Its that time of year again for all of the DIY LED Grow Light Hobbyists to show some Lux, the official LED Lighting for Tomorrow Competition 2008 kicks off and plans on being the biggest yet, last years event attracted over 40 entries in the LED lighting category. If you fancy yourself a budding LED Grow Light specialist this could be your calling, and don't forget the fame and fortune if you win. Realize that the LED Lighting contest is mostly for general illumination which use Ultra-High Brightness (UHB) LEDs, but with a twist as this year a new "Future LED" Showcase category has been added and if an innovative technology entry for an indoor solid state LED plant light were to be received the judging panel wouldn't turn it away and your entry may even help create a new separate category for Solid State Plant Lighting in future LED Lighting Competitions.
This years Solid State Lighting (SSL) competition is organized by the U.S. Department of Energy, the American Lighting Association, and the Consortium for Energy Efficiency.
Important Dates to remember if you plan on entering:
January 17-21, 2008 - Lighting for Tomorrow 2008 Competition Launched at the Dallas Lighting Market
February 29, 2008 - Online Intent-to-submit form is due. (I recommend using the PDF version which is more complete, they ask that you only use one form of submission and both are due by the above date)
April 30, 2008 - All entries due
September 14-16, 2008 - Lighting for Tomorrow 2008 Competition Winners Announced at the American Lighting Association Annual Conference
Rules and Entrant Guides: For complete information on the LED Lighting design contest including applications, competition rules, guidelines, and sponsors visit: 2008 Lighting for Tomorrow Competition
Don't forget to take a look at the some of the photos from last years winners in the LED Lighting Fixtures (LLF) division for ideas on what the competition is doing with LEDs and Solid State Lighting.
This year the LED Lighting Fixtures (LLF) division has three (3) categories: 1) fixtures meeting the ENERGY STAR for solid-state lighting (SSL) requirements, 2) other decorative entries such as chandeliers, sconces, table lamps and portables using LEDs with device efficacy of at least 50 lm/W, and 3) the new "Future LED" category which invites luminaires using the world's highest efficiency LEDs; The “Future LED” category will require a minimum LED device efficacy of 90 lm/W, which would fit the bill nicely for an LED Grow Light entry.
LED lighting applications in the 'near term' and 'other lighting' categories include:
Under-cabinet lighting for kitchens
Portable desk/task light
Recessed downlight rated for residential use
Outdoor porch light
Outdoor step light
Outdoor pathway light
Wall sconce
Table or floor lamp
Pendant
Chandelier
Vanity light
Ceiling fan w/ light kit
But the 'Future LED Showcase' is wide open with a write-in of your choice, so what will you build next? A rotating LED grow light with LED light arms that track or sweep around for greater coverage could be one idea :)
Start up your wire-wrapping grow light engines and lets get this showcase shining!
For more information or to ask questions contact: Ruth Taylor, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory - 509-375-2389, ruth.taylor@pnl.gov
LED 'Lighting for Tomorrow' Competition 2008
Strategies in Light Kicks Off 2008 Conference
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.
iDrive™ 1000 Powers LED Grow Lights
As promised in the LED Grow Lights 1000+ Lumen LED post, here is one of many Bench Power Supplies posts for working with the latest generation UHB LEDs. This is one of the best Solid State Lighting PSUs on the market, and should be on every DIY LED Grow Light bench.
( Radiant Research- please send over an engineering sample for test and review purposes, I will pay for shipping and duty! )
Integrated System Technologies, a leading European LED driver design manufacturer, has released the new 210 Watt 3 channel iDrive™ 1000 LED driver. The driver is a natural extension to the current iDrive™ range which includes the 3 channel 350mA driver, the iDrive™ Lite. Both products incorporate patented Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM) drive technology and ColourCool™, a thermal management system to ensure optimum LED output and life.
The new iDrive™ 1000 delivers an industry leading level of energy efficiency provided through new patent pending technology which delivers twice the power density of the iDrive™ Lite. The breakthrough in combining high power density with leading PSU efficiency ensures the iDrive™ 1000 has a small footprint and does not require large heatsinks.
A new feature enables iDrive™ 1000 users to choose the forward current, independently on all three channels between 500mA-1000mA. This exclusive feature introduced to the high power LED market place enables users to select the forward current digitally by channel for optimum LED performance. Each channel’s forward current can be precisely varied in 50mA steps via the LED display panel. Unlike most solutions in the market, there are no external DMX address switches making it very quick to install and configure. The 1000 provides an increased forward voltage range up to 55V per channel to allow for the increase in forward voltage in high power LEDs when driving these products at higher currents. Additional features include a master/slave option, increased internal preset programmes and user selectable thermister settings for desired fixture lumen maintenance in any environment.
The iDrive™ range uses patented technologies that differentiates it from all LED drivers on the market, in addition the drivers will only supply the correct forward voltage required by each LED channel and compensates for voltage drop over long cable runs thereby optimising the energy required to drive the LED fixture. This makes the iDrive™ solutions the most intelligent and power efficient drivers on the market, providing a significant advantage to all SSL manufacturers that are serious about reducing the carbon footprint of their lighting product range.
Sales Director Matt Fitzpatrick said, “Since we launched the iDrive™ Lite in March 07, it has been received fantastically by the market place however, the design team are extremely excited about the potential of the iDrive™ 1000. There is choice globally for drivers in the 350mA 3 channel class but there are no 210 Watt high efficiency drivers that allow the user to vary the current on each channel between 500mA-1000mA. With many of the high power LED manufacturers now delivering product that is optimised at 700mA and 1000mA drive currents, we now feel that the iDrive™ 1000 will give the SSL manufacturers a high quality power supply solution and allow them to efficiently get more lumens for their money”.
The iDrive™ 1000 will be available in volume from September 2007 with engineering sample available in August
Dimensions 200mm x 150mm x 70mm
Weight 0.8Kg approx.
Compatible with all high power LEDs
About Integrated System Technologies Limited
IST Ltd is a professional lighting group company specialising in the development of innovative lighting solutions for the general, wide area, architectural and entertainment lighting industry. It offers over 20 years of experience in traditional and solid state lighting including award winning electronic and optical system design for a variety of lighting products from controllers to luminaires.
Radiant Research Ltd is the solid state lighting division of IST which designs and manufactures advanced solid state lighting products from LED light engines through to driver solutions. All LED driver technology designed and produced by Radiant Research incorporates our unique patented technology Colour Cool™ (GRANTED in UK & USA) to ensure optimum LED efficiency of multiple channel systems. This unique and patented driving technology uses Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM). This technique provides optimum colour mixing (RGB/A/W) and full additive luminosity which, integrated into our closed loop temperature monitory system, ensures optimum LED output regardless of environmental conditions.
Goldeneye Allowed LED Lighting Color Conversion Patent
Goldeneye, Inc., creator of light recycling technology and the world’s brightest LED light sources, today announced the allowance by the U.S. Patent Office for its patent of a new color conversion method for LEDs utilizing a solid luminescent element. This “wavelength conversion chip” can be used with Goldeneye’s recycling light cavity or attached directly to any LED. The patent covers both methods of manufacture and a wide range of applications in solid-state lighting. The technology described in the patent enables Goldeneye’s next generation of LED light products to produce white, yellow, green, red and a spectrum of visible colors from blue or ultraviolet LEDs.
"This technology will enable significant improvements in efficiency and color rendering as well as greatly simplifying binning requirements”, says Scott Zimmerman, Vice President of Technology for Goldeneye. “It also delivers life and thermal performance that powdered phosphor approaches simply cannot match.”
This patent will add to Goldeneye's already strong IP portfolio, enhancing the company’s ability to manufacture and license technology in virtually all solid-state lighting applications. It encompasses ceramic processing techniques such as tape casting and sintering to form thin luminescent sheets for volume production.
In Goldeneye’s basic technology, multiple LEDs are combined in a “light-recycling cavity” to enhance their individual brightness output. By incorporating the conversion chip in this arrangement, the individual LEDs can operate at lower drive levels with improved optical efficiency, unlike other high brightness approaches that rely on overdrive conditions. The result is a light source with a longer lifetime, greater wavelength stability and superb color uniformity.
“Our early work in the area of very high intensity LED sources forced us several years ago to develop a new type of wavelength conversion technology compatible with these high flux levels”, says Zimmerman. “The conversion chip will enable all of Goldeneye’s high brightness LED light products to operate at greater efficiency than in other conversion schemes”.
About Goldeneye
Goldeneye, Inc. is a technology foundry and light product manufacturer focused on optical solutions to the solid-state lighting market. The company is headquartered in Carlsbad, California.
Cree Prototypes 1,000+ Lumen LED chip
Cree breaks 1000 Lumens on a single die!
The next post should be about LED Grow Light bench power supplies that can handle the additional power requirements of the emerging next generation solid state lighting chips.
With a driving current of 4A, the company's prototype, single-die LED delivers a light output of 1,050 lumens in cool white, a level comparable to a standard incandescent bulb, and 760 lumens in a warm-white version.
As a result, the company claims this breakthrough may lead to the development of LEDs that will make traditional light bulbs obsolete.
Efficacy of the cool-white LED is 72 lumens/Watt and, for the warm-white device, 52 lumens/Watt.
Both versions allegedly operate at significantly higher efficacy levels than conventional light bulbs.
New InGaN substrates yield safer UHB-LEDs
TDI announces the release of new InGaN substrates for light emitting devices
August 16, 2007... Silver Spring, Maryland, USA Technologies and Devices International, Inc. (TDI), the leading developer and supplier of compound nitride semiconductor materials, today announces availability of the world’s first InGaN substrate materials. InGaN is the key compound semiconductor material used for the fabrication of GaN-based ultra violet (UV), blue, green, and white light emitting diodes (LEDs) and blue laser diodes (LDs). InGaN materials serve as the light emitting regions of these light-emitting devices and determine device parameters including efficiency, light output power and lifetime. InGaN substrates are needed to provide material match for InGaN-based device epitaxial structures and to boost device performance.
“Our success with the InGaN epitaxial process exemplifies our business strategy to bring the most advanced substrate materials to the LED and solid-state lighting market at the fastest possible pace,” said Vladimir Dmitriev, President and CEO of TDI. “Since the first demonstration of high quality InGaN materials grown by hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) in 2006, we have been receiving continuous requests from our customers regarding these new products. Today we are pleased to announce the expansion of our substrate materials offering to include InGaN substrates. Support provided by the US Department of Energy and Department of Defense for this product development is greatly appreciated. We view this effort as one of the key components to enable advanced light emitting devices, particularly for solid state lighting applications.”
“No other existing substrates provide such an excellent material match between the substrate and the InGaN-based light emitting epitaxial structure,” added Alexander Syrkin, a senior crystal growth specialist for the company. “Composition of the InGaN can be carefully controlled to produce substrate materials matching customer device structure requests. Crystal lattice and thermal match between the substrate and the overgrown InGaN device has been predicted for a long time to reduce defects in the light emitting regions, increase light emitting efficiency and device lifetime. With these substrates, this is now possible”.
The product
New substrates consist of an InGaN layer deposited on 2-inch GaN/sapphire template. InN content in the InGaN layers ranges from 5 to 20 mol. %. Targeted applications are high brightness UV, blue, and green light emitting devices including light emitting diodes and, potentially, blue and green laser diodes. Currently InGaN template substrates are available in limited quantities. Volume production of InGaN template substrates is scheduled to begin in early 2008. For more information please visit www.tdii.com.
The Process and Fabrication Platforms
InGaN substrates are fabricated using proprietary patented HVPE process. The technology and equipment developed at TDI are the world’s first industrial scale HVPE platforms capable of producing state of the art AlN, GaN, AlGaN, InN, and InGaN epitaxial products with a wide range of deposition rates, various doping levels, wide composition ranges, and low defect densities. Epitaxial materials are manufactured using multi-wafer high throughput patented HVPE equipment developed and built at TDI. The process and equipment is scalable up to 6-inch and larger wafers. All production is run at TDI’s facility in Silver Spring, MD, USA.
Product featuring
TDI will report properties of InGaN substrates at the 4th China International Forum & Exhibition on Solid State Lighting, Shanghai, August 22-24, 2007, and the 1st International Conference on White LEDs and Solid State Lighting, Tokyo, November 26-30, 2007. New InGaN products will be displayed at the 7th International Conference on Nitride Semiconductors, Las Vegas, September 16-21, 2007.
About TDI
The company is a privately owned developer and manufacturer of novel compound semiconductors including GaN, AlN, AlGaN, InN, and InGaN. TDI has developed and commercialized a variety of compound semiconductor materials, primarily for applications in solid state lighting, short wavelength optoelectronics and RF power electronics. For novel development results and TDI’s product list please visit www.tdii.com
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