To satisfy market demand, the Taiwanese leading LED manufacturer, Edison Opto, has been dedicated to promote a better living environment and never stop creating high efficacy LED products since their establishment. By virtue of seven-year experience in COB development, Edison Opto has introduced the high efficiency EdiPower II HM series which attracts the attention of industry. Recently, in order to respond to the market demand, Edison Opto has upgraded the CRI value of HM series up to 90 and met the requirement of R9>50. This breakthrough makes HM series become a preferred choice of museum and hospital lighting where require high CRI light sources to present the actual color of objects.
With high quality standard, Edison Opto’s COB components can keep pace with international manufacturers’ products. To help customers and lamp designers to distinguish product chromaticity, Edison Opto refers to the specifications of Energy Star and adjusts the original BIN group. At present, the COB products are grouped in 3-Step and 5-step MacAdam ellipse. The new BIN group makes CCT control more accurately, and thus improve the product homogeneity. 98% of Edison COB products are within a 3-Step MacAdam ellipse and 90% are within a 5-step MacAdam ellipse. And that means Edison Opto has achieved the goal of color consistency. Those products are particularly suitable for applications requiring high color homogeneity, such as gallery, printing factory and stage lighting.
About Edison Opto:
Edison Opto has established the headquarters in New Taipei City, Taiwan since 2001. Edison Opto is specialized in designing and producing High-power LEDs. In order to satisfy customers’ high standard requests for quality, Edison Opto established a LM80 approved laboratory which is certified by Underwriters Laboratories (UL). Edison Opto creates the LDMS service program which can provide customized professional design and production services. Edison Opto has established factories in Dongguan and Yangzhou. Besides, in order to expand the service domain, Edison Opto has established subsidiaries in USA and Germany. Edison Opto provides customers with complete product support and prompt delivery services.
More Information about the company and our products can be found at www.edison-opto.com
Friday, November 29, 2013
Latest Edison Opto COB HM Series Meets the CEC Specification
Thursday, November 28, 2013
Larson Electronics Reveals New LED PAR 46 Replacement Bulb
Larson Electronics is excited to announce the reveal of their LED PAR 46 Replacement bulb. Bathing subjects in pure brilliant light and milspec rated for EMI, now there is no better choice for upgrading existing PAR 46 incandescent bulb fixtures to LEDs. This Par46 LED bulb provides numerous benefits and advantages over traditional incandescent lamps in that it is highly resistant to damage from shocks and vibration as well as up to 80% more efficient. The LEDs in this unit have an average lifespan rating of 50,000 hours, which reduces the costs and loss of productivity associated with maintaining and replacing traditional lamps. Producing 3600 lumens while drawing only 4 amps, this LED lamp easily outperforms 100 watt incandescent bulbs while drawing only half as many amps. There is no glass or filaments used in the construction of this LEB bulb and the aluminum body and solid state design of the LEDs results in a lamp that is as rugged as it is efficient.
Toshiba Lights up Grand Central Terminal for the Holidays
Toshiba Corporation flipped the switch on the new "Centennial Holiday Light Show" in New York City's Grand Central Terminal on November 21. The colorful animated display can be seen on the monumental windows above the Terminal's west balcony through December 26, 2013. Click here for the full press release.
The Centennial Holiday Light Show presented by Toshiba
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| The Grand Central Station lobby lit up by Toshiba LED lights. (LEDinside/Toshiba) |
When:
November 21 - December 26, 2013,
from 5:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m. daily
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| Toshiba light show at the Grand Central Station lights up windows with the numbers 100. (LEDinside/ Toshiba) |
What:
Toshiba has created a state-of-the-art light show that transforms the 118 separate window panes into individual "pixels" of light. The show evolves throughout the season with a Thanksgiving version running through November 28, followed by a winter holiday-themed show through December 26, with 30-minute shows running continuously each evening from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. Both shows feature thematically relevant colorful, shape-shifting designs.
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| Toshiba light show at the Grand Central Station lights up windows in warm sunset colors. (LEDinside/ Toshiba) |
Where:
Main Concourse of New York City's Grand Central Terminal
89 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017
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| Toshiba lights at the Grand Central Station light up windows with festival Christmas images. (LEDinside/ Toshiba) |
Dow Corning's Newest Moldable Optical Silicone Enables Energy Efficient and Reliable LED Lighting Designs
Dow Corning, a global leader in silicones, silicon-based technology and innovation, introduced new Dow Corning® MS-2002 Moldable White Reflector Silicone at Strategies in Light Europe 2013. This highly reflective white material extends the excellent photo-thermal stability and high-moldability that typifies Dow Corning's award-winning optical-grade Moldable Silicone family to the reflective elements of LED lamp and luminaire applications. Dow Corning MS-2002 Moldable White Reflector Silicone targets reflectivity as high as 98 percent to help further boost light output from LED devices, improve overall energy efficiency and prolong device reliability.
"Dow Corning is committed to driving new innovations in current and next-generation LED lighting designs and expanding opportunities for solid-state sources to compete with traditional illumination sources in more demanding high-intensity lighting applications," said Hugo da Silva, Global Industry Director, LED Lighting at Dow Corning. "Our advanced new Dow Corning MS-2002 Silicone extends the valuable design, processing and performance benefits of our Moldable Silicone portfolio beyond transparent LED lens elements to include the reflective elements of LED lamp and luminaire applications. With the launch of this new product, customers can now maximize the benefits of silicone chemistry to develop more affordable LED lighting."
Like other products in Dow Corning's line of high-performance LED silicones, its advanced new Dow Corning MS-2002 Silicone delivers outstanding mechanical, thermal and optical stability at temperatures exceeding 150° C. That means, unlike epoxies, polycarbonate, acrylic and other conventional LED materials, Dow Corning MS-2002 Moldable White Reflector Silicone retains superb color, reflectance and mechanical performance over the lifetime of an LED lamp or luminaire without yellowing or physical degradation. As the market demands LED sources to deliver more intense light from comparatively smaller package sizes, these qualities are highly desirable for reflective LED materials.
The easy processability and high moldability of Dow Corning MS-2002 Moldable White Reflector Silicone also greatly expands design latitudes for LED lamp and luminaire applications. With its high reflectivity and bright white color, this new high-performance silicone product does not require the additional mixture of liquid silicone rubber or color pigmentation. Its extreme thermal and optical stability enables development of parts with direct contact with LED dies without air gaps between the die and optics, avoiding design limits common with organic LED materials.
Dow Corning MS-2002 Moldable White Reflector Silicone also exhibits excellent feature reproduction, which allows mold undercuts or co-molding with Dow Corning® transparent materials. It is a high viscosity, high 84 Shore A hardness, fast-curing material able to produce fine details and deliver good resistance to environmental aging.
Dow Corning MS-2002 Silicone, as well as other innovative products from Dow Corning's expansive portfolio of solutions for LED lamps and luminaires, are being featured at the company's booth (Booth B25) here at Strategies in Light Europe.
China’s Outdoor LED Display Industry Developments
For LED outdoor display manufacturers in the lower rung of the industry competitiveness will be supported by three cores: their ability to obtain resources, innovative technology and creative strategy. The extent of control and balance over these three resources will decide whether they will have the ability to construct competitive technological barriers, according to a report by Chinese-language online media CIEN.
LEDs are no longer strange innovative products to the general public, and are everywhere these days. LED displays has permeated everyday life and can be seen in almost all public spaces, whether in markets, subway stations, train stations and even at concerts. All these public spaces will have one or several LED displays that broadcast different types of video content.
After several years of rapid developments, the LED display industry has entered a period of integration, and has been unable to maintain popularity as the LED lighting industry. During the integration phase, LED display manufacturers that have technological and capital strengths hope to use the market’s strength and manufacturer’s technology to acquire channel advantages and develop quickly. Some Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) are gradually being eliminated or integrated. The concentration rate of the LED display industry is expected to rise.
In 2012, annual LED display prices were lowered by 15 to 20 percent. The price falls were mostly caused by LED display manufacturers price competitions. LED display sales have soared as prices continued to drop, leading to manufacturers continual lowering of profits to raise market shares. Some analysts believe, current Chinese LED display industry’s competition is still in the early stage of product competition. Key competition indicators include prices, quality, production lead date and service after sales. The current stage has especially highlighted price factors. Hence, LED display manufacturers have been engaged in huge price wars. Skilled manufacturers are hoping to use price wars to eliminate some small-midsized manufacturers.
Outdoor display advertisement is an important market for LED display industry. According to statistics, China’s outdoor display ad market has reached RMB 2.48 billion (US$ 450 million) in 3Q13, and has a market share of 17.8 percent, an incremental improvement compared to 17.3% last quarter. The increased rate is partly due to decreased ad revenue and comprehensive regional market strategy, which has spurred 3Q13 market size increase. On the other hand, business areas operation and sales value were highlighted. LED display ads advantages in strengthening the public’s brand recognition and ad effect has been recognized by brand clients.
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
100th Lights On to feature 31,000 LEDs
This year Taunton is celebrating a time-honored tradition with many nods to the past century of Lights On celebrations. And most of residents will probably record the event on their cellphones.
Even as the city celebrates the past, technology is always moving forward. On Saturday, Dec. 7, when the lights are switched on, they will be the first Lights On display that is entirely made up of LED bulbs. The city has been working towards this since 2010, when the first LED lights were purchased. This year, there will be a total of 31,000 LED bulbs lighting up Taunton Green.
DOE Posts Up Presentations at 2013 SSL Market Introduction Workshop
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) thanks all who participated in the eighth annual Solid-State Lighting Market Introduction Workshop, held November 12–14 in Portland, Oregon. More than 200 attendees gathered to share the latest updates and strategies for successful market introduction of high-quality, energy-efficient SSL solutions.
The workshop offered a rich mix of perspectives and insights from a diverse group of participants ranging from utilities and energy efficiency organizations to manufacturers and distributors. Attendees noted the “comprehensive and balanced overview” that was “well worth the time” and the “best event of its kind, period!” The workshop was preceded by a half day of free educational sessions for newcomers and lighting professionals alike, and an evening bus tour to see the latest CALiPER LED PAR38 and troffer investigations.
The workshop presentations and materials are now available.
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
In-depth LED bulb reviews and teardowns
After nearly a year of renovation, the lights in the ceiling constellation inside Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan are back on . The 59 l...
Look How Drastically Intelligent LEDs Can Cut Energy Consumption
PG&E, California's largest utility, wanted to know how much energy controllable LEDs could save its industrial customers. It recently found its answer: a lot. Earlier this year, the utility tested the performance of a networked LED system at a 44,800-square-foot Ace Hardware distribution warehouse in California. The system was installed and controlled by Digital Lumens, a Boston-based company with more than 500 projects deployed in the commercial and industrial sector.
What Is Most Important for SSL?
A think piece by Jan Kemeling, chief sales and marketing officer at Ledzworld, served its purpose for me -- it got me thinking.
Ledzworld prides itself on making LED lamps that have maximal compatibility with the legacy infrastructure of fixtures, transformers, and dimmers present in the built environment. Kemeling, unsurprisingly, argues in his piece that compatibility is the top priority around which the LED industry needs to rally right now. (Guess who would be the logical candidate to lead the charge?)
Let's take a look at Kemeling's argument in some detail. He begins by positing that solid-state lighting (SSL) -- only the fourth great technology wave to occur in the history of artificial light -- cannot live up to its undeniable potential unless it works. So far, so tautological. Kemeling defines "works" as "achieving what it promises" as judged by end users, specifiers, designers, utilities, and regulatory agencies. He contends that there often is no guarantee that LED-based lighting will work by this standard. "Sometimes that fixture works with the LED bulb's mechanical, electric, and thermal requirements; sometimes it doesn't; and sometimes there are mixed results. The effect? Consumer uncertainty."
I believe he is right, by the way.
"Any new technology only has a small window to prove its value," Kemeling wrote. "Second chances with first impressions do not exist." Most of the industry agrees with him, as evidenced by the acute awareness of the market bellyflop that CFLs executed and the sharp desire not to repeat it.
Ledzworld's CMO goes on to break down the compatibility problem into electrical, mechanical, and thermal components and to reiterate his insistence on the primacy of the compatibility issue for the entire SSL industry.
Deep breath now
Ledzworld's interest in sharpening the focus on compatibility is evident. But is that actually the most pressing priority the industry faces? The poll over there on the right asks us to consider what is most important.
- Education: We need to bring both the industry and consumers along (don't we?) so that CCT, CRI, and spectral composition don't result in so many glazed eyes.
- Energy efficiency: It's the main selling point for SSL (isn't it?) and we need to continue pushing onward toward the maximum efficacy physically possible.
- Better color rendering: We have been impoverished for decades (haven't we?) by the lousy color rendering of fluorescent and sodium vapor. LEDs can do a far better job of this, and they must.
- Lower cost: Nobody will adopt SSL en masse (will they?) as long as its price is a nontrivial multiple of that of legacy solutions.
These are all important issues, and certainly compatibility is, too. Let us know what you consider most crucial -- in the comments below and in the poll.
Kemeling's piece ran on KiwiLighting.com (as linked above) and was picked up by LEDinside.com, where I found it.
— Keith Dawson 
The Ugliest LED Light Bulb
The developers of the nanoleaf are making big claims for their 10-sided Frankenbulb.
LED lighting for the home has been understated, discrete. The kitchen task lights do their work without attention. Replacement bulbs are becoming reassuringly like the incandescent bulbs that used to illumine your mother's knitting.
And then comes the nanoleaf, bringing us Edison's elegance by way of Bizarro World. (The bulb's name is spelled sometimes lowercase, sometimes camelcase -- NanoLeaf -- on the website; we're going with lowercase.)
It also claims to be the world's most efficient light bulb.
It is rated at 150 lumens per watt for its top-of-the-line 1800-lm bulb (equivalent to a 110W incandescent). The company offers two other A19 bulbs, 1200 lm (~75W) and 1600 lm (~100W), that claim 120 lm/W and 133 lm/W respectively. (The bulbs are not dimmable and have a CRI of 70.)
Ugly isn't cheap. On Amazon, they start at $31.25 each in a four-pack of the 1200-lm bulbs and continue upward to $83.75 for the 1800-lm model.
The bulbs will start shipping in volume in March next year. There's a story behind that.
The history
Nanoleaf the company started in 2012 by a trio of University of Toronto graduates.
(From the Trademark-as-Spaghetti Dept., the bulb was called the NanoLight when first introduced on Kickstarter; it is made by Nanoleaf, not by NanoLight Technologies. The trademark of that latter company is NANOLIGHT, referring to a device that uses bioluminescence and chemoluminescence in laboratory testing. It is being contested by Promega Corporation.
Nanoleaf didn't hold a trademark for its LED bulb when it was called NanoLight. The name Nanoleaf, however, has a trademark pending by way of NanoGrid, a Hong Kong-based company owned by the trio that runs Nanoleaf.
Let us not even begin to discuss the patent scene.
Nanoleaf launched its Kickstarter campaign in January 2013, reaching its $20,000 goal in three days and eventually raising $270,000. With that kind of support, it's clear that they were onto something.
The company is not revealing a lot of detail about their LED sources, only to say that much of the product is custom-built to their specifications and that its components are not available for off-the-shelf. In April 2014, they featured their manufacturing process in a video, complete with a ukulele music track.
Unfortunately, the outcome wasn't as happy as the video. Early customers were returning bulbs that had failed.
Transparency
In an October blog post, the company disclosed, with refreshing candor, what was going wrong. An air void inside the bulbs was causing the gold wire that connected the LED die to the housing to bend and eventually fail. They had to scrap 150,000 LEDs and hundreds of bulbs that were planned for shipment.
A 2012 video, in preparation for their Kickstarter campaign, outlines the design principles of what was then called the NanoLight, including the printed circuit boards that make up the outer shell and host the internal circuitry. The coating and shape of the bulb improve heat dissipation, and no other heat sink is needed. As a result, the bulb is cool to the touch and can be used in an enclosed lamp.
Initially they chose a 4000K neutral white light. A short while into the production run, however, they realized that backers and customers would prefer a warmer light, particularly in the bedroom. All of the current products are listed as 3500K "warm white" -- though some might contest how "warm" that CCT is.
The bulb is rated at 30,000 hours. (As we've discussed several times in these forums, those are estimates based on extrapolation. The company hasn't been around long enough to have a production unit shining for the requisite 3.5 years needed to verify the claim.)
The nanoleaf has attracted a lot of favorable press, owing in large part to the founders' openness about their product and processes. We're not going to see this on the Walmart shelves anytime soon. That's not their goal. Nanoleaf is producing a product with an innovative design in the public arena for people who don't mind spending extra on stuff that's green and weird.
Nichia Adds Patents and Defendants in Patent Infringement Lawsuit against Everlight in the U.S.
On November 22, 2013, Nichia Corporation (“Nichia”) filed an amended complaint in its on-going patent infringement lawsuit against Taiwanese LED manufacturer Everlight Electronics Co., Ltd. and Everlight’s U.S. subsidiary Everlight Americas, Inc. (collectively “Everlight”), originally filed on September 11, 2013, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
In addition to its original claim regarding Everlight’s infringement of Nichia’s U.S. Patent No. 7,432,589, Nichia’s amended complaint includes claims regarding Everlight’s infringement of three other U.S. Patents: No. 7,462,870, No. 7,521,863, and No. 8,530,250. Nichia also named two new defendants in its infringement claim under U.S. Patent No. 8,530,250: Zenaro Lighting, Inc. (“Zenaro”), which is a U.S. subsidiary of Everlight Electronics Co., Ltd., and Zitroz LLC, which is a U.S. distributor of Zenaro’s products.
Nichia seeks to protect its patents and other intellectual property rights and takes action against infringers in any country where appropriate and necessary.
This November at IFTTT we’re thankful for…
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No Lights Like LEDs for the Holidays
Though strings of Christmas lights got a pass in the EISA legislation, LEDs have already captured 20% of that market, far above their penetration in general lighting.
LED holiday lights have been sold in the US since at least 2007. Early on, most were red, blue, or other colors; white was still problematical, tending toward the cool and the blue. Today, strings of 50 lights in warm white are easy to come by, and cost only a small premium over incandescents.
Certainly the majority, perhaps the preponderance, of holiday lights available here are made in China. Here's one data point: A friend bought a string of multicolor LED lights from Lowe's four years ago. They were GE-branded. Figures 1 and 2 show a label and detail from one side of the plug, displaying a model number, YL-L2K-24B. Feeding that number into Google and clicking on the first hit (the others look unrelated) returns an error, but the cached result from that search (Figure 3) indicates that the source of the GE product was a Taiwanese factory.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Cost
The Kansas City Star reported that this year, Walmart is devoting one-half of its holiday light shelf space to LEDs, and that Costco is selling no incandescent strings at all this year. The head of engineering and technology for the American Lighting Association noted at a trade show earlier this year that essentially all the holiday lights being presented to retailers were LEDs.
The reason why the tide has turned on holiday LEDs is easy to see. Their price is in the vicinity of that for incandescents, or in some cases even lower. Google Shopping turns up these prices now online: for a no-name string of 50 warm white lights, $15. For multicolor lights apparently from the same source, $13. For a string of incandescents, $8.98.
Another friend bought two strings of warm white LEDs at Costco last year for between $8.00 and $10.00 per string. Strings of incandescents were $15.00 at that time, he reported.
Turn 'em in
Since at least 2008, HolidayLEDs.com has run a Christmas light recycling program -- here is this year's. People can send in old strings of incandescents, functional or not, and receive a discount on equivalent LEDs. HolidayLEDs.com separates and recycles the old strings. This year, Home Depot offered a similar turn-in program at its stores nationwide (it ended on November 17).
Sales of LED lights were up 50% last year at a Kansas light bulb store, KansasCity.com reported, and the prognosis for this year is more of the same. Penetration of holiday LEDs is in the low double digits, compared to perhaps 1% for general LED lighting in the residential market, and a few percent commercially. Within a very few years, incandescent holiday lights, first demonstrated by Thomas Edison himself in 1880, may have gone the way of the dodo.
— Keith Dawson
Monday, November 25, 2013
The Nuances of Transient Protection
Protecting circuits against transients is easy in theory, but the details matter.
I've been spending a lot of time on the road as of late. Last week I was on a ferry to visit a customer in Connecticut. Today, as I write these words, I'm on a Jet Blue flight to Texas to visit a different customer. Since I'm spending this part of my life as a transient, I thought that transient protection would be an excellent topic to discuss.
Voltage and current transients are a risk in practically all electronic devices that operate from a distributed power system. LED lights are no exception. The power network in a typical home experiences many different potential sources of electrical disturbance on the power lines, including:
75 Volt surge on 28 VDC bus.
- Load-induced transients (switching of high-power loading devices, e.g., electric stove)
- Inductive loads (primarily motors in applications such as AC units, refrigerators, etc.)
- Lightning-induced transients. Lightning doesn't have to strike the lines, it just has to come close to power lines to induce spikes.
- Utility-induced transients (brown-outs, line repairs, power surges, etc.)
For these reasons, it's very important to protect the electronic device, and in our case the LED light. The big benefit to LED lighting is long life. There's no point to touting this advantage if the driver circuit fails at the first transient. Given the LED's long potential life, the odds are high that it will see a transient.
Most of the electronic components inside the LED driver are low-voltage devices consisting of driver controller chips, capacitors, resistors, FETs, LEDs (of course), and other similar devices. These devices are susceptible to catastrophic damage when they are exposed to high voltages or current surges.
The protectors
Enter transient protectors such as transorbs and metal oxide varistors (MOVs). They are the simplest and most common means to protect circuits and devices. They behave similarly although they have entirely different construction.
A transorb is a semiconductor device akin to the Zener diode. The MOV is more closely related to the thermistor. Generally speaking, the transorb is more precise than an MOV, whereas the MOV can usually absorb more energy. Unlike most other electrical components, these devices are designed to absorb and dissipate lots of energy very quickly.
Transient suppressors sit across the input to the electronic assembly and act as a watchdog. They normally do nothing to the circuit. Their entire mission in life is to spring into action if, and only if, the input voltage exceeds a threshold that could damage the downstream components.
Finesse
Designing them properly into a circuit requires a little finesse. I have often seen these devices installed directly across the power input. I prefer to add a small input resistance between the transient protector and the input, especially with lower power devices. Yes, I know, adding input resistance does reduce efficiency, but it also adds a known quantity to the input impedance, and a side benefit is that it usually helps the input filter design.
The transient protector clamps the input line to the the protector's rated voltage. The input impedance limits the current to the transient protector. If there is no impedance between the transient source and the transient suppressor, the resulting current could exceed the transient suppressor's maximum current rating. You may well point out the input lines have do have some impedance -- but it's an unknown quantity. Counting on line impedance is dicey at best. It depends on the distance from the transient source.
It's very important to make sure that the transient protector clamping voltage is less than the maximum rating of the downstream components. The main part of the design is then to ensure that the transient protector can absorb the energy delivered on the input lines. It's a matter of balancing the maximum input current (the current that flows through the input resistor with the voltage of the spike at one end and the maximum voltage of the transient protector at the other) and spike duration with the energy or power rating of the transient protector.
Living Smart: LED lights for the holidays
LED lights can be a great gift to the holiday decorator. Even though they cost more than other types, they last longer, produce far less heat and use less energy. The letters stand for "light-emitting diode" (but if you're like some of my neighbors, they might more appropriately stand for "love elaborate displays.") Unlike incandescent bulbs, LEDs are solid-state. There's no filament that heats up with wasteful thermal radiation. Instead, light is released when electrical current excites electrons in the diode
Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/11/21/3392704/living-smart-led-lights-for-the.html#storylink=cpy