Top Ten LEDs and LED Grow Lights

Recently the LED Grow Lights market has seen a greater interest in using White HB (High Brightness) LEDS to round out and fill in gaps of spectrum that are missing within the heavily weighted red/blue fixtures that are currently available. Here is a blurb on the LED industries latest favorite white LEDs and how they are being used.

Those looking for the best LEDs to use in their lighting devices have been given a helping hand through a list compiled by one expert.

Richard Wilson, editor of ElectronicsWeekly, included brands such as Bridgelux, Cree, Enfis, Philips and Osram in his top ten.

Mr Wilson favoured the Cree LRP-38 LED for its high colour-rendering index of 92, which puts it on a par with incandescent alternatives, and the Osram Parathom Classic, reportedly the first suitable for replacing a 40W bulb.

Philips Lumileds Altilon LED bulb was also recommended for those needing automotive headlights – it is currently used by Audi for high and low beams in its R8 model and reaches more than 850 lumens.

Other mentions went to the Seoul Semiconductor Z1 LED, the Marl 742 series and the Tyco TYC06-09.

Volkswagen exhibited its new L1 concept car at the Frankfurt International Motor Show this week, which is equipped with Osrams Joule JFL2 LEDs for its front headlights.

Rapid Electronics is a leading UK supplier of LED products and optoelectronic components for industrial, educational and consumer applications.


Now fire up those trusty soldering irons and build another LED Grow Light prototype for the gipper!

LED power management panel discussion questions needed

Just doing my part to help everyone along :)

Help me find good questions for the LED power management panel discussion

In the rush to embrace LEDs as the Great Hope for energy-efficient lighting, it’s easy to forget that LEDs themselves are only part of the design equation: The power control electronics are vital components in ensuring both power efficiency and thermal performance for lighting.

We’re having the lunchtime panel discussion that features many of the significant players in LED power management ICs**. I’d like to lead off with some questions that will both spark a good discussion among the panelists, as well as take advantage of the wide variety of experience and design approaches represented on the panel. For example, a softball question might be, “When designing a triac-dimmable LED light, what are the most important features the driver IC should have?” Or, “Are there any gotchas in driving the LED that will affect the life of the LED or light quality?”

Any suggestions?

Or, register here and ask the questions yourself next Tuesday, October 6, at EDN’s “Designing with LEDs” Workshop in Chicago. (Registration is free.)

** Panelists are:

Peter Green, Senior Lighting Systems Engineer, International Rectifier

Bobby Wong, technical marketing engineer, NEC

Michael Pena, Senior Director, Technical Support and Applications, NXP

Vipin Bothra, Application Manager, Power Supply Applications, STMicro

Smallest 3-Watt Miniature High Brightness LEDs


Avago Technologies Announces One of the Industry’s Smallest 3-Watt Miniature High Brightness LEDs for Use in Solid-State Lighting Applications

New Competitively Priced LED Features Small Footprint, Robust Package Design, High Flux Output, and Extended Operating Life

Avago Technologies, a leading supplier of analog interface components for communications, industrial and consumer applications, today announced one of the industry’s smallest high-brightness 3-Watt LEDs for use in a wide range of solid-state lighting applications. With dimensions of 5 mm by 4 mm by 1.85 mm thick, Avago’s new compact 3-Watt (3W) ASMT-Jx3x is packaged in a small outline package (SOP) and capable of being driven to up to 700 mA to provide high flux output performance. Additionally, this compact LED emitter provides a wide viewing angle, has moisture sensitivity level-one (MSL 1) capability, and is very reliable. This competitively priced 3W LED emitter is ideal for use in lighting applications where space is constrained. Typical applications include portable lighting appliances, street lighting, architectural facade lighting, retail display lighting, backlighting and a wide range of specialty lighting applications.

Despite its compact size, the ASMT-Jx3x provides a maximum viewing angle of 165-degrees to meet the needs of designers who require good color and light output uniformity in their lighting applications. Avago’s ASMT-Jx3x is a high performance LED designed to handle high thermal and high drive currents. By delivering a high flux output of up to 160 lumens (lm) at 700 mA, this LED features a maximum allowable junction temperature of 135 degrees-C and high Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) resistance of 16 kV which makes this LED insensitive to ESD. As a result, special ESD protection equipment is not required to handle the part during installation. Moreover, this 3W LED is compatible with standard SMT reflow soldering processes and helps lower design cost while providing lighting designers with more freedom and flexibility in designing their applications.

Features

* Available in full colors. For example:Red, Red Orange, Amber, Green, Blue, Royal Blue, Cool White, Neutral White and Warm White colors
* Small footprint and low profile
* Silicone encapsulation
* Compatible with reflow soldering processes
* Electrically isolated heat sink
* Long operating life
* Energy efficient
* Low thermal resistance
* Moisture sensitivity: MSL 1
* Pb-Free and RoHS compliant

U.S. Pricing and Availability

Avago’s ASMT-Jx3x LEDs are priced at $1.84 each in 1,000 piece quantities. Samples and production quantities are available now through Avago’s direct sales channel and worldwide distribution partners. More information about Avago’s LED products can be found at www.avagotechlighting.com or www.avagotech.com

About Avago Technologies

Avago Technologies is a leading supplier of analog interface components for communications, industrial and consumer applications. By leveraging its core competencies in III-V compound and silicon semiconductor design and processing, the company provides an extensive range of analog, mixed signal and optoelectronics components and subsystems to approximately 40,000 end customers. Backed by strong customer service support, the company's products serve four diverse end markets: industrial and automotive electronics, wired infrastructure, wireless communications, and consumer and computer peripherals. Avago has a global employee presence and heritage of technical innovation dating back 40 years to its Hewlett-Packard roots.

LED Grow Light at home with Philips

Looks like the LED Grow Light industry is taking another turn for the better as Philips is willing to embrace Solid State Lighting for Plants.

Lets hope(not the koolaid kind) that this LED Grow Light partnership is a step in the right direction.

Philips sows seeds for energy-efficient horticulture through LED lighting partnership with BVB Substrates

Date Announced: 05 Jun 2009

Eindhoven/De Lier the Netherlands – Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) is to join forces with leading horticultural supplier, BVB Substrates of the Netherlands, to develop solid-state LED lighting-based applications for greenhouse-based flower and vegetable cultivation. The companies have signed a memorandum-of-understanding in order to combine their respective strengths in horticulture.

High-tech horticulture production is a highly energy-dependent process, often requiring specialist ‘growth’ lighting to improve crop quality and output, especially during autumn and winter. Through its partnership, Philips and BVB Substrates will identify applications of energy-efficient LED lighting to lower this energy consumption, while at the same time improving the quality and yield of production.

BVB Substrates – the corporate brand name of Bas van Buuren B.V., Euroveen B.V and Bogro B.V. - has more than 100 years of experience of driving innovation in substrates, the foundation from which flowers, vegetables, plants, mushrooms, soft fruits and trees are grown. Based in the Netherlands, one of the world’s largest flower-producing economies, BVB Substrates supplies its expertise in substrates to nurseries throughout the world.

Contact
Simon Poulter, Philips Lighting
Tel: +31 651066949

E-mail: simon.poulter@philips.com

Web Site: www.philips.com

UVB LEDs Can Help Plants Grow Darker


Found an interesting article describing how UVB LEDs are being used for increasing darker pigments in lettuce plants, most may already know that using small amounts of UV LEDs within a LED Grow Light design can help with genetic expressionism in many ways- and this only confirms such.

Lettuce gets a healthy suntan
Ultraviolet LEDs create darker, redder lettuce richer in antioxidants

WASHINGTON, May 18-- Salad dressing aside, a pile of spinach has more nutritional value than a wedge of iceberg lettuce. That's because darker colors in leafy vegetables are often signs of antioxidants that are thought to have a variety of health benefits. Now a team of plant physiologists has developed a way to make lettuce darker and redder—and therefore healthier—using ultraviolet light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

Steven Britz of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Beltsville, Md., and colleagues will present the research at the 2009 Conference on Lasers and Electro Optics/International Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/IQEC), which takes place May 31 to June 5 at the Baltimore Convention Center.

The dark red tinges on a leaf of red leaf lettuce are the plant kingdom's equivalent of suntan lotion. When bombarded with ultraviolet rays from the sun, the lettuce leaf creates UV-absorbing polyphenolic compounds in its outer layer of cells. Some of these compounds are red and belong to the same family that gives color to berries and apple skin. They help block ultraviolet radiation, which can mutate plant DNA and damage the photosynthesis that allows a plant to make its food.

Polyphenolic compounds,which include flavonoids like quercetin and cyanidin, are also powerful antioxidants. Diets rich in antioxidants are thought to provide a variety of health benefits to human beings, from improving brain function to slowing the wear and tear of aging.

To create red leaf lettuce plants enriched with these compounds, Britz purchased low-power LEDs that shine with UVB light, a component of natural sunlight. In small quantities, this ultraviolet light allows humans to produce vitamin D, which has been cited for its health benefits. Britz exposed the plants to levels of UVB light comparable to those that a beach goer would feel on a sunny day, approximately 10 milliwatts per square meter.

After 43 hours of exposure to UVB light, the growing lettuce plants were noticeably redder than other plants that only saw white light. Though the team has yet to quantify this effect, it appears to increase as the intensity of the light increases. The effect also seems to be particularly sensitive to the wavelength used – peaking at 282 and 296 nanometers, and absent for longer wavelength UV. "We've been pleasantly surprised to see how effective the LEDs are, and are now testing how much exposure is required, and whether the light should be pulsed or continuous," says Britz.

To cut transportation costs and feed the market in the wintertime, more produce is grown in greenhouses. Crops grown in the winter in northern climes receive very little UVB to begin with, and plants in greenhouses are further shielded from UVB by the glass walls. Ultraviolet LEDs could provide a way to replace and enhance this part of the electromagnetic spectrum to produce darker, more colorful lettuces.

Britz also discussed the potential for using UV LEDs to preserve nutrients in vegetables that have already been harvested. Previous experiments have shown that the peel of a picked apple stays redder for a longer period of time when exposed to ultraviolet light. UVB LEDs are a promising technology for irradiating vegetables stored at low temperatures to maintain or even boost the amount of phytonutrients they contain.

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Presentation PTuA3, "Shedding light on nutrition," Steven Britz, 10:30 a.m., Tuesday, June 2.

ABOUT CLEO/IQEC

With a distinguished history as one of the industry's leading events on laser science, the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics and the International Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/IQEC) is where laser technology was first introduced. CLEO/IQEC combines the strength of peer-reviewed scientific programming with an applications-focused exhibition to showcase the present and future of this technology. Sponsored by the American Physical Society's (APS) Laser Science Division, the Institute of Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Photonics Society and the Optical Society (OSA), CLEO/IQEC provides an educational forum, complete with a dynamic Plenary, short courses, tutorials, workshops and more, on topics as diverse as its attendee base whose broad spectrum of interests range from biomedicine to defense to optical communications and beyond. For more information, visit the conference's Web site at www.cleoconference.org.


Many have been asking for an update of the LED Grow Light blog and I hope this satisfies!