The Other Guys

It's not all about about the big four general illumination LED manufacturers; numerous others are in the market. Let's look at how they differentiate their products.

Beyond Cree, LumiLEDS, Nichia, and Osram (listed in alphabetical order), one could source LEDs from: American Bright, Bridgelux, Citizen, LG Innotek, Luminus Devices, Samsung, Seoul Semiconductor, Sharp, or Toyoda Gosei. With so many players in the market, I was curious to see how each of these companies views itself, and how it differentiates its products.

As a result of my research, I thought I would wind up with some sage guidance, a checklist of companies to consider for a project based on broad capabilities. What I found, as you will see, is many superlatives, yet little consistency in quantitative advertising. Some of the sites are hard to understand and to navigate. This confusion reflects the state of an industry still in its infancy.

American Bright

American Bright sees itself as a not just an LED supplier, but rather as a contract manufacturing partner offering a line of LEDs and LED assembly expertise. It offers commodity low-voltage LEDs products. Its flagship product is an AC LED, similar to the Seoul Semiconductor "Achrich" (see below) that operates directly from 115 VAC without the need for a separate driver circuit.

Bridgelux

Bridgelux sees itself as the high-power, high-flux LED and LED array provider. The website's LED Products tab states:

Bridgelux develops high power LED Arrays and Chips in cool, neutral and warm-white lighting solutions. Applications: Bridgelux is revolutionizing light with LED solutions for retail, home, office, and outdoor installations.

The company's About page, characterizing it as "the global leader in Solid State Lighting (SSL) performance and system optimization," did not give me a clear picture, so somewhat further along on that page I found:

The Bridgelux product platform enables the integration of smart sensors and wireless communication technologies, allowing architects and lighting designers to integrate smart building control systems and other innovative applications that bring further benefit for the rapid transformation to solid state lighting.

From this, I conclude that Bridgelux provides high-flux LEDs for building and architectural applications that lend themselves to higher levels of integration.

Citizen Electronics

The first page of the Citizen product catalogue contains an image with three categories suggesting the company's product focus is:

• Superiority with reliability (3 step MacAdam eEllipse)


• Various product lineups


• High efficacy and high power

As best as I can tell from perusing the website, I'd say its differentiation strategy is extremely high luminous output devices for applications such as projectors and streetlights.

LG Innotek

The top page states: "LG Innotek is a vertically integrated LED solution provider who offers core technologies from Epi-wafer, chip, LED components, module, and engine."

LG Innotek's strategy is a soup-to-nuts approach, the opposite of Bridgelux's. LG Innotek's product offering runs the gamut from LED components, LED modules and engines, LED drivers, and wireless energy control systems, to UV LEDs.

Luminus Devices

The Technology page states: "Luminus LED technology is ideal for projection display and illumination applications that require high brightness, high efficacy, and the efficient harnessing of light from a small point source."

I love it! The statement is a clear and concise summary of the business strategy and product differentiation. I know exactly when to consider Luminus Devices for my applications.

Samsung

Samsung sees itself as the company that: "Deliver[s] superior light quality with high-performance, low forward voltage (Vf) LEDs." It differentiates its products as a range of high- and mid-power white LED components that feature:

• Superior performance


• Compliance with American National Standards Institute standards


• MacAdam color bin and high luminous efficacy


• Improved reliability under harsh conditions


• Sustainability and a longer lifespan

Seoul Semiconductor

Seoul manufactures a range of LED products, although I couldn't find any direct statements on this website expressing its market differentiation strategy. My impression from the website is that a key strategy is the Acrich, which operates directly from 115 VAC 60 Hz power and therefore does not require a separate power supply to convert the line potential to a form usable by a low-voltage LED. These products target cost-sensitive applications with limited or no space to house a power supply.

Sharp

Sharp states that its products contain numerous technological advantages over the competition. The tab on its homepage, "Understanding LED Technology," describes features and benefits such as a ceramic substrate (as opposed to metal) that results in longer life, a phosphor mix to provide better CRI and better red content (see the figure), and a 3-step ellipse process that eliminates binning to improve color consistency.

Toyoda Gosei

On the Toyoda Gosei website, it's hard to pick out how the company sees itself or how it differentiates its products. In reading through the site, my interpretation is that it sees itself as leveraging research and technologies that are particularly well suited to the demanding automotive industry and, by extension, all industries that are equally demanding.