Technology

• Overview
• Standard LED Platforms
• Thermal Management
• Electrical Compatibility
• Human Factors
• Reliability
• Manufacturing
• The OPTO Approach

Overview

LED Lighting Technology Overview

LEDs are an essential solution for highly cost-effective, energy-efficient, next-generation illumination applications. Decades of LED research and development has dramatically improved light efficiency and lowered chip costs across the visible spectrum—today LEDs are viable for lighting applications ranging from appliances to major building retrofits to new construction.

However, LEDs have historically been used as “points of light” in non-illumination applications such as panel indicators. The lighting market’s drive to replace incandescent bulbs and the fluorescent tubes require LEDs to be used in an entirely new way. In our opinion, for LEDs to realize their potential in energy savings and efficiencies for lighting applications, several things need to happen:

• Standard LED-based platforms need to be introduced and adopted by the market—similar to the standardization of traditional light bulbs. These can, in turn, be customized for specialized applications.
• Technology improvements to LED lighting systems themselve
  • Improvements in thermal management of the LED
  • Better compatibility of LED-based lighting with existing lighting electrical systems
  • Improvements in the optics and “human factors” of LED-based lighting: color temperature, viewability, and impact on the human eye.
  • Improved designs that really deliver the LED’s inherent reliability
• Manufacturing improvements that deliver Six Sigma quality levels.
• An integrated approach that blends the technology requirements of LEDs with the needs of the lighting industry.