Strategies in Light Kicks Off 2008 Conference

When it comes to USA-based conferences serving the global LED industry, Strategies in Light defines the space. The consensus here is that by attending the US-based "Strategies" and the Taiwan-based Blue 2008 conference (BlueTaiwan.com) you'll have captured the business heart of the global solid state lighting, LED-lighting and LED industries. There are several good market, business, and technical conferences in the various LED producing countries and regions, including Korea, Japan, China and Europe, and any conference will draw primarily from the country where it is held, but Strategies and Blue do something different, making those two unique.

Strategies in Light
Now in its 9th year, Strategies is by far the largest LED conference, and successfully covers the breadth of the market. Established by Strategies Unlimited, which along with LEDs Magazine is part of PennWell publishing, the conference has kept pace with the growing market, both in its content and attendance. This year is projected to be another record-breaker, with up to 800 attendees and a still larger exhibition compared to last year. Strategies has grown so well and consistently primarily because it has made a quality agenda that matches the needs of today's market the priority. It's easy to throw out the buzz words and fill slots with "somebody", but there is truly an art to creating a neatly segmented, logically flowing 2-day conference that presents the most qualified speakers on the topics at hand. Strategies Unlimited's Dr. Robert Steele, a long time friend of our team, has been the guiding force in defining that agenda each year.

Bob is probably the most unassuming industry expert you will ever meet. He has a passion for the industry, and wants it to succeed for all the right reasons. Far from simply being a cheerleader, he brings an intimate knowledge of the overall LED marketplace and is willing to share what he knows, both in the form of his keynote talks, as well as any time you're fortunate enough to be able to engage him in a one-on-one conversation. His experience has been driven as a long-time analyst for the opto-electronic industry, which brought him to the compound semi materials, and subsequently into the application areas they serve. In the late 1990s, as the opto-communications technology was becoming ubiquitous, the LED technologies began to separate themselves as a market in their own right, with the timing of their potential for adoption in general purpose lighting starting to become evident to those that were participating. That opportunity wasn't lost on the team at Strategies Unlimited, and they began to add some additional focus into the LED arena. Interestingly, Jo Ann McDonald, our founding editor at CompoundSemi Online (which later added its Solid State Lighting Net/LIGHTimes arm), was enlisted for her conference and marketing expertise to help implement that new event, suggesting the name "Strategies in Light" in the process. Jo Ann and Bob's collaboration worked, and Strategies set off towards the success that you see today.

Perhaps the coolest thing about Strategies is that it has evolved in lock-step with the interests and opportunities of the industry as a whole. Always a west-coast US event, it is located almost exactly mid-way between Asia and Europe, much as the US LED-related market is. Asia has been the historic epi-center in chips, and strong in packaged LED lamps and the earliest mainstream applications, including keypads, handhelds, and display backlighting. Europe has been an hotbed of forward thinking lighting design, laid a lot of the groundwork for automotive applications and was the early champion of OLED technologies. In between are the US and Canada, where you find major chip, lamp and lighting companies, as well as a lot of the IP that makes up today's light engines and control systems. From an original focus on the materials and chips, Strategies has moved up the chain to a focus today on the breadth of applications and industry issues as a whole, with only a few talks on underlying componentry or technology. This is about "the markets" in which high brightness LEDs have and will find their homes.

Keynoters this year include Bas van de Kieft, Executive VP of Phillips lighting, who will share his thoughts on some scenarios regarding the penetration of the general lighting market by solid state lighting, and of course, Bob Steele who will be sharing the latest global market report and forecast. Featured speakers from luminaire manufacturers include Bob Smith, Director of Innovation and Advanced Engineering at Cooper Lighting (whose enthusiasm for SSL is extremely contagious) and Liam Kelly, who is managing director at Nualight. At the technology level, we'll be hearing from Bernhard Stapp, VP and GM of SSL at OSRAM Opto Semiconductors on the target markets and status of OLEDs. It's simple... don't miss Strategies.

Blue 2008

The next "can't miss" on the industry calendar is the Blue 2008 event, returning this year to the attractive Ambassador Hotel in Hsinchu, Taiwan, on May 7-8. Work is underway now to finalize the agenda and speakers, so expect to hear more of those details here in 1-2 weeks. Blue was launched back in 2003, as a celebration of the commercial emergence of the nitride-based blue-spectrum devices, including blue and white LEDs, as well as the blue laser diodes that were to become the heart of the "high def" DVD revolution. When blue and white were added to the existing red and green LEDs, it marked the effective beginning of the LED lighting revolution. In 2004, Blue moved to Taiwan, establishing itself as a leading industry event, with its main focus on the chip and packaged "lamp" level of the LED supply chain. In 2006 and 2007, there was an agenda emphasis on "understanding and meeting the needs of the lighting industry" with the intention to better connect the chip and packaged device producers with the rapidly emerging general lighting markets. For the 2008, it's time for Blue to bring the spotlight back onto the core level of LED innovation at the materials, chip and packaged lamp level. We're pleased to be able to bring Bob Steele and his mid-year global market update to the Asian audience. He'll be joined by Asif Anwar of Strategy Analytics, who will be covering the GaN and materials market developments, along with some related updates including a bit on blue lasers. New with us this year will be Enboa Wu of Hong Kong's research lab, ASTRI for updates on mainland China's programs and progress, and we'll be rejoined by the good folks at Taiwan's Photonic Industry Development Association (PIDA) who will provide local market insights that you don't find anywhere else. Make your plans now.

When it comes to conferences, its all about who you'll meet and what nuggets you will carry away that make a difference in your business. Who you'll meet is almost entirely dependent on the quality of the agenda, which, in turn, is driven by the organizer's market knowledge and their integration with the industry (we call it having "skin in the game"). We'll be there, and we look forward to seeing you as well at Strategies and at Blue.

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.

LED and Solid State Lighting manufacturers sought for economic feasibility demonstration

Great news for all DIY LED Grow Light builders, this is your chance to submit your LED product idea for demonstration and testing by your peers! Better hurry, your LED Lighting proposal must be received by close of business on April 16, 2007, electronic or hard copy submissions accepted.

To: Potential Manufacturing Participants in the Solid State Lighting Technology Demonstrations

On behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) invites your participation in an upcoming demonstration of solid state lighting (or light emitting diode, LED) technology for general illumination applications. White LEDs have continued their rapid technological advance, as reflected by a number of recent new product announcements. This project, which will include several demonstration sites and products, is intended to place newly commercial state of the art products into real world applications that will clearly demonstrate their performance and cost-effectiveness.

The planned approach seeks to establish several participant teams that will typically consist of a product manufacturer (or group of manufacturers, such as a collaboration between a chip maker and a fixture manufacturer), an energy efficiency organization/utility, a host site, and PNNL. The number of individual teams and demonstration projects will depend upon the suitability and attractiveness of proposals received, but we expect between two and five individual projects in the first round of demonstrations.

PNNL has already initiated a separate effort to identify other non-manufacturer team members; a partial listing of organizations expressing strong interest in participating is included as Attachment A to this letter. Note that potential host sites are intended to include both public and private sector organizations; we are currently working with the energy efficiency organizations listed to help identify private sector sites.

More details on participating in this opportunity can be found in the “Invitation to Participate” included as Attachment B. We are striving to streamline the overall process and minimize the submission burden on potential team members. Requested information is therefore brief and focuses on details that will allow evaluators to judge the credibility of proposals received. While there is no page length limit, we anticipate the requested information can be adequately addressed in ten pages or less. We expect this technology demonstration activity to span multiple years rather than being a one-time effort; future rounds of demonstrations are planned as federal funds are made available. In order to be considered for this first round, all manufacturer proposals to participate must be received no later than close of business on April 16, 2007. Proposals received after that date will not be considered.

Please direct all submitted materials or questions to me using the contact information provided below. Either electronic or hard copy submissions are acceptable.

Regards,

Bruce Kinzey
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
620 SW 5th Ave, Suite 810
Portland, OR 97212
T (503) 417-7564
F (503) 417-2175
Bruce.Kinzey@pnl.gov

Attachment A: Team Members Expressing Strong Participation Interest to Date
Utilities/Energy Efficiency Organizations
Southern California Edison
Pacific Gas and Electric
Sacramento Municipal Utility District
Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance
Host Site Agencies*
Army
Navy
Air Force
Commerce
Environmental Protection Agency
Smithsonian Institute
Federal Aviation Administration
Treasury/Bureau of Engraving and Printing
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/National Weather Service
United States Postal Service
U.S. Forest Service

*All are Federal at present; private sector host sites (e.g., builders) will be identified by working through existing relationships of either utilities/energy efficiency organization team members or manufacturing participants.

Attachment B:

DOE Solid State Lighting Technology Demonstration Invitation for Lighting Equipment Manufacturer Participation March 15, 2007

I. PREFACE

The enclosed package describes a series of team agreements that the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) wishes to enter on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), for the purpose of demonstrating advanced LED-based lighting systems for general illumination (see Section II Overview for a more detailed description of specific project activities). Rather than establishing procurement contracts among the parties involved, these teams are to take the form of working collaborations where each team member bears its own costs. Team members envisioned within each collaboration include DOE/PNNL, manufacturers of solid state lighting (SSL) products, energy efficiency organizations (or utilities), and owners of demonstration host sites. This particular package addresses the participation of manufacturing team members.

As the organization leading the activity, DOE/PNNL intends to identify products suitable for demonstration, assist in identifying and evaluating suitable host sites, provide organization of the overall activity, evaluate the results (both quantitative and qualitative), conduct product performance and life testing, and support subsequent project information dissemination. DOE intends for each of the other team members in a particular collaboration to make an essential contribution, subject to negotiation, as follows:

• Lighting Manufacturers (including teams of chip and fixture manufacturers) – donate products to be demonstrated, and at their option participate further in identification/selection of host sites and assisting in installation design;

• Energy Efficiency Organizations (or Utilities) – provide contacts with potential host site organizations, and assurances and support to host sites as needed to ensure that demonstrations proceed smoothly; provide crucial follow up promotional activities post-demonstration;

• Host site organizations – offer locations for product demonstration along with a willingness to participate in demonstration-related activities.

• To be determined – responsibility for any lighting design and installation services will be negotiated on a project specific basis.

The number of teams to be formed will be guided by the combination of suitable products available and host sites in which to demonstrate them, combined with available resources. Team members are not restricted to a single team; a large hosting organization might demonstrate products from more than one manufacturer or a single manufacturer might donate multiple products designed for different applications.

A key component of the intended agreement is that no procurement exists between PNNL and any of the team members. Each team member agrees to act in good faith towards the mutually desired end goal, but the universally advantageous outcome of achieving the goal is the primary motivation behind the team rather than the sale of its products or services. At the time each team is formed, roles will be clarified and documented in a Teaming Agreement.

PNNL is choosing this approach to minimize time required for project initiation. The other involved parties may enter into demonstration projects exclusive of PNNL as desired, however PNNL requests to be informed of any such agreement if established.

II. TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATION PROGRAM OVERVIEW

Introduction:

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) at Richland, Washington, is interested in receiving proposals for LED-based lighting systems specifically designed for residential and commercial general illumination applications. The Pacific Northwest Division of Battelle Memorial Institute (Battelle) operates PNNL for DOE under Prime Contract DE-AC05-76RL01830 and is the legal entity issuing this Invitation for Participation (IFP). Lighting products will not be purchased by PNNL under any resulting agreement. The purpose of this Technology Demonstration is to facilitate the market introduction of LED-based products for general illumination which meet the intent of the technical guidelines described in Section III.

Program Overview:

A number of solid state lighting (or light-emitting diode, LED) products intended for general illumination applications appear poised for near-term commercialization that will offer significant improvements over conventional lighting technologies. The DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy is interested in facilitating commercialization of such LED technologies and promoting the energy and environmental benefits they promise.

DOE has asked PNNL to assemble and lead a Technology Demonstration project for this purpose. The intent of this project is to identify a limited number of advanced LED products either recently introduced or on the verge of commercialization that are available for installation and testing in various applications, and to find team member host sites where these products can be installed and their attributes clearly demonstrated. The results of demonstrations that are deemed a success will be widely publicized. Final project evaluation reports, to be written by PNNL, will be made publicly available soon after project completion. DOE is interested in working with team members and/or host site organizations with the interest and capability to follow up successful projects with either large scale purchases or promotion of featured products. In order to avoid actual or apparent conflicts of interest, project participants will not be permitted to use any such reports to assert or imply the endorsement by DOE, PNNL, Battelle or the host site organization of their lighting products.

The project is intended to identify and assist in the early adoption of high performance products that are (or very soon will be) commercially available and that offer users real value through significant, rather than merely incremental, improvements over the current best competing products. Products chosen for demonstration will be selected based on their potential to demonstrate the advanced state of the art in LED technology, while being economically sound investments for the building owner/investor.

An important factor in determining the suitability of products for field demonstration is their expected commercial availability date. Manufacturers must stipulate that products intended for a field demonstration site will be commercially available within three months of the start of the project. Products not meeting this requirement will not be put into a field demonstration site, although they might be selected for individual demonstration with other prototypes, or put into a queue for site demonstration at a later date.

The overall project has six phases, some of which run concurrently:

1) Products to be demonstrated will be screened based on the contents of the submitted proposals;

2) Laboratory testing (both short- and longer-term) of samples of each product passing the screening will ensue to establish or verify important attributes of performance;

3) Host sites and team members will be identified to carry out the actual demonstration of products satisfying the selection criteria;

4) The products will be installed and the demonstrations carried out;

5) PNNL will conduct evaluations of the results, including energy and cost savings and related economic analyses, and compiling qualitative responses of host sites to the LED light source; and

6) Results of successful demonstrations will be widely publicized subject to the above restriction on endorsement. While no sales of demonstrated products is assured, it is expected that large-scale product purchases or promotions by demonstration team members will also occur at this stage for products that have sufficiently performed to buyers’ satisfaction.

DOE is interested in products that will be economically justifiable and that can eventually impact a large segment of the lighting market. Residential downlighting is one preferred application due to its prevalence in US homes and because the directional nature of LED illumination matches well with the needs of this application. Where a significant market exists, however, other proposed applications will be considered and every effort will be made to locate potential host sites in those application areas.

In cases where host site(s) are not identified for the intended application, manufacturers will be given an option to either select one of the other host sites identified by DOE/PNNL, or to withdraw their proposal from consideration. Manufacturing participants will also be encouraged to supply or participate in the actual installation design once host sites have been selected to ensure that their products are demonstrated in a manner taking full advantage of their attributes.

Finally, because LED technology for general illumination is relatively new, some specific products and application designs may not have existed prior to this demonstration. Issues such as future manufacturing capability and retail pricing may thus involve projections rather than actual market data. This situation underlies some of the information requirements in the proposal template in Section IV.

III. SELECTION CRITERIA

The stated goal of this activity is to identify state of the art LED products intended for general illumination that are or soon will be commercially available, and demonstrate them in applications where they are both cost effective and preferred by end-users over competing conventional technologies. The project will follow up with significant education and encouragement aimed to spur large scale sales of products successfully meeting the above criteria.

Because the range of attributes (e.g., levels of performance) that may offer value varies widely across potential applications, maximum flexibility is necessary in their specification. A further complication arises from the fact that altering one attribute in a given product often directly impacts another.

In general, DOE is interested in products that perform at least as well as those that would qualify for DOE’s draft Energy Star criteria, which can be found at http://energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=new_specs.ssl_luminaires .

The overarching priorities for selecting products for this demonstration project are performance, commercial availability, and economic value. In screening submitted product proposals, each of these factors is to be weighted equally when DOE evaluates their suitability for demonstration. That is, the performance of the product (both in energy and economic terms), its anticipated cost and commercial availability will each comprise a third of the evaluation for whether to pursue a given proposal. The subtopics within each of those priority categories are given below.

Performance evaluation factors (1/3)
Luminaire Efficacy
Color temperature (and chromaticity coordinates)
CRI
Light distribution pattern suitable for intended application
Luminaire suitable for intended application (e.g., method of thermal management)
Economic evaluation factors (1/3)
Fixture cost
Electricity usage
Expected life
Technology replaced
Warranty
Commercial availability evaluation factors (1/3)
Anticipated date of first product availability
Evidence supporting the availability of volume* manufacturing capacity
Intended market outlets

*volume estimates to be provided by proposers

In addition to the factors above, additional product features may offer increased attraction to potential buyers that enhance their marketability in particular applications. For example, such a feature would include dimming capability of the product in residential interior environments. Proposers will be provided an opportunity to note such additional features and will, in effect, be given “extra credit” for their perceived value.

Finally, particular applications may impose certain mandatory requirements on products that are not necessarily universal across all applications. An example here would be requirements placed on products (e.g., UL certification, applicable building codes) to be demonstrated in a production housing environment. All such requirements must be met by the product before it will be considered for demonstration in those applications.

IV. PROPOSAL TEMPLATE

The elements requested in each proposal have been kept to a minimum in order to ease
and expedite the submission process. In all cases, the information sought is just that necessary to identify noteworthy products and the appropriate applications for each. Additional product literature or future market impact forecasts are neither requested nor desired. A convincing, but concise argument is preferred over a detailed market analysis.

Each submitted proposal must include:

A. Application - the specific application(s) for which the product is intended, including the conventional technology(ies) that the product will replace. Include photos or graphics of both the luminaire and its installed appearance in the target application. Please also indicate whether you have a potential host site already identified.

B. Specifications Sheet - a completed specifications sheet (included in Section V) for the product and any supporting test data.

C. Economic Case - a concise economic argument for the product in its intended application. Include any assumptions necessary, such as hours/day of lighting system use and price of electricity.

D. Supplemental Technical Description (optional) – clarification of any apparent installation or other technical issues, such as means of adequate heat rejection, where they are not evident from the above information. Note that proposal evaluators are not looking to uncover proprietary design secrets but, rather, assurances that the product will reliably work in the application. This is also the section in which additional features of the product, e.g., dimming capability, can be noted.

E. Product Cost Projections - a description of the anticipated product cost at retail and/or wholesale at various quantities.

F. Production Capability - evidence to support plans for commercial availability, including a timeline for when commercial production is expected and the various market outlets through which the product is expected to be available.

Items E and F essentially comprise a summary business plan for each product that provides enough detail to judge the credibility of proposals received. These items are important to the desired follow up activity of promoting large scale purchases of successful products. It is neither the intent of this project to demonstrate products that no one will ultimately buy because they are too expensive, nor to provoke disappointment by demonstrating products that must be significantly back-ordered due to insufficient production capacity.

That said, precise values are less important than a sound strategy for pursuing them. All that the proposal evaluators will be looking for is an assurance that a credible plan exists to make the products available in sufficient quantities at a cost-effective price.

V. PRODUCT SPECIFICATION SHEET

For purposes of this demonstration project, the values of interest are primarily those of the finished luminaire rather than the component LED sources. If the luminaire has not been photometrically tested and only chip-level data are available, then a uniform average loss factor of 0.35 will be applied to the chip-level data(1) for purposes of estimating luminaire performance in the first phase screening. In any case, the source of data used must be provided for all reported values.

Value Data Source
Product Name/Identifier
Total Measured Light Output
(lumens)
Beam Angle
Measured Energy Use in “On” Mode
(Watts)
Confirmation That Energy Use in
Standby Mode is Zero (Yes/No)
Calculated Luminaire Efficacy
(lumens/Watt)
Typical Measured Operating Current
(mA)
LED Manufacturer’s Recommended
Maximum
Operating Current (mA)
LED Chip Used
(Manufacturer/Model)
Chromaticity Coordinates
X (or u’)
Y (or v’)
Correlated Color Temperature
(K)
Color Rendering Index
Power Factor

1 Average of luminaires tested to date by the Commercial Product Testing Program. So for example, a luminaire using a chip rated at 100 lumens/watt only achieves an average 35 lumens/watt out of the fixture when all thermal effects, power supply, and driver losses are taken into account.

VI. TIMELINE

All times consecutive. Dates shown are maximum allowable; demonstrations will proceed more quickly if possible.

Due Date for Responding to Solicitation: April 16, 2007
Initial Selection of Products for Demonstration Completed: May 1, 2007
Initial Product Samples Due to PNNL: June 1, 2007
Product Short Term Testing Completed by PNNL: July 2, 2007
Installations Initiated: August 1, 2007
Demonstration Evaluations Completed: February 1, 2008