News For LED

Monday, February 24, 2014

University of Tennessee Arena Gets LED Upgrade

With the installation of LED fixtures, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville's, Thompson-Boling Arena is one of the first in the world to feature lights that are smaller, brighter and up to 85 percent more efficient than conventional arena metal halide lights.

The technology—developed and manufactured by Oak Ridge-based LED North America at the Tech 20/20 incubator facility in Oak Ridge, incorporating an Oak Ridge National Laboratory technology, and installed by Knoxville-based Bandit Lites—is being "premiered" at the state's research university inside the largest on-campus single-sport arena in the country.

SuperSport installation at UT's Thompson-Boling Arena. (Photo Courtesy of LED North America)

The LED fixtures use an ORNL-developed lightweight graphite foam that cools the LED, making them more efficient and reliable. This enables 90 400-watt LED fixtures to bathe the arena's floor with 200 foot-candles per square foot, compared to the 130 foot-candles produced by the arena's existing 110 1,100-watt fixtures.

LED North America's SuperSport luminaires have the potential to revolutionize sports and entertainment venues worldwide. UT officials are looking forward to participating in this effort and to seeing the results—and the savings.

"We are happy to be a partner in this venture and to work with the lab and local business on an energy initiative that could impact facilities across the world," said Jeff Maples, Senior Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration.

The installation of the lights, guaranteed to meet the NCAA, NBA and NHL foot-candle requirement, was completed last week.

"The success of these lights will be a game changer," said Andrew Wilhelm, president of LED North America. "UT is positioned to start a trend that could spread to arenas everywhere in a few years."

UT was a test site for the lights at no cost to the university. The lights, which can be dimmed and brought to full intensity in seconds, were installed on a small scale for testing during UT's summer sports camps. The light quality was measurably superior and will also allow Thompson-Boling Arena to meet the new high-definition television broadcast standard.

Bandit Lites is installing the lights, which will be mounted under the catwalk without affecting the current game lights, allowing for operational and performance testing during the basketball season.

While LEDs produce a tremendous amount of light despite their compact size, they generate considerable heat and are prone to failure if not adequately cooled. ORNL's graphite foam, which is more conductive than aluminum and one-fifth the weight, provides a solution by almost instantaneously pulling heat from the lights.

The graphite foam technology has allowed LED North America to eliminate the traditional heavy aluminum heat sink and produce the SuperSport luminaire, which weighs 22 pounds. By comparison, other arena fixtures weigh more than 100 pounds.

In addition to its light weight and greater efficiency, the SuperSport luminaire has a built-in microprocessor to control individual lights. This allows arena lighting operators to simply click an icon on a tablet to instantly switch to various presets to accommodate basketball, volleyball, concerts and other activities.

LED North America lights similar to the SuperSport are already being used at a facility that handles logistics for Nissan as well as at other indoor commercial warehouse buildings.

LED North America, founded in 2008, is located in the Tech 20/20 building, an incubator facility for ORNL with an objective to create and accelerate the development of high-growth potential companies and jobs by capitalizing on the region's unique technology resources. To learn more about LED North America, visit http://www.led-na.com. UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the Department of Energy's Office of Science.

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How to choose LED lights

LED lights are now capable of serving a wider range of applications, so doing your homework will help you choose the appropriate fixture. Whether you are using light emitting diode (LED) fixtures in OEM applications or simply to light your work space, the technology offers the latest in energy efficiency lighting options. However, with LED lights now suitable for a wide variety of applications, product quality can vary, and sourcing those that live up to expectations can be tricky – not to mention costly.

Marvell's 88EM8187 LED Controller Delivers Deep Dimming Performance

Marvell today the Marvell® 88EM8187 LED Controller Integrated Circuit (IC) Series, phase-cut, deep-dimming, single-stage AC/DC constant current controller for dimmable LED lamps and fixtures. This second generation LED driver IC builds on the industry-leading, 88EM8183 by using unique mixed-signal architecture with on-chip advanced digital algorithms. The 88EM8187 product line delivers unparalleled performance with full compatibility to more than 250 dimmers worldwide, shimmer-less and flicker-free dimming as low as 1 percent, longer bulb lifetime due to superior thermal management and power efficiency of 90 percent, while significantly reducing electronic component count and total solution cost. A key component of verifying this unparalleled dimming performance was the collaborative testing of pre-release versions of the IC with lighting control leader Lutron Electronics Co., Inc. The 88EM8187 is also part of Marvell's Internet of Things (IoT) Smart Home lighting portfolio, offering a total solution for connected smart lighting applications. Marvell is currently sampling 88EM8187 to major LED lighting OEMs and ODMs around the world. Customers are expected to ship products based on the 88EM8187 this year.

"The 88EM8187 raises the performance bar for the entire industry as consumers can now get the true incandescent experience that includes excellent dimming performance along with the energy savings provided by LEDs," said Philip Poulidis, Vice-President and GM of Internet of Things Business Unit. "Even the best of the available competing IC solutions require bulb manufacturers to make several trade-offs when developing a product. For example, manufacturers may need to limit the number of wall-box dimmers with which their LED bulbs are compatible, to sacrifice dimming level performance and avoid flicker or shimmer, as well as the need to choose higher reliability or efficiency at the expense of higher component cost. However, the 88EM8187 and its unique digital architecture deliver the best performance in the industry at the lowest system cost by excelling in compatibility, reliability, efficiency, deep-dimming level, and low component count without forcing OEMs to compromise their hardware designs."

"Working with Marvell to enable higher-performing, cost effective, dimmable LED driver solutions will help address the ongoing compatibility issue between LEDs and dimmers and provide an excellent customer experience," said Mark Jenner, Lutron's Director of New Business Alliances. "For example, pairing Marvell's new 88EM8187 design with any of our C•L dimmers provides a superior dimming experience from one lamp to the dimmer's full rated load without shimmer, flicker, or interaction with other dimmers. These types of reliable solutions provide consumers with the confidence to use more energy-efficient LED bulbs throughout their homes."

Marvell and Lutron Electronics
Marvell confirmed dimming compatibility with Lutron Electronics between a pre-release version of an 88EM8187 reference design and a variety of Lutron controls rated for LED loads. As a service to the lighting industry, the Lutron LED Center of Excellence continually tests LED lamps for compatibility with the Lutron C•L dimmer collection. With its industry leading C•L technology, the dimmer collection was designed specifically for LED lamps, but is also UL-listed for incandescent, halogen and CFL loads.

Key benefits of the Marvell 88EM8187 driver IC product line include:

Premium dimming performance
- 100 percent worldwide dimmer compatibility including leading-edge, trailing-edge and special (Smart) dimmers
- Flicker-free, shimmer-less deep dimming as low as 1 percent

Reduced system BOM cost with fewer and smaller components in EMI/damping/dimmer level control circuit

Up to 25 percent cost savings over competing single-stage driver solutions

Integrated thermal fold back feature and optimized dimmer latch-up and hold-up current management

Removes heat from power components or "hot spots" dramatically improving reliability

Removes potting requirement for further cost reduction

Highest driver electrical performance

Up to 90 percent driver efficiency

Industry-best line regulation over wide AC voltage range (< 2 percent)

> 0.95 Power Factor

Two package options:

SOIC-8: phase-cut only, pin-to-pin compatible with first generation 88EM8183 chip

SOIC-14: phase-cut only, enables single-layer PCB

Ericsson and Philips Unite to Provide Mobile Broadband Connectivity through Smart Street Lighting

City populations grow by 7,500 people per hour and mobile data traffic is expected to grow ten times by 2019, increasing the need for sustainable lighting and enhanced mobile capacity and coverage in cities

- New connected street lighting model solves two issues simultaneously: offering city officials an innovative way to afford next generation energy efficient LED lighting to meet sustainability goals, and enabling network operators to offer improved city-wide mobile broadband and app coverage

- Called "Zero Site" by Ericsson, connected lighting solution integrates telecom equipment into light poles enabling telecom operators to improve mobile network performance while reducing urban clutter

- Citizens will benefit from improved mobile network coverage for data communications and enhanced safety with brighter, well lit streets

Ericsson and Royal Philips have jointly launched an innovative new connected LED street lighting model. The partnership solves two major issues that cities are facing today: providing citizens with improved network performance in dense urban areas as well as high quality, public lighting that is energy efficient.

Philips and Ericsson combine the benefits of mobile connectivity and LED lighting in a ''lighting-as-a-service'' model for cities. It allows city authorities to offer space within their connected lighting poles to network service providers for mobile broadband infrastructure.

Philips will now offer cities LED street lighting that can include mobile telecoms equipment from Ericsson. Mobile operators working with Ericsson for mobile broadband infrastructure will be able to rent space in the poles. In this way, mobile network operators will be able to improve data coverage and capacity for citizens, resulting in enhanced mobile broadband services. The model also accelerates the payback time for city infrastructure, by making the up-front costs of installing and managing these systems more affordable, so reducing the strain on city budgets.

Philips LED street lighting can generate energy savings of 50 to 70 percent, with savings reaching 80 percent when coupled with smart controls - as validated by a study conducted by The Climate Group in 12 of the world's largest cities. The study also showed that citizens prefer the white light of LED lighting, citing a greater sense of safety and improved visibility compared to the orange glow of traditional high pressure sodium systems.

Ericsson President and CEO Hans Vestberg says: "This is a tremendous solution using ICT and partnerships to address the megatrend of urbanization. City populations are increasing at the rate of 7,500 people per hour, but our world is not geographically expanding. Meanwhile, our ConsumerLab research shows that internet connectivity is one of the top five factors for satisfaction in city life. This Zero Site solution is the kind of innovation that offers a way for people to succeed in the Networked Society."

Frans van Houten, President and CEO of Philips, says: "This new connected LED street lighting model is another example of us bringing the Internet of Things to life and demonstrates the capabilities of light beyond illumination. We are offering lighting as a service that scales with a city's needs and enables city officials to offer their citizens a more connected, energy efficient and safer urban environment, while preserving existing budgets and resources to improve the livability of their city."

To meet the demand for coverage and capacity, mobile operators need to improve, densify and add many more radio cell sites in dense areas. The new connected street light pole, designed to house Ericsson's cutting edge suite of small cell products, offers network operators new possibilities to find the right site location. It will also help to scale the deployment of mobile broadband technology beyond traditional sites - a key enabler for evolving heterogeneous networks.

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Samsung Introduces Several Leading-edge LED Components for Advanced Mobile Devices

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a world leader in advanced component solutions, introduced a range of leading-edge LED component solutions for use in advanced mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Samsung’s new LEDs for mobile devices include two reflector-integrated flash LED packages -- the 3432 1.8t (FH341A) and 3432 1.4t (FH341B), plus a flip-chip flash LED 2016 (FH201A), as well as two side-view LEDs -- the 3810 0.6t (MS062F) and 3810 0.8t (MS082F). The new LED products will be showcased at the Mobile World Congress to be held at Fira Gran Via, Barcelona, Spain, February 24-27 (Hall 2, Booth 2G40).

Telling the Truth About Incandescent Replacement Bulbs

Lights of America has just been fined $21 million for lying. Serves them right. I only wish more of the liars were being slapped this way.

As we reported last fall, in 2010 the Federal Trade Commission brought an action against Lights of America, and against Usman Vakil and Farooq Vakil, for "deceptive business practices related to their marketing and sales of light bulbs that use light-emitting diodes." (Here is the FTC case file.) The specific complaints were that they made false claims about their bulbs being replacements for specific incandescent bulbs, and that they made false claims about the lifetime of their bulbs. The FTC didn't mince words either: They specifically refer to Lights of America as having reaped "ill-gotten gains."

That's not enough? The court found that "(1) it is reasonably likely that Defendants will commit the kinds of deceptive practices at issue in this case in the future; (2) Defendants acted with sufficient deliberateness; (3) Defendants have had prior experience with false claims; and (4) Defendants are in a position to repeat their deceptive acts with other lighting products they sell." In short, they've been lying in the past, and it's likely that they're going to be lying again in the future.

Now this all comes as no surprise, at least to those of us who actually measure performance of LED light bulbs. Some years back, Carol and I did a survey of all the then-available LED bulbs. Almost all of them over-stated their light output compared with our NIST-referenced light measurement system. Presumably the situation is a lot better now, but I still see labels reading "replacement for a 60W bulb" on bulbs that don't seem to meet that description at all.

Terminology

So does "replacement for" mean only "produces the same number of lumens"? Is there no implication that the color rendition or angular distribution of light is the same as an incandescent? (By the way, I have seen incandescents playing fast and loose. Here is a GE incandescent bulb claiming to be a replacement for a 60W bulb, but the fine print notes that although it consumes only 43W, it has "nearly the same brightness."

My opinion is that if a replacement bulb is going to say "60W replacement," then it ought not only to generate the same 830 lumens, but it should also have the same color rendition (note that I didn't just say CRI) and the same light distribution as an incandescent -- and it ought to dim the same way, too.

I can hear the objections: "Oh, that's too hard! We don't need to be that fancy to be a replacement! No bulb would be able to be called a replacement." That's right. Almost none of the bulbs now on the market ought to be claiming they're replacements for incandescents.

So how come the FTC doesn't go after all those other liars? Part of it, of course, is that they have limited resources, so they go after the big guys. Lights of America has $116 million in revenue, so a $21 million fine definitely hurts. They sell at both Walmart and Home Depot -- I hope both of them stop carrying Lights of America products.

Plan to get big? Better make sure your facts are right. Because lying about it can really hurt.

Related posts:

FTC Wins Judgment Against Lights of America

Access Fixtures LED Bollards Uses LG Modules to Maximize Light Output

Access Fixtures reports that LG LED bollard lights have superior efficacy and significant energy savings compared to metal halide equivalents. Using only 12 watts, the LED bollard lights use less than 20% of the energy required for 50w metal halide bollard lights. While the LED bollard lights drastically reduce energy use, they also emit an average of eight times more light than the MH equivalents. The findings are from Access Fixtures newly published data based on photometric analysis. Bollard lights are ideal for outdoor applications to safely illuminate paths, walkways and landscaping.

"LED technology is constantly advancing, which causes LED products to drastically outperform other light sources," said Access Fixtures CEO, Steven Rothschild. He continued, "The LG LED Bollard lights maximize light output and cut energy costs, while also having the potential to last five times as long."

LED bollard lights have superior efficacy, emitting an average of 55.6 lumens per watt. The metal halide equivalents emit an average of only 6.9 lumens per watt. Equipped with 12w LG LED light modules, the bollards also reduce energy use by more than 80%. The bollards have a specialized aluminum cone reflector designed for use with the LG LED Module. The LG LED modules are rated for 50,000 hours of use, nearly eliminating maintenance. With increased light output, long-life and reduced energy use, the LED bollard lights safely illuminate desired areas while saving energy and maintenance costs. Contact Access Fixtures to learn more about LED bollard lights for your lighting project.