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JULY/AUGUST 2014

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LEDsmagazine.com

Exhibition
LightFair show
report P. 30

Harsh
environments
Rugged and
maintenance-
free SSL P. 41
TECHNOLOGY AND APPLICATIONS OF LIGHT EMITTING DIODES
Retrofit tubes
Plug-and-play
Dynamic LED T8s P. 47

RGB faade
Lima citizens control
multi-layer SSL
animation P.9

SSL Solutions Faster than the Speed of Light

GET TO MARKET

Custom LED lighting solutions


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right here in the U.S.A.

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technologies like no one else. From your initial vision, we can in-house testing lab speed development. Our highly automated
guide your project through concept validation. PCB layout, manufacturing facility houses a class 10,000 cleanroom and
electrical, mechanical, thermal and optical design stages. sophisticated chip-on-board assembly equipment.
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1225 Bowes Rd. Elgin IL 60123 T 630-784-7500 F 630-871-8506 www.norluxcorp.com info@norluxcorp.com


2014
ISSUE 71

2014
July/August Cover Story
Solid-state lighting combines with touch
controls to enable an interactive 3D
faade. (See p. 9; courtesy of Claudia
Paz Lighting Studio)

features
columns/departments

27 LOCATION SERVICES
Major LED lighting vendors demo retail location
5 COMMENTARY Maury Wright
SSL light quality tops legacy
services Maury Wright sources, other obstacles remain

30 LIGHTFAIR 2014
LEDs get more control options, innovation
9 NEWS + ANALYSIS
Multilayer LED design
advances in SSL designs Margery Conner blankets Peru bank
Lumileds delivers broader spectrum

41
in CrispWhite COB LED
INDUSTRIAL LIGHTING
Business: Epistar and Forepi,
When the going gets tough, LEDs lighten up
Philips and Lumileds
Caroline Hayes
Networks & controls: GE Lighting, Cooper
Lighting, Digital Lumens, Acuity Brands
47 LED TUBES
How do plug-and-play T8s stack up against
Packaged LEDs: Cree, Luminus
Devices, Samsung
ballast-bypass LED lamps? Laura Peters Seoul Semiconductor launches
Acrich3 AC-LED driver
53 PATTERNED WAFERS
Patterned substrates enhance LED light extraction
Crystal IS announces UV-C LEDs
for test and measurement
Donggeun Ko, Jacob Yoon, and JangHo Seo, Rubicon
Technology 21 FUNDING + PROGRAMS
LRC examines LED roadway lighting

59 DEVELOPER FORUM
LEDs and sensing technology enable new ranging
for National Academies report
EPA details LED-centric changes
coming to Energy Star Lamps V1.1
applications Michael Poulin, LeddarTech
DOE again suspends L Prize competition
for LED-based PAR38 lamps
64 LAST WORD
SSL technologies unlock potential for services
DOE publishes Caliper
report on indoor SSL
and systems Jes Munk Hansen, Osram Sylvania
DOE funds more outdoor SSL projects

LEDsmagazine.com JULY/AUGUST 2014 3


SMALL
FOOTPRINT
INTENSE
POWER
Introducing the all-new
MJT 2525 high-voltage LED
The Acrich MJT 2525 LED is a compact high-
voltage mid-power package with a typical
forward voltage of 22V. At 3000K and a CRI
of 80 it achieves a brightness of 95 lumens

operating current of 40mA at 25C. This new


best in class LED package boasts a lumen
density of 15 lm/mm2, offering a lumen
density 5x that of other mid-power packages.

Visit us at THE LED SHOW #431 www.seoulsemicon.com


commentary

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT Christine Shaw


& PUBLISHING DIRECTOR cshaw@pennwell.com

SSL light quality tops


EDITOR Maury Wright
mauryw@pennwell.com
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Carrie Meadows

legacy sources, other


carriem@pennwell.com
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Caroline Hayes
caroline.hayes@ruivamedia.com

obstacles remain
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Ken Marrin
kmarrin@cfl.rr.com
MARKETING MANAGER Kimberly Ayer

E
ART DIRECTORKelli Mylchreest
PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Mari Rodriguez
SENIOR ILLUSTRATORChristopher Hipp
ven two years ago at the LightFair example, has a new CrispWhite LED that can AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT Debbie Bouley

International (LFI) exhibition, doubts make both white material treated with opti-
remained as to whether LED-based lighting cal brightening agents and colored objects
could match some legacy sources in terms pop accurately based on the human visual EDITORIAL OFFICES PennWell Corporation,
of color quality and aesthetics. It was clear system (p. 9). Luminus Devices showed a LEDs Magazine
98 Spit Brook Road, LL-1
that LEDs would become dominant due to similar technology that operates off the Nashua, NH 03062-5737
energy efficiency. But many thought that black-body curve in a manner that research Tel: +1 603 891-0123
Fax: +1 603 891-0574
legacy incandescent, halogen, and ceramic- says people prefer. www.ledsmagazine.com
metal-halide sources would keep a foothold I believe at this point that the features SALES OFFICES
in hospitality and retail. At LFI this year, it of SSL in terms of light quality and perfor- SALES MANAGER Kelly Barker
(US EAST COAST) kellybarker@Pennwell.com
was abundantly clear that spectral tuning mance lumen output, color quality, white Tel. +1 603 891 9186
will deliver solid-state lighting (SSL) that is point, efficacy are only a matter of the SALES MANAGER Allison OConnor
(US WEST COAST) allison@jagmediasales.com
superior to any legacy source in color ren- imagination of engineers working for LED Tel. +1 480 991 9109
dering and even white appearance. Still, and lighting manufacturers. And lighting SALES MANAGER Jim Ajayi
(UK/REST OF EUROPE) jima@pennwell.com
issues such as dimming consistency remain specifiers will adopt these products assum- Tel. +44(0) 1992 656657
in many applications. ing they deliver in areas such as dimming. SALES MANAGER Johann Bylek
(GERMANY/ johannb@pennwell.com
LFI witnessed a clear trend toward better So whats the issue with dimming? On the
AUSTRIA/SWITZERLAND) Tel. +49 89 90480 143
quality in luminaires and even residentially- surface its tough to discern. Some LED-based SALES MANAGER Masaki Mori
targeted lamps. You can measure quality in products work better or worse with triac or (JAPAN) mori-masaki@ex-press.jp
Tel: +81 3 3219 3641
many ways, but Id argue that you could find electronic phase-cut dimmers. But commer- SALES MANAGER Mark Mak
a qualifying product on the show floor at LFI cial and high-end residential applications (CHINA & HONG KONG) markm@actintl.com.hk
Tel: +852 2838 6298
no matter your definition. For example, LED will use digital dimming controls and weve
SALES MANAGER Monica Liu
lamps from companies such as Osram Sylva- all heard that LEDs are inherently dimmable. (TAIWAN) monica@arco.com.tw
Tel: +886 2 2396 5128 ext: 270
nia and Philips Lighting offer an incandes- The devil is in the details. There remains
SALES MANAGER Young Baek
cent-like filament look that would serve well little consistency as to what a dimming scale (KOREA) ymedia@chol.com
in any fixture that exposes the lamps. would look like in terms of a scale of 0 to 100 Tel: +82 2 2273 4818
SALES MANAGER Dan Aronovic
For many others, quality will be tied to and what light output levels correspond on (ISRAEL) aronovic@actcom.co.il
color rendering or how SSL products render the scale. Many products dim smoothly but Tel: +39 972 9899 5813

whites. We have seen progress in CRI with have little granularity at the low end of the CORPORATE OFFICERS
CHAIRMAN Frank T. Lauinger
mainstream products offering 90 CRI or bet- range thats important in hospitality settings. PRESIDENT AND CEO Robert F. Biolchini
ter, including the Cree LED tubes announced The situation is even worse when you CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Mark C. Wilmoth

just before LFI. If you need the performance, consider the many dim-to-warm products TECHNOLOGY GROUP
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT Christine A. Shaw
you can find lamps and luminaires with CRI on the market. There is no consistency in & PUBLISHING DIRECTOR
near 100 and an R9 value for saturated reds terms of the CCTs presented along the dim- SUBSCRIPTIONS: For subscription inquiries:
above 90. LED makers are supporting such ming curve or the light levels at different set- Tel: +1 847 763-9540;
Fax: +1 847 763-9607;
performance these days with good efficacy tings. Today, specifiers have to use identical e-mail: LED@halldata.com;
ledsmagazine.com/subscribe
and without resorting to tricks such as mix- products from one manufacturer for con-
We make portions of our subscriber list available to carefully screened
ing red and off-white LEDs. sistent aesthetics. We need to take the next companies that offer products and services that may be important for
your work. If you do not want to receive those offers and/or information
But LEDs offer flexibility beyond legacy step in SSL performance and consistency. via direct mail, please let us know by contacting us at List Services
sources by delivering a spectral power dis- LEDs, 98 Spit Brook Road LL-1, Nashua, NH 03062.

tribution optimized for a specific applica- Copyright 2014 PennWell Corp (ISSN 2156-633X). All rights
reserved. Contents of this publication may not be reproduced in any
tion rather than having manufacturers sim- Maury Wright, EDITOR form without prior written consent of Publishers.

ply chase a CRI of 100. Philips Lumileds, for mauryw@pennwell.com

LEDsmagazine.com JULY/AUGUST 2014 5


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Webcasts The Australian Smart Lighting Summit


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MORE: www.ledsmagazine.com/events

ADVERTISERS index
American Bright Optoelectronics .................23 LED Consultancy BV ....................................26 Shanxi Guangyu LED Lighting Co. Ltd. ........61
Autec Power Systems..................................49 Ledlink Optics Inc. ......................................25 Shenzhen Ledfriend
Optoelectronics Co. Ltd. ............................2
Citizen Electronics Ltd. ...............................11 Lumens Co. Ltd. ....................................32-33
Shenzhen OKT Lighting Co. Ltd. ..................50
Cooledge Lighting .......................................19 Matrix Lighting Limited, Hong Kong ...........CV2
Shenzhen Refond
Cree Inc. ..................................................CV4 MBN GmbH.................................................16
Optoelectronics Co. Ltd. ..........................45
E-Lite Semiconductor Inc. ...........................52 Nichifu America Inc. ...................................60
Signcomplex Limited ...................................24
ebm-papst Inc. .............................................7 Orb Optronix................................................51
Strategies in Light ......................................62
Ellsworth Adhesives ....................................44 OSRAM Opto Semiconductors GmbH ..........13
Strategies in Light Europe .........................CV3
Guangzhou Hongli Otsuka Electronics Co. Ltd. ........................14
Strategies in Light Japan .............................46
Opto-Electronic Co. Ltd. ...........................12
Plessey Semiconductors Ltd. .....................40
The LED Show....................................... 54-55
Heatron ......................................................18
Proto Labs Inc. ...........................................35
Thomas Research Products ..........................1
Henkel ........................................................15
Radiant Zemax LLC .....................................29
Trade Sources Inc. .....................................58
Indium Corporation .....................................17
Sensata Technologies .................................63
Underwriters Laboratories .............................8
Inventronics (Hangzhou) Inc. .......................39
Seoul Semiconductor Co. Ltd. ......................4
Zhejiang Baikang Technological Co. Ltd. .....20

6 JULY/AUGUST 2014 LEDsmagazine.com


The spotlight shines on efciency.

In order to reach the desired lumen values in a small form factor, active cooling
may be required to effectively dissipate the heat produced by the LED components.
Active cooling technology offers thermal capabilities with inaudible noise thats
superior to passive heat sinks and raises performance while reducing the size of
the lighting xture. With an industry-leading, German-engineered compact fan and
an American-designed assembly, ebm-papst can provide the most reliable solution
for your LED cooling problems. To nd out more about custom Active Cooling
Solutions, visit info.ebmpapst.us/ActiveCooling. The engineers choice
BRINGING NEW
OPPORTUNITIES
TO LIGHT
Rapidly evolving thinking about energy eciency and public safety along
with exciting technological advances is driving the evolution of the lighting
industry, providing greater opportunities and growing challenges.

Hear about how the UL of today is


addressing the needs of the lighting industry
in our latest video, scan the code or visit
UL.com/weknowlighting.
UL and the UL logo are trademarks of UL LLC 2014
+
news views
3D FAADE

Multilayer LED design


blankets Peru bank
A team led by Claudia Paz Lighting Studio has created a new
LED-based faade lighting project on a Banco de Crdito
del Peru (BCP) building in Lima, Peru. The 3D solid-state
lighting (SSL) implementation is combined with an inter-
active control pedestal at ground level that allows the pub-
lic to control the lighting, along with allowing the bank to
present dramatic preprogrammed animations. The project,
called BCP Affinity, is intended to convey the banks pledge
of open and transparent business practices.
Unlike the conservative and staid architecture often
adopted by banks, BCP sought to create an iconic artwork Still, the 3D BCP faade implementation is different from
installation for the city. At the same time, the bank wanted other faade projects that we have covered such as the Miami
to connect the project to the citizens and allow the citizens Tower (http://bit.ly/1onVQ0J). The layered approach provides
to connect with their own selves through the project. The depth between a bold outer set of LED fixtures and a much
1.71.5-m control console uses LEDs and multi-touch sen- more granular set of fixtures nearer the buildings surface.
sors to respond to hands touching the panel (as shown in In the six-layer design, the outer layer consists of Philips
the nearby photo) or even body movements. The input is in Color Kinetics ArchiPoint RGB (red, green, and blue), color-
turn represented in dynamic tunable LED lighting on the tunable fixtures that are mounted on the outer ends of 532
high-rise faade. poles that extended perpendicular to the build- page 10

COB LEDs

Lumileds delivers broader spectrum


in CrispWhite COB LED
Philips Lumileds has formally announced (http://bit.ly/1z7Vp0d). Indeed, Philips sources (http://bit.ly/VFt9D2). Soraa has
the CrispWhite family of chip-on-board and Amerlux demonstrated lighting prod- touted the violet emitter used in its LEDs
(COB) LEDs after displaying products that ucts that integrated the LEDs at LFI. But as capable of exciting the brightening ele-
use the source at two recent trade fairs. the story behind the CrispWhite LEDs is a ments and delivering the perfect white
The LED platform is designed specifically bit more complex than the companys LFI appearance of treated paper and fabrics.
to replace ceramic-metal-halide (CMH) press release would indicate. To excite OBA elements, Lumileds is
lamps in retail SSL applications. Lumileds mixing its standard blue-pump LED chips
says the LED closely mimics the spectral Brightening agents with what it calls some deep-blue chips in
power distribution of a CMH lamp and Lumileds designed the COB LED to ren- the CrispWhite COB products. If you look at
delivers the combination of vivid saturated der whites crisply, especially in the pres- the spectral power distribution of a typical
color rendering and daylight-like whites. ence of optical or fluorescent brightening LED, you will see an energy peak in the blue
Philips has alluded to the capabil- agents (OBAs) that are regularly applied to region that is attributable to the blue pump
ities of the CrispWhite LED at both white paper and fabrics. A recent feature with the broader energy distribution at
Light+Building and LightFair Interna- article written by Soraa covered the color longer green, yellow, and red wavelengths
tional (LFI), saying that the COB deliv- science behind such agents that make attributable to phosphor. The CrispWhite
ered a mix of 3000K and 4000K CCT light whites look crisp in daylight and under LEDs have a second blue peak in the 410-
for optimal color and white performance certain artificial lighting including CMH nm region to deliver the short-wavelength

LEDsmagazine.com JULY/AUGUST 2014 9


news+views
3D faade from page 9 example, a Sand program uses shadows and The Affinity project will clearly become
ing. Those fixtures are sufficiently bright to the form of shifting sand dunes accompa- a point of pride for Lima, situated at a busy
be viewable in daylight. The inner five layers nied by the sound of wind. Some of the pro- intersection and visible across the skyline.
consist of Philips iColor Flex MX LED strips. grams also allow the public to manipulate Lead designer Claudia Paz discussed the
The outer lighting layer is purposely sparse the display. For example, a Rain presenta- motivation behind the project. My motiva-
and used for bold dramatic portions of an ani- tion allows a person at the control panel to tion is the people, make them explore new
mation. The inner layers provide what the part the show in an umbrella-like fashion. experiences, feel emotions; if I can take a
designers called sculptural effects. In total, There is also a Fireworks presentation sigh from them I will be happy, said Paz. I
there are 26,182 RGB addressable fixtures with the combination of bold and dynamic think this installation opens your mind to
deployed in the Affinity project. The implemen- colors and the accompanying pyrotechnic creativity. I do this for the new generations,
tation covers an area measuring 50191.2m. sounds. Meanwhile, a Light Orchestra com- where is my little girl of 5 years now these
The preprogrammed animations cre- bines effects representing instruments such new generations have to grow up seeing
ated for the BCP building are tied to natu- as violins and cellos and allows the public to wonderful things, to always push themselves
ral phenomena combined with fantasy. For create their own symphony. to explore new ways of creativity.

COB LEDS from page 9 CRI and R9


light that makes OBA whites look best. Lumileds also compared the
Lumileds claims its approach is supe- CrispWhite LED with other high-CRI
rior to the violet emitter used by Soraa LEDs and light sources. The new LED
for a couple of reasons. Eric Senders, delivers a CRI of 91 but only an R9 value
global marketing director at Lumileds, for saturated reds of 55. The relatively-
said the violet emitter approach yields low R9 value may be in part the rea-
an efficacy penalty relative to the mix of son that the CrispWhite LEDs come in
standard- and deep-blue emitters used only 12% lower than Lumileds stan-
in CrispWhite. Moreover, he said there dard high-CRI COBs in efficacy. But
are photobiological safety issues with Senders said the lower R9 value trans-
violet wavelengths that dont exist in lates to the expected and desired per-
the deep-blue region. formance in the retail application.
The efficacy advantage is clear in Senders said sources with a high
the specifications. The CrispWhite R9 value in the 90 range can result in
LEDs deliver 90 lm/W across a product white or light colors that have a slight
family that spans from 9- to 19-mm reddish to yellowish appearance. Typ-
light-emitting surfaces (LES). Soraa ical CMH lamps used in retail have an
doesnt regularly publish efficacy val- R9 value in the range of 39, and have
ues for its LEDs but in the aforemen- been the gold standard for the retail
tioned articled pegged it at 80 lm/W. industry, according to Senders.
Lumileds is also only offering the
White point target LEDs within a three-step MacAdam
Still, the CrispWhite platform differs ellipse in terms of color consis-
from other typical high-CRI LEDs and tency. Many COB makers offer two-
legacy sources in more ways that are step bins. But Senders said the LRC
also significant, according to Lumileds, in the hospitality applica- research proves that for white points below the black-body curve,
tion. The white point of the LEDs is targeted via the phosphor for- humans cant perceive a three-step difference whereas such a dif-
mulation below the black-body curve. That is a trick that Luminus ference is far more noticeable above the black-body curve.
Devices demonstrated at LFI (p. 17). The CrispWhite family is aligned precisely with Lumileds exist-
Senders points out that the white point of the CrispWhite LEDs ing COB LEDs in terms of LES, lumen output, and driver capabil-
both matches the legacy performance of CMH lamps (Philips refers ities. Lamp or luminaire manufacturers will be able to use the
to them as CDM or ceramic discharge metal halide) and also lines same design with either a standard COB or one of the CrispWhite
up with consumer preference documented by the Lighting Research models. At typical drive current the maximum lumen package is
Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. We covered that 3750 lm, but Senders said that you can overdrive the LEDs to reach
research in an article on the 2012 Strategies in Light conference in 6000 lm at only a slight efficacy penalty. He said that performance
which the LRC tested white point in a retail-like mock environment level will allow the CrispWhite family as launched to supplant
(http://bit.ly/1iXXlDu). CMH sources up to the 100W level.

10 JULY/AUGUST 2014 LEDsmagazine.com


news+views
BUSINESS globally (http://bit.ly/1lz5bhI). lion ($41 million) in cost during the second
The China Post reported that Sanan would half of this year preparing for the transi-
Epistar to acquire Formosa be the second largest shareholder in Epis- tion. Philips will consider multiple options
Epitaxy through stock swap tar after the merger (http://bit.ly/1qlbFae). including the potential of an initial public
Epistar and Formosa Epitaxy (Forepi), both But the terms of the agreement will pre- offering, according to the CEO. Pierre-Yves
LED chip manufacturers in Taiwan, have vent Sanan from disrupting operations in Lesaicherre, the current chief executive offi-
announced plans to merge through a stock the near term with the incumbent board of cer of Lumileds, will lead the new business.
share exchange with the acquisition set to directors set in place for two years. Some in the industry may compare the
close at the end of 2014. Forepi shareholders Epistar expects its market capitalization Philips move to ones made by Siemens in
have approved what is essentially an acqui- to exceed NTD 11 billion ($370 million). The separating its Osram business unit over the
sition by Epistar, with Epistar issuing 117 Epistar workforce will grow to near 7000 past few years. Osram Licht AG became an
million new shares to exchange for Forepi employees. Epistar said synergy and integra- independent company last summer when its
shares at a ratio of one Epistar share to 3.448 tion of the two organizations will require six shares began trading on the Frankfurt and
shares of Forepi. to twelve months. Munich Stock Exchanges.
The move comes as Epistar is reported to But the two actions are in reality quite dif-
be at capacity in its LED fabs and the addi- Philips plans spinout of Lumileds ferent. Siemens spun out its entire lighting
tional Forepi capacity will allow the com- and automotive lighting business. Philips will keep full ownership of
pany to remain as the largest manufac- Royal Philips has announced its intent to its general lighting business, including both
turer, measured by equivalent 2-in. wafers, create a standalone company based on the LED lamps and luminaires. Philips also has
of LED chips globally. Ironically, it had been Philips Lumileds LED components busi- significant business in the OEM area selling
speculated that China-based Sanan Opto- ness unit and the Philips automotive light- LED-based modules and light engines. At this
electronics would become the largest wafer ing business that is increasingly dominated time, its unknown where those products will
manufacturer this year, although the Forepi by LED sources. Philips said that it would fit within the two companies.
acquisition will likely keep Epistar in the top retain share ownership in the new ven- MORE: http://bit.ly/1vwEDTU
position. Sanan had become a large share- ture that is expected to be operational in
holder in Forepi back in 2012 (http://bit. the first half of 2015. The structure of the NETWORKS & CONTROLS
ly/1onXPCj) and will now assume share new organization is unknown for now, but
ownership in Epistar. Philips will look for outside investors to help GE Lighting unveils wireless Link
Both Epistar and Sanan are primar- fund research and development and in turn LED lamp family and starter kit
ily focused on manufacturing LED chips grow revenue. GE Lighting has announced the Link family of
and neither directly offers packaged LEDs. Philips said the sales of the combined LED-based lamps that integrate ZigBee wire-
Luminus Devices, a recent Sanan acqui- units were EUR 1.4 billion ($1.9 billion) in less connectivity and enable smartphone-
sition, does package Sanan chips for sale 2013. The company will incur EUR 30 mil- based control of lighting. The SSL products

12 JULY/AUGUST 2014 LEDsmagazine.com


www.osram-os.com

news+views
significantly undercut the market for ZigBee-based lamps, with the
A19 lamps selling at Home Depot for just under $15 in the US.
For now, the lamps will be available online from Home Depot
with products coming to in-store shelves this fall. The retailers
website is promising delivery of the lamps within a week including
the 60W-equivalenet 2700K A19 lamp, the 65W-equivalent 2700K
BR30 lamp, and
the 90W-equiva-
lent 3000K PAR38
lamp. The prod-
ucts are priced at
$14.97, $19.97, and
$24.97, respectively.
W hi le there
are some low-cost
Bluetooth-based
wireless LED lamps
on the market, GE
has entered the
space under the
level at which most ZigBee-based lamps are selling. And ZigBee
offers a more robust wireless environment with persistent connec-
tion to the networks of lighting products whereas Bluetooth is a
short-range one-to-one technology. For a ZigBee lamp price com-
parison, the white Hue Lux product announced by Philips Lighting
at the Light+Building trade fair is selling for $40.
GE will also enable lower-cost entry into the ZigBee lighting world
since a network hub is a requisite with ZigBee. A Link Starter Kit with
a ZigBee bridge and two Link A19 lamps is selling for $49.97 at Home
Depot. Note that the low-cost GE ZigBee bridge is designed specifi-
cally to work with only GE products, according to a spokesperson. But
the Link lamps will work with other ZigBee bridges on the market.
MORE: http://bit.ly/1qlmdWG

Coopers LED LumaWatt controls


based on IEEE 802.15.4 mesh
At LFI, lighting-industry stalwart Cooper Lighting announced the
LumaWatt wireless network and control platform for outdoor LED-
based lighting. Following LFI, we were able to learn more about
Coopers plans for LumaWatt that will be based on the IEEE 802.15.4
standard for wireless mesh networks along with proprietary upper-
layer protocols.
The LumaWatt platform is intended for roadway applications
along with outdoor area lighting and SSL for parking garages. The
system has the capability to both manage energy usage by control-
ling light levels and reduce maintenance costs by automatically
monitoring fixture performance and detecting failures.
Light is brilliant
Kenneth Siderius, Cooper marketing manager, said the system is
built on top of the IEEE 802.15.4 standard for mesh networks. That Solid State
802.15.4 standard defines the physical and media-access-control lay-
ers of a network the lowest two layers of the standard seven-layer Lighting Solutions
networking model.
IEEE 802.15.4 is the basis for the ZigBee mesh-based wireless
networking standard. ZigBee adds standardization for upper net-
work layers. But Cooper will use a proprietary set of layers on top
Light is OSRAM
LEDsmagazine.com
news+views
of 802.15.4, according to Siderius. Among light simultaneously. The result is a mix that
other features, the implementation will appears white with no phosphor required.
include a security capability based on 128- The Nano LED will use a traditional sub-
bit encryption. strate. But during the epitaxial stage of man-
Initially, Cooper will deliver the LumaWatt ufacturing, nano techniques will be applied
technology integrated in the McGraw-Edi- to different areas of the LED chip to allow the
son-branded Galleon and Navion luminaires growth of the distinct color areas. Many ques-
designed for area and roadway applica- tions remain to be answered for sure. But an
architecture that delivers white light with no
phosphor could lead to lower-cost LEDs and
probably new applications in tunable SSL. load. The primary target of the technology is
simple control installations within a room,
NETWORKS & CONTROLS although the platform can be scaled to sup-
port larger installations.
Acuity develops in-room While in its press announcement Acu-
wireless controls and ity didnt specify the source of the underly-
tions, and the Valet and TopTier luminaires enterprise lighting network ing technology used in the xCella platform,
designed for garage and canopy applica- Acuity Brands has announced the xCella Lighting Design & Control is identified on
tions. The nearby photo depicts a TopTier fix- wireless controls platform designed as a sim- the EnOcean Alliance website as using the
ture with a sensor evident in the center of the ple way of controlling LED and legacy light- wireless network scheme promulgated by
luminaire. ing at the room level, and the XPoint system that organization. Moreover, a number of
MORE: http://bit.ly/1qQx4Hy that provides a building-level mesh network vendors offer enabling technologies that
for larger installations. The xCella product can be used to develop wireless switches and
PACKAGED LEDs uses energy-harvesting technology enabling sensors that support the scheme.
wireless sensors and switches to function The XPoint mesh system, meanwhile, is
Samsung Nano LED without direct access to AC power. Both based on the proprietary wireless network
At LFI, Samsung had an animated presen- of the new offerings are being sold under originally developed by Adura Technologies.
tation of an architecture called Nano LED Acuitys Lighting Control & Design brand. Acuity acquired the assets of Adura back in
that may be a few years from commercial- The xCella platform includes sensors, early 2013 (http://bit.ly/1mJQLvp).
ization, but the technology could change the switches, and relay-based load controls Aduras value proposition from the
way we think about white LEDs. Presumably, that can be applied in SSL retrofit or new- startup stage was full integration of the con-
the technology will yield a monolithic LED building installations. Indeed, the technol- trol scheme into the light fixture. The mesh
chip that can output red, green, and blue ogy can control any lighting, HVAC, or other network can be used to commission or set

14 JULY/AUGUST 2014 LEDsmagazine.com


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news+views
programmatic routines in the fixture, but The module adds light and occupancy sens-
the fixture is then able to operate autono- ing for both autonomous and programmatic
mously based on local light or occupancy fixture control.
sensors, or predetermined sequences based The DLA-S module is an external imple-
on the clock or calendar. mentation of the technology meant for sur-
Indeed, Acuity refers to the XPoint sys- face mounting on a wall or ceiling. The mod-
tem as fixture-integrated wireless controls. ule can in turn control one or more nearby
Acuity is specifically targeting applications fixtures similarly to how the DLA-I module
including covered parking areas, high-bay operates. The DLA-R module also works sim-
spaces, corridors, and stairwells with the company expanded the functionality of the ilarly but is designed for recessed mounting
new platform. LightRules management software. in a wall or ceiling.
MORE: http://bit.ly/1jJFj30 Most of the Digital Lumens projects and The combination of the three modules
successes have been based on its own fix- means that lighting designers/specifiers can
Digital Lumens expands smart tures. Now the company has announced spe- add support for the Digital Lumens platform
LED platform and software cific DLA modular products for integration even with existing fixtures when installing
Digital Lumens has made a trio of announce- by other manufacturers. retrofit projects where the new fixtures are
ments expanding the scope of its intelligent The new DLA products can enable man- network enabled from Digital Lumens or
LED lighting platform and luminaire portfo- ufacturers to simply add network and dim- third parties that use the DLA-I modules.
lio. The company has now formally defined ming support to existing fixtures. Products And either third-party manufacturers or
the Digital Light Agent (DLA) family of include the DLA-I module meant to be inte- lighting specifiers can add the DLA-I to a
modular products that other manufactur- grated directly into a fixture. The module fixture in some cases.
ers can apply with their luminaires to add includes Digital Lumens wireless network Digital Lumens also expanded the way
support for the Digital Lumens network and support and can control the third-party fix- customers can implement and use its Light-
light-management platform. Moreover, the ture via techniques such as 010V control. Rules lighting management platform. Light-

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High Reliability
Rules has been primarily implemented on to target high-performance applications
computers housed at a customer facility, such as retail. The AccuWhite Xnova COB Solders and
while using a web-like user interface for LEDs deliver CRI of 95, and scores of 90 or
simplicity of network management. The above across the individual color samples TIMs for LED
new LightRules Insight platform expands that comprise the complete set of CRI color
the functionality using Internet cloud tech- samples including the R9 red value.
nology. Moving to the cloud and distributed Luminus also offers a version of the Xnova
control allows for management of multi- LEDs with performance targeted below the
ple facilities from a central location or even black-body curve on a color chart. The intent
remote management of a single facility. is somewhat akin to what Xicato has done in
MORE: http://bit.ly/1pJka0P its Vibrant family of modules that we cov-
ered in a recent feature article (http://bit.
PACKAGED LEDs ly/MS1tGR). The color targeting results in a
low CRI but more vivid rendering of satu-
Cree XM-L2 LEDs rated colors.
Leading into LFI, Cree had announced the Clear residue solder
X-Lamp XM-L2 family of EasyWhite LEDs DRIVERS paste
that can produce more than 1100 lm from
a 55-mm package. The LED combines four Seoul Semiconductor launches Low voiding ux-coated
emitters and is offered in versions with a for- Acrich3 AC-LED driver solder preforms
ward voltage of 6V or 12V. The company said Seoul Semiconductor used LFI as the plat-
High performance
the LEDs offer a 38% gain in performance rel- form to announce the next-generation
Acrich3 AC-LED driver IC that can enable thermal interface
lower-cost light engines that work directly materials >40 w/mK
from the AC mains.
The Acrich3 IC is a follow-on prod-
uct to the Acrich2 driver IC that was first
announced as the heart of an LED light
engine family of product back in 2011 and
Learn more:
later promoted as a standalone IC product
http://indium.us/F314
(http://bit.ly/1kegFaL). The IC is indeed a
good match for the high-voltage packaged
ative to first-generation XM-L devices. LEDs that Seoul refers to as Multi Junction
The EasyWhite brand implies that Cree Technology (MJT) LEDs because each LED
can mix the CCT of the individual chips used includes a number of series-connected emit-
in XM-L2 LEDs and ensure very tight color ters that result in the high input voltage that
consistency. Indeed, the LEDs are offered can also lead to more efficient driver stages.
within a two-step MacAdam ellipse bin. The Acrich2/3 driver ICs will also work with
Cree targets replacement of 50W halogen LEDs from other vendors.
sources with the LEDs for retail, museum, Acrich3 provides three primary improve-
and hospitality applications. ments relative to the prior-generation IC
and two are in the area of dimming. The IC
Luminus AccuWhite LEDs responds more smoothly to legacy triac or
The new direction of Luminus Devices was phase-controlled dimmers. Dave Neal, direc-
fully evident at LFI with mid-power and COB tor of applications engineering at Seoul,
LEDs on display that are based on chips from asserts that the Acrich3 also works much
parent company Sanan. New Luminus exec- better with 010V dimmers, especially at
utive vice president of sales and marketing the low end of the dimming range where
Jim Miller said the company is uniquely smooth low-light adjustment is key for light-
positioned to become a top-three supplier ing designers/specifiers.
of packaged LEDs into lighting as Sanan The better 010V support will lead to www.indium.com
moves toward becoming the largest maker adoption of Acrich3 in smart lighting appli- askus@indium.com
of LED chips in terms of volume. cations with network support, according to ASIA CHINA EUROPE USA
The Xnova COB offering is especially of Neal; he noted that the Acrich3 can be easily
near-term interest as the company has chosen combined with microcontrollers to add sup- 2014 Indium Corporation

LEDsmagazine.com JULY/AUGUST 2014 17


news+views
port for various network types. As we covered in our feature on some of
Since Acrich3 is intended to connect the talks at the Strategies in Light confer-
directly to the mains, it is also inherently ence back in February, there are many poten-
going to experience what can be a less than tial applications for UV LEDs with life-sci-
perfect input signal. Neal said that Acrich3 ence applications especially prevalent in the
could adapt to line-voltage variations as UV-C band (http://bit.ly/1kXzh1e). Unfortu-
great as 20% and still deliver power-level nately, the efficiency of UV LEDs is limited
regulation within 5%. by the amount of aluminum that is required ably the performance of the LEDs will jus-
MORE: http://bit.ly/1mkOBIi especially at the shorter UV-C wavelengths. tify the expense.
Crystal IS director of global product manage- Venugopalan said the company has real-
UV LEDS ment Hari Venugopalan said that UV-C LEDs ized a five-order-of-magnitude reduction in
grown on sapphire substrates can exhibit effi- defect density relative to UV-C LEDs built on
Crystal IS announces UV-C LEDs ciency below 1%. sapphire. The other drawback to UV-C LEDs
for test and measurement The Crystal IS approach centers on the has also been short lifetime. But Crystal IS
Crystal IS has announced the ultraviolet use of a native substrate. The strategy mir- says the native substrate has extended pro-
(UV) Optan UVC LED family that will span rors that taken by Soraa in the visible-light jected lifetime by a factor of five to ten rela-
peak wavelengths ranging from 250 to 280 LED sector with gallium-nitride-on-gal- tive to other UV-C LEDs.
nm in what is known as the UV-C spectral lium-nitride (GaN-on-GaN) LEDs. In the UV Crystal IS expects that the Optan LEDs
band. The company manufactures the LEDs case, Crystal IS will offer AlN-on-AlN LEDs; will find immediate usage in application
based on native aluminum nitride (AlN) sub- the homogenous material approach reduces such as high-performance liquid chroma-
strates, and the resulting decrease in defect defects between the substrate and epitaxial tography (HPLC) for chemical detection,
density will enable the LEDs to displace UV layers. The company manufactures the AlN spectrometers used across life sciences, and
sources such as deuterium and xenon flash substrates and those wafers are far more water quality monitors.
lamps in a variety of life science applications. expensive than sapphire wafers. Presum- MORE: http://bit.ly/1kXzh1e

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18 JULY/AUGUST 2014 LEDsmagazine.com


Sometimes its better to stray off the straight and narrow

Put light where you want it, not just where it fts

LED light sheet from Cooledge Lighting removes all of


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Vancouver, Canada I Munich, Germany I cooledgelighting.com
+ funding
programs
LRC examines LED roadway lighting
EPA details LED-centric
changes coming to
Energy Star Lamps V1.1
The US Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) is closing in on what has seemed to
be a marathon-like push to establish the
Energy Star Lamps V1.0 specification,
and has now announced some expected
changes coming in V1.1 that are particu-
larly relevant with regard to LED-based
for National Academies report replacement lamps. Specifically, the
agency will make some changes related
The Lighting Research Center (LRC) at application-oriented metric and a uniform to lamps that might pass for A19 products
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has datasheet-based methodology that speci- but that are targeted at decorative appli-
announced new research and publication fiers can use in evaluating luminaires for cations and also will add provisions for
of the National Academies Report called roadway projects. AC-mains-powered MR16 lamps.
Analysis of new highway lighting technol- The new report was authored by LRC sci- The Energy Star Lamps V1.1 specifi-
ogies for the US Transportation Research entists John Bullough, who served as prin- cation is on pace to take effect this Sep-
Board (TRB). The report states that LEDs cipal investigator, and Leora Radetsky. tember, after the EPA went through an
are ready for prime time while also find- Technologies such as LEDs are becoming arduous series of drafts while accept-
ing that some high-intensity discharge mainstream choices for roadway lighting, ing input from stakeholders on the
(HID) technologies including ceramic said Bullough. The findings in our report specification-development process. Last
metal halide (CMH) also perform well can help agencies make better decisions as August the agency finalized the specifi-
but lack the long life expectancy of solid- they face these choices. cation and a relatively quiet period has
state lighting (SSL). The authors offer an The TRB is one of the major page 22 ensued on the lamps front.
The changes being previewed for V1.1
are either targeted at making sure con-
sumers get the expected level of perfor-
mance for Energy Star rated products, or
at lamp types not currently covered in
the specification.
There are three primary changes.
First, the EPA plans to specifically
exclude G18.5 and G19 LED lamps from
the Energy Star program, whereas those
products can currently win an Energy
Star rating in the decorative category.
But consumers could easily mistake
those products for omnidirectional
A-lamps and expect the type of energy
efficiency and performance expected
of A19 lamps. Therefore, the program
will no longer include the specialty
products.
The EPA said, It remains EPAs intent
to provide consumers with efficient
replacement lamps without sacrifice in
performance and not award the Energy
Star label to products that emulate the
look of incandescent bulbs (e.g., A19,
A21) but fail to deliver the page 24

LEDsmagazine.com JULY/AUGUST 2014 21


funding programs +
DOE again suspends L Prize competition
for LED-based PAR38 lamps
The DOE has announced Output and effcacy of LED PAR38 lamps ment of 90 lm/W. Presumably,
the suspension of the Bright Output compared to L Prize requirements the directional nature of PAR38
Tomorrow Lighting Prize (L (lumens) LED Lighting Facts-listed PAR38 lamps lamps should allow manufac-
as of November 2013
Prize) competition for LED- 2000 turers to make even more effi-
based PAR38 lamps meant as 1800 Blue dots represent LED cient products relative to omni-
replacements for halogen bulbs. 1600 products on the market directional A-lamps.
The suspension is the second Halogen 70W L Prize target The DOE first suspended the
1400
such occurrence in the PAR38 CMH 25W
PAR38 program back in 2011,
1200
competition and was due to saying it would apply lessons
what the DOE said are efficacy 1000
Halogen 50W
learned in the A-lamp compe-
requirements that arent likely 800 tition to modify requirements
to be achieved in the near term. 600 of the program. The agency
The DOE has adapted some 400 relaunched the competition
other requirements of the 200 in 2012 with a reduction in the
competition, but the efficacy 0 number of sample lamps that
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
requirement of 123 lm/W was had to be manufactured and
Effcacy (lm/W)
established by an act of the US a lower tolerance requirement
Congress and cant be modified. industry to achieve greater energy efficiency. in light output. In August 2013, the agency
The L Prize was always intended to be a Even the A-lamp competition that Philips expanded the maximum allowable beam
program with stretch goals that led the SSL Lighting won in 2011 had an efficacy require- from 12 to 15.

LRC from page 21 The new National Academies work does dont deliver consistently-comparable pre-
divisions of the National Research Coun- a fantastic job of collating all of the recent sentations of data. But specifiers can use
cil, the primary operating agency of the US existing firsthand and theoretical research the available datasheets and produce more
National Academies charged with deliver- on the topic of roadway lighting. You will usable and fair comparisons with the inclu-
ing technical information and services to find complete references to the existing sion of an LSAE calculation relative to pole
the US government, the public, and scien- work (http://bit.ly/1ngFlQA). mounting heights. And pole heights are
tific and engineering communities. The Adding to the available data, the authors a key point of comparison between tech-
TRB is focused on all forms of transporta- compared some luminaires using the LSAE nologies, because some sources only per-
tion and engages annually with more than metric, providing a guideline for evalua- form well at lower heights, but that can
7000 engineers, scientists, and members tions that specifiers can use in their own lead to closer pole spacing requirements
of academia. applications. The LRC has previously said and higher installation costs.
The street lighting community has pub- that while efficacy is a good measure of effi- Bullough and Radetsky also discussed
lished any number of studies comparing ciency relative to all of the light produced other elements of roadway lighting including
LED and HID luminaires in recent years, by a luminaire, efficacy does not consider discomfort glare and the emerging science
such as a major roadway test in Seattle, the specific location of the light. LSAE is in the area of mesopic vision. The authors
WA that was conducted by the Virginia based on the horizontal illuminance mea- noted that the lighting community needs to
Tech Transportation Institute (http://bit. sured on a 22-ft grid on a roadway surface. consider new benefit metrics for roadway
ly/1lCNmyd). The DOE has been involved LSAE could be measured in an actual trial, lighting including mesopic vision, bright-
with a number of the tests documented in or in the case of the latest LRC work, calcu- ness perception, and visual discomfort.
its Gateway reports, such as a Kansas City, lated using widely-available software and For more information on the concept of
MO project (http://bit.ly/1moyXvA). The LRC photometric data supplied by luminaire benefit metrics, see the coverage of the pre-
has conducted firsthand evaluations as well manufacturers. sentation that LRC director Mark Rea made
and also published one of its ASSIST (Alli- For the National Academies report, the at Strategies in Light back in February
ance for Solid-State Illumination Systems LRC delivered a series of homogenized (http://bit.ly/1kXzh1e). Rea believes that
and Technologies) reports in which it first datasheets for luminaires based on both SSL products designed to deliver on spe-
defined the luminaire system application LED and HID sources (shown in a sam- cific benefit metrics are the key to lighting
efficacy (LSAE) metric referred to in the lat- ple on p. 21). The researchers noted that manufacturers creating sustainable busi-
est roadway report (http://bit.ly/1osgMno). datasheets provided by luminaire vendors nesses in LED lighting.

22 JULY/AUGUST 2014 LEDsmagazine.com


funding programs +
DOE publishes Caliper report on indoor SSL
The DOE has issued a new Caliper Snapshot reported that 70% of the listed products tionship between excellent color quality and
report on indoor LED-based fixtures with meet relevant energy-efficiency guidelines efficacy. Generally high CRI equates to an effi-
the data based on products in the agencys such as Energy Star and the DesignLights cacy penalty. But in the area of downlights,
LED Lighting Facts program. Consortium (DLC) formed by utilities. For the DOE reported that the products rated at
The Caliper Snapshot Report on indoor
Mean luminous Troffer
luminaires covers downlights, industrial low- effcacy (lm/W)
Downlight
and high-bay fixtures, track lights, troffers,
100 Track
and linear fixtures such as pendants and strip Industrial
lights (http://1.usa.gov/1iaxdp1). The DOE 80
Linear
said the five categories account for most of the 60
indoor luminaires represented in the Lighting 40
Facts database and also for one-third of the
total LED-based products in the program. 20

Not surprisingly, the efficacy of the SSL 0


Quarter: 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1
products continues to escalate with the mean Year: 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
efficacy of listed products now at 86 lm/W. Snapshot quarter
For comparison, a Caliper study on LED trof-
fers announced in April 2013 reported a mean example, more than 71% of the troffers 90 CRI and above feature mean efficacy of 58
efficacy of 80.3 lm/W (http://bit.ly/1lDWXsp). exceed the 85 lm/W level required in DLC. lm/W, whereas the entire universe of down-
Mean efficacy has doubled since the inception Almost 90% of the industrial lighting prod- lights had a mean efficacy of 57 lm/W. Clearly,
of the Lighting Facts program. ucts meet DLC guidelines. SSL manufacturers are finding ways to effi-
Perhaps more significantly, the DOE One surprise came in the area of the rela- ciently deliver good color quality.
funding programs+
DOE funds more outdoor EPA from page 24

SSL projects necessary light distribution to adequately replace


currently installed lamps.
The DOE will enable LED street light upgrades in five metropolitan areas under The second change focuses on adding cover-
the new High-Performance Outdoor Lighting Accelerator program announced age of GU10-based MR16 lamps that are powered
by US President Barack Obama. from the AC mains voltage. Those lamps were
Back in May, President Obama made a sweeping announcement of energy-ori- previously excluded because there was no stan-
ented initiatives meant to decrease energy usage, create US jobs, and reduce green- dardized shape outline for such lamps specified
house gas emissions. The programs included new commitments to solar and $2 by the American National Standards Institute
billion in new investments in energy-efficiency projects. As Jim Brodrick, lighting (ANSI). But ANSI is working on two new MR16-
program manager at the DOE, pointed out in one of his recurring Postings e-mails, type lamp standards, one allowing more space
the new High-Performance Outdoor Lighting Accelerator portion of Obamas pro- for driver and thermal components, and one
gram will lead to the retrofit of 500,000 legacy street lights with LED fixtures. based on the IEC GU10 standard. Moreover, the
Brodrick specifically mentioned Detroit, MI, a city with ongoing economic National Electrical Manufacturers Association
issues and an inventory of street lights that are more than 20 years old on aver- (NEMA) and other stakeholders have requested
age. The program will enable an upgrade in Detroit that will include network that the GU10-type lamps be included.
and control technology, which is expected to save the city $1.5 million per year. The final change is focused on PAR30 lamps.
Detroit is one of five US cities that will be a part of the program. The others The EPA will now allow manufacturers to test
include Huntington Beach, CA; Little Rock, AR; West Palm Beach, FL; and the just the short-neck version of a PAR30 lamp
greater Kansas City, MO metro area. Under the DOEs counsel, the cities will uti- and apply that data to regular- and long-neck
lize the specifications developed by the agencys Municipal Solid-State Street versions, with all versions getting Energy Star
Lighting Consortium (MSSLC) for both luminaires and controls to guide the recognition.
purchase process (http://bit.ly/1iY4qnw).
indoor | LOCATION SERVICES

Major LED lighting vendors demo


retail location services
Research shows that retail shoppers increasingly rely on a smartphone or tablet while shopping,
reports MAURY WRIGHT, and LED lighting vendors plan to enhance that experience with visual light
communications.

I
ndoor location services for smartphones, 1. ByteLight-enabled
tablets, and similar devices promise to GE LED fxtures
enable new applications in retail stores communicate a
unique light pattern
and other public places such as museums using Visible Light
or airports. Moreover, LED-based lighting Communication and
is seen as a natural enabling technology Bluetooth Low Energy.

that can be used to convey location data to


2. Connected shoppers
a mobile device via what is called visual light
opt-in to listen with
communications (VLC). Now major solid- retailers app on any
state lighting (SSL) manufacturers includ- smartphone and
tablet with a 3. Camera detects unique light pattern and Bluetooth
ing Philips Lighting, Acuity Brands, and signal emitted by GE Lumination LED Luminaires;
camera and/or
GE Lighting are pursuing VLC with the pri- Bluetooth application notifes ByteLight platform of shoppers
mary target application being in large-scale Smart. position and direction with sub-meter accuracy.

retail stores. The SSL makers hope to provide


4. Platform ties to retailers digital marketing system to deliver
retailers with reasons beyond energy effi- Source: GE Lighting location-based services and personalized content to each shopper.
ciency to adopt LED lighting on retail floors.
Using LEDs to convey data in the opti- FIG. 1. VLC works by modulating LED light in patterns than can be detected by
cal domain is a popular concept. With fast smartphone cameras as shown in this GE Lighting illustration.
on-off switching times, LED output can be
modulated in a manner that conveys data to Ready uses for VLC could include lighting plumbing systems engineer. Williams said
some type of sensor while humans wouldnt systems that could help guide tourists through the retailer is investigating the location
perceive anything more than uniform white a museum or passengers through an air ter- technology in its Walmart Innovation Lab.
light. Therefore, LED-based lighting could minal. But retail is the big target, as was made Moreover, he said the company has docu-
serve the dual purpose of providing light- perfectly clear in GE, Philips, and Acuity dem- mented that 40% of its in-store customers
ing and communications. onstrations at LightFair International (LFI). actively use a smart device as part of their
Retailers are interested in the technol- shopping process. So the data clearly indi-
LEDs for communications ogy as a way to increase the size of the sale cate a receptive potential customer base,
Some researchers and companies are pursu- to any given customer. A mobile device app leaving SSL manufacturers and retailers to
ing the use of LED-based VLC as a way to aug- combined with location data offers a retailer iron out the details.
ment Wi-Fi for high-speed data connections many ways to engage the customer. The
within a small area with a clear line-of-sight retailer could offer a custom sale item to a Why VLC?
between a light fixture and a device such as shopper based on the spot in the store where Of course, there are plenty of ways to com-
a notebook PC. That technology is not ready the customer is browsing. A shopper could municate with a customer using a mobile
for commercialization and we wont address use the app to locate items of interest. And device, so why VLC? The answer is a rela-
it further in this article. But VLC could more retailers could target shoppers with specials tively simple opportunity to add minimal
easily be applied in lower-data-rate appli- based on prior shopping data. cost to a light fixture, thereby enabling com-
cations such as in location services. Indeed, During LFI, GE hosted some roundta- munications. LED light fixtures are already
modulated LED light captured by a mobile ble press meetings in which several of their gaining great traction in retail environ-
device camera is a technology that is very LED lighting customers participated. One of ments and lighting is located on every shop-
near ready for deployment. The operation of those discussions included Ralph Williams, ping aisle, providing the opportunity for
GEs system is depicted in Fig. 1. Walmart senior mechanical, electrical, and blanket coverage. Moreover, lighting is more

LEDsmagazine.com JULY/AUGUST 2014 27


indoor | LOCATION SERVICES

and more often installed with a smartphone that is in a custom-


network for adaptive control ers pocket or purse. Of
and that network could work to course, since any such
also feed the data link between retail-oriented location
the light fixture and a mobile device. application requires the cus-
As you might guess, however, the tomer to opt in to the services and down-
approaches to enabling location services dif- load an app, the customer would presumably
fer. Philips and Acuity are demonstrating sys- FIG. 2. Acuity demonstrated its Breez have the device out and available when shop-
tems that use VLC alone to convey the loca- LED luminaire enhanced with VLC at its ping. Lydecker said Acuity will add BLE sup-
tion data. Acuity is collaborating with mobile LightFair exhibit. port if retailers ask for it, although he also
wireless leader Qualcomm and that compa- added, The light fixture may not be the best
nys Lumicast location platform. The GE dem- into the mix to support instances where the place for a Bluetooth beacon.
onstration at LFI used VLC technology com- VLC may be blocked. But the combined VLC Clearly, you could do a location plat-
bined with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) RF and BLE approach requires more hardware. form with no VLC. Indeed, Apple is pursu-
communications from ByteLight, and the BLE GE integrated a ByteLight IC into a fixture to ing just such uses with its iBeacon platform
implementation is compatible with the Apple enable the LFI demo using the Lumination for which third parties can build compatible
iBeacon platform. IS Series fixture that coincidentally or not beacons and apps. For now, GE is hedging
Philips first showed its location platform, Walmart is deploying on its retail floors its bets with support for the Apple platform.
which the company developed in house, at (http://bit.ly/1rQCKB7). Qualcomm also has a similar BLE-based
the retail-oriented EuroShop trade fair in Acuitys Lydecker said the primary bene- platform that it calls Gimbal.
Dsseldorf, Germany. The value proposi- fit of BLE would be the ability to connect to a With the huge players in mobile wireless
tion is that LED lighting is being installed
by retailers for energy efficiency in any case,
David has decided to cook a Mexican meal
and the VLC feature can be added with lit- for his friends this evening.
tle or no extra cost (http://bit.ly/U7nwwo).
Acuity was even more vocal about their
technology and its readiness for deployment. 5. The
1. He chooses light fxture
Steve Lydecker, senior vice president of guacamole in the communicates
applied integrated solutions at Acuity, said supermarket app his location and
the company will add no hardware to exist- he downloaded. the app plots a
It suggests a route to the
ing LED fixtures to support the Qualcomm recipe for fresh churros.
Lumicast platform. Qualcomm has yet to guacamole that
formally announce Lumicast, although it he accepts.
certainly gave Acuity the greenlight to dis-
cuss it at LFI (http://bit.ly/1k7cWLS).
To support Lumicast, Acuity simply has to
modulate the light from an LED fixture in a
manner that is compatible with the Lumi-
cast platform. Lydecker said in the case of
the Breez LED fixture (Fig. 2) from Acuitys
Lithonia brand that was demonstrated at
4. David
LFI, the EldoLED ECOdrive driver used in
then receives a
the fixture has the capability of implement- suggestion for a
ing the modulation. The microcontroller dessert of Mexican
churros. He
(MCU)-based driver would require a firm-
opts for a
ware or software addition to support Lumi- readymade
cast but no additional hardware. Acuity 2. The light 3. Spotting
option.
could offer Lumicast support as an option fxture above Davids location at
David sends his the fresh vegetables
across its luminaire line. location to his section, the light
smartphone and fxture prompts the
Bluetooth assist the app plots a app to offer him 50% off
route to the on avocados.
The one issue with a VLC-only system is the ingredients. Source: Philips Lighting
line-of-sight requirement. Indeed, ByteLight
has been promoting a VLC-only system for FIG. 3. Philips VLC system leads to fresh guacamole in the illustrated grocery store
several years but just recently added BLE location-services app.

28 JULY/AUGUST 2014 LEDsmagazine.com


indoor | LOCATION SERVICES

focused on the retail application, its again could enable such an integrated approach. WA-based company called Hointer is both
worth asking, why use LED lighting as part Or the actual desires of shoppers could make developing mobile-centric technology for
of the equation? Dedicated BLE iBeacons the level of detail possible with VLC overkill. retail applications and operating a test store
do cost money. Some are projecting beacon Indeed, no one really knows exactly how where it sells high-end jeans.
cost under $10, although today the reality is shoppers would like to use mobile devices Hointer is taking a decidedly different
higher. Startup Estimote sells a developers kit or location services in store, and retailers approach to retail, displaying only a single
with three beacons for $100. The beacons also have varying ideas on the matter. Philips has item of each type in its store as opposed to
generally run from batteries requiring main- said it is testing its system with several large, racks and stacks of apparel. A near-field-com-
tenance cycles. unnamed retailers. The company has used a munication (NFC) or RF identification (RFID)
Still, the biggest advantage for VLC may grocery store scenario involving searching tag is attached to each item displayed for sale.
come down to accuracy. Qualcomm asserts for ingredients based on a recipe as a sam- When a shopper taps their mobile device on
that Lumicast, enabled by software on the ple application (Fig. 3). the tag, the action instigates a chain of activ-
mobile device and in the cloud, can determine Acuity also said that it was testing the ity including delivery of the item in the appro-
the location of a mobile device to within 10 VLC technology in a large mock store with priate size to a changing room.
cm in three dimensions. Moreover, the tech- an unnamed major retailer. Moreover, Acu- Once again, the idea is to increase the size
nology can detect the orientation of the device ity has been perhaps the boldest among the of each customer order. Hointer says its tech-
so a retailer could discern on which side of the SSL makers in discussing chronology for a nology does exactly that. But there is grow-
shopping aisle the customer is focused. BLE rollout. Lydecker said an actual deployment ing proof that the location services work as
beacons would not be deployed granularly with a retail customer should happen in this well. Walgreens Duane Reade brand has
enough to enable near that level of accuracy. calendar year. installed iBeacon technology in a number of
Still, its entirely possible that a mix of BLE stores in the New York City area. The retail-
and VLC will be used in retail location ser- Shopping experience ers app supplies coupons, location of items,
vices. Moreover, a company such as Qual- But shopping with a mobile device could prescription reminders, and even the abil-
comm with both VLC and BLE platforms take many different turns. A Seattle, ity to scan a barcode and check a price.

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LEDsmagazine.com JULY/AUGUST 2014 29


exhibition | LIGHTFAIR 2014

LEDs get more control


options, innovation
advances in SSL designs
The exhibit foor at LightFair International (LFI) 2014 indicated trends, some familiar and some new, 3
in LED lighting: Mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, have emerged as the interface of
choice for smart lighting systems; in-store communication platforms based on LED lights are emerging
as an entirely new way to interact with customers; plastics were innovatively used as light guides; and
perhaps signaling the true coming of age of LEDs, LED linear lights as replacements for fuorescent
linear lighting were plentiful. MARGERY CONNER summarizes many interesting products that were
demonstrated on the show foor.

Smart bulbs and


extra features
Apple announced its HomeKit program at the start of the week, naming Philips,
Cree, and Osram, among others, as approved partners. The Homekit program
seeks to establish a common network protocol for home devices such as lights 2
but also includes door locks, thermostats, and garage door openers. Other com-
panies were demonstrating their implementation of smart bulb control, with
ZigBee, Bluetooth Low-Energy (BLE), and 6LoWPan being the most common.
Smart lighting is a hot spot in LED controls, because it is often seen as a stalking
horse for the Internet of Things: Easily commissioned intelligent light bulbs could
result in radio receivers/transceivers capable of internet connectivity positioned
throughout the home.

1. LIGHTING SCIENCE GROUPS 2. PHILIPS was demonstrating its


Defnity Digital light is a color-tunable Hue, the frst smartphone-controlled
family of A19 bulbs that the company RGB home light bulb system, as well
says will help people sleep better by as the new Hue Lux and Tap (shown)
working with the bodys natural circa- additions to the Hue smart bulb line
dian rhythm, producing a bluer light in (http://bit.ly/1hR19jQ). The Hue Lux is
the morning to help in waking up and a white-only bulb; the original Hue line
a redder light at night to help in fall- is an RGB family of bulbs, controlled
ing asleep. via a mobile device, which uses a Hue
1
MARGERY CONNER is the owner of the Designing with LEDs website (www.designingwithLEDs.com)
and a veteran technology journalist.

30 JULY/AUGUST 2014
hardware gateway to communicate with a
homes Wi-Fi internet modem. The Hue Tap
is an on/off switch powered by the kinetic
energy of being tapped to power itself.

3. TCP has its Connected by TCP family of


smart bulbs for the home, which includes
white LED bulbs as well as a gateway,
and is controlled by a smartphone app
or the included remote wireless device.
The wireless network is 6LoWPAN-
based. TCP also demonstrated a new
smart bulb family with a BLE connec-
tion that will be available later this year.
BLE doesnt require a gateway and allows
for a simpler control and commissioning
approach. Integral to each bulb are mul-
tiple timers, which the homeowner can
program for on/off times, controlling the
lights when the homeowner and the
smartphone are not present.

4. OSRAM will enter the smart bulb busi-


ness this fall with its Lightify product fam-
ily, which supports multiple network pro-
tocols: ZigBee, Wi-Fi, and DALI (digital
addressable lighting interface). Osram
also introduced its new three-way bulb:
The omnidirectional Sylvania Ultra 3-Way
A-Line LED lamp is equivalent to a three-
way incandescent 25/40/75W lamp but
uses only 4W, 7W, or 14W and delivers
4
300, 500, or 1100 lm. Three-way bulbs
seemed to be experiencing a small furry
of introductions: Cree also announced a
new three-way bulb on Wednesday of the
show. And TCP had a three-way lamp it
was demonstrating, which will
not be in production until the
end of the summer.

5. THE CONNECTED LIGHTING


ALLIANCE was started to pro-
mote an open protocol for
ZigBee-based indoor networks
for lighting. The alliance was
demonstrating the control of
the Philips Hue bulb and the
Leedarson smart bulb, inter-
changeably controlled by a vari-
ety of devices.

JULY/AUGUST 2014 31
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Indoor location services
Beyond simply lighting stores, lighting companies
are trying to get inside the consumers head with in-
store communications and location services. The offer-
ings are mostly based on the use of light pulses from
in-store LED lights to communicate with the custom-
ers cell phone cameras. Customers must have an app
enabled on their phone for the communication to take
place. In addition to premiums such as promotional cou-
pons, the systems can help guide customers to products
within the store in a more fne-grained approach than
with a system such as GPS, especially given that GPS
doesnt work reliably indoors. (For more information,
see our full story on p. 27.)

6. ACUITY is partnering with chip-maker Qualcomm


Technologies, emphasizing that no additional hardware
is needed other than the regular overhead LED lighting
fxtures for its in-store communication approach. Based
on Qualcomms Lumicast technology, Acuity says its 7
smart LED lighting will allow retail-
ers to engage with customers on
mobile devices based on their
location in the store (not shown).

7. PHILIPS LIGHTING designed


its own in-store communication
system that was frst demon-
strated back in February at the
EuroShop trade fair in Germany
(http://bit.ly/U7nwwo). The
Philips implementation relies on
Visible Light Communications
(VLC) alone.
8
8. GENERAL ELECTRIC
announced its partnership with
ByteLight. ByteLights technology
combines VLC, BLE, and inertial 9
device sensors to enable LED lights as indoor location
waypoints. The LED lights can communicate via pulsed
light to a mobile device with a camera and/or BLE,
assuming the owner of the device opts in.

9. OSRAM introduced Debut, which uses retail store


changing-room lighting to entice consumers into physi-
cal storefronts. Debut combines natural, location-spe-
cifc lighting along with video backdrops appropriate to
places where the clothing might be worn, such as try-
ing on swimsuits for the beach, or a cocktail dress for
a restaurant. The lighting matches the virtual setting,
making for bright Waikiki beach sunlight for the beach
setting, or fickering warm candlelight for a restaurant
(control app shown).

34 JULY/AUGUST 2014
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Plastics and 13

planar fxtures
From candelabra bulbs to special lighting effects to edge-
lit fxtures, plastics are fnding new uses when paired with
LEDs. They can even give OLEDs a run for their money in
curved fxtures. And edge lighting technology can result in
extremely thin luminaire designs. Still, impressive OLED
products were also on display at the fair.

10. LIGHT EMISSION TECHNOLOGYS candelabra-base


lamp uses a plastic light guide to shape the LED light so it
mimics the fame-like appearance of an incandescent can-
delabra lamp.

11. OSRAM SYLVANIAS Ultra omnidirectional clear bulb


also relies on a light guide to shape the LED light by bring- 10
ing the light up past the base of the bulb so the light is
omnidirectional. The result is much more pleasing than the
more common spotlight effect of a sno-cone bulb.

12. BAYER MATERIALSCIENCES Makrolon TC 8030


polycarbonate plastic is a thermally conductive polycarbon-
ate grade that has similar thermal properties compared to
aluminum, but it can reduce costs by eliminating assembly
steps, thereby improving production effciency and reduc-
ing capital investments.

13. LG CHEM had an impressive display of OLEDs that


were not only bendable but bending in real time, as was
seen in this kinetic light sculpture. The potential applica-
tions go beyond what can easily be accomplished with LED
sources. Moreover, LG said at LightFair that it was moving
to slash OLED panel prices (http://bit.ly/U7psVF).
11
14. DOW CORNING demonstrated Fibrance, illuminated
with laser diodes. Youve probably seen electro-lumines-
cent (EL) wire used as trim for clothing, automobiles, and 12
bikes; it looks great at night and shapes easily. However,
EL wire has a relatively limited life. Fibrance is an optical
fber that, when lit by a laser diode, mimics the versatility
and light intensity of EL wire at a much longer lifetime, lim-
ited only by the laser diodes life. Its available in fxed col-
ors or with a variable RGB laser diode component about
the size of a AAA battery.

15. GLOBAL LIGHTING TECHNOLOGIES showed a less-


expensive approach to a bendable light-emitting surface
through edge-lit plastics. The plastic also served as a light
diffuser, eliminating the pixelated effect of multiple LED
point sources of light.

36 JULY/AUGUST 2014
15

LED incandescent-like flaments


Several companies showed a novel use of
LED components that seemed to hang inside
the bulb, similar to an old-style flament
incandescent lamp. Such designs could virtu-
ally pass for a legacy bulb while offering the
energy savings of LED sources.

16. ARCHIPELAGO LIGHTINGS Thread can-


delabra lamp used a flament-style LED pack-
14
age that mimics incandescent, large-flament
retro-style lamps. Archipelago also showed
several other lamp styles in the Thread family. 16

17. LIGHTING SCIENCE


GROUP had the retro-style fl-
ament lamps in A19 bulbs as
well as candelabra bases.

18. Z-LIGHT had an LED lamp


similar to the ones exhibited
by Archipelago Lighting, with
the flaments arranged in a
zigzag pattern.

18
17

JULY/AUGUST 2014 37
Linear LED fuorescent
replacement lamps
LEDs are proving to be viable alternatives to T8 and
T12 tube lamps, the last stronghold of fuorescent light-
ing. While early LED-based tubes could not match fu- 19
orescent lamps in terms of light output or distribution,
improvements in both LED components and tube design
are making the technology competitive. Moreover, many
of the latest products work with existing fuorescent bal-
lasts as we discuss in the feature article on p. 47.

19. OSRAM SYLVANIAS Ultra HE T8 LED lamp has a


dedicated external driver requiring non-shunted G13
medium bi-pin lamp holders. Delivering up to 1150
lm at 10W for 2-ft lamps and 2450 lm for 4-ft lamps
at 19W, the T8 LED lamps are available in 3000K,
3500K, 4100K, and 5000K color temperatures with a 20
color rendering index (CRI) of 80.

20. PHILIPS InstantFit is a replacement lamp com-


patible with instant start ballasts, which make up 21
80% of the installed base of fuorescent tube ballasts.
It produces 1500 lm from 14.5W, for an effcacy of
103 lm/W. Its CRI is listed as 83, and it comes in a
range of color temperatures from 3000K to 5000K.
Mobile devices as
The InstantFit operates at temperatures as low as
-22F (-30C). lighting controllers
21. CREES T8 LED linear replacement lamp pro- Intelligent lighting control, combining LED lights,
duces 2100 lm while using 21 W, and the company sensors, and control software, is essential to
says it works with 90% of all electronic fuorescent T8 achieve energy savings in commercial and munici-
pal lighting. And users of lighting control systems
ballasts in use. The lamp has a CRI of 90, is dimma-
both at the residential and commercial level
ble, and is available in 3500K and 4000K versions.
have spoken loud and clear: They want to inter-
face with lighting via their ever-present handheld
devices. While Android devices are usually listed as
22 being compatible, the vast majority of demos used
Apples devices.

22. LUTRONS Quantum Total Light Management


System adds the ability to access its Quantum Vue
building management software from any mobile device,
allowing facility managers to optimize lighting energy
performance while reducing maintenance and operating
costs. Quantum Vue software ties all building lighting
and shade controls together under one system interface
23 via a mobile device, smartphone, and computer.

23. CREES SmartCast technology is a self-program-


ming wireless lighting control system. Cree bucks the
trend toward compatibility with mobile devices such
as a smartphone or tablet by relying on a custom
remote device. Since the system itself is intelligent,
the actual remote control device can be simpler (and
cheaper) than a smartphone.

38 JULY/AUGUST 2014 LEDsmagazine.com


ssl | HAZARDOUS LOCATIONS

When the going gets tough, LEDs lighten up


Extreme conditions and high-risk environments in hazardous locations mean that LED luminaires
must be designed to meet a unique set of challenging criteria, discovers CAROLINE HAYES.

I
magine a workplace where mainte-
nance and inspection is a constant bur-
den, where the flammable conditions or
explosive atmosphere are also subject to
vibrations and shock and extreme tem-
peratures. Now imagine that workplace
without light. The importance of safe
lighting in hazardous environments
has led to LED lighting replacing flu-
orescent and high-intensity discharge
(HID) lighting. LEDs offer energy effi-
ciency and better light control and dis-
tribution for such applications. Still, its at work) guidelines.
the rugged design and virtually zero main- Changes in lighting design in some haz-
tenance of solid-state lighting (SSL) that ardous industrial settings has compelled FIG. 1. The Endurance range of sealed
are leading to widespread adoption in this the replacement of fluorescent lighting luminaires by McGeoch.
unique application area. with energy-saving LED lighting and prac-
A high risk or hazardous area is where tical designs of housings, where aesthet- having to replace bulbs/lamps.
potentially explosive gases and dusts may ics come second to safety, protection, and LED lighting in harsh and hazardous envi-
exist. Low-maintenance design is desir- security. Birthe Tralau, lighting applica- ronments is used worldwide and on a large
able, as both the luminaire and the loca- tion manager at Zumtobel, explained, The scale. Focusing on one small sector, analyst
tion of the facility it is in can be remote LED is a directed light source, directed with company IHS has calculated the number of
or difficult to access. There may also be lenses and optics, whereas fluorescents need offshore oil rigs around the world at 799 in
threats posed by humidity, water ingress, reflectors to direct the light, which loses 2014; while not all are working at any one
or extremes of temperature. efficiency, hence the reduction in lumens time, they have a geographical spread with
Typical examples of hazardous environ- [compared to LEDs]. offshore rigs in the US, Gulf of Mexico, South
ments are refineries, drilling platforms, and America, Northwest Europe, West Africa,
chemical and power-generation facilities. In Low maintenance Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.
these areas, low maintenance is essential, Stuart Head, technical support manager In offshore rigs, the lighting is also sub-
either due to the inaccessibility of the site at Dialight, added another reason for LED ject to shock and vibration. McGeoch pro-
or the vast expense of a shutdown. lightings adoption. LED lighting is char- duces the Endurance luminaire (Fig. 1),
Oil, gas, and petrochemical refinery pro- acterized by low-maintenance design and which is designed as a direct replacement
cesses can create explosive atmospheres construction that enables extended periods for existing conventional or fluorescent fit-
and f lammable conditions. As well as between maintenance inspections. tings. It is engineered for hazardous areas
energy-efficient and fit-for-purpose, light- He summed up some of the maintenance and particularly for where flammable gases
ing also has to be able to withstand constant factors to consider in hazardous areas. may be present, with ingress protection to
shock and vibration in extreme tempera- Maintenance in harsh environments can IP68 (for indefinite immersion in water) and
tures. Lighting used here has to meet OSHA be extremely dangerous. If the units are to IP66 when fitted with a breather drain
(Occupation Safety and Health Administra- sealed, it ensures that lamps do not require (for protection against powerful water jets).
tion the US federal agency) or EU-OSHA changing and no dust or gas can enter the The sealed luminaire has a constant-current
(the European Agency for Safety and Health unit. It also means you do not need access 700-mA driver circuit for use on mains sup-
to the lights, because there is no need for plies worldwide and an additional, low-level
CAROLINE HAYES is a contributing editor with bulb replacements reducing health emergency supply. It is maintenance-free,
LEDs Magazine. and safety risk and the cost involved with says the company, and is ATEX approved

LEDsmagazine.com JULY/AUGUST 2014 41


available as 32W or 64W models. They
replicate the light output of two 18W and
two 36W fluorescent luminaires, respec-
tively. A die-cast aluminum option is
available. There is also the SafeSite
LED Area Light, which are ATEX
and IEC (International Electro-
technical Commission) Ex certi-
fied and consume at least 50%
less energy than traditional
FIG. 2. The High Bay lamp is part of HID floodlights or well
Dialights SafeSite range designed to glass fittings. Finally,
withstand harsh industrial environments. the SafeSite LED Bulk-
head is a low-mainte-
Zone 1 and 21 (directives published by the nance luminaire for
European Union) for use in potentially stairwells, platforms,
explosive atmospheres. exits, walkways, and gan-
The design offers protection against salt tries. There is a standard lumi-
spray and vibration, and has a storage tem- stainless-steel accessories. The low-profile naire, which can be converted to a recessed
perature of -20 to +60C. The Lexan polycar- lamp is lightweight and designed for high- fitting for use in accommodation areas, as
bonate lens is ultraviolet (UV) and impact bay and floodlighting areas. well as an emergency model and a trans-
resistant. The chassis is made of hard anod- The Class I, Div 2 LED luminaire works portable model.
ized marine-grade aluminum, with a stain- with a touchscreen management interface
less-steel bezel. A 17W slimline version has for operation. Up to 100 fixtures can be net- Local considerations
recently been introduced, adding to the 30W worked onto a single controller and banked In 2010, Dialight replaced fluorescent T8s
and 55W original versions. to control zones for both on/off and dim- and metal halide fixtures with LED light-
ming capabilities. As a result, lights do not ing at the Singapore facility of the chemi-
Added intelligence have to be on 24/7, nor do the conventional cal manufacturer Lanxess (Fig. 3). In addi-
For greater efficiency and longer life- fixtures suffer the wear and tear of typi- tion to meeting certifications for hazardous
times, intelligent lighting control can pro- cal operation. Integrated occupancy sen- area use, the lighting also had to meet the
vide lighting as needed in aisles, rooms, or sors can override scheduled off or dimmed
larger zones in the facility. LED lighting also states when someone enters the area. Ambi-
achieves 100% light output from the instant ent light sensors also harvest daylight to
it is switched on, which is a particular asset automatically dim the light fixtures when
in hazardous locations that use independent there is sufficient light coming through
generators; these are prone to blackout or windows or skylights.
brownout and so the locations require emer- The remote access is achieved via any Wi-
gency lighting. Fi-enabled device for management and mon-
Dialight exploits the instant-on feature of itoring. The wireless networking that con-
LED lighting, coupling fixtures with occu- nects the lighting is based on the 802.15.4
pancy sensors to reduce energy and extend mesh-networking standard and oper-
the lighting systems operating lifetime. ates at 2.4 GHz. For security, a 128-bit AES
The company believes it has produced the (Advanced Encryption Standard) algorithm
worlds first hazardous area-rated LED fix- for secure authentication protects access
ture with integrated wireless control to take to the network. The system is also avail-
automated lighting further. able in DALI (digital addressable lighting
The SafeSite High Bay downlight (Fig. 2) interface)-wired configurations.
with wireless control combines a SafeSite Within the SafeSite range, which is the
white LED light engine in a gray, epoxy pow- companys range of LED lighting for hazard-
der, cast aluminum, weather- and corrosion- ous areas, there is also the SafeSite LED Lin-
resistant lamp assembly and housing. Fur- ear, a stainless-steel LED linear luminaire
ther rugged protection is provided with the
SLX polycarbonate lens, which has a UV sta- FIG. 3. Dialight LED-based fixtures
bilizer and enhanced abrasion resistance; a light the Lanxess chemical facility in
clear, anodized aluminum heat sink; and Singapore.

42 JULY/AUGUST 2014 LEDsmagazine.com


ssl | HAZARDOUS LOCATIONS

Singapore standard SS 531, which recom- the atmosphere. A hazardous environment optics can be changed to meet the needs of
mends lux levels for different areas in a is created when dangerous substances are the environment.
facility. It also had to meet the Green Mark used in the workplace, and where tempera- Dialight uses copper-free aluminum for
requirements in SS 530, which defines the tures, pressure, and ventilation must be con- the housing of the units, as it does not spark,
power consumption per square meter that sidered for a safe operating environment. said Head. The company also has stainless-
has to be achieved for the lighting to be con- There are environments that require pro- steel units, which are suitable for humid/
sidered energy efficient. tection from liquids for safe operation in cold/wet/salty environments, he added.
The project used Dialights SafeSite LED food manufacturing and parking Philips Lighting designs
High Bay DuroSite, LED Low Bay SafeSite areas, for example, which although luminaires based on the Design
Wall pack/Bulkhead, and StreetSense LED milder than the hazardous explo- for Six Sigma principle, where
street light products. The company reports sive environments of offshore rigs, the requirement of the customer
a 55% reduction in energy consumption and still require design considerations is checked at every step of the
carbon emissions. for safe lighting. development process. The com-
In addition to local regulations, the local In food preparation and pro- pany is able to implement spe-
climate has to be considered. For example, cessing areas, the level of cleaning cific modifications to adapt the
in Singapore, the rainy season is from Octo- means that LED lights are housed luminaire to the weather condi-
ber to December, characterized by trop- in waterproof enclosures. This tions, for instance. It also adds
ical storms. Dialights Head pointed out also applies to high humidity areas extra coating and resistant
that the LEDs have built-in surge protec- where the LED light has to be pro- types of paint and uses robust
tion against lightning strikes, which can tected from moisture. raw materials when manufac-
otherwise result in the burnout of unpro- turing to protect luminaires
tected fluorescent ballasts. Material choices against corrosion, which can
The luminaires have to be water- result from humidity in coastal
Other risks proof to combat high humid- areas and sand storms in a des-
Not all harsh areas are subjected to the ity and cleaning operations. ert climate.
extreme and hazardous conditions of off- Weight is important, and plas- In addition to ATEX (cover-
shore rigs and industrial plants, but they tics are used that are appropri- ing gas and dust hazards), IEC,
still require luminaires that are designed ate for different chemical environ- and EN (Euro Norms) stan-
to operate safely where there are tempera- ments. Zumtobels Tralau said the dards, there are also local stan-
ture extremes and/or gas, vapors, or dust in company aims to use plastics in dards to meet in Japan, Canada,
industry but appreciates that the China, and Russia, for example.
selection has to be based on the Zumtobels Tralau added the
application. Polycarbonate is the Glow Wire Test to the list of
main material; it is impact resis- protection codes for LED light-
tant to counter vibrations from ing in hazardous areas. This
heavy plants and machinery and test is designed to ensure that
also UV resistant. However, it does the material in the luminaire
have a disadvantage, in that is not does not inflame in typical sur-
resistant to chemical oil or clean- roundings. It tests the thickness
up fluids. In this case, we use PMA of walls in housings and also the
[polymethyl acrylate] for chemi- materials used.
cal resistance; but it is not impact
resistant. [Zumtobel also offers Design trends
a] Chemo version, which has the A general trend identified by
advantages of polycarbonate and Tralau is the shrinking size of
PMA, for high impact resistance LED luminaires. Each gener-
and also for use in a chemical ation is smaller than the one
atmosphere. before, she said, with the ben-
Even then, not all environments efit of reduced materials. LED
and applications are covered. lighting also offers the benefit
Tralau added that the Chemo
products may be optimized with FIG. 4. The Tecton continuous-
additives to meet the needs of row lighting system from
particular applications such as Zumtobel enables flexible
alcohol applications. Similarly, the and scalable designs.

LEDsmagazine.com JULY/AUGUST 2014 43


ssl | HAZARDOUS LOCATIONS

of being able to spread the light when leveraging specific optics.


She cited the companys Tecton, which is a flexible linear LED
lighting system allowing luminaires to be trunked or daisy-
chained into long continuous runs (Fig. 4). It is used in areas
where the workspace area may be modified, as
walls and partitions are moved to accommo-
date changes in staff or machinery. The lat-
est Tecton is half the size of the fluorescent
light that it replaces and the second genera-
tion will reduce again by half in height,
noted Tralau.
The snap-in place system does not require
assembly tools and is adaptable to meet the
needs of the workspace; for example, the FIG. 5. Zumtobel Graft luminaires include slots
end caps and fittings are made of designed to prevent dust buildup.
clear plastic, if required, allow-
ing emergency lighting minum and plastics used to reduce the poly-
LEDs to be incorpo- carbonate content. For example, the poly-
rated. Materials are carbonate clips are not resistant to oil
selected according and cleaners, so the PBT [polybutyl-
to the conditions ene terephthalate] mounting clips
of the environ- and end caps are used instead.
ment, explained Practical concerns also influence the
Tralau, with alu- design of LED luminaires. Dust settling on the
housing can create an insulation layer that may overheat
the light fitting, causing failure or a fire hazard. The same applies
for oil that may rest on a flat surface, also creating an insulation
High Performance Thermal Management Solutions from
layer. Designs will have sloping surfaces so the dust cannot build
up. Tralau explained that this is why Zumtobels Graft range (Fig.
5) is designed with slots for the dust to fall through and not settle.
She describes it as a chimney effect, where the dust can be blown
away. It is particularly useful
in high-ceiling areas, where
Adhesives dust may settle with-
out being disturbed by
& Specialty daily activities as well
as in dusty industrial
Chemicals for environments.

LED Lighting The venti lation


also allows for airflow
Assembly through the luminaire to
move dust and cool down
the LED so it can achieve the
1-800-888-0698 highest efficiency, she added.
ellsworth.com For explosive areas, the com-
pany also produces the KXA
Distributors of Contact us luminaire family (Fig. 6). This
products from explosion-proof diffuser lumi-
today to naire is certified for Zones 1 and
speak with 21 use, and has two 36W LEDs and a
T26 high-frequency ballast. The body
our Lighting is glass-fiber reinforced polyester and the FIG. 6. The KXA
Specialist! controller is injection-molded polycarbon- fixture from
and more! ate with an internal prism structure. It is Zumtobel is
wired with halogen-free leads. explosion-proof.

44 JULY/AUGUST 2014 LEDsmagazine.com


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lamps | LED TUBES

How do plug-and-play T8s stack up


against ballast-bypass LED lamps?
LAURA PETERS evaluates the photometric, electrical, and financial hurdles to retrofitting linear
fluorescent lamps with LED-based tubes, including both plug-and-play products and tubes that
require rewiring.

I
n recent months, several man- ing (http://bit.ly/1vZ7nqz). This
ufacturers have introduced so- is an ideal application for linear
called plug-and-play LED linear LED lamps because lifetime of the
lamps fluorescent replacements LEDs is extended in cold environ-
that require no rewiring and simply ments and the lamps dont emit
snap into place (Fig. 1). These solu- heat like fluorescent tubes, pro-
tions are more expensive but eas- viding further savings on cooling
ier to install than LED linear tubes costs. Because speed of installation
that require removal of the ballast is critical to grocery store owners,
and direct connection to line volt- case lighting is a key target appli-
age a task best performed by cation for plug-and-play LED lin-
a qualified electrician. However, ear lamps.
both approaches have their pros Despite the success of LED lin-
and cons. And both approaches are ear lamps in this one applica-
significantly less expensive than tion, they have struggled to com-
replacing the whole fixture. pete with fluorescents across the
We will review the performance board due to f luorescent tubes
and financial considerations asso- relatively high efficacy (90 lm/W),
ciated with ballast-bypass and plug- long life (30,000 hr), and low cost.
and-play LED linear lamp instal- Priced at $3 per tube relative to
lations for offices, schools, retail $30 or more for an LED linear
outlets, and hospitals. We will also lamp, the LED replacement must
discuss the electrical safety con- match the fluorescents light qual-
cerns that have been raised regard- ity while significantly improving
ing LED linear lamps. Most impor- the energy efficiency to offer a
tantly, the article will discuss the reasonable return-on-investment
features to look for when consider- (ROI) period. Nonetheless, as the
ing LED linear lamp purchases. performance of solid-state light-
ing (SSL) has steadily improved,
Fluorescents versus FIG. 1. Installation of plug-and-play LED lamps such as these LED linear lamps have become
LEDs: Then and now by Philips Lighting is as simple as replacing a bulb. more competitive in terms of light
Philips estimates the current quality and efficiency.
installed base of fluorescent tubes at 12 billion (tubular, 8/8- or 1-in. diameter). Fluorescent However, as was pointed out in a recent
sockets globally. In 2010, the US Department T8 luminaires are mainstays in schools, hos- US DOE series of Caliper reports (Reports
of Energy (DOE) estimated there were nearly pitals, grocery stores, warehouses, and office 21, 21.1, 21.2, and 21.3), not all LED linear
1 billion fluorescent luminaires installed in spaces in the United States, but also in many lamps are created equal and lamps must be
the United States, 60% of which were T8s other parts of the world. evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Report
In grocers and big-box stores, linear LED 21 began by testing the photometric per-
LAURA PETERS is a contributing editor with replacements have been making significant formance of 31 linear LED lamps (sold in
LEDs Magazine and Illumination in Focus. inroads in refrigerated display-case light- late 2012 and early 2013) and benchmarking

LEDsmagazine.com JULY/AUGUST 2014 47


lamps | LED TUBES

them against 32W fluorescent tubes. Upon to that of a fluorescent tubes distribution, Considerations for
testing, only 8 LED lamps achieved the which is also preferred. purchasing LED
DesignLights Consortium (DLC) require-
ments for bare lamp efficacy (100 lm/W) What does plug-and-play mean?
linear lamps
and output (1600 lm), and only one lamp Still, the market potential has lighting Has the lamp attained relevant
achieved output comparable to a 32W fluo- manufacturers rushing new products certifications [i.e., UL/cUL, RoHS, CE,
rescent (3126 lm) as shown in Fig. 2 (http:// to market including the so-called plug- CCC (China), etc.]?
bit.ly/UiceFL). Reports 21.1 and 21.2 eval- and-play products. Plug and play implies Can the company provide an IES LM-79
uated 31 linear LED lamps in K12-lensed that with power switched off, a fluores- report for the lamp?
troffers and then three lamps in five differ- cent tube is snapped out of place, the LED If the lamp will be used outside or in an
ent troffer types, respectively. When LED lamp with identical bi-pin socket (G13) is industrial environment, check for IP6X
linear lamps are in a luminaire, multiple snapped into place, power is restored, and rating and make sure the lamp and
factors determine the luminaire output the LED lamp instantly illuminates. The ballast are designed to withstand the
and luminous distribution including the manufacturers of 4-ft T8 LED linear lamps environment.
lumen output and luminous distribution have worked hard to match features of the How long has the company been in
of the lamp, lamp cover (clear or diffuse), 32W 4-ft T8 fluorescent including output business? How long have they been
and troffer type. of 16002000 lm, greater than 90 lm/W manufacturing LED linear lamps?
In the prismatic K12 lensed troffer, 10 of efficacy, 80 CRI at warm (3000K, 3500K) Will the company allow me to test the
the lamps provided lumen output compara- and natural white (4000K) CCTs, and a lamps in my application? If dimming is
ble to the fluorescent and one lamp provided wide enough beam angle to provide uni- required, test the lamps for flicker upon
higher lumen output, with 20 lamps measur- form light distribution. dimming.
ing lower output. Higher efficacy was main- When people test our lamps either Is the model I am evaluating listed on
tained with K12 lensed and parabolic trof- alone or in the troffers, we dont want the DesignLights Consortium Qualified
fers, while recessed indirect troffers tend to them to perceive worse light or insuffi- Products List? If so, what rebate(s) am I
reduce the efficiency of LED lamps to below cient light; we want it to match their pre- eligible to receive?
that of fluorescents unless the LED lamp vious experience or be slightly better, What is the product warranty and terms
uses a high beam angle (Fig. 3). The Cali- said Jeff Hungarter, product portfolio of the warranty?
per study also indicated that observers pre- manager at Cree.
ferred LED lamps with diffuse covers over Cree recently introduced its LED T8
clear lamps, and the diffuse lamps also lead Series of lamps that deliver 2100 lm out- The lamps are slightly oval in shape (Fig.
to a luminous intensity distribution closer put at 21W, 90 CRI, and a 220 beam angle. 4), which provides a portion of the light
as uplight (similar to a fluorescent), and
Luminous are offered in 3500K and 4000K models.
Series 21 linear LED lamps (2013)
effcacy (lm/W)
Previously tested linear LED lamps (20082010) Regarding the motivation behind develop-
LED Lighting Facts data (October 2013) ing a plug-and-play linear LED lamp, Hun-
160 DesignLights Consortium Qualifed Products (November 2013) garter said, Many retrofit customers were
seeking a simple solution that would not
140 disrupt their workplace and provided an
ROI within three years while improving
120 light and color quality. Because of its per-
F32T8
DLC QPL formance and five-year warranty, the Cree
100
minimum LED T8 Series meets DLC requirements,
F32T8
F28T8
enabling eligibility for many regional util-
80
(BK13-30) F40T12 ity rebates.
These three benchmark
60 tests used an ANSI reference
ballast. The lumen output Plug-and-play manufacturers
and effcacy may be lower
40 when installed with a In addition to Cree, other manufactur-
typical ballast. Estimated
output on a 0.87 ballast ers of plug-and-play LED lamps include a
factor ballast is shown ( ). small but growing number of companies
20 DLC QPL Effcacy changes are more
minimum diffcult to estimate. including Alite, Kumho Electric USA, Luxul
0 Technology, Philips Lighting, and Raise
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000
Energy Solutions.
Output (lm)
The Alite Co. Ltd. offers an LED-Tube3
FIG. 2. Eight of 31 tested lamps simultaneously met the DLC QPL requirements for plug-and-play lamp that uses 20W of power
lumen output and efficacy (Courtesy of DOE Caliper Study Report 21). to produce 1850 lm at 3000K or 2000 lm

48 JULY/AUGUST 2014 LEDsmagazine.com


lamps | LED TUBES

said one of the key challenges in developing


plug-and-play LED linear lamps is simulta-
neously achieving excellent lighting qual-
ity with an integrated, universally compat-
ible driver. To achieve compatibility with
most of the existing electronic ballasts and
magnetic ballasts, we needed to develop a
driver that interprets the ballast protocol
and communicates the appropriate sig-
nal to the lamp. Luxul claims its lamps
have proved compatible with more than
2000 commercially available ballasts. The
Luxul Eazylux T8 lamps provide 18501950
lm using 17W of power (efficacy of 109115
lm/W) at a CRI of 85 and color tempera-
tures of 3000K to 6500K.

Ballast issues
Pan added that while magnetic and hybrid
ballasts are often considered yesterdays
FIG. 4. Crees LED T8 Series plug-and- technology and something that is being
play lamps achieve 2100-lm output and phased out, for very cold environments,
a CRI of 90. magnetic ballasts can offer significantly
longer life than electronic ballasts. For
at 4000K, 5000K, and 6500K. With a CRI instance, in harsh, cold conditions, elec-
greater than 80 and beam angle of 180, the tronic ballasts may require replacement
lamp is offered with clear, frosted, or striped after only a year, whereas magnetic bal-
tube finishes. lasts or programmable ballasts, which
Kumho Electric USA manufactures Earth- have a magnetic core, can last as long as
care LED T8 plug-and-play lamps that are 10 years. Beyond that, depending on how
compatible with instant-start electronic the loading is configured, efficacies on
ballasts. The lamps produce 2500 lm using the order of 90 lm/W can be reached with
22W of input power, produce a 110 beam a magnetic or programmable ballast and
angle, and are available in 3500K, 4100K, LED lamp, said Pan.
and 5000K models. Philips InstantFit LED T8 is plug-and-
James Pan, CEO of Luxul Technology, play compatible with instant-start elec-

Effcacy (lm/W)
120 Bare K12 Recessed High
lamp lens indirect Parabolic Volumetric performance
100

80

60

40

20

0
LED narrow LED medium LED wide Fluorescent
(1303) (1327) (1320) (BK1330)
Lamp type

FIG. 3. Relative to the impact that troffers have on fluorescent efficiency, K12 lensed
and parabolic troffer types provide more efficient solutions with LED lamps. Beam
angle also plays a role (Courtesy of DOE Caliper Study Report 21.2).

LEDsmagazine.com JULY/AUGUST 2014 49


lamps | LED TUBES

a) b)

Courtesy of LED Source


FIG. 5. Hallway in Allstates office before (a) and after (b) retrofit from fluorescent
bulbs to Philips LED T8 InstantFit lamps shows the improvement in light quality.

tronic ballasts, which the company con- Successful application


tends represents 80% of the installed One example of the successful implemen-
electronic ballast market. The InstantFit tation of plug-and-play lamps was realized
lamp uses 14.5W to produce 15001650 lm at an Allstate Insurance office space in
output at 3000K, 3500K, 4000K, and 5000K Wellington, FL. This facility achieved a
with a CRI of 83 and beam angle of 160. noticeable improvement in light quality
Raise Energy Solutions produces an and realized a 44% energy savings when it
18W plug-and-play LED linear lamp that upgraded from 4-ft fluorescent tubes to
produces 17001900 lm at 3000K to 6500K Philips LED T8 InstantFit lamps. LED
and CRI of 80. The beam angle is 150 and Source provided the upgrade of 41 tubes
the lamps are offered with clear, frosted, or utilized in a mix of two-, three-, and four-
striped finishes. lamp luminaires.
Considerations for purchasing LED lin- Tom Neumann, the Allstate representa-
ear lamps on p. 50 presents a list of guide- tive who was leasing the office space, said
lines to use when purchasing LED lin- he preferred to upgrade the lamps because
ear lamps whether one is considering it was less expensive than other LED
plug-and-play, ballast-bypass, or lamp and upgrades and he now has the option to take
driver retrofit kit solutions. Of course, any the LED lamps with him if he relocates.
evaluation must involve the initial determi- Energy use from lighting dropped from
nation of whether the lamp model in ques- 3,256 kWh to 1,980 kWh per year, while
tion meets the performance requirements annual maintenance cost was reduced by
for the given application. Beyond this base- $135. Before and after photos of the office
line qualification, one should assess the (Fig. 5) demonstrate the improvement in
companys history in lighting and the man- lighting quality and consistency with the
ufacture of LED linear lamps in particular, LED lighting. My staff is happy because
look for relevant certification markings, they now have bright lights for better work-
and ask for supporting documentation such ing conditions, said Neumann.
as the LM-79 report and warranty details. A final consideration with plug-and-play
Importantly, testing of the lamps on-site is lighting installation techniques involves
the best measure of whether or not they will evaluation of the installed ballast. New
perform suitably in ones application. high-efficiency instant-start ballasts are

50 JULY/AUGUST 2014 LEDsmagazine.com


lamps | LED TUBES

priced at $17 and consume less power than drivers also feature a longer warranty, typi- Both the UL (Underwriters Laboratories)
older instant-start ballasts, for instance, so cally 7 years versus 5 years. and ETL (Electrical Testing Labs) marks
a ballast upgrade may be considered and There are many manufacturers of linear demonstrate compliance with the minimum
recommended if it is approaching 30,000 LED lamps and linear LED retrofit kits. To requirements of widely-accepted LED lamp
hours of use. give readers a sense of how many LED lin- safety standards as determined through the
ear options are available, the list of lamps independent testing by UL or a third-party
The ballast-bypass approach on the DesignLights Consortium Qualified Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory
As noted previously, a qualified electri- Product List (QPL) in the 4-ft linear replace- (NRTL). An NRTL is an independent labora-
cian is recommended for retrofitting fluo- ment lamp category includes 4,115 lamps. tory recognized by the Occupational Safety
rescent tubes to LED linear lamps in a case The total number of QPL products is 48,835, and Health Administration (OSHA) to test
where rewiring is involved for example, so T8 LED lamp replacements account for and certify lamps to the specifications of
with ballast-bypass lamps. In addition, more than 8% of all listed products. applicable safety standards. As part of that
because there is no industry-standard wir- testing regimen, the lamp manufacturer has
ing configuration, companies have devel- Safety and certification agreed to periodic follow-up inspections to
oped a variety of approaches, and the Like other lamps, all linear LED lamps verify continued compliance.
installer must follow instructions. (including plug-and-play) must meet Carl Bloomfield, global director of busi-
Fluorescent lamps that operate on the Standard C22.2 No. 1993-2012 Self- ness services for the lighting industry
instant-start electronic ballasts use shunted ballasted lamps and lamp adapters (http:// at Intertek, explained that regardless of
lamp holders (sockets with electrically con- bit.ly/1uGNEJN). Retrofit lamps (ballast- implementation type (plug-and-play LED
nected terminals) while rapid-start elec- bypass and LED lamps retrofit kits that linear lamps, ballast-bypass linear lamps,
tronic ballasts use non-shunted lamp hold- include a driver) must additionally meet the or linear lamps with a LED driver), the
ers. Magnetic ballasts, commonly used on standard ANSI/UL 1598C 2014, Standard products are all tested in an existing fix-
outdoor signs, also typically connect to non- for light emitting diode (LED) retrofit lumi- ture to the same standards for risk of fire,
shunted sockets. In terms of LED lamps, naire conversion kits (http://bit.ly/1qiORXx). electric shock, or mechanical hazard.
either shunted or non-shunted lamp hold-
ers will be specified by the lamp manufac-
turer and included in the retrofit kit.
Among the 31 linear lamps tested in
the aforementioned DOE Caliper report,
seven different wiring configurations
were used. Among the options, single-
or double-ended wiring to the lamp, and
shunted or non-shunted sockets are pos-
sible scenarios a retrofit installer might
face. In two lamps, additional wiring was
required between the two end connectors.
This type of variation among commer-
cial products introduces confusion among
purchasers and can introduce safety
issues since false assumptions can be made
by installers.
There are pros and cons in selecting linear
lamps with internal or external drivers. The
internal driver occupies part of the tube and
therefore LEDs may not run the full length
of the tube, which may/may not significantly
affect light distribution in an application.
Also, with all the driver electronics confined
to the small area inside the linear tube, that
area of the tube must be kept cool and it is
more of a challenge to integrate smart func-
tions such as 010V or DALI-controlled dim-
ming (http://bit.ly/T4trlF). Such advanced
electronic features are readily incorporated
into external drivers. Lamps with external

LEDsmagazine.com JULY/AUGUST 2014 51


lamps | LED TUBES

He explained that mechanical hazard and light quality to 32W fluorescents at Just as the performance evaluation for
includes issues such as whether certified around 20W will save around 35% in energy LED linear lamps should be done on a
sockets can hold the LED lamps, which costs and some manufacturers are claim- case-by-case basis, a detailed ROI analysis
tend to be heavier than fluorescent tubes, ing 50% savings. should also be performed.
or whether there is sufficient clearance The DOE performed a detailed lifecycle The two performance metrics that have
between the ballast/lamps or driver/lamps cost analysis in Report 21.3, comparing long stopped LED linear lamps from com-
for installation. a 24-ft luminaire with two fluorescent peting with fluorescent tubes compara-
Shock and fire hazard is evaluated by sim- tubes (51W) versus two LED linear lamps ble light quality and efficacy are being
ulating and testing worst-case scenarios for (38W), with fluorescent system cost of $30 overcome with todays highest-perform-
current surges and temperature increases. versus variable LED system cost of $40, ing lamps. As SSL technology continues to
One example of a shock hazard with early $80, or $120 (including driver). While well advance, LED linear lamps and the expand-
LED linear lamps resulted when an LED leave the details to the readers to explore, ing lines of plug-and-play lamps will only
lamp was inserted into a socket, power the simulation determined a 2-year or less become more enticing for conversion.
turned on, and the exposed end provided a simple payback if the lamps operate 4,000 Plug-and-play LED linear lamps provide
shock hazard. Fire hazards can result from hr/year (12 hr/day) and: electricity cost is a convenient and simple option for busi-
damage to the lamp or wiring that occurs $0.12/kWh or greater and LED system cost nesses seeking rapid installation of LED lin-
during installation. Bloomfield added, The is $40; electricity cost is $0.24/kWh and ear lamps. Ballast-bypass approaches are
standards are continually being updated as LED system cost is $80 and it is installed in less expensive, but the overall cost is off-
the LED lamp offerings change. We test for 15 minutes (not 30 minutes). If the lamps set by labor installation cost and perhaps
new risks as they become evident. operate only 2,000 hr/yr (6 hr/day), 1-year disruption to the business environment
simple payback is possible at all electric- (the time is money effect). LED lamps
Return on investment ity rates ($0.06$0.24/kWh) when the sys- and drivers (kits) may be preferred when
In closing, lets discuss ROI. LED linear tem price is $40 and it can be installed in advanced electronic functions are required
lamps that produce equivalent light levels 15 minutes. by the application.

   


 

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architecture | PATTERNED WAFERS

Patterned substrates enhance


LED light extraction
DONGGEUN KO, JACOB YOON, and JANGHO SEO describe how patterned wafers can help increase LED
light extraction by reducing defect density and total internal reflection losses.

M
anufacturers are quickly adopt- as cone, dome, pyramid, and pillar, etc., are the epitaxy processes in the LED industry.
ing nitride-semiconductor-based called patterned sapphire substrates (PSS). Designs for patterning vary widely, and
LEDs as a standard light source There are two different manufacturing there is no convergence of PSS designs
for a wide range of products from general processes to fabricate PSS currently being on the horizon. Typical pattern shapes
lighting, automobile headlights, and traf- practiced in the industry: dry plasma etch- include cones, domes, and square or
fic signals to backlighting for consumer ing and wet chemical etching. Today, the trigonal pyramids. Although academic
devices like HDTVs, smartphones, and majority of PSS products are produced by studies demonstrate that smaller pattern
tablets, and displays large
and small. Still, LED perfor- a) b)
mance and cost are gating
p-GaN
broad deployment of LED
Active layer
technology. Indeed, lower
n-GaN
component pricing and
greater light output could Patterned sapphire substrate (PSS) PSS
boost consumer market CPSS
acceptance. LED chip manu-
facturers are looking to pat-
terned sapphire-substrate
manufacturing techniques Active layer
p-GaN
CCSS Conventional
sapphire substrate
to maximize light extrac- n-GaN (CSS)
tion and overcome obstacles
to broader LED usage. Sapphire substrate CPSS > CCSS
Patterns applied on an
LED substrate or wafer can FIG. 1. PSS techniques scatter photons (a) and effectively expand the light escape cone (b), which
significantly increase the can result in a 30% gain in light extraction efficiency.
light output of LEDs in two
ways. The technique can increase the light dry plasma etching due to its inherently dimensions (1001000 nm) provide greater
emission of active quantum well layers as effective control of precision and uniformity. luminous efficiency, the LED industry norm
the result of reduced epitaxial defect den- The discussion of PSS fabrication in this arti- today is still 3- or 4-m feature size.
sity. And patterned sapphire substrates cle will focus on inductively coupled plasma Key process parameters contributing to
can reduce light loss due to total internal (ICP) dry reactive etching (RIE). these critical characteristics are the dimen-
reflection (TIR) phenomena by enabling a Through work on 100-mm and 150-mm sional accuracy and uniformity of photore-
photon scattering effect. PSS with more than a dozen of the most sist (PR) mask, sapphire etching selectiv-
Researchers have developed ways to cre- advanced LED manufacturers, Rubicon ity against the PR mask, bias RF power, ICP
ate patterns periodic structures of varying has a unique opportunity to understand process pressure, RF coil design for plasma
geometry and dimension on the sapphire the range of requirements for effective PSS. uniformity, the ratio of trifluoromethane
substrate surface. These sapphire wafers with The most critical requirements are pattern (CHF3) and boron trichloride (BCl3) gases,
periodic structures of various shapes such dimension, shape, and aspect ratio (i.e., fea- and substrate temperature.
ture height against width), and uniformity
DONGGEUN KO is vice president, technology; across the wafer as well as consistency from Enhanced light extraction
JACOB YOON is development manager; and wafer to wafer. Low light-extraction efficiency is a serious
JANGHO SEO is senior development engineer There is no single best universal PSS recipe challenge for building high-brightness LEDs.
at Rubicon Technology. due to the high degree of customization of Patterning on the substrate scatters a large

LEDsmagazine.com JULY/AUGUST 2014 53


LOS ANGELES
CONVENTION CENTER SEPTEMBER
Los Angeles, California 16-18
www.theledshow.com 2014
DONT MISS THE LED SHOW
Over 25 LED experts will gather in Los Angeles. Learn from the top SSL professionals and be inspired
by the most creative manufacturers in the industry.
Whether youre an architect, engineer, home builder, hotel engineer, designer or manufacturer, the conference will deliver
education on a broad spectrum of essential LED technologies, trends and innovations. We have selected esteemed industry
speakers and the most creative thinkers of our decade to discuss the latest achievements in SSL. LED / OLED technology is
fast changing and as professionals in this arena, it is our duty to continually network and stay on top of this new technology.
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architecture | PATTERNED WAFERS

number of photons emitted outside the TIR threading dislocations that are in the range Effective PSS design
escape cone back into the cone, which helps of 108 to 1010 per cm2. Threading dislocations There are two main guiding considerations
more light to be extracted (Fig. 1a), creating are line defects of epitaxial layers indicating in PSS design to optimize the light output of
an effect equivalent to increasing the critical the degree of degradation in the crystal qual- LED chips. The first is how to maximize lat-
angle of the escape cone (Fig. 1b). As a result, ity of the film. These defects are analytically eral overgrowth to more effectively suppress
light extraction efficiency has been found to characterized by etch-pit density (EPD) in an threading dislocations in epitaxial growth.
increase by as much as 30%. optical microscope and sometimes by full The second is how to obtain the maximum
Photons are emitted from the active quan- width at half maximum (FWHM) optical per- scattering effect to enhance light extraction.
tum well layers by electron-hole recombina- formance X-ray rocking curve measurement. The ratio of patterned area to total area
tion, and they escape the LED die into free Patterning the sapphire surface improves and the aspect ratio of height versus width are
space. In an ideal situation, all of the pho- the nitride epitaxial growth by reducing the two primary concerns in the design of PSS for
tons emitted by the active layers would be density of such threading dislocations. It is promoting lateral epitaxial growth in parallel
extracted as light output in LEDs. In real- understood that the dislocations are reduced to the substrate plane. These pattern param-
ity, a large number of the emitted photons because PSS promotes lateral growth that eters are schematically illustrated in Fig. 2.
never escape the LED die for various reasons. is, growth in parallel to the substrate sur- Higher patterned area ratio, with respect to
One key obstacle to such ideal light extrac- face. Threading dislocations are generated total area, has been found to increase the lat-
tion is TIR effects due to the high refractive during initial epitaxial growth through the eral component during the epitaxial growth
index of gallium nitride (GaN) versus the nucleation layer on conventional planar sap- process with the result that threading dis-
refractive index of free space (about 2.5 to phire substrates or patterned sapphire sub- location density is reduced, as shown either
1.0). A large number of photons generated strates. Reduced threading dislocation den- visually by TEM or with the reduction of
from the active region bounce back into the sity via enhanced lateral component in the FWHM in an X-ray rocking curve analysis.
die and get trapped inside, eventually dissi- epitaxial growth on PSS has been observed There are some indications that a higher
pating as heat. In terms of the light escape via a transmission electron microscope aspect ratio of height versus width may help
cone, defined by the critical angle of TIR, only (TEM) by many researchers. enhance the lateral component of epitaxial
light emitted into the escape cone exits the Since electrons and holes recombine growth, although further study is required.
LED die while light emitted outside the cone non-radiatively at the dislocation lines, the The recent industry trend toward larger width
gets trapped inside. reduction of dislocation density particularly with respect to pitch, and taller height with
in the active region is one of the most impor- respect to width, may not be coincidence but
More effective luminous conversion tant requirements for improving luminous rather possibly related to these design rules.
In terms of thermal, mechanical, and chem- conversion efficiency, also known as internal Shapes (such as cone, dome, pyramid, etc.)
ical properties, sapphire is an excellent sub- quantum efficiency. Typically, PSS results in and pattern density are also design param-
strate for III/V chemical-element nitride epi- more or less than 30% increase of luminous eters that influence lateral growth.
taxial growth. But it has not only a different conversion efficiency due to the improved Shape, aspect ratio, and pattern density are
crystal structure (corundum) from III/V epitaxial quality of the active quantum well the main factors considered by LED design-
nitride structure (wurtzite) but also a signif- layers. However, a wide degree of variation ers for the scattering effect to enhance light
icant crystal lattice mismatch, in the range of has been observed depending on pattern extraction. However, for this article, discus-
15%, with the nitride. As a result, the nitride size, shape, quality, and epitaxial optimi- sion will be limited to pattern density.
epitaxial layers naturally have a lot of misfit zation proprietary to each pattern design. Pattern array geometry and pattern pitch

a) b)

Height

Gray-flled area Width


Patterned area to Total area ratio =
Hexagon area

FIG. 2. The patterned area ratio with respect to the total substrate is calculated by the ratio of the hatched or gray area to the
hexagon area (a), and the aspect ratio refers to the height of the pattern structures relative to the width (b).

56 JULY/AUGUST 2014 LEDsmagazine.com


architecture | PATTERNED WAFERS

a) b)

FIG. 3. A PSS processed via a PR mask with good structural rigidity through the dry plasma etching exhibits uniformity (a),
whereas the result is poor if the structural rigidity of the PR mask is not sustained through the etching process (b).

should be taken into account to control pat- A large number of researchers have raphy for nano PSS requires a very high
tern density. Although patterns can be orga- reported a significant enhancement of lumi- degree of substrate flatness, which is a sig-
nized in various geometries, the hexagonal nous efficiency in LEDs on nano-patterned nificant challenge for current sapphire sub-
array is the only packing geometry univer- substrates, not only over that of conventional strate suppliers. Some consensus is develop-
sally followed because it offers the densest planar substrates but also over that of micro- ing in the industry on how each PSS design
packing. However, reducing the periodic dis- patterned substrates. Until now, nanoscale element, as discussed previously, works in
tance of the pattern provides a way to fur- PSS has not been adopted in the LED industry light of LED performance. But that under-
ther increase packing density. Nanoscale because of the high degree of proprietary cus- standing is limited due to the reluctance of
patterning has been extensively studied by tomization required for each nanoscale PSS. LED chipmakers to reveal sensitive, propri-
many researchers for its potential impact, Usually nano PSS are fabricated by etary information to others.
not only on light extraction efficiency due nanoscale patterning PR on sapphire sub-
to its significantly increased packing den- strates via imprinting or high-resolution Key process parameters
sity but also on internal quantum efficiency optical lithography and subsequently by We have discussed various design parameters
from the improvement of epitaxial quality. ICP etching. High-resolution optical lithog- in the PSS profile in light of LED performance.

a) b) 1.93m

1.27m

2.55m
2

2.57m
2

FIG. 4. PSS structures can vary. Examples include a wafer with features 1.3 m high and 2.5 m wide (a) and a wafer with
features 1.9 m high and 2.6 m wide.

LEDsmagazine.com JULY/AUGUST 2014 57


architecture | PATTERNED WAFERS

Among the most critical characteristics Other key process considerations in the either fabricate PSS in-house or outsource
are height, width, pitch (periodic distance ICP RIE process that are critical to the PSS it to contract manufacturers. This trend
between pattern features), and shape. In profile characteristics are sapphire etch- is beginning to change, and dominance is
addition, the uniformity of these parameters ing selectivity against PR mask, bias RF shifting from LED chipmakers to sapphire
edge-to-edge across a wafer as well as from power, ICP process pressure, RF coil design substrate manufacturers.
wafer-to-wafer is very important in terms of for plasma uniformity, plasma chemistry, Today, sapphire wafer manufacturers have
streamlining LED chip manufacturing and and substrate temperature control. Success begun to put patterns on sapphire wafers in
enabling lean operations.
Patterning periodic structures on sapphire Today, sapphire wafer manufacturers have
is carried out by ICP RIE with patterned PR
mask on top of sapphire substrates. Creat- begun to put patterns on sapphire wafers in
ing accurate and uniform high-precision
structures in the PR mask is the first step
partnership with the LED chip manufacturers.
to making successful, effective PSS. Equally in accomplishing the most effective PSS fit partnership with the LED chip manufactur-
important is to subsequently maintain the for a target application is determined by ers. However, most sapphire manufacturers
structural integrity of this high-precision how intelligently and meticulously all these are concentrating on small diameter pattern-
patterned PR mask through the ICP RIE pro- parameters are combined and implemented. ing in the 2-to-4-in. range. Only a small num-
cess. This structural rigidity can be accom- Fig. 4 demonstrates how drastically different ber of companies are beginning to introduce
plished by hardening the resist and/or sub- patterns can be engineered depending on 6-in. products. Rubicon Technology launched
strate cooling in an ICP RIE system. Fig. 3 the way these parameters are put together. larger-diameter PSS products in 4-, 6-, and
shows how seriously the resulting PSS qual- 8-in. diameters in 2013 and differentiated
ity would be compromised if the resist struc- PSS market trends today their offerings with better control of quality
tural integrity and precision were not prop- Until now, the PSS industry has been driven and the most vertically integrated approach
erly sustained through the etching process. predominantly by LED chipmakers. They in the industry.

  
   

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developer forum | RANGING & DETECTION

LEDs and sensing technology


enable new ranging applications
Pulsed LEDs can be utilized with the time-of-flight light principle to enable object detection and ranging
applications without range limitations or the inconvenience of false positives, writes MICHAEL POULIN.

T
he evolution of high-efficacy LED mated beam to measure distance, which even underwater applications. Examples of
technology and beam-forming avoids false echoes, but they can be expen- specific applications include:
optics holds the promise to expand sive, complex, and fragile. Ultrasonic sensors Optical barriers
the fields of ranging and object detection are relatively low-cost, but they are limited Smart parking
applications. Indeed, LEDs and sensors have in range and can be affected by elements like Level sensing
the potential to enable rugged and accu-
rate ranging systems with long-range capa-
bility and even the ability to detect multi-
The LED-based approach is based on the time-of
ple objects. The pulsed-LED technique is flight (ToF) of light principle, and uses light in the
inherently safe for human eyes and delivers
numerous benefits relative to legacy technol- infrared spectrum for detection and ranging.
ogies including radar and lasers.
Over the last 25 years, there havent been dust. Photoelectric sensors are rugged, fast, Crane operations
many major innovations in ranging tech- and cheap, but their detection range is also Collision avoidance sensing for larger
nology, especially in the sensing side of the quite limited. vehicles
applications. Most of the advancements have The fact is that the application field could Loading-dock vehicle position sensing
focused on applications or on the optimiza- be expanded with the development of sens- Truck classification sensing for inspec-
tion of existing technologies. In this article, ing capability that offers both accuracy tion stations
we will describe a new methodology for sens- and range, and that can be implemented Vehicle detection for barrier gate control
ing pulsed light from LEDs that solves some in a cost-effective and reliable manner. These are just a few of the areas in which
existing issues such as range limitations or LED-based technology offers that poten- the technology has been deployed so far, but
false positives. The technique called LED- tial. LEDDAR performs well on the widest there are a wide range of possibilities. Since
DAR (light-emitting diode detection and range of criteria when compared to other the technology comes in many forms, it can
ranging) is based on time-of-flight (ToF) technologies. be adapted in so many ways that it can be
principles implemented in digital signal- As mentioned earlier, the innovative LED- integrated into a variety of different systems.
processing (DSP) algorithms that process based approach is based on the ToF of light
the collected backscatter of reflected light. principle, and uses light in the infrared spec- Value proposition
First, lets discuss the numerous detec- trum for detection and ranging. The attri- The advantage of LEDDAR technology is
tion and ranging methods that are currently butes of this novel technology enable it to simply explained in terms of how the tech-
available. The most widely used technologies not only outperform traditional approaches, nique is applied. Contrary to collimated
include radar, laser scanners, photoelectric but they also make it the most adaptable and emitters such as lasers, the LEDDAR sen-
sensors, and ultrasonic technologies. accessible solution available, allowing it to sors LEDs and emitter optics are used to
Each of the legacy options presents cater to countless applications. create a diffused beam covering a wide area
strengths and weaknesses. For instance, of interest. The multi-element receiver col-
radar has excellent range, but it can be Sensing applications lects the backscatter of the reflected light
affected by false echoes and its refresh rate The industries that LEDDAR technology can from objects in the beam and, using full-
is not optimal. Laser scanners use a colli- serve include agriculture, traffic manage- waveform analysis, detects the presence of
ment, mobile storage, industrial safety, secu- objects in each segment of the beam.
MICHAEL POULIN is director of product rity and surveillance, construction, defense The system measures the distance of the
development at LeddarTech. and aerospace, robotics, automation, and detected objects based on the time taken by

LEDsmagazine.com JULY/AUGUST 2014 59


developer forum | RANGING & DETECTION

the light to return to the sensor. Accumulation and oversampling


techniques are used to maximize range, accuracy, and precision. A
wide range of optics options are available for the sensor modules, Photodetector
providing a variety of beam patterns that can be specific to the appli-
Light refected
cation at hand. by object
This unique sensing technology presents multiple advantages. The
Object
use of a diffused light beam results in increased robustness of detec-
tion on specular surfaces and in harsh weather conditions such as
rain or snow. Aligning the sensor is also easier, which results in fast
and simple installation. Additionally, the multi-element receiver pro-
Light
vides detection and ranging for multiple segments of the beam with- emitted
out any moving parts. This makes for a more compact, reliable, and
rugged assembly, all of which translate to an extended service life.
FIG. 1. LEDDAR detection and ranging operates with a multi-
Time-of-flight principle element photodetector.
LEDDAR sensors use LEDs to generate very short light pulses, typi-
cally 100,000 pulses per second. The ToF principle essentially con- pulse is either absorbed, totally reflected, or reflected diffusely. This
sists of measuring the time taken by a light pulse to travel from the causes different irradiances of the echo pulse at the receiver, which are
sensor to a remote object and to return to the sensor. The range R measured by the LEDDAR sensor. This measured irradiance depends
of the detected object is deduced from the measured full round-trip on the distance measured by the ToF principle and the angle of inci-
time T of the light pulse using the simple relation R = c T / 2 n, where dence that can be determined by imaging-collecting optics that focus
c is the speed of light in vacuum and n denotes the refractive index the reflected beam on the sensors photodetectors. A 16-element pho-
of the medium in which the light pulse propagates. todetector is typically used in LEDDAR sensors (Fig. 1).
Depending on the characteristics of the targets surface, the light
Beam pattern
The multiple-element photodetector has a rectangular sensing area.
The purpose of the emission optics of a LEDDAR sensor is to direct
as much of the emitted light from one or more LEDs into a pattern
that best fits the photodetector geometry. The purpose of the recep-
tion optics is to collect the backscatter of light from objects in that
beam onto the photodetector.
The combined emission and reception optics solution can be
designed to obtain different beam widths. LeddarTech, for example,
currently offers optics options with beam widths of approximately
9, 18, 24, 34, 45, and 95. Fig. 2 illustrates a simulated emission
beam pattern of a LEDDAR sensor with an overlay of the matching
segments provided by the reception optics corresponding to the pho-
todetector elements.

How it works
The LED-based ranging technology is simple in principle but com-
plex in implementation. As mentioned, the LED source is pulsed
at a rate of approximately 100,000 pulses per second. The light
pulses propagate through the detection area and reflected light
is captured by the optics and the 16-element photodetector. The
system must amplify the received signal and synchronize the sig-
nal to the pulses.
An oversampling scheme using multiple light pulses is imple-
mented to improve the resolution of the acquired signal. Typ-
ical oversampling values are 4 or 8, which produce a digitized
signal with an increased number of samples for improved accu-
racy and precision. In addition to oversampling, an accumula-
tion process is accomplished in order to improve the signal-to-
noise ratio. The oversampling value and number of accumulations
influence the fidelity in terms of the detection/measurement, the

60 JULY/AUGUST 2014 LEDsmagazine.com


developer forum | RANGING & DETECTION

range, and accuracy and precision of the


measurements. The performance of the
sensor can thus be optimized with these
parameters to meet the requirements of a
specific application.

Detection and distance measurement


The detection and distance measurement is FIG. 2. The emission beam pattern is matched to a 16-element photodetector.
performed by the sensors processor, using
the acquired signals one per photodetec- in the trace is interpreted as the presence sensors is the LED intensity. LED intensity
tor element. The signals consist of a series of of an object depends on the signal-to-noise control can be set to manual mode or auto-
values representing light amplitude at incre- ratio. LeddarTech sensors determine the matic mode. In manual control mode, the
mental distances from the sensor. The num- default threshold level for each sensor based setting is adjusted by the operator to best fit
ber of samples in the signal is chosen accord- on the signal-to-noise ratio. A threshold table the application. In automatic control mode,
ing to maximum range required. is applied in the detection processing of the the sensor will dynamically adjust the LED
The amplitude of each sample is an indica- traces, and a threshold offset parameter is intensity based on the amplitude of the sig-
tor of the quantity of light reflected back from provided on most sensors in order to adjust nal for objects detected in the sensor beam.
a given object at that specific distance. The this threshold table. The offset can be set to With this control, a sensor model can be used
amplitude depends on distance, size, reflec- increase or decrease the sensitivity of the sen- for a wide range of applications with different
tivity, and angle of the object with respect to sor. This can be used to ignore the presence range requirements and also be used in appli-
the sensor. of objects returning weak signals or to maxi- cations where objects can both be very close
An object will be detected by the sensor if mize detection of such objects and filter false or far from the sensor.
a light pulse above a predetermined thresh- detections in the application software. Fig. 3 illustrates a typical trace signal for
old is found. The threshold at which a peak Another setting available on LeddarTech one segment. In this example, the sensor is
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developer forum | RANGING & DETECTION

bus. An expansion header with UART link is also available. Both the
Amplitude (count)
RS-485 and UART links implement MODBUS for configuration and
170
data acquisition. For application-specific expansion capabilities in
165 a system design, a Mini-B USB connector is supplied for use with a
160 special software development kit.
155 As for the receiver, developers can choose from several beam
150 options, ranging from 9 to 95. For applications that do not require
145 the lateral discrimination provided by the 16-element photodetector,
140 LEDDAR technology can be implemented in a low-cost manner with
135 a single-element beam. LeddarTech is planning to offer such a prod-
130
uct in modular form with a 3 beam option. Such a sensor would be
ideal for applications such as level sensing, proximity detection, and
-5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
similar uses where a smaller form factor, robust and rugged design,
Distance (m)
excellent range, and energy efficiency are requisites.
FIG. 3. A sample signal trace, where the x-axis is a time axis, LEDDAR sensing technology can greatly change the way detection
scaled into distance, and the y-axis is the light amplitude. and ranging capabilities are integrated in a wide range of industries
and applications. Not only can it make these functions more accurate,
collecting light reflected back by two separate objects. Full wave- reliable, and robust, but it can also make the entire solution more cost-
form analysis performed by LEDDAR sensors can provide the capac- effective. To encourage brand owners, OEMs, and developers/integra-
ity to detect multiple objects in the same segment. This capability tors to see how well the technology works and how easy it is to inte-
is possible if the closer object is smaller than the illuminated area grate, a low-cost evaluation kit is readily available for trial purposes.
for that segment. The beam can then illuminate another object that
isnt completely shadowed by the closer object.

LEDDAR benefits
When compared to other detection technologies such as laser scan-
PRODUCT showcase
TO PROMOTE YOUR PRODUCT HERE, PLEASE CONTACT
ners, radar, video, thermal imaging, ultrasonic, and passive infra-
KELLY BARKER AT kellyb@pennwell.com OR
red, LEDDAR excels on the widest range of performance criteria due
ALLISON O'CONNOR AT allison@jagmediasales.com
to its ruggedness, 16 independent segments, simultaneous acquisi-
tion capabilities, and rapid data acquisition. Optimized for detec-
S e n S ata t e c h n o l o g i e S , i n c .
tion and ranging in 050m (165-ft) environments, LEDDAR can effi-
ciently serve multiple industries, and it also offers an excellent cost/ Sensata technologies RP Series
performance ratio.
In addition, this technology is available in various formats, namely
thermal Protector for lighting
assembled components, OEM modules, or application-specific sen- Sensata Technologies is a world leader and early innova-
sors. As an optoelectronic technology, it can be easily customized, tor in mission-critical sensors and controls. On average,
and it is specially designed to be easily and rapidly integrated into Sensata manufactures 16,000
various applications by developers and integrators. The benefits to different products and ships
developers and integrators are the technologys cost/performance over 1 billion units a year under
ratio, ability to detect multiple objects on every segment, long detec- the familiar brand names
tion range with low-power LEDs, real-time object-tracking capabili- Klixon, Airpax, Dimensions,
ties, lateral discrimination, detection capability in adverse weather Qinex and Sensor-NITE.
conditions, and ocular safety. Sensata has recently expanded
its RP series portfolio to accom-
LEDDAR sensor module modate thermal protection for LED lighting in non-IC
Many developers will find that LEDDAR technology is most eas- recessed lighting fixtures. The RP is a self-heating ther-
ily integrated into a system using a modular product. The module mal protector with an automatic resetting device. The
option, because of its compact size and flexible interfaces, can be RP Series of thermal protectors is designed to meet UL,
integrated into any detection and ranging system, enabling brand CSA and NEC requirements for the protection of non-IC
owners, OEMs, and developers/integrators to use this advanced recessed lighting fixtures.
method in their own products.
LedddarTech, for instance, offers a module that is easily mounted Tel: 1-508-236-3287
from the back with six machine screws. The module includes an Fax: 1-508-236-1598
8-pin male header connector and a simple cable harness; it can Email: klixon@sensata.com
Web: www.sensata.com
carry data using a choice of an RS-485 serial interface or the CAN

LEDsmagazine.com JULY/AUGUST 2014 63


last word

SSL technologies unlock potential


for services and systems
The convergence of smart building and connected lighting technologies will bring
developers, designers, and customers together to achieve a brighter future, says
JES MUNK HANSEN, president and CEO, Osram Sylvania.

T
he digitalization of lighting technol- largest sporting event), we have witnessed ity management, but the key to making the
ogy has created enormous oppor- the increasing adoption of SSL technologies whole greater than the sum of its parts will
tunity in our industry. Thanks to a around the world firsthand. This growth be speaking each others language.
relentless pursuit of innovation, the lighting isnt possible without the advances weve Beyond innovation redefining lighting
business is transforming faster each day, in already made, but tomorrows innovations solutions, and on top of technology reshap-
ways that even ten years ago seemed impos- are built on todays ideas. ing our vocabulary, SSL has us all taking a
sible. Historically, we have spoken about the If you happened to swing by the Osram hard look at our current business model. We
advances we have been making in fluores- booth at LFI this year, you may have seen an used to sell lamps, ballasts, and controls, but
cent, metal halide, and induction lighting example of that innovation in in order to deliver the tech-
for years, but its no secret that solid-state Debut, a system of connected nology and the value custom-
lighting (SSL) and the explosion of related LED luminaires and multime- ers are looking for we need to
technologies are the real game changers. dia displays designed for retail- sell lighting-as-a-service. That
From lamps and luminaires to powerful ers looking to reinvent the fit- means instead of simply buy-
controls and energy management systems, ting room. While retailers see ing products, customers would
I saw that disruptive innovation on display this technology as a way to work with our Sylvania Light-
at this years LightFair International (LFI) in offer a unique, improved cus- ing Services division to sign
Las Vegas. While the future for SSL technolo- tomer experience and increase long-term, performance-based
gies is undoubtedly bright, the future of the in-store sales a growing contracts that include product
lighting industry will depend on us all learn- challenge in the world of online installation and maintenance
ing how to speak the new language of light. shopping it was our corpo- for the length of the agree-
We estimate that SSL will account for rate technologys research and innovation ment. The industry has already seen success-
two-thirds of the global lighting market by labs team in Beverly, MA that delivered a ful applications across the globe, because it
2020, compared with just 18% back in 2011. real-world application built on the concept lowers the initial cost barrier while providing
In fact, SSL initiatives accounted for 62% of of lighting in the cloud. expert maintenance to ensure that the system
Osrams research and development costs in Lighting purchasing and design deci- performs as promised.
2013, and that figure only stands to grow. sions can involve everyone from architects Looking back on LFI, I can say the expe-
Solid-state offerings generated 29% of our and electrical contractors, to distribu- rience was nothing short of inspiring. The
revenue, up from 20% in 2010, and were pro- tors and designers, to end users and build- future of the lighting on display in Las Vegas
jecting that to surpass 50% by 2017. ing owners. Recently developed technolo- is happening in R&D facilities across the
Rapid growth demands increasing num- gies, especially in the facility management world, but its also on display now at places
bers of LED installations. From our relation- space, are broadening that scope even fur- like MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ,
ship with the Trust for the National Mall that ther. Much of the new language we need to where over a mile of Traxon Technologies
saw a complete LED retrofit of Americas learn stems from the increasing convergence LED luminaires around the top of the sta-
iconic front yard, to our recent work with the of different building technology industries dium operate in tandem with a solar panel
Sistine Chapel to install roughly 7000 LEDs, smart HVAC technologies meet lighting installation, generating nearly 25 times the
to a truly dynamic lighting installation at and energy management systems, for exam- electricity needed to power the integrated
the Arena Corinthians in So Paulo, Bra- ple. Ultimately, this convergence stands to lighting system. Light is imagining the pos-
zil (one of the host stadiums of the worlds redefine best practices for sustainable facil- sibilities and making them a reality.

64 JULY/AUGUST 2014 LEDsmagazine.com


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