Epistar Chairman: Golden Three Years Ahead for LED Manufacturers

The arrival of LED industry’s prosperous three years is for real this time, a recent CNA report quoted Epistar Chairman B.J. Lee saying at the company’s latest stockholder meeting.

LED market’s strong demand growth is expected to continue for two years well into 2017, with penetration rates to reach 60 percent to 70 percent, estimated Lee. Industry insiders should try and make the most out of these three years.

Lee once again projected supply and demand will reach equilibrium at the end of 2014 or even earlier. High end LED chip shipment shortages are expected to reach 30 percent by second half of 2014.

Epistar’s LED lighting revenue share has increased from 20 percent in the first half of 2014 to current 25 percent, said Lee. The company’s LED lighting revenue is targeted to reach 35 percent by second half of 2014, but international backlight demands will slightly ease in second half because of China’s rebounding TV industry.

Another highlight at the stockholder’s meeting was Everlight sold its share in Epistar, bringing Everlight shares down from 11 percent to two percent. According to Lee, Everlight decided to sell its stake in Epistar because of financing demands required for the company’s mergers and expansion plans.

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Indium Nitride Nanowires Go Green

The "green gap" may be conquered by shaping InN nanowires for quantum confinement.

SPIE has a summary of research from a University of Michigan doctoral student that was published earlier this year in Nano Letters of the American Chemical Society. The student, Dylan Bayerl, and his advisor Emmanouil Kioupakis, investigated indium nitride nanowires as emission sources for the efficient generation of green light.

Calculated electronic and optical properties for hexagonal and triangular nanowires with and without including the effect of the electron-hole (e-h) interaction.

(Source: ACS)

The motivation for the work was to plug the "green gap." When nitrides of indium (InN) and gallium (GaN) are alloyed in varying ratios to produce light at a range of freq­uencies across the visible spectrum, a number of factors limit the efficiency with which the light can be produced, including "...fluctu­ations in the alloy composition, lattice mismatch with the substrate, and strain-induced polarization fields," according to the researchers. As it happens, these adverse factors all come together when the InN/GaN alloy ratio is tuned for light in the green range of the spectrum.

The researchers modeled the behavior of nanowires of pure indium nitride. Using a pure semiconductor instead of an alloy reduces the damping factors listed above; and configuring the semiconductor in nanowires results in quantum confinement of exitons (bound electron-hole pairs), raising the material's band gap and thus its optical emission.

They found that nanowires of 1-nm diameter will produce light in the green range. At that size, only a small number of molecules can fit in the nanowire's cross-section, and their physical arrangement -- the wire's shape -- affects the quantum confinement and thus the frequency of light produced.

With a triangular cross-section, the researchers found that the nanowires would generate light of a cyan color, with the InN material having a band gap of 3.9 eV (up from the 0.6 eV of bulk InN). When the nanowire's cross-seciton is hexagonal, the band gap drops to 3.7 eV and the light is green.

As far as I can determine, the researchers didn't actually fabricate such nanostructures out of InN; instead the study is the result of calculations and modeling, presumably on a supercomputer. Bayerl and Kioupakis write: "While such small nanowires are difficult to synthesize, InN nanocrystals just a few nanometers in size have already been synthesized, and nanorods 1nm in diameter have been synthesized from other semiconductors."

The condensed summary of the paper did not spell out the distinction among nanocrystals, nanorods, and nanowires.

— Keith Dawson , Editor-in-Chief, All LED Lighting

LED Trail at 2014 LightFair International

The attendance to LED Trail’s exhibit at the 24th edition of LIGHTFAIR® International set a new record, far exceeding past trade events. The conference brought many top lighting and design experts to LED Trail’s booth.

LED Trail’s new products for 2014 utilize integrated design and focus on providing enhanced illumination for improved productivity, well-being and efficiency.

LED Trail’s new EZ-Mount tube fixture with adjustable CCT was a big hit. Architects, specifiers and distributors alike were impressed by the versatility and performance of this light.

In addition LED Trail’s submission to the LFI Innovation Awards received great accolades and was selected among the top candidates in the Commercial Indoor Luminaires. LED Trail’s GoldBeach MX is among the most innovative replacement fixtures for commercial troffers. Look for more to come on this patented technology soon.

With integrated design at the core of its offerings, LED Trail has designed commercial lighting luminaires using emerging technologies and best of breed components.

Thank you for visiting us at LighFair 2014!

Sincerely,

Sam Manafi

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Plunging LED Prices Signal Start of Chinese LED Industry Restructure

The Chinese LED industry restructure is only starting as product prices fall dramatically, a Nandu.com report cited Elec-Tech International (ETI) Chairman Donglei Wang saying at the recent 2014 Guangzhou International Lighting Show.

LED lighting prices annual 25% decline to speed up consumer market adoption

Mature LED technology and manufacturing methods led to an annual 25 percent LED product price fall in China this year, noted Wang. Compared to 2013, prices for same types of LED products fell 30 percent in 2014, bringing retail prices close to CFL. The ETI Chairman projected LED lamps retail prices will drop below CFL by 2015 to 2016. Residential LED lighting market size is expected to become five times larger than commercial lighting.

Emerging smart lighting network makes it easier to transmit data

Globally, Philips has been the first to propose comprehensive smart lighting networks solutions for residential, office, commercial and city lighting applications. In the future, smart lighting networks can completely integrate LED lighting systems with smart controls, Internet, end terminal devices such as smartphones, and related software apps. Lighting will be able to transfer data and important messages in the future.

Philips smart lighting developments might be preparing ahead for future industry trends. According to Wang, globally mobile networks and LED industry will see fastest growth in the future.

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Novel flexible LED modules

In recent years, solid-state lighting (SSL) products have been increasingly sold in place of traditional incandescent or halogen lamps. The replacement of linear fluorescent tubes by SSL devices has lagged behind, however, due to a number of challenges. First, the efficacy advantage of SSL linear products compared with fluorescent products is small. Competitive initial costs are therefore required to ensure a return on the investment of an LED upgrade. Second, there are many different types of existing luminaires (electrical devices that create artificial light) that require different-length LED modules. Linear LED modules could thus be built in several lengths for each of these applications, but this is not a cost-effective solution. Finally, upgrading a fluorescent luminaire to an LED usually requires additional wiring and mounting of multiple LED modules during installation, which is time-consuming and also not cost-effective.

Switching streetlights to efficient LEDs takes more than changing a light bulb

LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, use less than half the electricity of old-fashioned streetlights, and they require less maintenance, too. Less juice to the pole means less pollution going from the power plant into the atmosphere. The cost savings are expected to pay for the more-expensive LEDs long before they fail. So why haven’t cities all over the metro area converted? Turns out it’s a complicated matter, and despite federal stimulus funding and a pilot project coordinated by the Mid-America Regional Council, only one metro city has fully converted to LEDs, along with a relative handful of light poles in other cities.

NEC Display Solutions Adds 30” LED-backlit Monitor with IPS Panel to MultiSync EA Series

NEC Display Solutions of America, a leading provider of commercial LCD display and projector solutions, announced today the MultiSync® EA304WMi, a 30-inch monitor addition to its premium business desktop portfolio. Power users will benefit from this performance-driven, WQXGA resolution LED-backlit model with built-in speakers.

The widescreen model features IPS panel technology with wide viewing angles (178° horizontal/vertical), touch-sensitive menu controls and ergonomic adjustability. The LED backlighting of the 16:10 aspect ratio EA304WMi allows for a slimmer profile, lighter weight and increased power savings compared to previous generation models. For workstations with multiple displays, ControlSync™ technology lets users control the settings for up to six MultiSync EA Series displays. Users are able to adjust power, brightness, volume and many other settings of the multi-monitor setup in unison through the master monitor.

“The EA304WMi monitor is the new flagship for the award-winning MultiSync EA family of displays,” said Art Marshall, Product Manager for Professional and Medical Displays at NEC Display Solutions. “In addition to its impressive imaging, this 30-inch monitor includes several NEC-exclusive features for users be more productive.”

Among them, the EA304WMi offers smart sensing technology, which automatically detects work conditions to determine the proper display brightness with ambient light and human presence sensors. In addition, a comprehensive input panel, including HDMI, DisplayPort, DVI-D, VGA and 3-port USB hub, connects users to the latest peripherals and solidifies their investments for the future.

The MultiSync EA304WMi includes the following features:

• 30-inch, 16:10 IPS panel with LED backlighting


• 350cd/m2 brightness, and 10-bit color over HDMI 1.4 and DisplayPort 1.2


• Wide viewing angles of 178°H/178°V


• 2560 x 1600 WQXGA resolution


• 20,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio (1000:1 typical)


• Ergonomic adjustable stand with 130mm height-adjust, tilt, swivel and pivot


• DisplayPort, HDMI / MHL, DVI-D and VGA inputs


• Integrated 3-port USB hub (1 up/3 down, two USB 3.0 and one USB 2.0)


• Integrated speakers (1W x 2) and headphone jack


• ControlSync for synchronizing settings in multi-screen setups


• Smart sensing technology (ambient light and human sensors)


• ECO Mode™, carbon footprint meter and cost meter


• ENERGY STAR® 6.0, TCO 6.0 compliant and TCO Edge 2.0 certified display

The MultiSync EA304WMi ships with a 3-year limited parts and labor warranty, and will be available in June 2014 at an estimated street price of US $1,599. The monitor also comes with set-up manual, and DVI-D, DisplayPort, power, audio, USB 3.0 and ControlSync cables.

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