Lamina Unveils LED Replacement for Popular Halogen Bulb

It's amazing how far the industry has come in a few months.. Very Long-Lived Lamina SoL(TM) MR16 LED Offers Big Energy and Replacement Cost Savings

Lamina, developer of the brightest commercially available LEDs, today announced immediate availability of an LED-based replacement lamp designed as a direct, ready-to-plug-in retrofit for 20-watt MR-16 halogen and comparable compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). The first of its kind, the Lamina SoL™ MR16 LED integrates a high power light source, optical lens and thermal heat sink shell in a traditional MR-16 halogen form-factor. This innovative design, which fits most existing fixtures, produces as much light as the 20-watt halogen bulb it replaces, but consumes less than 8 watts of electricity

Lamina SoL MR16 LED replacement lamps are designed to provide the quality of light produced by traditional incandescent lamps. Warm color temperatures of 3050°K and color rendition index (CRI) values greater than 80 make these products ideal as halogen replacements. Higher color temperature lamp equivalents of 4700°K are also available. The products will be demonstrated at Lightfair International 2007, May 8-10, in New York City.

"Lamina's SoL MR16 LED light engine offers a significant return-on-investment," said Frank M. Shinneman, the company's president and CEO. "With a lifetime of more than 50,000 hours, the energy savings, replacement cost savings of traditional lamps and money saved in labor costs to replace burned out lamps can potentially add up to more than $700 per fixture." Adding to the value, Mr. Shinneman noted that the Lamina SoL MR16 LED emits no heat (infrared) or ultraviolet radiation in its light beam, is readily dimmable, and contains no mercury (as do fluorescent lamps) or lead. As are all Lamina LED light engines, the SoL MR16 LED is fully compliant with the EU's RoHS Directive restricting mercury, lead, cadmium and other hazardous substances. Pricing is expected to be less than $25 in OEM volumes.

Among many possible applications, Lamina SoL MR16 LEDs are ideal for:

-- Track lighting
-- Display case fixtures & cabinet lighting
-- Aerospace lighting systems
-- Bio-medical and medical applications
-- Elevator lighting
-- General, architectural and landscape lighting
-- Signage and back lighting
-- Industrial OEM equipment lighting
-- Retail sales display
-- Cruise ship and yacht lighting

Earlier this month, Lamina introduced new light engines with outputs as bright as many traditional bulbs used in home, office, retail, commercial and exterior applications. The TitanTurbo(TM) line represents the state-of-the-art in high-output LED light engines. It is immediately available to lighting application designers in 2 models that deliver more than 2,000 lumens in daylight white and more than 1,000 lumens in warm white light. The company demonstrated both versions to much acclaim in Milan, Italy, at Euroluce, Europe's premier lighting show. Along with Lamina's SoL MR16 LED, TitanTurbo also will debut in the U.S. at Lightfair.

All Lamina LED light engines are manufactured by combining high brightness LEDs from industry-leading LED manufacturers with the company's own proprietary packaging technology. This technology is a breakthrough in thermal performance for LED packaging, a key factor in determining LED life and reliability. Unmatched thermal performance coupled with package interconnectivity allows Lamina to densely cluster multiple LEDs to achieve exceptionally high luminous intensity in very small footprints.

Lamina also provides unmatched integration support. Experienced sales application engineers, knowledgeable in LED design integration, optics, thermal management and electronics, are just a phone call away.

About Lamina, Inc.

Lamina, Inc. defines the state of technology with the development and manufacture of high power LED light engines. Lamina's LED packaging technology provides unsurpassed thermal management and interconnectivity.

Lamina is the leading manufacturer of high power LED light engines and is leading the transition from traditional lighting such as incandescent, halogen and mercury vapor fluorescent to solid state solutions for general lighting. Lamina offers the brightest solid state light engines in the industry and is enabling this lighting evolution by delivering highly reliable and functional LED lighting solutions. The company is supported by an industry-leading global sales and distribution network.

Lumidrives high power LEDs for general lighting

A step in the direction of LED Grow Lights for Plants.

York-based Lumidrives and the University of Manchester are to develop technology for next-generation LED lighting modules in a £330,000 project part-funded by the DTI.

“Manchester has a lot of knowledge of power electronics in extreme environments and heatsinking,” Lumidrives’ managing director Gordon Routledge said.

“The concept may sound trivial, but our five years’ experience in the LED lighting industry shows that the thermal requirements of LED devices represent the biggest challenge in most applications for general lighting,” he said.

Street lighting has been chosen as the target application. “You have to generate over 12,000lm from 240V,” said Routledge. “The obvious thing is to have a big heatsink on the top of the light, but when you start to think about it, you realise muck from birds will soon choke it up. It is a complex problem which may require heat pipes and all sorts of novel methods.”

Dr Roger Shuttleworth from the university’s power conversion group is just setting up the Manchester research. “We will be making a general-purpose light engine. Reliability is an issue, so is heat,” he says. “We may have to think of technologies like heat pumps to control it. And if we are powering it off the mains we will probably need a power supply with a unity power factor.”

Over 50,000 hours - 10 years - is the life target. Older ‘yellow’ street lighting uses low-pressure sodium lamps which are some of the most efficient sources available, between 150 and 300lm/W.

In the past decade or so there has been a move to replace these with whiter, more aesthetically pleasing but less efficient (85lm/W) high-pressure sodium lamps. White LEDs are currently on sale at 70lm/W and are on track for 150lm/W and 400lm/W in the near future.