE Infusion LED Module, luminaire options and a variety of applications online at www.gelighting.com/infusion
2011 GE
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ADVERTISERS index
| online Beautiful Light Tech ............................27
Cree, Inc. ................................... 23, C4
CSA International ...............................25
Webcasts: EBV Elektronik .............................. 40-41
LED Lighting Made Easy A Modular System Evergreen International Corp. ............. 50
Approach to Designing Fixtures Fin-Core Corp. ....................................31
DATE: October 2011 Fusion Optix ...................................... 48
PRESENTERS: Costa Politakis, Future Future Electronics, Inc. ...................... 64

Lighting Solutions GE Lighting Solutions............................5
Dan Sullivan, Philips Lighting Global Lighting Technologies .............. 63
Helio Optoelectronics Corp. ................52
Light and Color - Methods of Achieving Instrument Systems GmbH .................70
High CRI with LEDs Inventronics (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd. ....... 60
DATE: October 2011 Lambda Research Corp. .................... 12
PRESENTER: Marc Dyble, Osram Opto Semiconductors Ledlink Optics Inc. ..............................19
Linear Technology .............................. C3
Efficient Driving and Safe Monitoring
Lutron Electrics Co, Inc. ..................... C2
of Multiple LED Arrays Matrix Lighting Limited, Hong Kong .......1
DATE: October 2011 MeanWell USA ....................................16
National Semiconductor..................... 45
Creating Highly Efficient, Highly Reliable
Nordson Asymtek .............................. 33
Lighting Designs with Multiple LED Strings
Optotune AG.......................................67
DATE: November 2011
Optronic Laboratories .........................59
PRESENTER: Alexander Craig,
Orb Optronix ...................................... 34
Fairchild Semiconductor
Phihong USA ..................................... 20
An LED Luminaire Solution For Philips Lighting BV ............. 9, 11, 13, 15
Indoor Area Lighting Philips Lumileds ...................................2

Farnell Danmark AS ............................42
DATE: November 2011
PRESENTER: Valentin Kulilov, ON Semiconductor Proto Labs, Inc. ................................. 53
Recom Distribution &
Logistics Gmbh ..................................28
Diagnosing and Solving Thermal Challenges
Samsung LED America ...................... 35
in Next-Generation LEDs
Seoul Semiconductor Co Ltd. ................7
DATE: November 2011
Shanxi Guangyu Led
PRESENTER: Boris Marovic, Mentor Graphics Lighting Co Ltd. ..................................14
Visit www.ledsmagazine.com/webcasts Shenzhen Refond
to access upcoming and archived presentations. Optoelectronics Co., Ltd. ................... 46
Sichuan Jiuzhou Electric
Group Co Ltd. .................................... 49
Signcomplex Ltd. ................................73
FEATURED article Specialty Coating Systems..................47
Stellarnet, Inc.................................... 39
Chinese LED manufacturing more than just LEDs
Supertex Inc. ......................................77
Significant investments and subsidies have enhanced Chinese companies
Thomas Research Products ............... 56
capabilities to produce not only LED chips and packaged devices, but also materials
and equipment used in LED manufacturing, as TOM HAUSKEN explains. Underwriters Laboratories ................. 36
www.ledsmagazine.com/features/8/11/1 VS Optoelectronic GmbH & Co KG ...... 26
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news views
OUTDOOR
LED highway-lighting project in China features

a million Cree LEDs
More than 10,000 LED street lights from Kingsun
Optoelectronic Co. Ltd., a lighting provider based in China,
have been installed along nearly 75 miles of roadways in
Shenzhen, China. The LED fi xtures, which were installed
along one tunnel and four highways, together use more than
a million Cree XLamp XP-G and XP-E white LEDs.
Kingsun installed 270W and 300W RL2R Apollo LED
luminaires, designed to average more than 20 lux, the Chi-
nese national standard for illumination of main roads. The
company anticipates a 60% reduction in energy consump-
tion compared to the high-pressure sodium (HPS) fi xtures
that were replaced. According to the Energy Management
Contract (EMC) business model implemented by Kingsun,
the energy savings associated with the Shenzhen project can mized for directional lighting, used in a variety of appli-
be put toward the installations upfront costs for an esti- cations from street and area lighting to PAR replacement
mated return-on-investment of four years (page 51). lamps to high-output flashlights. Cree also stated it is the
In related news, Cree has announced a new upper level first LED supplier to publish 10,000 hours of lifetime data,
of performance for its XLamp XP-G LEDs, which deliver which can allow customers to project TM-21 reported life-
up to 140 lm/W in production quantities. Cree described times of 60,000 hours, or nearly seven years.
its XLamp XP-G LEDs as the industrys premier LED opti- MORE: www.ledsmagazine.com/news/8/10/13
MARKETS
HB-LED revenue growth will reach nearly 10% in 2011

In 2011, the total high-bright- lighting revenues will see a 33% com-
HB-LED market Backlight TV/monitor Year-over-year
ness LEDs (HB-LED) market is revenue Mobile Automotive growth rate pound annual growth rate (CAGR)
expected to grow by 9.8% year- ($ Billion) (%) through 2015, with LEDs representing
Sign Others
over-year, reaching a total revenue 6 Lighting Growth rate 120 an average of 30% of the bill of materi-
108%
of $12.3 billion, according to a new 5 100 als. Approximately 83% of worldwide
report from Strategies Unlimited, 80 LED-lit signs were manufactured
4
a market research fi rm based in in China in 2010, and the region will
60
Mountain View, CA. The report out- 3 continue to dominate in this respect.
lines trends and expected growth in 40 The local signage market in China is
2
HB-LED revenue, which is expected 20 expected to grow at 14% CAGR through
1 16%
to peak in 2014 at $16.2 billion and 10% 10% 0 2015. LEDs in the automotive market
2%
subsequently fall to $15.3 billion in -5% reached $1.1 billion in 2010, propelled
0 -20
2015. This dip will be temporary, as 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 by increased use in daytime running
lighting will take over as a strong ket Review and Forecast 2011, include lights and headlamps. Exterior auto-
engine for growth after 2015. a discussion of LED prices, which have motive lighting is expected to enjoy a 10%
Other highlights from the new report, plummeted 20-40% in most applications, CAGR through 2015.
entitled High-Brightness LED Mar- making LEDs more of a commodity. LED MORE: www.ledsmagazine.com/news/8/10/9
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Fortimo LED Modules

for today, for tomorrow
Future-proof, high quality and

progressive LED technology for retail.
New!
Designed to give you the best quality of white light
and easy design-in, now and in the future. Many leading
manufacturers already use Fortimo as the trusted light
Fortimo LED SLM gen 2 source in their luminaires. See why at philips.com/fortimo
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news+views
FINANCE EVENTS
Bridgelux raises $15 million
Bridgelux hopes to quicken its pace in tran-
PennWell acquires The LED Show
sitioning to gallium-nitride-on-silicon (GaN- Tulsa, OK-based PennWell Corp., the and lighting designers; these came from
on-Si) LED chip manufacturing using a new parent company of LEDs Magazine, has all corners of the globe. PennWell will hold
$15 million funding round. The company acquired The LED Show con- the 2012 solid-state lighting
believes GaN-on-Si technology will lower ference and exhibition from event in Las Vegas from July
the manufacturing costs for LEDs, thereby founder James Highgate, who 30 to August 1, 2012.
spurring SSL growth. Bridgelux didnt spec- will remain with the show as Highgate said, I am
ify how the new funding, provided by exist- a consultant. Th is past July, pleased that PennWell, as
ing investors, will be utilized. The company The LED Show attracted more than 3000 the worlds leading and most respected
recently announced that it had manufac- attendees and 87 exhibitors to Las Vegas. provider of information to the LEDs and
tured cool-white LEDs with an efficacy of Registrants included architects, electrical lighting community, will further promote
160 lm/W in the lab on 8-in silicon wafers, engineers, home builders, hotel engineers, and enhance the event."
though production of such LEDs is still
two years away (www.ledsmagazine.com/
news/8/8/15). At the time the company iden-
________ round led by Bain Capital Ventures. EcoSense savings that can be achieved by combining
tified challenges such as uniformity issues Lighting provides LED lighting fi xtures for SSL and control systems.
across 8-in wafers and low chip-yield as architectural, industrial, and residential Meanwhile, Acuity Brands has acquired
roadblocks to manufacturing GaN-on-Si applications. The New York, NY-based com- Alberta, Canada-based Pathway Connec-
LEDs in production. pany says that the financing will support its tivity, adding to its growing stable of adap-
MORE: www.ledsmagazine.com/products/33258 continued product-development initiatives tive-control technologies for SSL. Pathway
and fuel the growth of its engineering and is focused on control electronics for appli-
OLEDS sales teams. With its exponential energy cations in architectural and entertain-
and cost savings, breadth of applications and ment lighting. The Pathway team brings
Cintelliq releases OLED earth-friendly, sustainable components, we advanced networking products and engi-
market report see incredible potential in the LED illumi- neering capabilities to Acuity Brands that
Cintelliq Ltd, a Cambridge, UK-based mar- nation market, said Jeffrey Glass, managing fit into our strategy of expanding the oppor-
ket-research fi rm specializing in OLEDs, director of Bain. EcoSense has the right team, tunities associated with integrating lighting
has released a report that indicates OLED the right strategy and a level of traction in the and controls solutions, said Vernon Nagel,
and LED lighting will compete in a number professional lighting market needed to be a CEO of Acuity Brands. Pathways strengths
of applications over the next decade. The strong leader in this advancing industry. lie in networking control systems, intelligent
report is entitled OLED Lighting: Products, MORE: www.ledsmagazine.com/press/32767 lighting systems and driver electronics, even
Pricing, Capacity, Cost and Forecasts 2011- when the products use disparate communi-
2020. Cintelliq analysts project that the CONTROLS cation protocols.
OLED lighting market will be worth $2.8 MORE: www.ledsmagazine.com/news/8/10/3
billion by 2020, with panel pricing in the Osram, Acuity make acquisitions
$10/klm realm. By 2020, production capac- Osram Sylvania has acquired full con- MANUFACTURING
ity will be equivalent to more than 60 mil- trol of Encelium Technologies, a maker
lion 2-foot fluorescent tubes, said Craig of lighting-control systems and software Veeco, Aixtron report
Cruickshank, lead analyst with Cintelliq. based in Teaneck, NY, from investment reduced bookings
Between 2015 and 2020, OLED lighting is fi rm Townsend Ventures. Osram said that Veeco Instruments Inc. (Nasdaq:VECO),
poised to become a serious competitor to the acquisition of Encelium and its cut- based in Plainview, NY, and Aachen,
LED lighting for a growing number of home ting-edge lighting control software for Germany-based Aixtron SE (FSE:AIXA;
and office applications. commercial buildings was the next logi- Nasdaq:AIXG) have announced their fi nan-
MORE: www.ledsmagazine.com/news/8/10/22 cal step for the company to become one cial results for the third quarter. Veecos
of the leading providers of LED light- revenue was $268 million, with non-GAAP
FINANCE ing solutions. Osram pointed to a recent net income and earnings per share of $53
McKinsey study, which estimated the mar- million and $1.33, respectively. The com-
EcoSense closes $13 ket for control components in lighting sys- pany reported a 7% sequential increase in
million funding tems at EUR2 billion ($2.75 billion) in 2010. LED and Solar revenues to $234 million,
LED lighting manufacturer EcoSense Lighting McKinsey expects the market to double by including $220 million in MOCVD system
has closed a $13 million Series B financing 2016 and triple by 2020, based on the energy sales.
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Fortimo LED Modules


progressive LED technology for hospitality.
Designed to give you flexible warm white light, now and

in the future. Many leading manufacturers already use
Fortimo as the trusted light source in their luminaires.
See why at philips.com/fortimo
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news+views
However, Veecos third-quarter bookings period last year. The cause was customer fi xtures and ALLink control system.
were $133 million, a decline of 57% sequen- delays in delivery dates and credit tighten- The capital cost of CAN$2.74 million will
tially. LED & Solar orders declined 59% ing in Asia, said the company. be fi nanced through a debenture, and paid
sequentially to $112 million, with MOCVD Paul Hyland, president and CEO of Aix- back by utilizing the energy savings from
orders at $103 million. Veecos third-quar- tron, described current market conditions as the program. In year one, street-lighting
ter orders were impacted by weak near-term difficult but said: There can be no doubt in energy costs should be reduced by $221,553
LED industry demand, low MOCVD equip- anybodys mind that the LED lighting invest- with a saving in maintenance costs of
ment utilization rates in Asia, and decreased ment cycle will come and will be the biggest $159,250. Phase 1 of the project will include
business activity in China, commented John end-market opportunity this industry has the replacement of 4300 cobrahead HPS
Peeler, Veecos CEO. ever seen. It is not a question of if it is only fi xtures by April 2012. Phase 2 will con-
Aixtrons equipment order intake was also a question of when. sist of replacement of 2410 decorative fi x-
down sequentially by 77% to EUR 51.5 mil- MORE: www.ledsmagazine.com/news/8/11/3 tures, scheduled for completion in Decem-
lion ($71 million) in Q3 of 2011, relative to ber 2012.
EUR 222.2 million ($306.0 million) in Q2. OUTDOOR Welland estimates that the total cost of
Equipment order intake in the first 9 months operating its current HPS-based lighting
of 2011 was down 11% year-over-year at EUR Welland switches to LEDs system would amount to almost $18 mil-
484.1 million ($666.8 million). The City Council in Welland, Ontario, lion over 15 years, which is the estimated
Aixtrons quarterly revenues decreased Canada, has voted unanimously to com- true cost of doing nothing. By switching to
by nearly half (49%) from EUR 175.6 mil- pletely replace the citys street lights with LED lighting, the City will save $6.8 million
lion ($241.9 million) in Q2 to EUR89.8 mil- LED fixtures. The Council approved an in operating costs. After paying the vari-
lion ($123.7 million) in Q3 2011. Revenues in agreement with SSL Energy Solutions and ous charges including debt repayments, the
the first 9 months of 2011 decreased 16% to Appalachian Lighting Systems Inc. (ALSI) city will save $2.38 million in total over the
EUR 470.8 million ($648.4 million) from EUR to replace the existing street-lighting sys- 15-year term of the agreement.
558.1 million ($768.7 million) in the same tem throughout the city with ALSIs ALLED MORE: www.ledsmagazine.com/news/8/9/31
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Fortimo LED Modules


progressive LED technology for outdoor.
Designed to give you the best LED performance

with high quality of white light, now and in the
future. Many leading manufacturers already
use Fortimo as the trusted light source in their
luminaires. See why at philips.com/fortimo
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LED FABRICATION Petersburg last year (www.ledsmagazine. LED MATERIALS
com/news/7/11/29).
Optogan opens LED chip fab In Landshut, we have discovered the Rubicon ships 200,000th
Optogan GmbH has held an opening cere- ideal infrastructure for our future high- 6-inch wafer
mony for its LED chip-production facility volume production of LED chips, said Rubicon Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq:RBCN) has
in the German city of Landshut. The site Hans Peter Ehweiner, managing director of stated that it has shipped over 200,000 six-inch
previously housed a Hitachi semiconductor Optogan GmbH. Our LED lamps and lumi- sapphire wafers to LED manufacturers world-
factory, with a clean-room wide. Rubicon had previously announced that
area of 4000 m. Optogan it had upgraded the crystal-growth furnaces
has invested tens of mil- in its three manufacturing facilities to allow
lions of euros in the site, 8-inch sapphire wafer production. Rubicon
which will employ up to has production facilities in Bensenville, IL,
100 people. Initial capac- Batavia, IL and Penang, Malaysia.
ity will be over one billion Also, Rubicon says it has begun pro-
LED chips per year. duction of aluminum oxide, the start-
According to Optogan, ing material used to manufacture sap-
the facility is Europes sec- phire. On-site processing of aluminum
ond-largest LED chip-pro- oxide will allow better process control
duction site. The largest and the growth of higher-quality sap-
is also in Germany, namely Osram Opto naires are on the way towards lighting up phire with larger crystals. Some analysts
Semiconductors plant in Regensburg. The indoor, outdoor, and residential areas all expect 8-in wafers to account for more
Optogan Group, headquartered in Russia, over the world. than 50% of the LED market by 2016.
opened a large LED packaging facility in St. MORE: www.ledsmagazine.com/news/8/10/14 MORE: www.ledsmagazine.com/news/8/10/32
_____________ _________
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funding
programs China unveils plans
for incandescent
lamp phase-out
China has unveiled its three-step plan
for phasing out energy-inefficient incan-
descent lamps. The announcement on
Nov 4 caused a surge in the share price of
EPA releases first draft of several LED companies, including Cree.
According to the Xinhua News Agency,
Energy Star Lamps spec the phase-out will ban imports and sales
of incandescent lamps in the following
categories, as follows:
The US Environmental Protection Agency contradiction among specifications. 100W and above: October 1, 2012
(EPA) has published the first draft of the For lamps, the EPA initiated a consultation 60W and above: October 1, 2014
Energy Star Lamps v1.0 specification at process in March 2011, feedback from which 15W and above: October 1, 2016
www.energystar.gov/lamps. This is intended can be viewed on the Lamps website (www. ____ Xie Ji, deputy director of the environ-
to replace the existing Compact Fluorescent energystar.gov/lamps). This feedback focused mental protection department with Chi-
Lamps and Integral LED Lamps specifica- the EPAs attention on further improvements nas National Development and Reform
tions. Comments or concerns about this first to quality-related requirements rather than Commission (NDRC), said that the plan
draft should be sent to lamps@energystar.gov increases to the already-high efficiency shows Chinas determination to press
by December 9. requirements. ahead in its efforts to save energy, reduce
The specification is described by the EPA The EPA has addressed consumer barriers emissions and curb climate change.
as technology-neutral and includes a pro- to adoption by developing proposed improve- China is a major manufacturer and
posal to align lamp-life requirements across ments to lamp start time, run-up time, color consumer of lighting products and is the
technologies by introducing a 10,000-hr min- consistency, and reliability in high-heat and worlds largest producer of both energy-
imum lifetime requirement (for LED lamps, frequent-switching applications. The EPA also saving lamps (CFLs) and incandescent
this would be a 10,000-hr rated lumen main- re-evaluated the lamp labeling and packaging bulbs. In 2010, incandescent-lamp pro-
tenance life). requirements in the existing specifications. duction totaled 3.85 billion units, and
The specification is limited to lamps The first draft also includes a proposal to domestic sales stood at 1.07 billion units,
intended to be connected to the electric align lamp-life requirements across technol- said Ji.
power grid. It includes photometric perfor- ogies, creating an even playing field. Spe- Power consumption for lighting in
mance requirements, lumen maintenance and cifically, the draft includes a proposal for a China accounted for 12% percent of the
reliability requirements, luminous-intensity 10,000-hr minimum lifetime requirement. countrys total electricity use in 2010.
distribution requirements, electrical perfor- The EPA says that product data shows this The NRDC expects that the plan will
mance requirements, dimensional require- requirement to be readily attainable with enable China to save 48 billion kWh of
ments, and lamp labeling and packaging CFLs. While the Integral LED Lamps speci- power per year and reduce CO2 emis-
requirements for all lamp types included in fication has required a 15,000- to 25,000-hr sions by 48 million tonnes annually.
the specification. minimum, there are disadvantages to this Chinas phase-out ties in with legis-
In December 2009, the EPA laid out a plan to approach which appear to be hindering adop- lation in other countries and regions
integrate the four existing Energy Star light- tion of LED lamps, said the EPA. to stop using these products. Europes
ing specifications into two, new, technology- Several lamps are excluded from the spec- incandescent phase-out affected
neutral specifications: Luminaires (light fi x- ification including lamps that operate on an 60W-and-higher lamps from Septem-
tures - www.ledsmagazine.com/news/8/5/23) external ballast, driver or transformer; lamps ber 2011 (www.ledsmagazine.com/
and Lamps (light bulbs). EPA says that its goal powered by an internal power source, e.g. news/8/9/1), while the US begins its
________
was to better serve the consumer interest in solar; lamps with other power-consuming fea- nationwide ban on 100W-and-above
identifying energy-saving lighting products by tures that do not provide useful illumination; incandescent lamps from January 1,
ensuring that performance requirements and lamp technologies without industry-stan- 2012.
testing methods reward efficiency and qual- dardized methods of measurement; lamps MORE: www.ledsmagazine.com/
ity, irrespective of technology. In doing so, the with bases not detailed in ANSI standards; news/8/11/7
_______
EPA is also seeking to remove any overlap or and Zhaga-defined LED modules.

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funding programs
LUMEN coalition launches website able at www.ssl.energy.gov/specifi

_________________________ cation.html. The System Spec-
The LUMEN (Lighting Understanding for a More Efficient Nation) ification option for municipalities (Appendix A), is designed to
coalition has launched a website (www.lumennow.org) dedicated maximize application efficiency and incorporates site character-
to informing US consumers regarding energy-efficient residen- istics such as pole spacing and mounting height. Meanwhile, the
tial lighting options. The coalition is led by the Alliance to Save Material Specification option for utilities (Appendix B), empha-
Energy, the American Lighting Association (ALA) and the National sizes luminaire efficiency and does not consider site character-
Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) and includes par- istics. The flexible format of the guideline allows users to mod-
ticipants from more than 40 nonprofit energy-efficiency advocacy ify default values to fit their local design criteria, which typically
groups, utilities, lighting manufacturers and trade associations. vary from city to city, and even from application to application
The coalition has estimated an annual energy saving per house- within a given city.
hold of up to $100 by replacing less-efficient bulbs with halogen, MORE: www.ledsmagazine.c om/news/8/10/29
_________________________
CFL or LED options. Understanding which option is best for a
specific application is where LUMEN members can help the home-
owner, said Larry Lauck of the ALA.
Competition begins for Next
The website includes a guide to selecting replacement bulbs, Generation Luminaires
frequently-asked questions, and news regarding energy-efficient The US DOE has announced that its Next Generation Luminaires
lighting options. The website also explains the new FTC Light- (NGL) SSL competition has been separated into two competitions,
ing Facts label, which will be required on all medium screw-base for indoor and outdoor products, due to growth in participation.
bulbs sold in the US as of January 1, 2012. Each competition will have its own judging panel, and the dates
MORE: www.ledsmagazine.com/news/8/10/23 are now staggered. The intent-to-submit deadline for indoor NGLs
is December 16, while fi nal online submissions are due by January
13, 2012. Physical product samples are due by January 18, and
DOE consortium publishes LED winners will be announced in May. The DOE will send out its call
street-lighting guidelines for entries for the outdoor NGL competition in March 2012, with
The DOE Municipal Solid-State Street Lighting Consortium has awards being presented in August 2012.
posted specification templates for use by utilities and municipali- The competition is jointly sponsored by the DOE, the Illumina-
tion Engineering Society of North America (IESNA), and the Inter-
national Association of Lighting Designers (IALD). In the NGL SSL
competition, the judges examine lighted samples in their intended
applications, as well as photometric data and other documenta-
tion. Evaluation criteria include the quality and quantity of illu-
mination, energy efficiency, and serviceability.
MORE: www.ledsmagazine.com/news/8/2/27
DOE releases promising results

from Round 13 Caliper testing
The US Department of Energy (DOE) has completed Round 13
of product testing through its SSL Caliper program. Round 13
included three types of products: LED and benchmark high-bay
luminaires, LED wallpack luminaires, and LED and benchmark
The city of Stamford, CT, has installed over 1000 cobrahead 2x2-foot troffers. The summary report provides an overview of
LED fi xtures from GE, leading to an annual saving in energy photometric performance results, compares the results with
costs of $146,000. Initially, LED street lights did not fare respect to similar products that use conventional light sources,
well in comparison with other products, but the newer GE and can be downloaded at www.ssl.energy.gov/reports.html.
products offered improvements in terms of a color temperature On average, the round 13 LED luminaires showed a significant
of 4300K, better uniformity and reduced glare (www.
___ improvement in efficacy over LED luminaires tested in 2009 and 2010,
ledsmagazine.com/news/8/10/33). with a minimum efficacy close to the average observed in 2009-2010.
In addition, the variation in performance across the Round 13 LED
ties that are evaluating or implementing LED street-lighting proj- luminaires was less than in 2009-2010 products; that is, there were
ects. The fi rst draft of the Model Specification was posted in April smaller differences between minimum and maximum efficacy. A sim-
and the revised specification takes into account feedback from ilar trend was observed with other performance parameters includ-
consortium members and the wider community. ing initial lumen output, CCT and CRI.
The Model Specification contains two guidelines and is avail- MORE: www.ledsmagazine.com/news/8/10/16
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conferences | STRATEGIES IN LIGHT EUROPE
Strategies in Light Europe focuses on

LED lighting and market transformation
Europe-wide policies related to solid-state lighting, as well as standardization, lighting quality,
product labels and global initiatives, were among the many subjects tackled at Strategies in Light
Europe 2011. TIM WHITAKER reports.
W
ith more than 900 registered features/8/9/13).
_________ ucts, and also revealed that GE will intro-
participants, the second annual A different perspective was provided by duce module-based luminaires for indoor
Strategies in Light Europe 2011 Simon Fisher, general manager EMEA for use in Q3 2012.
conference and exhibition took place in Indoor Luminaire Solutions with GE Light- Fisher said that the lighting industry
Milan, Italy, on October 4-6, 2011. One ing. Fisher, formerly an independent light- has changed recently: Five or six years
new feature of this years event was the ing designer, gave a talk entitled Designing ago the discussion was mainly on capital
introduction of parallel tracks on Market with LEDs: Redefi n-
Transformation and Technology: the latter ing the Lit Environ- Revenue
is covered in a separate article on page 29. ment but he was ($ Billion) LED lighting market in Europe
The LED lighting market in Europe is keen to stress that 7
expected to grow at a compound annual LEDs are not the
6
growth rate of 41% between 2010 and 2015, only game in town.
according to the Keynote presentation by This is the Strate- 5
Vrinda Bhandarkar, Strategies Unlimiteds gies in Light con- Replacement
CAGR
GR 441% lamps
Director of LED Lighting Research (Fig. 1). ference, he said. 4
The replacement-lamps sector will grow Its important to 3

most rapidly, as the impact is felt of Europe- develop LED solu-
wide legislation to remove inefficient lamps tions but not ignore 2
from the market. other technologies Luminaires
1
Bhandarkar said that the global LED this is GEs strategy
Source:
lighting market had revenues of $5 billion going forward. 0 Strategies Unlimited
in 2010, of which 21% was from replacement Fisher advocated 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
lamps and the remainder from luminaires. a holistic approach FIG. 1. Market forecast for LED lighting product sales in Europe.
In general, performance is improving and to product design,
prices are falling, but there are huge issues encompassing not
with low-quality, under-performing LED only the components and application design, cost, now return-on-investment is part of
products, said Bhandarkar. She also said but also system integration and quality and the discussion, he said. Th is is important,
that standards setting is moving rapidly, but reliability. We need to have a solution-orien- because were going to be asking people to
needs consistency between regions. Prod- tated approach to customer needs, he said. spend more on their lighting than they do
uct quality, labeling, and standardization Focusing on modules, Fisher said that con- at present.
were all themes taken up by other speakers nectivity is the design key. While electri-
at the conference. Module standards, for cal compatibility reduces losses, good ther- European SSL policies and actions
example, were discussed by Andy Davies of mal contact sustains the LED lifetime and a EU policies for the promotion of SSL were
GE Lighting (see www.ledsmagazine.com/ strong mechanical connection maintains sys- discussed in detail by Paolo Bertoldi of the
news/8/10/10 and page 43 of this issue).
________ tem integrity. European Commission (EC) Joint Research
Also in the Keynote session, Dominik From a client perspective, good optical Centre (http://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/energyeffi-
Wee and Arthur Jaunich from McKinsey & quality is key, said Fisher. Clients require ciency).
____ Energy efficiency, including lighting,
Company covered the main points of their a choice of beam angles, high light-output is a key component for reaching Europes var-
recent report entitled Lighting the way: ratio (LOR), and repeatable performance. ious climate and energy objectives by 2020.
Perspectives on LEDs and the global light- He then discussed GE optics that are com- Lighting is covered by many policies and
ing market (www.ledsmagazine.com/ patible with the companys module prod- actions, including the new strategy for SSL

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under the Digital Agenda for Europe, said chasing products, ser- tiative toreduce lighting
Bertoldi. Among the activities are energy vices and buildings that energy use in commercial
labeling, public procurement, the Eco-Design
have high energy-effi- and industrial sectors
directive, and R&D programs in the current ciency standards. Also, and in street lighting.
FP7 and future FP8 programs. The general national energ y-eff i-
aim is to support the most efficient technolo-
ciency schemes could Standards and
gies, and to introduce financial schemes that
encourage utilities to CELMA guidelines
can overcome the barrier of high initial cost,
distribute LED lamps to Standardization was a
a particular problem for SSL. consumers, which Ber- central discussion topic
For many years, Europe has used the toldi described as a great at SIL Europe, and was
energy label, which grades appliances opportunity for LEDs. covered in detail by Kay
(including lamps) from A to G according to SSL is a central part Rauwerdink of CELMA,
energy usage. This is now under review and of the Digital Agenda for an organization that rep-
is due to be revised by May 2012. Also, by set-
Europe, which focuses on resents the European
ting minimum energy-efficiency require- ways that information lighting industry for lumi-
ments, the Eco-Design Directive has alreadyand communications naires and components.
had a major impact on the lamp market in technology (ICT) can CELMA has written a
Europe: 60W incandescent lamps were effec- stimulate the EU econ- guidance paper on qual-
tively outlawed from September 2011 (www. omy and benefit soci- FIG. 3. Dekras certification mark ity criteria for LED lumi-
____
ledsmagazine.com/news/8/9/1). As Bertoldi ety. Specific SSL-related for LED products. naire performance that
explained, the second phase of the Direc- actions include a Green focuses on two Public
tive, covering directional lamps, is due toPaper, to be published later this year, and the Available Specifications (PAS) documents that
be adopted by July 2012. large-scale SSL demonstration projects that were recently published by IEC, the interna-
Lighting is also part of the Energy Perfor-
should start at the beginning of 2012 (www.
___ tional standards body. IEC/PAS 62717 covers
mance for Building Directive, which is aim-ledsmagazine.com/news/8/2/5). performance requirements for LED modules,
ing to move towards almost zero-energy In R&D, the EC is currently funding var- while IEC/PAS 62722 covers LED luminaires,
buildings. However, feeling the need for aious programs in LEDs and OLEDs to the in both cases for general lighting.
new impetus, the EC has put forward a pro- tune of around EUR 90 million, said Ber- Rauwerdink said the industry needs to
posal for a new Energy-Efficiency Directivetoldi. He also gave a number of project exam- transition from comparing apples and
(EED). One aspect would be to call on the ples from the GreenLight program (www. ____ pears when it comes to commercial prod-
public sector to lead by example, by pur- eu-greenlight.org),
___________ an EC-lead voluntary ini- ucts, and instead make apples-to-apples
comparisons. Evaluating performance
claims from different manufacturers can-
not be done without using a standardized
set of quality criteria that are measured in
compliance with appropriate standards, he
said. The CELMA guide suggests that users
of LED luminaires should request LED lumi-
naire specifications that are measured in
compliance with the new IEC documents.
The documents were released simultane-
ously to ensure consistency between mod-
ule- and luminaire-quality criteria. These
criteria include a large selection of metrics,
including input power, luminous flux and
efficacy; luminous intensity distribution;
CRI and chromaticity coordinate values,
both initial and maintained; rated life (in
hours) and associated rated lumen mainte-
nance (in lux); and failure fraction (Fy), cor-
responding to the rated life of the LED mod-
ule in the luminaire.
The CELMA guide explains the best meth-
FIG. 2. Module-based luminaires on the GE Lighting stand at SIL Europe. ods for measuring these criteria, and why
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they are important. The document further sources would be required to cover all elec- formance reaches or exceeds the required
explains the difference between lifetime tricity and heat consumption by 2035, and levels set by Dekra, rather than a truth
claims based on lumen maintenance and all energy consumption by 2050. There is a mark, which simply confi rms that the fig-
luminaire lifetime claims that depend on great future for LEDs to help slash energy ures quoted by the manufacturer are accu-
component reliability. consumption in Denmark, said Kofod. rate. Its important to note that Dekra offers
However, not everyone agrees that EU its mark on a commercial basis, as distinct
LED Quality Charter member states should use the EU-QC to from government-sponsored programs
With the advent of the Eco-Design Directive develop their own labels: one obvious poten- such as the Danish EST label mentioned
to remove inefficient lamps from the tial consequence could be 27 different label- above (www.dekra-certification.com/en/
European market, it was also deemed nec- ing schemes, one for each country. After led-performance-mark).
______________
essary to establish an EU LED Quality Kofods talk, Jrgen Sturm of the European
Charter (EU-QC), which was discussed at Lamp Companies Federation (ELC) said Global initiatives
SIL Europe by Casper Kofod of Energy Piano. that the European lighting industry favors The challenge of harmonizing SSL-related
The EU-QC is a voluntary set of criteria that a Europe-wide approach, not fragmentation activities on a global basis has been taken up
is intended to promote high-quality LED- of labels on a country-wide basis. by at least two new organizations. The main
based lamps, to raise consumer awareness aims of the International Energy Agency
and confidence, and to support promotion Dekra performance mark (IEA) Annex on SSL (http://ssl.iea-4e.org), as
and procurement campaigns. Organizations In his presentation, Jacob Neusink of described at SIL Europe by Marc Fontoynont
can sign up to support the EU-QC, which is Dekra, a quality and safety service-pro- (Fig. 4), are to develop SSL quality assur-
restricted only to LED lamps (not modules or vider, asked: Is there a need for an LED ance, to harmonize SSL performance test-
luminaires), and to the residential, not com- quality mark? Not surprisingly, Neusinks ing, and to promote standards and develop
mercial, sector. answer was yes, given
Importantly, the EU-QC is not a quality that Dekra has already
label, although individual EU member coun- issued its own LED per-
tries can use the EU-QC to develop their own formance mark (Fig. 3) to
energy-efficiency labels, such as those intro- two Netherlands-based
duced in the UK or in Kofods home country manufacturers, Lemnis
of Denmark. The recommended criteria can Lighting and Ledned.
by viewed by downloading the EU-QC docu- In explaining why the
ment from the Residential Lighting section mark was introduced,
of the JRC website (http://re.jrc.ec.europa. Neusink quoted com-
eu/energyefficiency/).
_____________ ments from Dekras cus-
Surprisingly, considering levels set by tomers. He said that
other similar programs, the EU-QC require- installers ask: How can
ment for power factor (PF) is a minimum of I be sure that the claims
0.5. Kofod said that the consumer has no my supplier makes are
advantages of high PF requirement, but dis- true and how do I know
advantages if an extra corrector-circuit is that the products I buy
installed. The disadvantages come in terms will perform? Mean-
of additional size, consumption, cost and while, manufacturers
other factors. He also said that lighting is say: I have a high-quality
currently 15-17% of domestic consumption, product with good per-
but in the future, when LEDs predominate, it formance, and my cus-
will be only 2-4%. In this case, a high PF will tomer does not believe
only provide a marginal advantage: Were what I am saying. To
talking about peanuts, said Kofod. address such comments,
The Danish Energy Savings Trust (EST) the Dekra mark sets per-
has developed a quality label for lamps formance levels for LED
that meet EU regulations and the require- lamps, or modules, or
ments of the EU-QC, explained Kofod. The luminaires. FIG. 4. Marc Fontoynont of Aalborg University discussed the
lamps are self-certified, but the EST may Neusink pointed out IEA Annex on SSL, which aims to increase confidence in SSL,
perform random testing. Demark is at the that this is a quality and to allow governments to prepare more ambitious policies
forefront of green policy development, and mark, where testing for energy-efficient lighting products, for example relating to
recently announced that renewable energy confirms that the per- regulation and labels.
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an accreditation infrastructure. supporting energy efficiency and promoting

Meanwhile, the lighting industry is repre- the use of LEDs, while the biggest corpora-
sented by the Global Lighting Forum (GLF), tions are starting investment programs for
a gathering of lighting organizations from LED lighting. One example is Russian Rail-
around the world representing over 5,000 ways, which invested EUR 13 million in 2010,
lighting manufacturers and US$50 billion and EUR 24 million in 2011. Russia is try-
in annual sales. Jrgen Sturm, GLF general ing to derive maximum benefit by switch-
secretary, explained that the GLF aims to ing directly from incandescent lamps to LED
share knowledge of global lighting trends lamps, skipping the move to compact-fluo-
and legislative developments. It acts as a rescent lamps (CFLs) that has been prevalent
networking forum, developing joint indus- elsewhere in Europe.
try positions and communicating these to Dolins organization is of course involved in
government authorities and other stakehold- standards work, and he said that Russia has
ers. One of its specific priorities is to accel- adopted the LED color-coordinates specified
erate the uptake of LED and OLED lighting in the ANSI C78.377 standard. Also, October
solutions, he said. 2011 saw a national requirement come into
The benefits of SSL can be defi ned, said play for a minimum efficacy of 50 lm/W for
Sturm, in seven dimensions: energy, system, LED lighting. In the case of retrofit lamps, the
environmental, biological, business, design minimum is between 50 lm/W and 70 lm/W
and quality. The benefits over all other depending on color temperature.
lighting technologies are unique, as only SSL Dolin said that the organization is working
combines all [these] dimensions, he said. In to harmonize Russian measurement labora-
the biological dimension, Sturm said that tories with international efforts. He pointed
biological effective lighting can influence out that it is difficult for Russia to use US-
our well-being and health, and that LED developed standards without modifications,
technology can help to manage the effects of due to differences such as climate, and the
demographic change, particularly for aging nature of the electrical grid.
populations. However, he described the bio-
logical dimension as a research topic that Business development
often raises a lot of tension. One member of the Russian LED manufac-
In terms of business, Sturm said that the turers association is Optogan, which has a
characteristics and benefits of LED-lighting major production facility in St. Petersburg
technology will lead to a change in business and also recently opened an LED chip pro-
models in lighting. Models based on recur- duction facility in Landshut, Germany (page
ring revenues from replacement sales (i.e. 14). Optogans Markus Zeiler spoke about
lamps) will be superseded by models based how the company has set about enabling
on revenues over life including energy sav- fast adoption of LED lighting. One strategy
ings, but these will require innovative financ- is to set up a network of technological and
ing models. Sturm also said that LED lamp regional champions, he said, enabling each
sales will peak in 2018 due to the growth in company to stay focused on its own techno-
sales of integrated lamps and systems. logical areas of strength. One example is a
technical cooperation on AC-LEDs between
LED market in Russia Optogan and Lynk Labs.
Evgeny Dolin, chairman of the Russian Another strategy is product modularity.
national association for manufacturers We need to reduce complexity and keep it
of LEDs and LED-based systems (www. ____ simple for our customers, said Zeiler, offering
nprpss.ru),
______ said that the Russian LED mar- a preview of a scalable chip-on-board (COB)
ket experienced very rapid growth of 50-60% concept which he said was analogous to Lego
in 2010. Even so, LED lighting fi xtures were bricks. Finally, he discussed new sales chan-
only about 5% of the total lighting market in nels and the value of franchising via remote
____________
2010, with revenues of US $67 million. These business owners with regional know-how, as
figures are expected to increase to 15% and an alternative to setting up branch offices.
$333 million by 2015. This keeps investment low, but enables
Dolin said that the Russian government is global branding, he said.
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LED Drivers
Buck/Boost LED Drivers - From 1W to 100W.
5 Year Warranty
Highest Efciency
Dimming down to 0%
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For Application Support contact your

local RECOM sales contact or go to:
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SIL Europe technology track focuses

on design, from optics to luminaires
The technology track at Strategies in Light Europe featured several presentations specifically aimed
at selecting the right materials, optics, drivers and luminaire designs to best take advantage of LED
technology, writes LAURA PETERS.
T
he Strategies in Light (SIL) Europe
conference and exposition was held
in Milan, Italy on October 4-6 and
featured two days of discussion regard-
ing the technological developments that
go into solid-state lighting (SSL) prod-
ucts. A key message of these presentations
rings true: LED lighting has matured to the
point where luminaire design, whether it
is for street lights, recessed downlights or
integral replacement lamps, must bring
together optimized drivers, optics and
thermal design to best take advantage of all
that LED technology has to offer. SIL Europe
also featured parallel sessions in the Market
Transformation track (page 21).
Luminaire design
Hans Laschefski, a consultant with Alanod
Aluminium-Veredlung GmbH in Ennepetal,
Germany, discussed a trend toward mul-
tiple reflectors as a means to control glare Multiple reflector light pattern
with high-power arrays of packaged LEDs.
As the industry moves to smaller, denser
arrays, glare increases and must be man- distribution, achieve bet-
aged to provide an acceptable user experi- ter color mixing, and
ence. When evaluating glare, people often reduce glare. One of the
talk about the average luminance, but since advantages to having
LEDs are spot-light sources, we should eval- very-high ref lectivity
uate the spot illuminance, which is unfortu- from aluminum-based
FIG. 1. Deflecto street lights utilize multiple reflections to
nately difficult since the necessary measure- alloys (95-98% ref lec-
eliminate point-light-source glare. Inset: Light distribution
ment equipment is not typically available, tance with A lanod 's
pattern from luminaire (source: AriannaLED).
he explained. Miro and Miro Silver
Laschefski showed several advanced reflectors) is that multi-
reflector designs, all of which do not use ple reflections can eliminate the observation source is an LED, Laschefski said.
lenses directly on the packaged LEDs but of a point-light-source by a person looking Laschefski stated that by separating the
rather have the LEDs facing angled mirrors directly at the luminaire. For instance, in LEDs from the optics, the problem of lens
and reflectors. This helps to improve the light the Deflecto luminaire street light by Arian- aging can be controlled. He explained that
naLED of Padova, Italy (Fig. 1), the multiple when LEDs are closely coupled to optics in
LAURA PETERS is a Senior Technical Editor reflections sufficiently scatter the light. In an air-tight environment, volatile organic
with LEDs Magazine. these designs, you cannot even tell the light compounds (VOCs) used in LED assembly

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conferences | SIL EUROPE
may permeate the silicone dome. Light expo- of four different approaches to achieving Alternatively, a 3D arrangement of the
sure causes the VOCs to oxidize, creating a omni-directionality with integral lamps LEDs can meet high-lumen-output needs
discoloration of the silicone. If, instead, the for residential applications. He said that and also meet Energy Star requirements.
LED emitters are not contained in an air- omni-directionality can be achieved using Hofmann stated that 60W-equivalent (850
tight environment, VOCs have a chance to light guides, reflectors, a remote phosphor lm) and 75W-equivalent (1060 lm) lamps
diff use out and not interfere with the opti- or a three-dimensional (3D) arrangement that meet Energy Star requirements with
cal transmission. of LEDs. good CRI, CCT and lifetime have been fab-
The importance of visual comfort with LED The key advantage of using light guides ricated using 3D approaches. Realiza-
luminaires was also emphasized by Giorgia
Energy Star program requirements for integral LED lamps
Tordini, an optical designer with Philips Pro-
fessional Lighting Solutions, who presented 180
The visual barrier: Designing the night Omni-directional lamp in base-up position
appearance of an LED product. She defined At least 5% of total flux (lm)
in 130-180 zone
night appearance as a person's visual percep-
tion when a light is first switched on in its
135
application. Very high luminance from LED
light (108 cd/m) can cause glare, which is an Repeat measurements in
uncomfortable reaction to brightness. Tor- vertical 45 and 90 planes
from initial plane
dini noted that glare is different from photo-
biological damage, which is caused mainly by
light in the UV realm. Luminous intensity (cd) at any angle
Tordini described the optical system of in the 0-135 zone shall not differ
from the mean intensity for the entire
Philips DayZone luminaire for office light- 0-135 zone by more than 20%.
ing, which has a task light in the middle and
a separately-controlled outer ring-light for 0 Source: Osram
ambient lighting. The luminance of the outer
ring is 3x smaller than that of the inner por- FIG. 2. Omnidirectionality is one of the more difficult requirements of Energy Star.
tion. The luminance limit for work spaces,
according to British Standard EN-12464, is that an incandescent-like bulb in appear- tion of 100W-equivalent lamps with 3D
is 1000 cd/m at a 90-degree to 65-degree ance can be achieved. However, there is LED arrangements will be coming soon,
angle from the vertical axis. great light loss and low efficiency asso- he added.
Tordini explained that the optical design ciated with this approach, and meeting Another presentation in the same ses-
uses primary optics at the LED level (which Energy Star specifications (Fig. 2) is very sion revealed a less-traditional approach to
is a multi-LED package) to convert the light difficult. As a result, light-guide approaches fabricating and marketing retrofit lamps.
distribution into a controlled beam. The are currently limited to low-lumen-output, Martijn Dekker, CTO of Lemnis Lighting,
plastic optics consists of a microlens array design-driven applications. an LED lamp maker based in the Nether-
fabricated from polymethylmethacrylate Meeting Energy Star requirements is lands, announced that Lemnis has entered
(PMMA). This serves to minimize chro- much more practical if reflectors are used into a multiyear commitment with a large
matic aberration due to first-order interfer- inside the bulb to direct the light. Another retailer to develop and market cost-effec-
ence, while enhancing scattering to allow a advantage is that a classical bulb design tive LED lamps. The fi rst products are 400-
uniform visual appearance of light. Trans- is possible. Hofmann said that reflectors lm and 200-lm lamps, which will be intro-
mittance through the PMMA fi lm is 92%. inside retrofit lamps currently work best duced in European stores soon. Although
Th is patterned fi lm is available in roll-to- for lamps with medium lumen output. not confirmed by Dekker, the retailer is
roll sheets and therefore is flexible to apply When it comes to achieving high lumen thought to be Sweden-based Ikea. While
in different shapes and sizes. Beyond this output, the remote phosphor approach is Dekker noted that the lamps do not meet
primary optic, a secondary optic, consisting suitable because light losses are low and Energy Star requirements and have a
of a hollow prism ring, modifies the light dis- the phosphor is compatible with external shorter lifetime rating (20,000 hours) than
tribution and controls the light level trans- aluminum fi ns that function as the heat most replacement lamps, the overriding
mitted to the target surface. sink. The downside, particularly in todays goal in development was achieving accept-
market according to Hofmann, is the high able consumer price points while delivering
Achieving omni-directionality cost of remote phosphors that contain rare- quality lamps.
Markus Hofmann, a senior development earth materials. Assembly of the bulbs is The price target for these lamps was less
engineer with Osram GmbH of Munich, also a more complex process, he said, but than 9.99 ($13.77) for the 45W-replacement
Germany, presented the pros and cons Energy Star requirements can be met. lamp and 6.99 ($9.64) for the 25W-replace-
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ment, explained Dekker. The 400 Normalized system efficacy (%) described the MR16 halogen lamp
lm lamp offers a CCT of 2700K 120 as a tough act to follow. MR16
and a CRI above 85. The LED design using LEDs is quite a chal-
design combines two red LEDs 100 CFL lengedespite the fact that there
with four phosphor-converted system efficacy are several commercially-avail-
80 HID
blue LEDs, but the company plans system efficacy able replacement lamps, most do
60 LED
to move to a phosphor-only array system efficacy not come close to the 50W halo-
in 2012 products. 40 gen in performance, said Bean.
Dekker referred to the novel According to the US Department
business agreement with Lemnis 20 of Energys (DOEs) Caliper testing
partners as a virtual vertically- 0 of LED-based MR16 lamps, while
integrated company involving 0 20 40 60 80 100 50W-equivalent performance is
the retailer, the lighting manufac- Input power (%) the goal, typical measurements
Source: Harvard Engineering
turer, an LED fabrication partner are closer to those of 25W- or
in India and other supply part- FIG. 3. System efficacy of various technologies when dimmed. 35W-equivalent lamps (Fig. 3).
ners. These companies are shar- To achieve the required center-
ing the project risk to achieve long-term Optimizing optics beam intensity and a narrow overall beam
volume sales of LED lamps priced at $8/klm Among all retrofit lamps, perhaps the LED- angle, one key to the lamp design is to com-
at the lamp level. A non-integrated supply based MR16, because of its small size, is one of bine smaller LEDs with focusing optics.
chain leads to a stacking of profit margins the more difficult to design. Mike Bean, head Smaller LEDs and total internal reflection
through the supply chain, he said, which of design and development at Carclo Technical (TIR) optics allow the beam angle to be
limits the industrys ability to hit low com- Plastics (CTP), a designer and manufacturer reduced from 40 to 27, while still deliver-
mercial price points. of optical components based in London, UK, ing 2250 cd at 27. In this design, the 30-mm-
__________
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diameter optic was optimally Intensity (cd) intensity of 46 lm/cm, and the
placed 15 mm above the multi- company is currently perform-
8000
chip LED source, allowing the 50W ing trials at higher tempera-
7000 equilvalent
reflector to fit within the speci- tures and light intensities.
fied geometry of the MR16 lamp 6000 Advanced polycarbonate
35W
(per ANSI C78.24 specification). 5000 equilvalent materials can be injection-
Bean said that in addition to 4000 molded into a wide variety of
helping with the beam angle, the 3000 20W shapes and sizes to meet LED
equilvalent 50W reference design
multi-chip LED approach also 2000 light transmission, shaping
affords more driver options, 1000 and diff using needs. One of the
Round-11 Caliper results
including serial or parallel oper- 0
newer developments that Rein-
ation. The reference design used 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 artz described is thermally con-
a Diodes 1.5A driver, a Cree MT-G Beam angle () ductive grades of polycarbon-
Source: CTP
LED package and a Carclo TIR ate (up to 40W/mK), which can
optic to deliver an initial output FIG. 4. Energy Star center-beam intensity targets for MR16 be custom-molded to act as a
of 611 lm at 10.1W (61 lm/W). lamps, showing seleted Caliper results and reference design. lighter, more flexible heat sink
S I L pr e s ent a t ion s a l s o than aluminum options.
addressed luminaire design ele-
ments related to product life. Klaus Rein- offer increased transparency in a thinner Driver and dimmer design
artz, director of the global LED program optical lens with a much smaller yellowness Rasib Khan, an engineering manager
at Bayer MaterialScience LLC (BMS) in index than previous-generation materials. with Harvard Engineering plc, based in
Leverkusen, Germany, explained how The companys Makrolon products are sta- Wakefield, UK, presented a comparison
advanced polycarbonate materials can ble against 90-degree LED light with an of dimming system efficacy among LED,
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CFL and high-pressure sodium (HPS) light to around 20% of light output. For instance, high temperature can have on luminaire
sources. The greatest energy savings are a 50W-equivalent luminaire with Harvard reliability. He made several design rec-
associated with using LEDs and appropri- 700 mA DALI driver at 50% light output ommendations for minimizing tempera-
ate dimming levels. As a comparison, HPS only requires 44% input power. With cur- ture increases in LED luminaires includ-
sources can only be dimmed to approxi- rent technology, system efficacy becomes ing mounting the LEDs so that they have
mately 40% of their maximum lumen out- impacted by driver efficiency below 20% of low thermal impedance to the heat sink
put and system efficacy is compromised with light output. and mounting the driver away from the
all levels of dimming (Fig. 4). In other words, According to K han, simple analog LEDs and heat sink. The heat sink should
higher input power is required to produce switch dimming (0-10V) works well on a be designed for the most efficient size/effi-
the same lumen output. For example, a 60W small scale, but requires too much cable for ciency ratio. Thermal derating can be used
Cosmo luminaire with Harvard DALI ballast large-scale implementations. More expen- to reduce the LED current if the junction
at a 50% light-output level requires approxi- sive control options such as DALI can pro- temperature approaches specification lim-
mately 67% of input power. vide greatwer flexibility for projects of all its. Roberts further recommends limiting
System efficacy is better with CFLs, where sizes and are re-configurable. However, thermal cycling and allowing for a single
high efficacy is maintained down to about DALI and other approaches require further LED failure in multiple LED installations.
40% lumen output levels. For a typical fi x- work to fully maximize control efficiency Input-output voltage transients can be
ture, 30% lumen output requires approxi- and power factor over the control range. managed by using spike protection as well
mately 35% input power. However, below a Ultimately, Khan expects the industry to as short input cables with relatively-longer
40% dimming level, CFLs suffers from cath- move to wireless intelligent control sys- output cables.
ode and driver inefficiencies. tems capable of plug-and-play operation. Regarding triac dimmers, Roberts rec-
LEDs are easier to dim and hypotheti- Also in the drivers session, Steve Rob- ommends that engineers consider the tim-
cally can be dimmed readily to as low as erts, technical manager at Recom, Aus- ing of triggers and the effect on the driver
1%. System efficacy is excellent from 100% tria, discussed the significant impact that electronics. Rather than separate AC/DC
ballasts, a centralized DC-power-distribu-
tion approach should be used with a large
AC/DC power supply feeding multiple DC/
LM-80 / LM-79 TEST SERVICES ORB DC LED drivers. Finally, Roberts recom-
optronix
Setting the Standard for LED Measurement mends consideration of the reliability of
every component in the luminaire system.
&RPSOHWH6(59,&(6 Designing power-distribution networks
>D>Dd^ A presentation by Marc Ottolini of iSotera
KK/^K Ltd of Hoddesdon, UK, considered the util-
h^>>D>Dd ity of DC-power-distribution networks for
"EZ'z^dZ$WZ"K>WZ SSL. Ottolini compared four scenarios
"^^>>d the legacy architecture, a centralized DC
^ Star approach where one AC/DC supply
">^$WdZ' feeds DC/DC drivers, a DC grid where low-
"dK>^ voltage DC leaves the AC/DC supply, or a
&RPSOHWH6<67(06 centralized high-frequency AC (HFAC) bus

approach. For each approach, he looked at
TM
d >^ simplicity of installation, cost, safety, reli-
ability and controllability.
"ddd0d0dD
He concluded that there is no compelling
",>^&D benefit to implementing a full-DC-power-
"WtDW^ distribution system for LED lighting. How-
ETO-S20-P6-HPA "E/^dddK ever, a centralized (bulk) power processing
"d approach can be advantageous if up and
"tsD down (2-stage) conversion can be made effi-
ETO-TEC-100
cient enough, which depends on the diver-
,^.Z sity of the LED load. He fi nalized with the
25%237521,;,1&6DOHV#2UE2SWURQL[FRP statement that energy-efficiency benefits
3OHDVH YLVLW _____________
2UE2SWURQL[FRP IRU D IXOO OLVW RI SURGXFWV VHUYLFHV alone (2-5%) do not provide enough impe-
tus to begin setting new standards.
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standards | TM-21
The elusive life of LEDs:

How TM-21 contributes to the solution
The newly-introduced TM-21 document presents a method for lumen-depreciation projection based
on LM-80 data, enabling LED lifetime extrapolations beyond 6000 hours, says ERIC RICHMAN.
I
n August 2011, the Illuminating Lumen output
Engineering Society (IES) published the (%)
Typical "life" of standard lighting technologies
TM-21 document entitled Lumen degrada- 105
tion lifetime estimation method for LED light 100
sources. TM-21 is the IES-recommended 95
90
method for projecting lumen degradation of
85
an LED package, array or module based on LED
80
data collected according to LM-80. 75 INC FL HID
The lighting community expects TM-21 to 70
become the standard method for projecting 65
useful LED lighting product life at realistic 60
55
operating temperature. This article presents
1,000 11,000 21,000 31,000 41,000 51,000 61,000
the development process behind TM-21, and
Hours of operation Representative only - not to scale
clarifies how and when to apply the lifetime
extrapolation method to arrive at reasonable FIG. 1. Lumen degradation and failure behavior for incandescent (INC), fluorescent
and useful estimations. (FL), high-intensity discharge (HID), and LED lamps.
Why TM-21 and why now? with the solid lines in Fig. 1. Th is makes it tion of the product can be derived.
We are all familiar with the very real but easy to determine when to replace the lamp. Therefore, to serve the solid-state light-
sometimes exaggerated long-life attributes However, LEDs do not have filament burn- ing industry, the Technical Procedures Com-
of LED technology. Not the least of these out that conveniently announces the end mittee (TPC) of the IES proceeded to develop
is the potential for very long life that helps of life (dashed line in Fig. 1). Further, the appropriate tests for use in rating LED prod-
make it an attractive design choice. The rapid development of the technology and uct longevity. The initial need was a mea-
trick has been and continues to be how to the desire to bring products to market in sure of the basic lumen degradation of LED
measure or estimate this longevity to pro- a timely manner does not allow for actual source components identified by a module,
vide assurance to users of this technologys testing verification of the long lives claimed package, or array of diodes and this came in
reliability (life) compared to other options. (100,000 or even 35,000 hours). As a result, the form of LM-80. Importantly, LM-80 only
We also understand that the overall reli- the industry has come to accept a definition specifies how to measure lumen deprecia-
ability of a complete LED lighting fi xture of the end of the useful life of an LED as the tion to a minimum of 6000 hours (but rec-
can be affected by the reliability of individ- point when it no longer provides a specified ommends testing to 10,000 hours or longer).
ual product components (driver, lens, etc.) level of light output. LM-80 stops short of using that data to esti-
and should be accounted for in lifetime And fi nally, the life and performance of mate any depreciation after that, which is
estimations. LED lighting products depends greatly on where TM-21 comes in.
The useful life of standard lighting tech- excess heat retained at the diode. This is why The TM-21 working group (WG) as part
nologies is defi ned as the time to fi lament LEDs require testing at multiple tempera- of the IES TPC was formed to develop the
or cathode failure. For most of these lamps, tures such that when a source is installed in lumen depreciation projection method
the time period prior to failure exhibits a luminaire, its actual operating tempera- and spent over three years exploring many
acceptable levels of light output, as shown ture can be measured and lumen deprecia- options. The WG evaluated various projec-
tion options starting with an analysis of var-
ERIC RICHMAN (eric.richman@pnnl.gov) is a Senior Research Engineer with Pacific Northwest ious mathematical, engineering-based mod-
National Laboratories and follows standards development for the DOE SSL program (www.ssl. els to provide effective depreciation fit and a
energy.gov). PNNL (www.pnl.gov) is a research laboratory of the US Department of Energy.
______ useful projection method.

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standards | TM-21
Next, the WG analyzed LED lumen mainte- a fit to the later data streams (Figs. 2 and 3), Relative lumen maintenance
nance behavior using over 40 sets of LM-80-08 a more accurate representation of the prod- 1.10
test data (20 sets with 10,000 hours or more) ucts lumen degradation curve is obtained. 1.08
collected from four major LED manufactur- 1.06
Test data
ers. The working group also examined the What TM-21 is and is not! 1.04
accuracy of proposed projections using var- First, TM-21 does not determine a traditional 1.02
ious proposed models and LM-80 data that life or time-to-failure like we are used to for 1.00
6k hour fit
extended up to 15,000 hours. other lighting sources. 0.98
What TM-21 does provide is a projection 0.96
10k hour fit
Insight from LED manufacturers data of the lumen maintenance of an LED source 0.94
Th is analysis showed that the LED lumen (package/array/module) based on data col- 0.92
depreciation trends often change after 6000 lected according to LM-80. Th is projection 0.90
0 5000 10,000 15,000
hours in one way or another and there is no information can then be used to project the
Operated hours
reliable and consistent approach to predict expected lumen degradation of the light
such trends from 6000-hour data points. source as part of a complete system (fi xture). FIG. 2. Later TM-80 data points provide
It is important to note, however, that TM-21 a better estimate of long-term lumen
Ts,1, (0C) 55 is not a complete lifetime estimation tool. maintenance.
Ts,1, (K) 328.15 TM-21 does make use of all data provided
Relative lumen maintenance
a1 1.684E-06 in an LM-80 test format. LM-80 requires
6000 hours of data at 1000-hour increments, 1.05
B1 0.9639
0
Ts,2, ( C) 85
but the TM-21 WG determined that longer Test data
streams of data and data taken at shorter 1.00
Ts,2, (K) 358.15
intervals (less than 1000 hours) will provide
a2 3.354E-06 6k hour fit
for a better estimate. The methodology first
B2 0.9525 normalizes the provided data to 1 (100%) at 0.95
10k hour fit
Ea/kB 2699 0 hours and averages each point for all sam-
A 6.283E-03 ples of the device for each test condition 0.90
(temperature).
B0 9.582E-01
TM-21 also provides a suggested sam-
Ts,i, (0C) 70 ple size of 20 LED packages, arrays or mod- 0.85
0 5000 10,000 15,000
Ts,i, (K) 343.15 ules. Based on an evaluation of the uncer- Operated hours
ai 2.413E-06 tainty of measurement at various sample
Projected L70(Dk) 130,131 sizes, a larger sample size (30) does not FIG. 3. As also shown in Fig. 2, a fi t to
Reported L70(Dk) >60,000
significantly increase the uncertainty LM-80 data collected later provides the
and smaller size (10) would significantly best estimate of lumen maintenance for
TABLE 1. Parameters of interpolation reduce the uncertainty of the degradation LEDs.
using 10,000 hours of LM-80 data for in- estimates.
situ case temperature Ts,i of 70C. B = projected initial constant derived
How it works by the least-squares-curve fit;
Even a 10,000 hour stream of data is often As discussed previously, later data tends to = decay rate constant derived by the
not sufficient to provide rigid statistical con- exhibit the more characteristic decay curve least-squares-curve fit.
fidence in an extrapolation of a decay curve that is of interest. So for 6000 hours of data And a projected lumen maintenance value
out to large numbers such as 35,000 hours. (LM-80 minimum) and up to 10,000 hours, is derived using:
In addition, the LED industry under- TM-21 applies curve fitting to the last 5000 Lp = ln(100B/p)/
stands that degradation associated with hours of collected data. For collected data Where:
effects other than the diode itself tends to greater than 10,000 hours, TM-21 uses the Lp = lumen maintenance life in hours
manifest earlier in life rather than later. The last half of the data. where p is the maintained percentage of ini-
WG concluded that the most reasonable The method then applies an exponential tial lumen output
approach to extrapolation of lumen degra- least-squares-curve fit to the data: This process can accommodate any user-
dation was to avoid using any initial vari- (t) = B exp(-t) identified level of light output (i.e. L70 or L50).
able data. This initial data variability is com- Where: If the desired light output level is reached
monly associated with an early rise in output t = operating time in hours; during the course of LM-80 testing, then that
followed by the eventual decline, identified (t) = averaged normalized luminous time value is reported.
as a hump in the data. Instead, by utilizing flux output at time t; During the development of the method, it
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standards | TM-21
became clear that limited 6000-hour data can Lp (Dk)

produce mathematical results that are not Where:
necessarily rational or believable. For exam- p = the percentage of initial lumen out-
ple, flat or increasing delay curves would be put that is maintained
unreasonable for LED products. Clearly, rea- D = the total duration of the test in hours
sonable limits on predictions are needed. divided by 1000 and rounded
The WG analyzed 40 sets of data to deter- For example:
mine model-fit uncertainty and its relation- L70 (6k) = 34,000 hours represents results
ship to prediction limits. The recommended at 6000 hours of test data
extrapolation limits are: L70(10k) = 51,000 hours represents results
For a sample size of 20 units, the maxi- at 10,000 hours of test data
mum projection = 6 the test duration L70 (6k) > 36,000 hours represents results
For a sample size of only 10 units, the with the 6 times rule applied
maximum projection = 5.5 the test L70(4k) = 4400 hours represents results at
duration. a value reached during testing.
TM-21 also provides for interpolating The methodology is provided in the
between test data curves to determine the TM-21 document as formulas and proce-
actual degradation characteristics the prod- dure but can be developed into spread-
uct will exhibit when installed in a fi xture sheets or other software-tool formats. The
where heat conditions will change. When the method can also be misapplied in software
in-fi xture measured temperature is within programs, so a set of examples is included
the LM-80 test temperatures (55C, 85C, and for users to check the results.
manufacturer chosen), then TM-21 prescribes
the use of the Arrhenius equation to interpo- Where does TM-21 fit in the industrys
late between test temperatures. The Arrhe- characterization of LED life?
nius relationship accounts for the tempera- TM-21 is the result of extensive analysis and
ture effect on decay rate constants, which is it presents a realistic method of project-
critical for temperature-dependent LEDs. ing lumen maintenance of LED packages,
For instance, Table 1 presents an exam- arrays and modules in actual operating con-
ple of an extrapolation with an in-fix- ditions. However, diode lumen degradation
ture temperature of 70C with the graphic over time is only one of many possible LED-
product-degradation
Lumen maintenance mechanisms. The indus-
(%)
try is seeking to better
100 55C understand component
data
reliability metrics such
as driver life, and the
90 85C 55C
data 70C effect on lighting prod-
85C uct performance.
80 The TM-21 document
may be applied in vari-
ous ways. It can be used
70 by laboratories, man-
0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000
Time (h)
ufacturers, or others ____________________
as defined by the pro-

FIG. 4. Degradation curves from measured data and from
gram or organization
in-fi xture interpolation at 70C.
requiring its applica-
tion. TM-21 data can be
results in Figure 4. Extrapolation outside requested as part of LM-80 testing or applied
of LM-80 test temperatures is not recom- by the manufacturer of an LED product.
mended or supported. TM-21 is expected to achieve widespread use
The TM-21 document provides a nomen- by organizations and program certifications
clature for results to provide uniform report- (e.g. Energy Star) as part of their required doc-
ing between products. The general form is: umentation of performance.

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lighting | MODULES AND STANDARDS
LED modules simplify luminaire design

while Zhaga closes on initial specifications
LED-based modules for SSL can simplify product design and even make products field-
upgradeable, reports MAURY WRIGHT. Zhaga standards will yield interoperable modular products
from multiple vendors.
M
odular LED light engines can allow
luminaire makers to develop solid-
state-lighting (SSL) products with-
out facing the technical details of electronic
driver circuits, LED selection and config-
uration, thermal management, and optics
design. Manufacturers should understand
the basics and importance of these prod-
uct-design disciplines, but a proven mod-
ule vendor can ensure the details get proper
attention. The modular approach can speed
product development and enable upgradeable
products. Today, the available modules are
proprietary to each manufacturer, but stan-
dards such as those the Zhaga Consortium
has under development will yield interoper-
able modules from multiple vendors.
Modular LED light engines are
quickly gaining favor. A number of
major LED manufacturers and LED-
lighting companies including Cree,
Osram, Philips, and GE Lighting have
modules available for a variety of appli-
cations ranging from indoor downlights
Philips Fortimo DLM modules in Hoffmeister luminaires
to outdoor street lights.
light the parliament building in Dusseldorf.
Lets start by defining some terminol-
ogy for the scope of this article because
words such as light engine and mod- gear. In the latter case the driver is also uses the term socketable if the module can
ule arent used consistently in the SSL essentially a packaged module or subsystem. be installed without tools.
industry. Zhaga (see www.ledsmagazine. For this article, we will use the terms LED
com/features/8/11/4 for background infor- module and LED light engine interchange- The modular advantage
mation and an update on Zhaga activity) ably and simply specify whether a driver is Modules can offer a number of advantages
defines a light engine as the combination of integrated in the module. Indeed the mod- over what some call integral luminaires
an LED module and its associated control ule makers mentioned above use the term where the fi xture manufacturer assembles
gear or driver. module whether or not a driver is included. the requisite components including LEDs
Zhaga sticks with the term light engine We will include discussion of modules that and the driver ICs that precisely match the
whether or not the driver is integrated into fasten into a luminaire using screws or other application at hand into a fi nished prod-
a modular package along with the LEDs. fasteners, and modules that use some form uct. As mentioned, buying an off-the-shelf
Zhaga is developing specifications for of snap-in or twist-lock mounting mecha- module, and perhaps a driver, greatly sim-
light engines with integrated control gear nism. The latter are sometimes referred to plifies the product-development process
and light engines with separate control as tool-less or tool-free designs, and Zhaga delivering the aforementioned advantage

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in speedier development. completely solve the problem we were trying

Many people also associate the word mod- to address. That problem was fully simplify-
ule with the implication that the light engine ing the SSL design process. Posselt added, The
is easily replaceable. In contrast, many inte- driver is a big issue for luminaire makers.
gral luminaires on the market require a com- Bridgelux and Molex plan to ship the sec-
plete fi xture replacement if the light engine ond-generation Helieon products in Q1 of
fails of if an upgrade to greater lumen output 2012. The companies are fine tuning the
or perhaps a different color temperature is driver design to fit a very confi ned space.
desired. Indeed, future-proof and upgrade- And because the new version will operate
able are recurring characteristics lauded by from line voltage and be user replaceable,
module proponents even if it takes a screw the companies are proceeding through the
driver to install or replace the module. process of getting the module UL listed.
The advantages of modules actually run
deeper according to some proponents, and of The tradeoffs
course there are drawbacks as well. Bridge- The downside to modules is principally cost.
lux and Molex were among the first compa- A module may also restrict some of the design
nies to offer a socketable module with the elements in a luminaire and therefore the aes-
jointly-developed Helieon product intro- thetics. And with modules, luminaire makers
duced last year (http://www.ledsmagazine. will never have complete photometric feature
com/news/7/3/21). A press-and-turn action freedom, for instance in terms of choosing an
locks the Helieon module into a receptacle exact lumen output or generating a specific
socket mounted in the luminaire. The mat- color temperature with a custom LED mix.
ing action both secures the module in place But the biggest tradeoff comes back to cost.
and makes the electrical contact. Modules invariably introduce extra materials
such as plastic or metal module housings, and
Supply chain benefits complex electrical and mechanical connec-
Bridgelux vice president of marketing Jason tors. Moreover the cost of separately assem-
Posselt said that the modular approach can bling the module is an adder.
offer manufacturers great benefits in the sup- Module proponents believe that the
ply chain. He said that a single module form technology will ramp SSL uptake and
factor can be used across a wide range of fi x- the greater manufacturing volumes will
tures. Moreover Posselt said, There is no need reduce the cost premium. Moreover
for the luminaire maker to inventory large the modular approach will likely res-
numbers of modules. Instead the luminaire onate with consumers that are accus-
manufacturer can build various fi xtures that tomed to changing light bulbs rather than
are customizable in terms of light output, replacing fixtures. And thats Zhagas mission
color temperature, beam pattern, and other to develop specifications that standardize a
characteristics based on the particular mod- modular approach to interoperable SSL prod-
ular light engine mated to the fi xture. Posselt ucts rather than having multiple companies
said, The manufacturer can deliver the fi x- building similar but incompatible products.
ture and module separately. Menno Treffers, secretary general of the
According to Posselt, the typical bill of Zhaga Consortium, said The key thing that
materials for an SSL luminaire is about a third we want to achieve is that the products from
attributable to the LED assembly, a third to multiple vendors fit together. Ultimately
the driver, and a third to the remainder of the Zhaga specifications should allow multiple
fixture. Eliminating the need to buy and stock vendors to make compatible light engines.
an inventory of components that are needed Luminaire makers will also be able to buy a
to build the LED assembly can reduce the driver from one company, a mechanical hous-
investment in inventory significantly. ing from another, an LED module from yet
The first generation of Helieon modules
did not include a driver. At Lightfair 2011 in From top: Osram PrevaLED module,
May, Bridgelux and Molex introduced the sec- Philips Fortimo SLM for spot lights, GE
ond-generation of Helieon with an integrated Infusion module, Cree LMR4 module with
driver. Posselt said, The DC version didnt integrated driver and optics.
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another, and optics such as a reflector from their own R&D. Elements of the proposals are ule, and a rectangular module a number of
still another. merged by task forces and then converted into which may be connected together for indoor
specifications by working groups. linear lighting. There are other proposals at
Zhagas process and progress Zhaga has approved three light engine earlier stages of the Zhaga process.
Zhagas approach is based on defining what specifications thus far:
it calls the mechanical, thermal, electrical, A socketable LED downlight engine with Designed for Zhaga
and photometric interfaces of a light engine. integrated control gear In reality, there are already modules on the
The mechanical elements include shape, An LED spotlight engine with separate market that are based on Zhaga standards,
dimensions and mounting scheme or socket. control gear or more correctly that were the basis for a
The electrical interface includes the connec- A socketable LED light engine with sep- couple of the completed Zhaga specifications.
tor and AC- or DC-voltage specification. The arate control gear. Remember that Zhagas process is based on
thermal interface defi nes how cooling ele- The specifications have not been made merging proposals from multiple compa-
ments in the luminaire housing mate to a available to the public although members of nies. When asked if individual companies
thermal surface on the module. The photo- the consortium have free access. At this time were behind any of the Zhaga specifications,
metric interface includes elements such as no company can claim official Zhaga compli- Treffers said, In all cases there were multi-
the size of the light emitting surface, lam- ance for a product because the consortium ple companies involved. Still its pretty clear
bertian or shaped-beam pattern, and unifor- is still working on compliance testing pro- that in some cases a single company has pro-
mity of light on the task plane. cedures. Treffers says that the first products vided the majority of the technical input.
The Zhaga process includes proposal, to carry the official Zhaga logo are months For example, photos that Zhaga has pub-
merger, specification-development, and pub- away from the market as opposed to a year, lished make it clear that the socketable
lished-specification stages. Members of the but he cant offer a more specific projection. LED light engine with separate control
consortium that are interested in a particu- Zhaga has four other specifications in gear is essentially GEs Infusion module.
lar type of module submit proposals based on development including a street light mod- And the LED spotlight engine with sep-
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arate control gear is Phillips by the Zhaga process.

Fortimo SLM (spot light mod- As an example Briggs pointed out a
ule) module. While the com- design change that happened between the
panies cant yet claim compli- announcement of the second-generation
ance, they have both said that Infusion back at Lightfair in May and the
the products are designed to production modules that just commenced
ultimately be compatible with shipping in Q3. The mechanical design now
Zhaga specifications. includes mechanical mounting tabs on the
Given the clear tie between front of the module that allow easy connec-
Infusion and one of Zha- tion of reflectors or other optics.
gas completed speci- So in some cases the multiple parties that
fications, we asked participate in the Zhaga proposal-merger pro-
The Westport track Steve Briggs, vice cess may have interest in different elements of
light on the left uses president of mar- a luminaire design as opposed to being com-
the first-generation Bridgelux/Molex keting and prod- panies with competing module concepts. For
Helieon module mounted in the track uct management example, Posselt said that while Bridgelux is a
head and requires the separate at GE Lighting Solu- Zhaga member, that the companys primary
rectangular driver mounted on the tions (the LED-focused goal in the endeavor is to make sure our core
track arm. The reference design on business within GE Lighting) about the col- product, the LED array, is not precluded from
the right uses the new AC-powered laboration in the Zhaga process. Briggs said use in Zhaga-compliant products.
Helieon module thats installed in that multiple companies were involved in
the track head and eliminates the proposing concepts and added Our Infu- Too many or just right?
need for the external driver. sion module has been shaped and changed The question that arises with the Zhaga
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progress to date is one of how many stan- 12-18 months, remote phosphor is definitely
dards do we need. In lighting, there are going to be the way to go.
clearly different requirements for mod- Its worth noting that Zhaga doesnt weigh
ules in different applications. For example in on the choice of remote phosphor or direct
street lights will need larger modules with lighting using phosphor converted LEDs.
space for more LEDs. Downlights and spot Either is allowed although some mechani-
lights will need small circular modules and cal designs may lack the depth and size for
linear fi xtures long and slim modules. Still an efficient mixing chamber needed for the
its already evident that Zhaga will publish remote approach.
specifications that overlap and that may be Moreover some applications arent com-
bad for an industry looking for standardiza- patible with remote phosphor even if it does
tion to ramp production volumes of inter- offer an efficiency advantage. Philips for
changeable products. instance, uses phosphor-converted LEDs
The opposite pull of the desire for stan- in the aforementioned Fortimo SLM. Lind-
dardization and the need for optimum lumi- strom said the need for a tight beam pattern
naire design for a specific application is a dictated the choice.
tough conundrum. Companies have vastly
different philosophies and that is surely One module, many uses
playing out within Zhaga. To understand the GE, conversely is planning to use Infusion
philosophical extremes, lets take a closer across applications. That usage certainly
look at the existing module products avail- wont include street lights. Briggs said that
able from GE and Philips. the company is investigating linear mod-
Philips approach is a module for every ules for such applications. But Infusion will
application or maybe more than one. span downlights, spot lights and many other
Andrew Lindstrom, director of SSL at Phil- indoor products. GE has announced Infusion
ips Lighting, said, We have competing lines modules ranging in output from 850-3500 lm
across the board. Consider street lighting and plans to go to 5000 lm.
where we have published numerous stories Briggs said that luminaire makers will be
about applications that use Philips LED- able to choose a module with an LED pack-
gine module (http://www.ledsmagazine. age thats optimum for any specific applica-
com/news/8/9/10). That module uses LEDs tion. They will add an optics package thats
in an array with TIR (total internal reflec- matched to the LED package and application.
tion) optics on each LED to form a beam. GE already has a broad portfolio of optics and
Philips also offers the Fortimo LLM (lin- third parties will offer products as well.
ear light module) that is based on remote- The migration to modules is in the early
phosphor technology (www.ledsmagazine. stages. Its too soon to know if modules will
com/news/8/5/2) and that targets outdoor become the dominant choice for SSL imple-
applications with output ranging from 1100- mentations or remain a niche. Much may
4500 lm. And the company has the For- depend on how well Zhaga is accepted. Even
timo HBM (high brightness module) that if Zhaga yields overlapping specifications,
uses phosphor-converted LEDs and deliv- the standardization effort does accomplish
ers 4000-6000 lm, and that Philips business something else it opens technology devel-
development manager Dan Sullivan said oped within companies to others. No one has
is designed to be compatible with a Zhaga rights to the intellectual property within a
standard currently under development. GE Infusion module, for example, but others
In the indoor space the Philips line is can build compatible products once Zhaga
equally if not more crowded. The Fortimo publishes the specification.
DLM (down light module) uses remote phos- And modules are being successfully and
phor technology. Philips Sullivan said in a spectacularly deployed today. Our cover
recent presentation that the remote-phos- photo for this issue, and another nearby
phor approach could provide a 30-40% effi- photo, are of the Dusseldorf parliament hall
ciency advantage. Philips Lindstrom adds lit by Hoff meister Leuchten LED downlights
________________________ that the remote phosphor provides more that are based on 2000-lm Philips Fortimo
consistent color and said For the near term, DLM modules.
48 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 LEDs

LEDsmagazine.com
smagazi
azine.co
om
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________________
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_______________________________________
_____________ _________
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national focus | CHINA
LED revolution advances in China

with government backing
Despite some quality issues, China now leads the world in the deployment of LED street lights, and
the countrys next Five-Year Plan is expected to drive further advancements, writes PHILIP JESSUP.
C
hina is the epicenter of the LED rev-
olution, accounting globally for 46%
of the consumption of high-bright-
ness LEDs in 2009, followed by North America
at 30% and Europe at 17%, according to
Strategies Unlimited. With over 2,200 manu-
facturers making LED devices, packages and
luminaires today, China is advancing rapidly
to the forefront of Asias LED market.
Although much of the countrys LED
industry makes contract products for west-
ern companies, the central and provincial
governments, especially Guangdong Prov-
ince, are aggressively developing their own
internal markets for high-quality, high-
Photo courtesy of Ryan Pyle.
brightness, white-lighting applications.
21 City, 10,000 LED Lights program

In 2009, the Ministry of Science and
Technology launched its 21 City, 10,000 LED
Lights program, the fi rst phase of a much
larger national demonstration project to This very long street on the Tianjin Polytechnical University campus in China is lit with
install two million LED lamps in 50 cities. hundreds of LED luminaires as part of a demonstration project.
A key aim of the project is to enable LED
companies to deploy their LED products in 110,000 lighting fi xtures. site, including the China Pavilion and a wide
the cities where they are located, using large Hangzhou, Zhejiang province: An out- variety of streets near the Expo, as well as
installations as platforms for demonstra- door demonstration was undertaken of LED public spaces and landscape applications.
tion, for local investment, and to attract util- luminaires along 21 km of the Jinghang or Shenzhen, Guangdong province: Instal-
ity orders. As a result, the Ministry provided Grand Canal and in the vicinity of West lation of 10,000 LED luminaires along 130 km
subsidies directly to the LED manufacturers Lake. A total of 65,000 outdoor and indoor of expressway and tunnels, one of the largest
a 10% subsidy has been the norm which LED lamps were installed. highway LED retrofit projects in China (www.
___
then partnered with their local municipal Dongguan, Guangdong province: ledsmagazine.com/news/8/10/13).
governments. Here are some typical projects: Demonstration of 20,000 LED street lights The 21 City, 10,000 LED Lights proj-
Tianjin: A variety of outdoor LED demon a variety of streets, supplied by local firm ect was reportedly hampered by LED prod-
onstration projects were undertaken in 2010 Kingsun Optoelectronic, one of Chinas old- uct-quality issues. Failure rates of 70% and
on the Tianjin Polytechnic University cam- est LED product manufacturers. annual lumen depreciation as high as 30%
pus (see photo) and on the citys streets, as Shanghai: Support for LED street-light in some locales have been reported anec-
well as many indoor installations, totaling demonstrations at the Shanghai World Expo dotally. Hence, the project slowed in 2011 to
allow time for evaluation by the China Solid-
PHILIP JESSUP is a Senior Advisor to The Climate Group and to its global LightSavers initiative State Lighting Alliance (CSA). Key problems
(www.theclimategroup.com/lightsavers). The Climate Groups Beijing staff provided research for identified by the CSAs study were:
this article. See Jessup's article on India at www.ledsmagazine.com/features/8/10/5. Municipal governments found it difficult

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national focus | CHINA
to implement the programs. Financial sub- energy-efficiency technologies made it dif- including 100,000 units in the capital,
sidies from central government were low, ficult for municipal governments to raise Guangzhou (see also page 8). Installation
and restricted to the LED companies. adequate funding. of another three million LED street lights
Technical assessment of the products Regional trade-protection barriers within is planned soon.
offered by local companies and site appli- China prevented quality products from In part due to the 21 City, 10,000 LED
cations was often insufficient, leading to being used in many cities. Lights project and Guangdongs leader-
a mismatch between the product and its Major recommendations coming out of ship, China now leads the world in the
application. CSAs review included creating national deployment of LED street lights. In 2010,
Quality standards, LED procurement spec- LED evaluation criteria; setting up qual- approximately 350,000 LED street lights
ifications, and project management pro- ity-control systems; providing central-gov- were installed in Chinese cities, 74% of the
cesses were lacking. National LED lighting ernment subsidies to local governments; global total, according to Strategies Unlim-
standards were still in development when implementing better coordination among ited. A temporary contraction is expected
the program unfolded. central governments agencies; improving in 2011.
Business modeling was challenging, due to LED manufacturing processes; and sup-
underestimated maintenance costs associ- porting further R&D. After the review, the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-2016)
ated with non-standardized products and Ministry expanded the program to a second China will continue its ambitious LED
extensive product failures. group of 16 cities in 2011. lighting program in the next Five-Year Plan,
Low electricity prices and high LED costs which ambitiously aims for LEDs to achieve
extended payback periods under ideal Guangdong leadership 30% market share of Chinas general light-
conditions to eight years or more in many Despite the early problems encountered, ing market by 2015. Guangdong province
cities. demonstration projects undertaken by cit- has adopted probably the most ambitious
A dearth of energy-service companies in ies in Guangdong province proved very suc- provincial goal: the installation of 30 mil-
China with strong fi nancial expertise in cessful. Th is was due to the implementation lion indoor LED lights by 2015. Key ele-
of rigorous technical requirements and stan- ments of the national plan include:
dards associated with the energy manage- Continued R&D, industry promotion,
ment contract (EMC) business model pio- and scale-up of niche applications such
neered in China by these cities. as street lighting, tunnel lighting, and
Under the EMC model, banks provide indoor uses.
project financing to the cities to cover Establishment of national photonic test-
third-party testing data, feasibility analy- ing labs in various regions, including
sis, street reconstruction, and light sources. Guangdong.
The loans are repaid from energy savings Development of Chinese technology in the
over a six-year period, which involves peri- field of metal-organic vapor-phase epitaxy
odic field monitoring. Typically, 10% of (MOCVD).
the project cost is subsidized by Guang- Inclusion of LED domestic lamps in the
dong province, 15% by the municipal gov- central governments Green Lights pro-
ernment, and the remaining 75% fi nanced gram, which offers substantial subsidies
through the EMC with an energy-service in the A-lamp mass market.
company. While quality issues have dogged Chi-
Guangdongs leadership in LEDs is driven nas HB-LED efforts to date, these are not
by the importance of the technology to the likely to dampen the countrys long-term
provinces economy. Companies located in ambition to become one of the top three
the province supplied 70% of Chinas LED leaders in manufacturing LED products.
packages in 2010, with foreign investment It is expected that Chinese governments
approaching $1.5 billion in local LED fi rms, will effectively address LED product qual-
much of it centered in Shenzhens Special ity problems all along the supply chain
Economic Zone. through home-grown R&D and procure-
In order to maintain this momentum, ment initiatives, and joint ventures with
Guangdong relies on aggregating local pro- western LED companies such as Cree,
curement to expand the provincial market while deploying a mix of well-coordinated
for locally-produced LED luminaire prod- policies, subsidies, and market aggrega-
ucts. As of the end of 2011, 200,000 street- tion initiatives that capitalize on the large
_______________ light luminaires had been installed on size of Chinas market to gain comparative
2,000 km of provincial streets and roads, advantage globally.
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conferences | STRATEGIES IN LIGHT 2012
Strategies in Light 2012 to highlight

LED market dynamics
With the theme of Navigating the Dynamic LED and Lighting Markets, the 13th annual Strategies in
Light conference will be held in Santa Clara, California, on February 7-9, 2012 writes BOB STEELE .
I
t can be said with some certainty that up co-founded by LED industry legend Shuji Ltd., will provide insight on whether a major
2011 is shaping up as one of the most chal- Nakamura. After many months of being semiconductor company can help to acceler-
lenging years in the history of the HB-LED in stealth mode regarding its technol- ate the LED cost-reduction curve.
industry. After an astounding 108% market ogy, Mr. Kim will discuss Soraas holistic Other speakers in the HB-LED Market
growth in 2010, driven largely by the adop- approach to LED lighting. track will address topics ranging from pro-
tion of LED backlights in LCD TVs, com- Following the opening Plenary Ses- viding LED-based lighting to the rural poor,
puter monitors and notebook computers, the sion, SIL 2012 will split into three paral- to the market for LED backlights in displays,
market is expected to grow at a rate of automotive headlamps, LED lighting,
less than 10% in 2011 (ledsmagazine.
_________ and strategies for dealing with the
com/news/8/10/9). Demand for LCD current tumultuous LED market. Two
TVs has slowed, and the oversupply panel sessions will be offered one
of LEDs caused by widespread capac- www.strategiesinlight.com on new developments in phosphors
ity expansion has put strong down- (including quantum dots) and one on
ward pressure on prices. Helping confer- lel tracks the traditional HB-LED Market drivers, controls and dimming.
ence attendees to understand the dynamics and LEDs in Lighting tracks, plus an LED In the LEDs in Lighting track, presen-
of this rapidly changing and complex mar- Manufacturing track, new for 2012. Lead- tations will address lighting in the retail
ket is a key goal of Strategies in Light 2012. ing off the LEDs in Lighting track, Strate- industry, utility energy-efficiency pro-
To address the wide range of issues and gies Unlimiteds Director of LED Lighting grams, the results of DOEs Caliper testing of
growing pains facing the LED industry, Research, Vrinda Bhandarkar, will pro- LED replacement lamps, museum lighting,
Strategies in Light 2012 has assembled a ros- vide an update and forecast of the LED smart street lighting, and the digital con-
ter of distinguished speakers from all levels luminaire and replacement lamp markets. trol of lighting, among many other topics.
of the LED and lighting supply chain, and The fi rst keynote speaker will be veteran The LEDs in Manufacturing track will
from all parts of the globe. As usual, the con- lighting designer Ted Ferreira, Principal focus on the issues faced by the LED indus-
ference will be kicked off by a presentation of at CD+M Lighting Design Group, who will try as it scales up to unprecedented lev-
Strategies Unlimiteds most recent research address the issue of sustainable design as els of high-volume production. Topics to
update and forecast for the worldwide HB- it relates to the SSL industry. Dave Ranieri, be addressed will include the development
LED market, delivered by Ella Shum, Direc- VP and General Manager of the Commer- and application of new equipment and tech-
tor of LED Market Research. cial Indoor Business Unit, Lithonia Light- niques to move to larger substrate sizes,
Headlining the conferences Plenary Ses- ing, will discuss the advent of intelligent increase automation, improve yield and
sion will be Ling Wu, General Secretary of digital lighting. throughput, and provide lower cost and
the China Solid-State Lighting Association. The lead keynote speaker for the LED more robust packaging.
With the expansion of the LED industry in Manufacturing track will be Iain Black, VP In addition to the three main conference
China much in the news this year, Ms. Wu of Worldwide Manufacturing, Engineering tracks, Strategies in Light 2012 will continue
will shed light on the future development and Innovation for Philips Lumileds Light- its tradition of offering a full-day Solid-State
strategies of Chinas SSL industry. Korea ing, who will address the manufacturing Lighting Investor Forum, featuring presen-
has been a key player in the recent growth challenges of dealing with complexity in an tations by a wide range of advanced tech-
of the LED market, and C.H. Lee, CEO of evolving market. He will be followed by Tom nology start-ups. Moreover, five in-depth
Seoul Semiconductor, Koreas largest inde- Morrow, Executive VP of SEMI, who will dis- workshops and two lighting tutorials will be
pendent LED supplier, will provide his cuss the issues associated with the recent offered on the day before the main confer-
companys perspective on the LED indus- unprecedented expansion of LED manu- ence, along with numerous informative free
trys trajectory. The fi nal Keynote Speaker, facturing capacity around the world. Jacob presentations in the LED Light and Design
Eric Kim, is CEO of Soraa, Inc., the start- Tarn, President of TSMC Solid-State Lighting Pavilion on the exhibit floor.

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Products TRP
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Constant-current, constant-voltage,
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strategically speaking | DRIVER MARKET
LED drivers represent a critical

but confusing market
The LED driver market is characterized by complex and dynamic design issues, volatile pricing,
varying degrees of integration and customization, and confusing terminology. TOM HAUSKEN makes
sense of it all.
W
ith all the attention devoted lighting, exit signs, and fl ashlights. Now, mastered with a few pointers. Most impor-
to LEDs and LED lighting, you LED replacement bulbs are being sold in tant, the driver is the entire circuit, minus
hear surprisingly little about hardware stores, with the promise of large- the LEDs. A driver IC is one or more ICs ded-
the rest of the electronics in LED prod- volume sales but extreme demands are being icated to controlling the current, and some-
ucts what is known as the driver. Yet, made on size, efficiency, and cost. After that times also the voltage, in the driver circuit.
the driver design determines such things will come growth in general commercial Fig. 2 shows an example of each. Nearly every
as whether the product is properly loaded and industrial luminaires, as building own- LED-based light has a driver, even a simple
or inefficient, or whether the LEDs have to ers choose LED lighting for the lower-life- one, but not every driver has a driver IC.
be tightly selected or can be loosely binned.
And if you think that driver design is well Revenue ($ Billion)
understood and mature, you are wrong, for 4.0
reasons that this article will discuss. Driver
design is evolving rapidly to keep up with 3.5
Signs
new applications and new requirements, 3.0 Vehicles
such as improved power factor correction Lighting
2.5
and sophisticated dimming for improved
uniformity and reliability. 2.0
TVs and monitors
1.5
Driver IC market scales with LEDs
Lets make one thing clear: the market for 1.0
LED driver ICs an important component of Mobile appliances
0.5
most LED drivers is significant, at $2 bil-
0.0
lion. Also, its growing at about the same rate 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
as the LED market, about 13% per year (Fig. 1).
Most LED driver ICs are used in backlights FIG. 1. Revenue growth for LED driver ICs tracks the growth in the HB-LED market. The
for LCD displays, such as in mobile phones strongest sales today are in backlights for displays in mobile appliances and TVs, but
and TVs. These are dynamic consumer end LED lighting is becoming the next big thing (source: Strategies Unlimited).
products, with short product cycles and tight
control on performance, size, and cost. That cycle cost compared to legacy lighting. The The term controller refers to a circuit within
makes the driver-IC segment dynamic too. residential segment will take longer because the driver that controls the LED current. We
The next big opportunity in LED drivers is private homeowners donate their labor for use microcontroller to refer to programmable
in LED lighting. There have been LED light- bulb replacement and do not strictly ratio- boxes added by the lighting designer or cus-
ing products in the market for many years, nalize their life-cycle costs. tomer to manage the system (for example, a
but in niche categories like architectural The driver is important, but its under- timer or dimmer switch). This is shown in Fig.
appreciated by the industry and difficult 3, in which the current controller is a key part
TOM HAUSKEN is Director of the Components to forecast. Why is that? The following sec- of the driver, but the programmable microcon-
Practice at Strategies Unlimited, a market tions explain. troller is entirely separate.
research firm based in Mountain View,
California (www.strategies-u.com). The 1. Confusing terminology 2. Complex, unique, dynamic design
companys most recent market-research report One reason is that the terminology is Driver design is not simple and standardized
on LED Driver ICs was published in June 2011. absurdly confusing, although it can be as many people assume. First, LEDs require

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constant, high-current sources, which are

unusual in electronics and create unusual
challenges for product engineers. Moreover,
the designs are complex and unique to every
LED product. The end-product features are
constantly evolving: from keypads to touch-
screens, from one type of edge-lighting to
another, and so forth. And, there is a wide vari-
ety of supply arrangements that obscure the
landscape for observers: from conventional FIG. 2. An LED driver
suppliers to contract manufacturers to wide- is the electrical circuit,
spread use of chip foundries to manufacturers minus the LEDs. The driver
of custom ICs for specialized driver designs. may include one or more driver ICs,
Fig. 4 shows some examples of LED driver or none. The driver at left from ROAL
circuits driven from a DC voltage. The Electronics and the driver IC at right from
strings of LEDs, shown in the figure as sin- TI both serve LED lighting.
gle diodes, require at least some current con-
trol. A common design uses only a resistor to pose-power-management IC (PMIC). We con- the driver, using the diode features of the
limit the current (Fig. 4a). Th is approach is sider a PMIC to be in a category apart, not an LED to replace conventional diodes. Other
simple and inexpensive, and is common in LED driver IC, if it includes management of designs use some basic components to limit
vehicle lighting, but is inadequate for appli- battery recharging and voltage regulation the current, but sparingly. If highly success-
cations demanding precise control and unifor other functions. The trend toward PMICs ful, the AC-LED could make some LED light-
formity, such as backlights or signs. Substi- therefore shifts some of the sales of LED driver ing products such as replacement bulbs
tuting a linear regulator (not shown) for the ICs to suppliers of PMICs. more competitive and greatly expand the
current-limiting resistor improves the cur- The trend toward integration also offers LED-lighting market. Such a move could be
rent control. Ganging multiple regulators in an opportunity for chipmakers that use good for both the LED industry and the end
parallel into an IC can reduce the compo- BCD (bipolar-CMOS-DMOS)
nent count and improve reliability (Fig. 4b). processes to fabricate LED
LED
Controlling the input rail voltage is nor- driver ICs that enable high-
mally considered the task of the systems voltage operation. BCD allows
power supply, but many LED applications for integration of diverse cir- Voltage
require a voltage conversion to match the cuit elements such as low- converter
LED load. An IC may be dedicated for that voltage analog and high-volt-
purpose (Fig. 4c). For example, LED back- age power transistors on the
Driver
lights can operate with strings of up to 10 or same chip. It is a high-margin (Integrated)
current controller
more LEDs in series, with a total string volt- growth opportunity for the
(External)
age of 60V or more. foundries and chip suppliers programmable
that can do it. microcontroller
3. IC integration and customization Customers must a lso
Voltage conversion creates another option: the choose between custom FIG. 3. The driver (dotted rectangle) in this simplified
converter IC may be combined with a current- ASICs (application-specific circuit includes a voltage converter and a current-
regulating function on the same chip (Fig. 4d). ICs) that form a perfect fit controlling element. The programmable microcontroller
The choice to integrate voltage conversion for their application versus is not part of the driver. It is external to the LED
and current regulation depends on many fac- off-the-shelf products that product, and may include such features as timing,
tors, such as the need for reduced component leverage non-recurring engi- dimming, and color control.
count, current requirements, and so forth. neering costs. Customers
LED driver ICs are especially vexing commonly veer between custom and stan- users, but would displace potential driver
because of the ways that multiple functions dard products depending on many chang- sales for those products.
or components can be integrated onto one ing demands in their product cycles. However, we expect that AC-LEDs will have
chip. For example, in a handset the LED flash an impact only in certain product segments.
and backlight functions can be managed 4. Potentially disruptive AC-LEDs In replacement bulbs, the pressure to innovate
with multiple ICs, or they can be integrated Novel AC-LED products have the poten- is so high that the AC-LED is just one of sev-
into a single IC, or they can be managed with tial to complicate the driver market. In eral novel solutions, and there is no room for
yet other handset functions in a general-pur- its purest form, the AC-LED eliminates older, less-innovative designs. Consequently,
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a) b) 5. Volatile pricing
Estimates for IC pricing also complicate the
forecast. Its obvious that IC prices decline
over time as volumes increase and margins
+
shrink. Whats not as clear is the effect on
+ the average price of changes in the prod-
Current-limiting
Current controller IC uct mix. New products can appear at much
resistor
higher prices than more-mature products
in the same category, but can earn the dif-
ference via savings in component count or
d) c) improved LED performance. The new prod-
ucts may be priced higher because they use
a larger chip that takes up more wafer area,
Voltage
converter Voltage
because they use a more expensive foundry
and converter process, or simply because they deliver
+ current + IC
controller more value, and can earn greater margin
IC Current controller IC
for the chip supplier.
Temporary oversupply or shortages of
products within the supply chain such
as driver ICs, LEDs, or the end products
FIG. 4. LED driver design ranges from minimal (the current-limiting resistor) to also create fluctuations in prices. We ignore
monolithic integration of multiple channels and even voltage conversion onto a single these short-term fluctuations; in our stud-
driver IC, with the specific design unique to each product and application. Strings of ies we focus on the underlying medium-
LEDs are represented in the figures as single diodes. term trends in demand and technology.
LEDs are relatively uniform and easy to
there are plenty of opportunities for everyone. in the luminaire or lamp. An HV-LED inte- understand compared to drivers. As one
The high-voltage LED (HV-LED) is another grates the LED string onto the same chip supplier said, explaining drivers requires
buzz word but it will have minimal impact or within the same package, gaining some a deep dive, but few customers have the
on the driver market. LED-based products advantages for the customer. It means lit- patience or expertise to listen for very long.
commonly use long strings of LEDs in series. tle to the driver design, other than the usual Yet, with some patience, LED drivers can be
Until recently, the LEDs have been packaged considerations for the LED load that impacts appreciated as a critical partner to LEDs,
in discrete packages and assembled together every product design. which garner so much attention.
___________________

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lighting | PLANAR FIXTURES
LED backlight technology offers

promising choice for lighting
Edge-lit light guides with embedded optics can provide precise light control and high optical
efficiency in general-lighting applications, say JOHN LANGEVIN and KENDRA DE BERTI.
P
lanar light fi xtures offer aesthetic ity and the desire to eliminate light sources by bouncing the light off a surface, such as
advantages in many applications that contain hazardous materials, the light- a back reflector or a ceiling, before illumi-
and the inherently-diff used concept ing industry can benefit from the advances nating the desired area. While indirect fi x-
can efficiently deliver the required light to of LED backlighting in the display industry. tures avoid the glare drawbacks of direct-lit
a task plane. The potential market for such The proven technologies originally imple- architectures, they do so at the cost of effi-
fi xtures has driven the solid-state lighting mented in display backlights can be lever- ciency. A portion of the light is lost through
(SSL) industry to pursue several approaches aged to accelerate the time-to-market and absorption by the surfaces used to reflect
to planar lighting including OLEDs and adoption of LED-based light fi xtures. it, as well as that lost when propagated in
panels that are edge- or back-lit by LEDs. undesired directions.
Technology with an LCD-panel backlight Thin is in A third alternative is the edge-lit archi-
unit (BLU) heritage can enable planar fi x- BLUs can be edge- or direct-lit, with LEDs tecture that places LEDs along one or
tures and may prove the best option in such placed on the sides or directly behind an opti- more edges of a light guide whose princi-
luminaires in terms of light control and
application efficiency. Direct-view fixture Indirect-view fixture Edge-lit fixture
In general, the introduction of LEDs to
the application of general lighting presents
lighting architects and fi xture designers
with unprecedented flexibility that can't
be achieved with the constraints of bulbs
and tubes. LEDs can slash energy use and
offer greater control and directionality of
light. Moreover, the light source can now
become an integrated part of the fi xture
itself rather than a replaceable object to be
designed around.
In the BLU segment, meanwhile, the FIG. 1. LED fi xtures can be direct- or indirect-view, or edge-lit.
growing popularity of LEDs has driven
innovations in the LEDs themselves, and cal light guide. The lighting market has simi- pal function is to direct and distribute light
has yielded new LED subsystems in the lar options for illumination. Todays LED light as desired. Light guides are typically made
BLU that control and distribute the light. fi xtures can be direct- or indirect-view, or of thermoplastics such as acrylic or poly-
These subsystems include advanced optics edge-lit (Fig. 1). In a direct architecture, as the methylmethacrylate (PMMA). Light emit-
that enable precise control of the unifor- name would imply, the light source is in view ted from the LEDs is directed into the edge
mity and emission angle of light out of the and aimed directly at the illumination target. of the light guide and distributed through-
BLU, while helping maximize the amount Though seemingly the most efficient, the aes- out using the properties of total internal
of light delivered through the LCD panel. thetics of direct-lit fi xtures can be unpleas- reflection (TIR). Different types of opti-
With shared needs for lower power and ant. Because of their luminous intensity, the cal elements that are printed, etched or
cost, longer lifetimes, improved color qual- LEDs in these direct-lit architectures create embedded into the light guide are then
bright spots that are uncomfortable to look used to extract the light via the properties
JOHN LANGEVIN is the director of strategic at, so diff users are often included to reduce of refraction (Fig. 2).
development and KENDRA DE BERTI is a glare. However, these diff users reduce the
senior marketing manager with Rambus (www.
___ optical efficiency of the fi xture. Forming optical elements
rambus.com/lighting). Indirect fi xtures offer a softer aesthetic All of these various patterning techniques

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for edge-lit fi xtures can produce good uni- what is the best method for comparing rel- rics fail to accurately depict the true bene-
formity, but they have a wide range of opti- ative performance and efficiency? fits of LEDs as general light sources. By using
cal efficiencies, tooling costs, manufac- lumen output as a measurement for LED-
turing costs, and optical characteristics. Introducing a new metric based fi xtures, the actual amount of light the
Printed and chemically-etched dots offer With the introduction of energy-efficient luminaire is capable of delivering to a specific
low-cost manufacturability, but produce light sources, such as fluorescents and surface can be misrepresented.
diff used light outputs that offer virtually no LEDs, the reference to the wattage of a bulb Where all of these metrics miss the mark is
control of the beam pattern. Laser-etched is no longer an acceptable means of express- that they measure the amount of light emit-
optical features provide improved optical ing the light output. In an effort to ease the ted from a light fixture rather than the actual
amount delivered to the desired application
area. The end goal of any lighting design is
In many ways, edge-lit architectures combine to create beautiful, functional spaces as effi-
ciently as possible. This is achieved through
the benefits of direct and indirect fixtures the uniform distribution of light to a desired
while also providing unique benefits. surface, minimizing light lost in undesired
directions, and improving lighting ergonom-
ics through reduced glare.
efficiency, but require long manufactur- transition, the term "watt equivalent" has
ing cycle times. Light guides with embed- been used to provide a reference. For exam- Application efficiency
ded optics combine specular reflection with ple, a typical 60W incandescent bulb gen- In order to truly maximize the amount of
fast and highly-repeatable manufacturing erates about 800 lm. But a 60W-equivalent light delivered to a desired area with the
to deliver the highest level of ray-angle con- LED bulb uses less than 12W to produce the least amount of energy required, designers
trol and lowest overall cost. same amount of light. The use of lumens has must focus on the application efficiency
One example of embedded optics is Ram- also been incorporated to describe the lumi- of the fi xture. Application efficiency is the
bus MicroLens light-distribution technol- nous flux or light output of a light source. percentage of light delivered to the targeted
ogy. MicroLens optics are 3-dimensional Luminous efficacy, measured in lumens-per- area as it relates to the total light output of
elements embedded directly into the light watt (lm/W), is an important metric when the fi xture. In other words, the amount of
guide using injection molding, extrusion, describing the efficiency of a light fi xture, light emitted from a fi xture and directed to
or hot-embossing processes. They produce but it doesnt tell the whole story. a specific surface. In order to achieve high
a highly-directed light output, provide ray- Lumen output provides an accurate repre- application efficiency, a fi xture must com-
angle control, and maximize the amount sentation of traditional light sources as it is bine high luminous efficacy with the ability
of light delivered on target. In addition, the an averaged value used to measure total light to direct as much of the emitted light to the
distribution pattern can be customized to output from an omnidirectional light source. desired surface, or area, as possible (Fig. 3.).
meet specific application needs by vary- However, LEDs are directional, so these met- Application efficiency depends on three
ing the shape, size, location and density
of the optics.
In many ways, edge-lit architectures com- Patterning Chemical Embedded
technology Printed dot etch Laser etch optics
bine the benefits of direct and indirect fi x-
tures while also providing unique benefits.
They offer high optical efficiency, control of
the light distribution, reduced number of Method
LEDs, and superior aesthetics. The adoption
of edge-lit BLUs has enabled sleek, ultra-
thin notebook computers, tablets, moni-
Specular
tors and HDTVs that are less than 0.3 inch Optics Diffuse Diffuse Diffuse (ray angle control)
thick at a lower cost than direct-lit coun-
Optical
ter parts. Those same benefits can be lever- efficiency
Good Good Better Best
aged for lighting. Light guides with embed-
ded optics can be implemented in countless Uniformity Good Good Better Best
shapes and sizes with a wide variation of
light distribution patterns. Edge-lit fi xtures Manufactur-
Fast Fast Slow Fast
will usher in a new era of efficient, flexible ability
and beautiful products. But with these new
capabilities and flexibility of form factor, FIG. 2. Optical elements can be formed in several ways.
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Optimized
LED-to-light-guide Custom controlled
interface light output
Maximum light
extracted
from light guide
High optical Precise ray Highest

efficiency + angle control = application efficiency
FIG. 3. LEDs and ray control yield high application efficiency.
elements: the efficacy of the LEDs, the opti- as MicroLens optics, can. As a result, more
cal efficiency of the total fi xture, and the light can be directed to the desired surface,
degree of ray-angle control provided by with less light straying to an unneeded area.
the fi xtures optics. Todays high-bright-
ness LEDs deliver upwards of 140 lm/W, A system approach
but not all of the light emitted from the By optimizing the LED efficacy, optical
LEDs is effectively delivered to the fi xture. efficiency, and driver design, and then pro-
Special design techniques are required viding ray-angle control, fi xture design-
in order to maximize the efficiency of the ers can achieve maximum application effi-
interface between the LED light source and ciency to reach their end goal of creating a
the light guide. productive, functional space with the least
There are additional losses introduced amount energy.
by the fi xture inherent in the LED driver In the display market, edge-lit architec-
used to condition the power supplied to tures are the leading way to employ LEDs
the LEDs, the thermal-management sys- for BLUs. They deliver efficiency, thin dis-
tem used to cool the fi xture, and the optics plays, and low cost. Ultimately, these same
used to extract light out of the fi xture. A benefits will translate to edge-lit architec-
system-design approach which takes all tures becoming the preferred solutions for
of these elements into account is required lighting. The added benefit of form-factor
to maximize the overall efficiency of the flexibility means edge-lit solutions offer
light fi xture. tremendous freedom of design. Lighting
Finally, light emitted by the fi xture in designers no longer need be constrained
undesired directions is effectively lost. The by the limitations of legacy bulb and tube-
ability to control the light delivered from based fi xtures. Nor should they evaluate
the fi xture to the desired area depends on lighting solutions only in terms of legacy
the nature of the optics used in the light measures. By designing with maximum
guide. While diff use optics cannot direct application efficiency in mind, they can cre-
the light in a specific direction, specular ate beautiful, functional spaces with fewer
optics embedded in the light guide, such fi xtures and lower energy consumption.
_______________

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__________________
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standards | OPTICAL SAFETY
LED-based products must meet

photobiological safety standards: part 2
The potentially complex procedure of evaluating LED photobiological safety is now a legal
requirement in Europe, but few countries have yet followed the European mandatory-testing lead.
LESLIE LYONS discusses the implementation of the IEC62471 standard after an in-depth look at the
measurement of radiance and irradiance.
P
art one of this three-part series pro- standard does not
vided an overview of the potential consider the poten-
hazards to the human body posed by tial effects of long-
exposure to optical radiation, and the devel- ter m e x posu re ,
opment of international standards to eval- nor of abnormal d dA
uate the photobiological safety of non-laser photosensitivity.
sources (see LEDs Magazine October 2011, In the case of
p31; ledsmagazine.com/features/8/10/8). haza rds to the
Here, a more practical approach is adopted, skin and front sur-
in considering the finer details of source eval- faces of the eye,
uation and the implementation of safety stan- it is sufficient to FIG. 1. Definition of irradiance.
dards in Europe and the rest of the world. take into account
the amount of light
Scope of IEC62471:2006 incident on the sur- d
The IEC62471:2006 standard Photobiological face in question. d
Safety of Lamps and Lamp Systems pro- However, to con-
dA
vides guidance for the evaluation of the pho- sider hazards to the
tobiological safety of all electrically-pow- retina, one must
ered, non-laser sources of optical radiation take account of the
emitting in the spectral range 200-3000 nm, imaging properties
whether or not the emission of light is the of the eye. It follows
primary purpose of the product. The inclu- that two distinct FIG. 2. Definition of radiance.
sion of LEDs in the scope of this standard measurements are
is specifically mentioned to highlight the required: irradiance and radiance. to the skin and front surfaces of the eye.
removal of LEDs from the scope of the laser The standard provides specific guidance Irradiance is defined as the ratio of radiant
standard, IEC60825. on the geometrical conditions under which power (d) incident on an element of a sur-
The potential hazards of exposure to the these measurements should be made to take face, to the area (dA) of that element (Fig. 1).
skin, the front surfaces of the eye (cornea, into account biophysical phenomena, such as Its symbol is E and its units are W/m.
conjunctiva and lens) and the retina are the effect of eye movements on retinal irradia- Irradiance accounts for light arriving at
evaluated through consideration of six spe- tion. The spectral range over which radiance a surface from the entire hemisphere above.
cific hazards with respect to exposure lim- should be considered is reduced to 300-1400 However, due to its position with respect to
its (ELs) provided for an exposure duration nm, since the retina is essentially protected the bridge and nose, the eye is shielded from
of eight hours, taken as a working day. The outside this range due to the transmission wide-angle radiation. Within the scope of
characteristics of the lens. Table 1 indicates this standard, the measurement of irra-
LESLIE LYONS is the Technical Support the required measurement (radiance or irradiance in all but the case of the thermal
Manager with Bentham Instruments Ltd (www.
___ diance) for different hazards. skin hazard is performed over a 1.4-radian
bentham.co.uk), Reading, UK. He is a member of
_________ acceptance angle. Light emitted from a
BSI and IEC committees including TC76, Optical Measurement of irradiance source outside this acceptance angle need
Radiation Safety and Laser Equipment. Irradiance permits the evaluation of hazards not be measured.

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In measuring irradiance, the measure- light within a given solid Hazard Wavelength Quantity
ment optic, typically a diff user or an inte- angle set by the diame- range (nm) measured
grating sphere, should have a cosine angu- ter of the pupil, and proj- Actinic UV 200-400 Irradiance
Skin & Eye

lar response to correctly account for off-axis ects an image of the Near UV 315-400 Irradiance
contributions. At a given angle from the sur- source onto the retina. As
IR Radiation Eye 780-3000 Irradiance
face normal, the projected area on the sur- the pupil dilates (or con-
face is increased by the cosine of the said tracts) according to the Thermal Skin 380-3000 Irradiance
angle, resulting in reduced irradiance. level of visual stimulus, or Blue Light Small Source 300-700 Irradiance
Knowledge of source irradiance does luminance, of the source,
Retina
Blue Light 300-700 Radiance
not however give any information about the retinal irradiance of Retinal Thermal 380-1400 Radiance
the quantity of light coupled by the eye and the image increases (or
Retinal Thermal Weak Visual 780-1400 Radiance
imaged on the retina, for which a measure- decreases).
ment of radiance is required. The law of conserva- TABLE 1. Different hazards require the measurement
tion of radiance states of either irradiance or radiance. ( Weighting function
Measurement of radiance that radiance cannot be required.)
Radiance permits the evaluation of hazards increased by passive opti-
to the retina. Radiance is defined as the ratio cal systems such as the lens of the eye. The Radiance may be measured by two man-
of radiant power (d) emitted by area dA retinal irradiance is therefore determined ners, either using an imaging technique or
into solid angle d at angle to the source from the source radiance and the solid angle indirectly through an irradiance measure-
normal, to the product of solid angle d and subtended by the pupil (2-7-mm diameter) at ment. In both cases, the measurement is per-
the projected area dAcos (Fig. 2). The sym- the retina (17-mm distant) in the reverse of formed in a specific field of view (FOV) or
bol is L and the units are W/msr. the determination of radiance from irradi- solid angle of acceptance (often described by
In viewing a source, the eye collects ance, given below. a planar angle, ) that defines the area of the
source measured.
The imaging technique (Fig. 3) replicates
Aperture stop, D
Source the imaging of the eye. A telescope images
the source under test onto a plane at which
Image
Solid angle, may be placed apertures of varying diameter
to select the required FOV of measurement.
Alternatively, a measurement of irradi-
d, Aperture ance with a cosine-corrected input optic may
(field stop)
be performed (Fig. 4). An aperture is placed
directly at the source to define the measure-
ment FOV. The radiance is computed from
the ratio of irradiance to the solid angle of
the FOV in steradians.
Object distance, S1 Image distance, S2
Physiological radiance
FIG. 3. Measurement of radiance: imaging technique.
For momentary viewing , the retinal image
of a source subtends the same angle as does
Source the source. The smallest image formed on
Cosine corrected
the retina, according to IEC62471, has an
r input optic angular extent of 1.7 mrad, given the imper-
fect imaging performance of the eye.
With increasing exposure time, due to eye
movement (saccades) and task-determined
movement, the retinal image is smeared over
a larger area of the retina, resulting in a cor-
responding reduction in retinal irradiance.
F A time-dependent function is defined to rep-
Field stop resent the spread of the retinal image in the
range from 1.7 to 100 mrad. This covers the
range from 0.25s (aversion response time) to
FIG. 4. Measurement of radiance: indirect technique. 10,000s exposure.
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Adaptive lighting principle using a tunable condenser lens
Adaptive
lens
Secondary
optics
LED
FWHM-angle
45
>Apertures from 10 to 55mm,

ideal for 500 to 4000 lumens
>Excellent spot quality

for all tuning states
(no intensity rings as in
FWHM-angle
xed lens shifting) 10
>Highest optical efciency

(low light loss)
>Easy to motorize
Manually tunable
condenser lens
The shape of our manually
tunable condenser lens
can be varied from at to
strongly convex by rotating
an adjustment ring
Optotune AG | Bernstrasse 388 | CH-8953 Dietikon | Switzerland

Phone +41 58 856 3000 | www.optotune.com | info@optotune.com
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In the context of photobiological safety, for household luminaires, but many meters since it is this which the eye images.
the measurement of radiance is performed for street lighting, for example. The measurement at 200 mm may repre-
in a manner that reflects this phenomenon Irradiance measurements may be per- sent a worst-case exposure condition for the
i.e. the FOV of measurement is chosen to formed at a convenient distance and scaled retina. However, this is not the case for the
account for the light falling within a given to 500 lux. However, physiological radiance, skin and front surfaces of the eye where the
area of the retina. The measurement FOV fol- which depends on the source subtense with exposure distance may be closer. Th is lat-
lows therefore the same time dependence,
from 1.7 to 100 mrad, regardless of the size
of the source measured.
The measured quantity is more accurately
termed physiological radiance as opposed to
true radiance, which by definition samples
only the emitting area of the source (Fig. 5).
Where the physiological radiance is mea-
sured in a FOV greater than the angle sub-
tended by the source, the resultant radiance
is an average of the true source radiance
and the dark background. Furthermore,
since the angular subtense of a source var-
ies with distance, physiological radiance,
unlike true radiance, is a function of mea-
surement distance.
Spectral influence
In the above, reference was made to irra-
diance and physiological radiance with
no consideration for the spectrum of the
source, which is clearly very important FIG. 5. In each pair of images, the red circles show the measurement fields of view for
within the context of this standard. These true (left) and physiological (right) radiance. For true radiance measurements, the
quantities should, in practice, be evaluated circle encompasses only the light-emitting area, while the physiological radiance is
at each wavelength with a monochromator. an average of the true source radiance and the dark background.
This yields spectral irradiance and spectral
physiological radiance. The resultant spec- respect to the applicable FOV, should be per- ter eventuality has not yet been taken into
tra should be weighted, where required, formed at the correct distance. account in this standard, for which the pri-
against hazard weighting functions to take The rationale for the 500-lux condition is mary concern is acute retinal damage.
account of the strong wavelength depen- arbitrary and a bone of contention within
dence of three of the hazards considered the lighting industry since this in many Comparison with ELs
(Fig. 6). The result should be integrated over cases does not represent a realistic expo- ELs are provided in terms of radiant flux for
the required wavelength range prior to com- sure scenario. In the next part of this arti- thermal hazards or energy (radiant flux mul-
parison with ELs. cle, we shall consider how this issue is cur- tiplied by time) for photochemical hazards:
rently being addressed. a measured irradiance result can be directly
Measurement distance Non-GLS sources should be measured compared with the former, and an exposure
The distance at which a source should be at a distance of 200 mm from the (appar- time obtained for the latter. This procedure
evaluated depends upon its intended appli- ent) source. Th is distance represents the does not apply to the measurement of radi-
cation. Two exposure scenarios are consid- near point of the human eye. At shorter ance, for which the FOV of measurement is
ered; general lighting service (GLS) and all distances than 200 mm, the retinal image time dependent.
other applications (non-GLS). is out of focus, resulting in lower retinal A pass/fail test is therefore applied to the
The present definition of GLS is ambigu- irradiance. retinal hazards based on measurements at
ous, but relates to finished products that emit Here, the concept of apparent source is FOVs corresponding to the minimum expo-
white light and are intended for illuminating important. Where a lens is used to colli- sure times of the classification system in
spaces. Evaluation should be reported, not mate the output of an LED, a magnified vir- turn, starting from the exempt risk group.
necessarily measured, at a distance at which tual image is produced behind the chip. The Where the resultant radiance exceeds the
the source produces an illuminance of 500 200-mm measurement distance should be maximum-permissible radiance for a given
lux. This distance may be less than one meter taken with respect to this apparent source, risk group, the next risk group is tested.
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The detailed evaluation of retinal hazards is EN standards is not mandatory, it does pro- Implementation of IEC62471 in ROW
rather more convoluted since source size and vide presumption of compliance with the While many standardization bodies around
level of visual stimulus should be taken into essential health and safety requirements of the world are considering the adoption of
account in determining which ELs to apply. the directive considered. IEC62471, few have yet issued national
Optical radiation is specifically consid- standards let alone a legal framework to
Classification ered under the terms of the LVD. This is render testing mandatory. Of the activity
As outlined in part 1 of this article series, applicable to electrical products operating
a classification system, based on the min- at voltages of 50-1000V AC. The European Risk Group 2
CAUTION. Possibly hazardous
imum exposure time before the EL is adoption of IEC62471, namely EN62471:2008, optical radiation emitted from
exceeded, is defi ned ranging from exempt is harmonized to the LVD. this product. Do not stare at
operating lamp. May be
(no risk) to risk group 3 (RG3; high risk). From September 1, 2011, evaluation of harmful to the eye.
The limit irradiance (radiance) of each risk LEDs against the laser standard (IEC60825)
group can then be determined, and the mea- no longer allows presumption of conformity FIG. 7. Example label according to IEC TR
sured irradiance (radiance) may be com- with the essential health and safety require- 62471-2.
Close
pared against these limits. ments of the LVD.
From April 2010, the EU artificial opti- seen, much is related to the lighting indus-
Labeling cal radiation directive (AORD), 2006/25/EC, try, for which a well-defi ned standardiza-
IEC62471 is intended as a horizontal stan- came into force. Th is adopts exposure lim- tion framework is in place and under active
dard, and as such does not include manu- its slightly different to those of IEC62471. development to accommodate solid-state
facturing or user-safety requirements that For consistency, EN62471 adopts the expo- lighting.
may be required as a result of a product sure limits of the AORD and is the standard To the knowledge of the author, China is
being assigned to a particular risk group. to be used to evaluate worker exposure to presently alone in having formally imple-
mented a voluntary standard GB/T 20145-
Relative efficacy (a.u.)
2006 with Japan expected to publish JIS C
10 7550 in November 2011.
1 Retinal thermal
Some countries, such as Australia and
New Zealand, are currently working on
0.1 the adoption of IEC62471 as a voluntary
Blue light
standard. Another group (e.g. Hong Kong,
0.01 Republic of Korea) are presently content to
reference IEC62471 on a voluntary basis,
0.001 Actinic UV
while others (e.g. Canada) are at the stage
0.0001 of considering implementation and poten-
tial regulations.
200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 Finally, in the US, where ANSI RP27.1
Wavelength (nm) exists as a voluntary standard, there is cur-
FIG. 6. Hazard weighting functions used by IEC62471. rently no mandatory requirement for the
evaluation of non-laser sources. However,
Such safety requirements vary according non-laser sources of optical radiation. following a meeting in August 2011 of the
to application, and should be dealt with in Also relevant to LEDs is the EU Toy Safety standards technical panel of UL/ANSI 8750
vertical, product-based standards. However, directive, to which is harmonized EN62115 Light Emitting Diode (LED) Equipment for
IEC TR 62471-2 does provide some further Safety of electric toys. Th is standard has Use in Lighting Products, a task group has
guidance on the measurement and provides in the past referenced the laser standard been formed to consider the implementa-
a recommendation of labeling for each haz- (EN60825) for the classification of LEDs. It tion of photobiological safety standards
ard and risk group (Fig. 7). is currently under review, but it is expected for those lighting products covered by this
that reference will be made to EN 62471 UL standard.
Implementation of IEC62471 in Europe where measurements are required. Part 3 of this series of articles will discuss
In the European Union, CE marking demon- Finally, where products are not covered the implementation of IEC62471 to the LED
strates product safety by compliance with by the LVD or toy directives, consideration devices of today, and its potential future
the relevant applicable EU directive, such should also be made of the general product- development. Also, it will be shown that
as the low-voltage directive (LVD), through safety directive to which few standards are IEC62471 does not remain unknown to the
application of European Norme (EN) stan- specifically harmonized, yet for the evalua- world, principally through the implementa-
dards harmonized to the directive under tion of non-laser sources of light, EN62471 is tion of international IECEE CB and numer-
consideration. While compliance with these the relevant EN standard. ous other certification schemes.

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We bring quality to light.
LED test & measurement

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Instrument Systems continues to set the benchmark in LED metrology. Whether testing individual LEDs
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measurement equipment for high-speed production testing and high-performance R&D and QC applications.
Our instruments provide accurate

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recommendations and methods:
Luminous flux [lm], luminous intensity [cd],
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Chromaticity coordinates x,y,z and uv
Color temperature and color rendering index
Dominant wavelength and spectral data
Spatial radiation pattern
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LED production | TESTING
Production testing of HB-LEDs and

LED modules demands the right
hardware and techniques
Cost-effective testing of LEDs and LED modules in a production environment can have a strong
influence on manufacturing efficiency, as MARK CEJER explains.
T
he latest high-brightness LEDs voltage test verifies the devices forward mon practice to ensure only that leakage
(HB-LEDs) offer ever-higher lumi- operating voltage. When a forward cur- doesnt exceed a specified threshold.
nous flux, longer lifetimes, greater rent is applied to the diode, it begins to con-
chromaticity, and more lumens per watt. To duct. During the initial low-current values, Boosting test throughput in production
reduce the cost of LEDs to consumers, man- the voltage drop across the diode increases At one time, manufacturers used an exter-
ufacturers are working to improve their rapidly but levels off as the drive current nal PC to control all aspects of HB-LED pro-
yields and their manufacturing-efficiency increases. The region of relatively-con- duction testing; in each element of a test
levels. Th is requires cost-effective testing stant voltage is where the diode normally sequence, the sources and instruments had
of LEDs and modules in a production envi- operates. Results are often used in binning to be confi gured for each test, perform the
ronment. The key is to fi nd the right com- devices because an HB-LEDs VF is related desired action, and then return the data
bination of test equipment and the knowl- to its chromaticity. to the PC, which evaluated the pass/fail
edge of how to use it effectively. Optical tests: Forward current biasing is criteria and determined where to bin the
also used for optical tests because current
HB-LED testing fundamentals flow is closely related to the amount of light I
A typical diodes electrical I-V (current- emitted by an HB-LED. A photodiode or VF test

voltage) curve is shown in Fig. 1. Although integrating sphere can be used to capture
a complete test sequence could include the emitted photons to measure optical
hundreds of points, a limited sample is power. Th is light is converted to a current
generally sufficient to probe for the fi g- thats measured using an ammeter or one V
IL test
ures of merit. Many HB-LED tests involve channel of a source-measure unit (SMU).
supplying a known current and measur- Reverse breakdown voltage (VR) test: A VR test
ing the resulting voltage, or vice-versa, so negative bias current applied to an HB-
a single piece of hardware that synchro- LED allows probing for its reverse break-
nizes both functions can result in quicker down voltage. The test current should be set
system setup and enhanced throughput. to a level where the measured voltage value FIG. 1. Typical DC current-voltage (I-V)
Testing can be done at the die level (both no longer increases significantly when cur- curve for an HB-LED, showing test points
wafer and package) or the module/subas- rent is increased slightly. At voltages higher (not to scale).
sembly level. In the latter case, HB-LEDs in magnitude than the breakdown voltage,
are connected in series and/or parallel; large increases in reverse-bias current pro- DUT (device under test). Transferring com-
therefore, higher currents are typically duce insignificant changes in reverse volt- mands from the PC and results back to it
involved, sometimes up to 50A or more, age. The VR test is performed by sourcing a ate up a lot of test time.
depending on the application. Some die- low-level reverse-bias current for a speci- The latest generation of smart instru-
level testing can require 5-10A, depending fied time, then measuring the voltage drop ments, including Keithleys new Model
on die size. across the HB-LED. Results are typically in 2651A High Power System SourceMeter
Forward-voltage (VF) test: A forward- the tens of volts. instrument (Fig. 2), is optimized to boost
Leakage current testing: Moderate volt- throughput substantially by minimizing
MARK CEJER is a marketing director for ages are normally used to measure the cur- communication traffic. The majority of
Keithley Instruments, Inc. (www.keithley.com), rent that leaks (I L) across an HB-LED when the test sequence is embedded in the test
Cleveland, Ohio, which is part of the Tektronix a reverse voltage less than breakdown is instrumentation within a script and is
test and measurement portfolio. applied. In production testing, it is com- executed by a microprocessor that allows

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control of the test sequence, with internal Component ADCs, which can sam-
PD LED handler
pass/fail criteria, calculations, and control ple at speeds up to one
of digital I/O. The microprocessor stores a Test fixture microsecond per point
user-defi ned test sequence in memory and Bins or up to 50 times faster
executes it on command to all SourceMe- than high-performance
ter instruments in the test confi guration, Digital lines integrated ADCs. These
(DIO)
reducing set-up and confi guration time. higher measurement
PC LAN
Communication between units takes place 26xxA 2651A speeds further improve
SMU #2 SMU #1
via TSP-Link technology, a high-speed trig- overall test times.
ger-synchronization/inter-unit communi- The use of pulsed mea-
cation bus, which connects multiple instru- FIG. 3. A test system for a single HB-LED, which uses two surements minimizes
ments in a master/slave configuration. Th is source-measure units (SMU). test times and junction
eliminates time-consuming GPIB (general self-heating. Modern
purpose interface bus) traffic, and greatly PC for statistical process control, and a new SMUs with high pulse-
enhances system throughput. DUT moves into the test fi xture. width resolution ensure precise control
over how long power is applied to the device.
LED test system for a single device Production testing of HB-LEDs Pulsed operation also allows these instru-
A system configuration for testing one To achieve acceptable throughput, produc- ments to output current levels well beyond
HB-LED at a time is shown in Fig. 3. The tion test systems measure multiple parts their DC capabilities.
component handler transports the indi- simultaneously. Fig. 4 illustrates a device
vidual HB-LED to a test fi xture, which is test system for three HB-LEDs that has one High-power LED module testing
shielded from ambient light and houses photodiode (PD) channel. The demand for a lot of light in a small pack-
a photodetector (PD) for light measure- Junction self-heating can contribute age has led lighting manufacturers to develop
ments. Two SMUs are used: SMU #1 sup- significant measurement error in HB-
plies the test signal to the HB-LED and LED production testing. As the junction 50% duty cycle
measures its electrical response, while SMU heats over time, for a constant forward-
#2 monitors the photodiode during optical bias current, the forward voltage drops, so
measurements. its crucial to manage device self-heating 75% duty cycle
The test sequence is programmed to to ensure accurate, repeatable measure-
begin using a digital line from the compo- ments. Self-heating can be minimized by
nent handler that serves as a start-of-test reducing the amount of time the test will
(SOT) signal. After the instrument detects take, which in turn reduces the amount of 25% duty cycle
this signal, the test sequence begins. Once time necessary for the test current to be
completed, a digital line signals measure- applied to the device. Smart instruments
ment-complete status to the component can simplify confi guration of the device FIG. 5. In pulse-width modulation,
handler. In addition, the instruments soak time (which allows any circuit capac- the pulse level and frequency remain
built-in intelligence performs all pass/fail itance to settle before the measurement constant, but the duty cycle is varied.
operations and sends a digital command begins), as well as the integration time
through the instruments digital I/O port to (which defi nes how long it takes the ana- high-power LED modules, which often con-
the component handler to bin the HB-LED log-to-digital (ADC) to acquire the input sist of one or more large-die LEDs. When mul-
based on the pass/fail criteria. Then, two signal), because both factor into how long tiple die are present, theyre either wired in
actions can be programmed to take place the test will take. New SMU instruments, parallel or in series, depending on the applica-
simultaneously: data is transferred to the including Keithleys 2651A, have digitizing tion and the available power source. The die of
these LEDs can be much larger than those of
FIG. 2. Model 2651A High Power System SourceMeter instrument.
typical HB-LEDs and can handle much higher
currents. In fact, its common for a single die
to be required to withstand current levels as
high as 10A.
Obviously, testing high power
HB-LED modules demands hard-
ware that can deliver a lot of power
to the DUT. Although SMUs ability
to handle both sourcing and mea-
surement normally makes them the
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best solution for testing LEDs, most SMUs PD LED 1 LED 2 LED 3
on the market simply cant deliver the level
of power that testing high power HB-LED
DIO
modules requires. Most instrument-based
SMUs are capable of delivering only 20W PC LAN
of power or less, but this application often 26xxA 2651A 2651A 2651A
requires 100W or more. Keithleys 2651A

TSP-link
instrument is capable of delivering up to
200W of continuous DC power and up to
2000W of pulsed power. FIG. 4. Production setup for testing three HB-LEDs.
Pulse-width modulation and HB-LEDs control over brightness, and greater power- PWM, its only appropriate that they be
Pulse-width modulation (PWM) offers a way conversion efficiency. tested with PWM techniques. As part of
to control the brightness of LEDs. Although In this technique, the current through the PWM testing, an LED is usually tested by
its also possible to control an LEDs bright- LED is pulsed at a constant frequency with running a series of pulses through it while
ness simply by lowering the forward drive a constant pulse level, but the width of the using a spectrometer to take an integrated
current, this method is undesirable because pulse is varied (Fig. 5), which changes the measurement of the light output over the
the color of the light produced will change amount of time the LED is in the ON state, as course of many pulses. Th is measurement
slightly with current level. PWM is the pre- well as the perceived level of brightness. The may take tens or hundreds of milliseconds
ferred technique because it uses a constant LED is actually flashing but at such a high to complete. During the pulsed output, the
current level for each pulse and therefore frequency that the human eye cant distin- forward voltage is measured on every pulse
offers greater consistency in the color of the guish it from a constant light level. to look for changes as the temperature of the
light produced. PWM also offers more-linear Given that LEDs are often used with LED rises.
_____________

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drivers | BACKLIGHTING
Matching driver design with LED backlight

scheme optimizes energy savings
LED backlighting is a requisite for TVs to meet more demanding Energy Star requirements, explains
GYAN TIWARY, and matching the driver design to the backlight implementation delivers maximum
energy savings.
E
nergy Star requirements for flat-panel Direct dimming* Segment-edge/ Edge
televisions have become more strin- hybrid dimming* dimming**
gent in recent years. If the Energy Star Picture quality Best Medium Worse
6.0 proposal is accepted, it mandates that all
Energy consumption Lowest Medium Highest
TVs larger than 50 inches must consume no
Form factor Thicker (by <0.5") Thin Thin
more than 85W of power by the fall of 2012.
Two years ago, such TVs consumed close to Cost Highest Medium Lowest
200W. These strict standards that attempt Driver & TV system complexity Complex Medium Easy
to curb power consumption worldwide have LED count Large (~1k+) Medium (100~200) Small (~100)
led to significant innovations in LCD TVs, LED current rating 30~60 mA 70~120 mA 150~250 mA
especially in the backlight unit (BLU) which
Number of LEDs per string 8~12 ~20~30 ~50+
is a major source of power consumption.
LED-based BLU can offer significant power Typical channel count 100+ 12~48 1~2
reduction although the driver design must Driving cost $$ $+ $
be optimized for the different direct- and * Also known as local dimming **Also known as global dimming
edge-backlit schemes.
Active power consumption in an LCD TV TABLE 1. Characteristics of LED backlight types.
consists of two main components: display
power and baseline power. Baseline power sumed by the LCD screen, BLU, and associated TVs. Much of the power consumed in CCFL
encompasses the video-processing aspects circuitry, and accounts for about two thirds of BLUs is wasted because it is difficult to dim
of the TV and the main power supply, and the total power consumed by a TV. Therefore, CCFL bulbs appropriately when the picture
typically accounts for about a third of the it would be logical for the industry to focus on itself is dark. As a result, LCD TVs are rap-
total power. Various components and sce- reducing power consumption in this area. idly transitioning to LED BLUs. LEDs inher-
narios will impact baseline power consump- Display power usage is high largely ently consume less power and also have sig-
tion, such as frame rate and power supply because the luminous efficiency of LCD TVs nificantly faster switching speeds. These
efficiency. In a 3D TV scenario, for example, is very poor. An LCD panel has an extremely characteristics make LEDs an ideal replace-
additional image processing, a faster refresh low transmittance level, in the 4-6% range, ment for CCFL, enabling dimming to both
rate and increased brightness can increase as the light travels from the BLU through improve picture quality and save energy.
baseline power by 50-100% relative to stan- the light guide, diff user, optical fi lm, and
dard TVs. Similarly, smart Internet-con- color fi lter. For example, if the BLU gener- LED backlight configurations
nected TVs require a higher performance ates 8000-10000 cd/m of luminance, then There are varying opinions about the best
processor, additional memory, and other the fi nal, visible-to-the-eye output might way to deploy LEDs for optimal cost, effi-
elements adding a few watts of power. Still, typically be between 380-450 cd/m. ciency and picture quality. The various
the baseline power adders are a small frac- The BLU must therefore generate con- backlight configurations and their current
tion of the overall TV power consumption. siderable light and consumes the largest and voltage requirements vary widely and
Display power refers to the power con- amount of power inside an LCD TV. Any result in different architectures and driver
improvement in BLU efficacy will lead to requirements. Fig. 1 shows the relative cur-
GYAN TIWARY (gtiwary@iWatt.com) is the dramatic power savings for the TV. rent and voltage characteristics of the three
senior vice president and general manager of Not too many years ago, cold cathode flu- most common types of LED BLUs.
the DC/DC Business Unit at iWatt, Inc. (www.
___ orescent light (CCFL)-backlit LCD displays In edge-lit designs, LED light bars are
iwatt.com).
______ were the biggest power guzzlers inside LCD placed on the sides or edges of the screen.

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LED string voltage (V) enhance the picture quality. 20%. The cost of the LEDs, the power they
nt A driver for an edge-lit TV must consume, and the system complexity are all
c o u x ity
n e p le utilize a high-voltage, boost topol- disadvantages.
200+ g zo o m
in g c ogy. Typical voltage output from a TV Consider the issue of the varying forward
a s in Edge lit
c re m m
In d i power supply is 12-14V so this is used voltages (Vf) of the LEDs. Even after sort-
150 d
an
as an input supply to the driver cir- ing the LEDs, the varying forward voltages
Hybrid edge-lit cuit, which then boosts the voltage by amongst the many strings causes a signifi-
100
with segment a factor of 10-20 while still keeping the cant amount of power to be wasted inside the
Direct lit dimming
with zone efficiency high. TV, producing heat and increasing the chance
50
dimming The driver itself can be a dis- of thermal-stress-related LED failures.
crete DC-to-DC design or, in certain
40 80 120 160 200 240 instances, the main power supply Segment-edge drivers
LED current (mA) can generate the high voltage directly The sheer number of LEDs and drivers
FIG. 1. Characteristics of different LED BLUs. from the AC input. Efficiency require- required for direct BLUs, and the cost of
ments for such drivers are between those components, has been a key reason
Edge-lit BLUs were the initial configuration 90-95%. Typically over a hundred for the growing popularity of the segment-
of choice for notebook computer screens and LEDs are strung together in series. Some edge approach. Moreover picture quality is
LCD TVs. As edge-lit BLUs were deployed designs do use multiple strings, typically 2-4, not the only purchase criteria consumers
over the past several years in larger displays, lowering the requisite string voltages. consider. In some cases thinner form factors
most people considered the picture quality The majority of LED-backlit TVs in the are key selling points and the edge-segment
from these devices to be inferior to tradi- market today use the basic edge-lit design. scheme enables thinner TVs. More than 60
tional CCFL-backlit TVs. The key challenge for edge-type drivers is to
To improve picture quality and to ben- maintain high efficiency at the high voltage Vboost >200V
efit from the switching capability of the while keeping the overall component count
LEDs themselves, two other BLU schemes low. Fig. 2 shows the typical driver architec-
emerged with a heavy emphasis on dimming ture for edge-lit TVs. 1-2 strings of LED
100+ LEDs
select portions of a screen. Direct-lit designs
place LEDs directly behind the screen. Such Direct BLU driver issues
designs can dim LEDs with fine granularity In direct backlighting, LEDs are positioned
in small zones. Hybrid edge-lit designs place right behind the LCD panel and controlled in
the LEDs on the side of the screen, but still small zones. Each zone contains a few LEDs PWM
support dimming of individual rectangular that can be locally controlled. The type and DAC8
Op
segments that extend horizontally across the number of zones are manufacturer specific
Driving
screen. Both direct and hybrid schemes uti- and based on screen size, picture quality and circuit
lize dimming to significantly improve black other factors. Picture quality improves with R
levels, uniformity, and viewing angles, and an increase in the number of local-dimming
reduce motion blur. Table 1 summarizes the zones, but this also increases LED and driver Ground
BLU types and their characteristics. count and hence, the cost.
Fig. 3 shows the typical driver configu-
Driving requirements and challenges ration for direct- and segment-edge-back- FIG. 2. Typical edge-lit driver configuration.
The different BLU schemes require signifi- lit TVs. The drive voltage is much lower than
cantly different driver architectures. Edge- edge-lit designs, simplifying the issue of segment-edge-backlit TVs were announced
type drivers typically require very high out- designing an efficient driver. A direct-backlit in 2011 and this number is expected to grow
put voltages (a few hundred volts) that in most design would typically have a greater number rapidly in 2012.
cases drive a single string of LEDs. Challenges of strings with fewer LEDs per string relative Segment-edge dimmed TVs require
related to driving multiple parallel strings to a segment-edge design. anywhere from 12-48 channels of LEDs
such as matching current and forward volt- The main driver challenge in a direct-lit depending on the size of the TV and num-
ages are a non-issue. However, this BLU style design is one of scale. Some such TVs have ber of segments desired by the maker.
keeps all of the LEDs illuminated at all times, more than 100 strings or channels of LEDs. Given the high channel counts, all of the
which wastes power. The only energy savings Typical drivers can handle 8-16 channels. So challenges associated with drivers in
come from the baseline efficiency advantage a TV can require many drivers. direct-lit designs also apply here, albeit to
of LEDs. The LEDs can be dimmed globally In a typical direct-lit TV, LEDs chalk up a lesser degree. The aforementioned ther-
the technique is sometimes called global dim- about 40% of the total cost of the BLU bill of mal problem persists and forces the TV
ming but the dimming capability does not material, while the drivers make up another maker to utilize several additional discrete
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Vboost <50V Vboost <50V Vboost <50V ated heat, thus enabling a driver to handle
more strings with integrated MOSFETs. The
10-100+ iW7032 driver IC, for instance, can power up
strings of LED to 32 parallel strings of LEDs.
10-20+ LEDs LED driver ICs have become a key disrup-
tive technology that is enabling widespread
adoption of LED-backlit TVs, especially
considering their cost-savings potential.
PWM PWM PWM The types of drivers and the related BLU
DAC
Op
DAC
Op
DAC
Op architectures will have to evolve with the
innovations in LCD displays and TVs.
Driving
circuit Segment-edge designs appear be the sweet
R R R spot of BLU architectures since they best sat-
isfy the consumers dueling requirements for
Ground Ground Ground a quality picture and low cost. Still there may
be increased demand for direct-backlit LCD
FIG. 3. Typical LED driver configuration for direct or segment-edge dimming. TVs led by aggressive energy consumption
mandates and demand for better video qual-
components that add significant costs to tive switching technology that senses the ity. New advancements in direct backlighting,
the bottom line. Vf mismatch and makes the appropriate such as multiple-zone sizes, fewer zones and
Evolving driver-IC technology helps adjustments on each LED channel, thereby super-selective current control will challenge
overcome the thermal and cost problems. reducing overall wasted power by up to traditional driver implementations to reduce
For example, iWatt developed an adap- 90%. The technique minimizes the gener- costs even further.
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design forum | DIMMING PORTABLE DEVICES
Analog technique simplifies LED

dimming in portable applications
Products ranging from mobile handsets to LED flashlights require SSL dimming control, explains
CHRISTOPHER JAMES GLASER, and analog implementations can offer better efficiency than PWM
dimming in such products.
P
ortable equipment that uses LED- TPS62150RGT
2.2 H LED current:
based solid-state lighting (SSL) 4V to 17V 11 1 1A max
VIN PVIN SW
requires an efficient drive circuit 12 2
PVIN SW
that prolongs battery life, as well as dim- 10 3
ming options to adjust the light output for 4.7F AVIN SW 22F
13 14
the ambient lighting conditions. LED dim- EN VOS
5
ming is necessary in applications such as FB
9 4
the backlight for smart phones or portable SS/TR PG R2
6 0.15
GPS navigation systems to ensure an eas- AGND
ily readable display in both bright sunlight R1 17
ETPac
and the dark of night. In flashlights, a user 100k DEF FSW PGND PGND
may deem longer battery life more impor- 8 7 16 15
tant than delivering the most light possi-
ble. Either analog dimming or pulse-width-
modulation (PWM) dimming can be used
in such applications. By using an innovative FIG. 1. LED driver with analog dimming enabled by the potentiometer R1.
approach to creating a reference voltage, an
analog design can prove more efficient than potentiometer. The total solution is an effi- VSS/TR . By controlling the FB voltage and
PWM-based designs. cient, low-cost, low-component-count LED therefore the voltage across R2, the IC var-
Both analog and PWM dimming tech- driver for a single high-current LED, such ies the current that drives the LED.
niques control the LED drive current, which as Osrams Golden Dragon, for use in small, The SS/TR pin has a built-in current
is proportional to the light output. Analog battery-powered devices. source of typically 2.5 A. This is com-
dimming is simple, requires the least con- monly used to charge a capacitor and cre-
trol overhead, and generally is more effi- Circuit operation ate a smooth, linear ramp-up of the SS/TR
cient than PWM dimming due to the lower The circuit requires a voltage-regulating, pin voltage. In a typical buck converter, this
forward voltage of the LEDs at lower drive synchronous, buck converter that provides then creates a linear and well-controlled
currents. output currents of up to 1A from up to a ramp-up of the output voltage while reduc-
Analog dimming, however, requires an 17V source, such as the TPS62150. In Fig. ing inrush current from the input supply. For
analog voltage to be generated by a sepa- 1, this buck converter regulates the cur- this design, a resistor to ground produces a
rate voltage reference perhaps using the rent in the LED by using the feedback (FB) constant voltage at the SS/TR pin instead.
output of an RC filter on a square wave pin to control the voltage across the sense A potentiometer is placed on the SS/TR
input signal, or from an expensive digital- resistor R2. The FB voltage is controlled by pin to keep the voltage at that pin between
to-analog converter (DAC). The circuit in a combination of a precision internal ref- 250 mV (potentiometer = 100 k) and 0V
Fig. 1 eliminates the complexity of these erence voltage, which typically is 0.8V, and (potentiometer = 0). Recalling the equa-
techniques to provide simple, cost-effec- an external input on the SS/TR (slow start tion above, that means the voltage on the
tive analog dimming based on varying a and tracking) pin. FB pin varies between 160 mV and 0V. With
When the voltage on the SS/TR pin is a 0.15 resistor for R2, the LED current var-
CHRISTOPHER JAMES GLASER is an below 1.25V, the FB pin voltage tracks the ies between 1.07A and 0A. Since the FB pin
applications engineer in TIs battery power SS/TR pin voltage by a factor of 0.64 as voltage is linearly related to the SS/TR pin
group (www.ti.com). expressed by this equation VFB = 0.64 * voltage, the potentiometer provides linear
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design forum | DIMMING PORTABLE DEVICES
analog dimming as shown in Fig. 2. potentiometer, the Efficiency (%)

This circuit has very good efficiency, LED brightness can 100
since the FB pin voltage is a relatively low be sufficiently con-
value. Th at low voltage reduces the losses trolled for ordinary 95
in the sense resistor, R2. In addition, the applications, such

90
TPS62150 employs a power-save mode at as f lashlights and
light load currents to keep the efficiency backlights. 85
high for the majority of the load range. One drawback of
Fig. 3 shows the efficiency of the circuit this design is the off- 80
in Fig. 1 operating from a 12V input, and set between the SS/
75
using TDKs VLF3012ST-2R2 inductor in the TR pin and FB pin 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
switching output. voltages. When the LED current (A)
The efficiency of this circuit can be SS/TR pin is pulled
improved, but at the cost of circuit size. all the way down to FIG. 3. Efficiency of the circuit in Fig. 1 over the dimming range.
For example you could connect the FSW 0V, by decreasing
(switching frequency) control pin to the the potentiometer resistance, there is still Each of these three options requires an
output voltage, which reduces the oper- about 50 mA of current flowing through input from the user to vary the light. With
ating frequency, and/or select a different the LED. Thus, the LED cannot be turned the reference voltage IC, a potentiometer is
inductor with lower DCR (DC resistance) off completely unless you add a switch to still required as an input to the IC to adjust
and/or better AC loss characteristics. Effi- ground with a pull-up resistor connected the voltage and control light output. Th e
ciencies in excess of 90 percent are pos- to the EN (enable) pin. reference IC alternative is more costly than
sible, although these two methods would the simple option focused on in this article.
likely take more circuit board area to real- Other analog dimming methods The final two alternatives require a
ize. The design presented in Fig. 1 delivers The advantage of using the potentiometer microcontroller and again add cost. While
a small solution size with good, albeit not circuit described in this article is its sim- smart phones and GPS systems include a
the greatest, efficiency. plicity and cost-effectiveness. The required microcontroller, the typical flashlight does
analog voltage for analog dimming is gen- not. The decision on pursuing such meth-
Circuit limitations erated by a precise current source already ods depends on the application at hand as
Since this circuit uses an imprecise analog in the IC which is then translated to a cor- some products would benefit from a more
input (a manually adjustable potentiome- responding light output by a user-adjust- elegant user interface, perhaps with touch-
ter) for regulating the LED current, the tol- able resistor. Besides this potentiometer, screen control.
erances of the sense resistor, potentiometer no other components are required. The Option three replaces the potentiometer
input for the dim- with a larger and more expensive DAC. The
Iout (A) ming, the potenti- DAC could offer better granularity in the
Dimming linearity
1.2 ometer, is the only output analog voltage, and therefore more-
1.0
needed component. precise light control than does the poten-
If this precise cur- tiometer. The application should dictate
0.8 rent source were not whether the expense is justified.
0.6 present, other meth- Using a potentiometer on the SS/TR pin
ods of generating the of the buck converter is a simple, small, and
0.4 required analog volt- low-cost method to provide linear analog
0.2 age for analog dim- dimming to a high-current LED in appli-
0.0
ming would have to cations such as backlights and flashlights.
0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 be considered. Some With analog dimming, the efficiency over
VSS/TR(V) traditional options most of the dimming range remains near 85
include: using a sep- percent from a 12V input supply. The com-
FIG. 2. Dimming linearity of the circuit in Fig. 1, in which
arate reference volt- plete circuit requires only six components,
dimming is achieved using a potentiometer.
age IC that creates plus the high-power LED.
resistance, and SS/TR pin current and how a precise analog voltage; varying the duty
they affect the LED brightness do not mat- cycle of the PWM output of a microcon-
ter. If the LED is too bright, the user simply troller through an RC fi lter to generate the MORE: Visit the Drivers & Control section of
turns the potentiometer resistance down. precise analog voltage; or using a micro- the LEDs Magazine website for news, features
If it is too dim, simply turn the potenti- controller with a DAC to generate the pre- and product information - www.ledsmagazine.
ometer resistance up. With a multi-turn cise analog voltage. com/Drivers.

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last word
LED industry tales from Taiwan

A recent visit to Taiwan highlighted a number of issues in the local LED industry,
writes ELLA SHUM, Director of HB-LED Research with STRATEGIES UNLIMITED.
O
n a recent trip to Taiwan, it became valuable IP with them. Due to the political we have noticed something interesting when
clear that the overall feeling among situation between the two regions, there comparing the net profits of two LED chip
LED industry players is pretty is no legal way to pursue or extradite sus- companies; Epistar from Taiwan and SanAn
gloomy. I came across a variety of issues relat- pected criminals from China to Taiwan. In from China.
ing to LED pricing, personnel, and subsidies. a Confucian society, where ancestry wor- Epistars net profit for the first half of
However, one company, Lextar, managed to ship is core to the cultural identity, chang- 2011 was NT 1.1 billion ($35.7 million), with
go public in September (www.ledsmagazine. ing ones name means denying ones ances- a margin of 11%. In the same period in 2010,
com/news/8/9/35), so the news is not all bad. tors. I only hope the money is worth it. the margin was 29% on NT 2.7 billion ($88.6
Concerning pricing, the industry was I met someone from Taiwan whose com- million) net profit. In contrast, SanAns net
shocked by rumors of a quote of $0.08 given pany sold energy-saving electronic bal- profit margin for the fi rst half of 2011 was
by a large Korean vendor for a 5630-type lasts for florescent lights. He secured a con- RMB 459 million ($72.3 million) with 64%
packaged LED for lighting. Such packages tract to supply 2700 ballasts margin. In the same period in
are often used in retrofit lamps that do not to a major US retail chain- 2010, the margin was 56% on
require high lumen output. The price is equiv- store. The product performed RMB 202 million ($31.8 mil-
alent to approximately 400 lm/$. Even in Tai- as specified, saving 25-30% lion) net profit. Why the huge
wan, where the art of cost-cutting is most energy, and payback was 1.5 difference in profit margin
refined, this price is looked upon as below years based on 24/7 usage. My between the two companies?
cost. A curious observer would note that a friend called every 6 months to Why did SanAns margin and
similar package from the same vendor des- check on the products and see net profit go up in 2011 when
ignated for backlight applications is more if follow-on orders were going the overall market crashed?
expensive. The conclusion varies, but most to come. After a couple of Upon further analysis,
people feel this may be an attempt to buy the years, he gave up calling. Four SanAn received RMB 583 mil-
lighting market, or that it is another tactic years after the initial instal- lion ($91.8 million) in subsidies
to put downward pressure on prices for the lation, he received an order for the first 6 months of 2011
whole industry and to force weaker players for 775,000 units. Similarly, after Walmart from the government, and that is counted
out. Whatever it is, once the prices go down, tested LED lights from GE in their refrigera- towards its net profit. If you take out the sub-
they dont usually go back up. tor displays, it took them 3 years to decide to sidies, it lost RMB 124 million ($19.5 million).
Retaining personnel is a challenge for roll out LEDs in all stores. This illustrates the For the rest of 2011, SanAn still has RMB 928
Taiwanese companies: whole teams of engi- chasm between the early adopters and the million ($146.2 million) in subsidies to add to
neers have moved from Taiwan to China, early majority. Time has passed since these its balance sheet.
and with a 4-5-fold increase in salary, the stories happened, and the chasm is probably Another new player in the China LED
temptation can be irresistible. Teams fre- shorter now. However, if you are a start-up in world is ETI (Elec-Tech International), which
quently move together, but this is essen- the LED lighting market, what is your strat- received subsidies totaling RMB 534 million
tially a one-way street since no Taiwanese egy for crossing the chasm? ($84.1 million) in 2011. This is an amount
companies will ever hire them again. When higher than the net profit of the companys
there were many start-ups in China buy- A new kind of net profit LED business.
ing MOCVD systems last year, bidding wars The mainstream semiconductor industry I think we will have to invent a new term for
were frequent for these teams. Whats inter- is used to feast and famine. During down- this type of net profit, to distinguish it from
esting is that quite a few of these relocated cycles, weaker players leave the scene, while the hard earned net profit we are used to.
personnel have totally changed their iden- stronger ones survive to reap the profit in the MORE: View an extended version at
tity. The suspicion is that these people took next upturn. In this particular down-cycle, www.ledsmagazine.com/features/8/11/3.
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Isolated LED Current Control

with Active PFC
90V to 265V
AC
VIN DCM
VIN_SENSE FB
lated
Regu rrent
u LT3799
LED Ccally 5%) VREF 20W
(Typi CTRL3 GATE LED
Power
CTRL2 SENSE
CTRL1 VINTVCC
GND
Fault FAULT
CT COMP + COMP
Complete TRIAC Dimmable Schematic
TRIAC Dimmable LED Driver Needs No Opto-coupler

Our LT 3799 isolated LED controller with active power factor correction (PFC) is specifically designed for driving LEDs
over a wide input range of 24V to 480V+. It is ideal for LED applications requiring 4W to over 100W of LED power and
is compatible with standard TRIAC in-wall dimmers. The LT3799s unique current sensing scheme delivers a well regulated
current to the secondary side with no opto-coupler, enabling it to provide 5% LED current accuracy. It also offers low
harmonic distortion while delivering efficiencies as high as 90%. Open and short LED protection ensures long term
reliability and a simple, compact solution footprint addresses a wide range of applications.
LED Current vs TRIAC Angle LT3799 Demo Board (25W) Info & Free Samples
1.2
www.linear.com/product/LT3799
1.0 1-800-4-LINEAR
LED Current (A)
0.8
0.6
0.4
120V app
0.2
220V app
______________
0
0 30 60 90 120 150 180
, LT, LTC, LTM, Linear Technology and the Linear logo are
TRIAC Angle (Degrees) registered trademarks of Linear Technology Corporation. All other
trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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Previous Page | Contents | Zoom in | Zoom out | Front Cover | Search Issue | Subscribe | Next Page q qMqM
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CREE XLAMP LIGHTING-CLASS LEDs

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TECHNOLOGY AND APPLICATIONS OF LIGHT EMITTING DIODES Edge Lighting

Photography: Martin Hhn.

november/december Cover Story

2011 The NRW parliament building in Germany is

37 STANDARDS Eric Richman, PNNL

65 OPTICAL SAFETY Leslie Lyons, Bentham Instruments Ltd.

75 DRIVERS Gyan Tiwary, iWatt

LEDsmagazine.com NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 3

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT Christine Shaw

European focus in a EDITOR Tim Whitaker

global LED industry nicolep@pennwell.com

4 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 LEDsmagazine.com

From a Tiny Twist Grows a Full Revolution.

Approach to Designing Fixtures Fin-Core Corp. ....................................31

DATE: October 2011 Fusion Optix ...................................... 48

PRESENTERS: Costa Politakis, Future Future Electronics, Inc. ...................... 64

An LED Luminaire Solution For Philips Lighting BV ............. 9, 11, 13, 15

Indoor Area Lighting Philips Lumileds ...................................2

6 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 LEDsmagazine.com

LED highway-lighting project in China features

HB-LED revenue growth will reach nearly 10% in 2011

8 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 LEDsmagazine.com

Fortimo LED Modules

Future-proof, high quality and

10 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 LEDsmagazine.com

Fortimo LED Modules

Future-proof, high quality and

Designed to give you flexible warm white light, now and

Fortimo LED Modules

Future-proof, high quality and

Designed to give you the best LED performance

Fortimo LED Modules

Future-proof, high quality and

Designed to give you the highest energy efficiency and

LEDsmagazine.com NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 17

LUMEN coalition launches website able at www.ssl.energy.gov/specifi

DOE releases promising results

18 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 LEDsmagazine.com

...or its lights out.

New LED drivers For complete technical information visit

conferences | STRATEGIES IN LIGHT EUROPE

Strategies in Light Europe focuses on

The replacement-lamps sector will grow Its important to 3

LEDsmagazine.com NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 21

conferences | STRATEGIES IN LIGHT EUROPE

22 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 LEDsmagazine.com

OPTIMIZED FOR OPTIIMIZED FO

CREE XLAMP LEDs ARE APPLICATION

Cree XLamp Lighting-Class LEDs are

Our revolutionary product portfolio enables

Get samples of Cree XLamp LEDs or

Get Cree reference designs

conferences | STRATEGIES IN LIGHT EUROPE

24 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 LEDsmagazine.com

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conferences | STRATEGIES IN LIGHT EUROPE

an accreditation infrastructure. supporting energy efficiency and promoting

26 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 LEDsmagazine.com

For Application Support contact your

conferences | STRATEGIES IN LIGHT EUROPE

SIL Europe technology track focuses

LEDsmagazine.com NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 29

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