International LED Wafer Manufactures Differ in View Over Future Industry Direction

Industry representatives for CREE, Lumileds, and Nichia held a conference at this week’s LED Show in Las Vega, Nevada over the future development of LED lighting. The conference touched on whether or not LEDs could continue advancing at the same pace in terms of lumen output and efficiency as they have over the past several years. The focus of the conference however turned towards meeting solid-state lighting (SSL) system quality and cost goals for different LED technologies.

The speakers at the presentation for “What’s Inside - Latest News on LED Chip Technology” included Cree’s product marketing manager Paul Scheidt; Nichia product marketing manager Erik Swenson; and Philips Lumileds regional marketing manager for the Americas Chad Stalker, all whom had different takes on how the future direction of LED and SSL systems.

Stalker from Philips Lumileds expressed that the future for advancement in efficiency will be at the system level rather than the component level with slow but continuing improvements, adding that “LED systems will continue to drive the improvement.” He mainly focused on how advancements at the component level and outside of efficacy can improve both the efficiency of the entire system as well as delivery an improved quality of light. He stated that the key is in the mixture of better red LEDs with phosphor-converted white LEDs. He also touched on the trend in color-tunable products, such as lime-green LEDs used in Philips Hue lamps.

Representative for Nichia, Swenson focused more on mid-power LEDs during the conference. He stated that mid-power components have a faster rate of improvement in efficacy than high-power devices and offer better quality and aesthetics which satisfy a wider range of application requirements. He also mentioned that high-power devices cannot compare to the economy of scale advantage of the mid-power devices. Using the Nichia 757 LED as an example, Sweson said that there is a wide range of application, going from streetlights to retrofit lamps to display backlights to automotive applications, providing an increasing cost advantage. Mid-power LEDS also offer outstanding profits and higher yield. 

Similarly with Stalker, Cree representative Paul Scheidt focused on the system-level problem. Early in his presentation, Scheidt said that the problem lies more with drivers, thermals, and optics than it does with system costs for LEDs. The cost percentage for LEDs within the SSL system has indeed been slowly dropping over the past few years. He listed several different methods for solving the cost issue by using different types of LEDs and system frameworks. He believes that AC-LED technology has the ability to take the cost of the driver out of the overall cost. That being said, he also states that AC-drive designs require more LEDs due to LEDs not all being driven at the same time. He also states that the blinking problem with the AC system cannot be solved and the EMI problem needs an additional driver circuit to be resolved. Back on the topic of mid-power LEDs, Scheidt states that the LED shift in color is not satisfactory. The problem is that if you drive the LEDs hard, it limits the quantity of LEDs within the system. The comments Scheidt makes on mid-power devices were mainly directed towards plastic packaged LEDs. It’s worth noting that Nichia’s 757 LED uses ceramic-composite packaging. The company has not revealed many details but Swenson has mentioned previously that the product provides lumen and color maintenance that is equal to that of high-powered LEDs.

At the end of his presentation, Scheidt concluded that applications such as retrofit lamps, high-voltage, high-powered LEDs are able to provide the best method at the system-level. He believes that these components simplify the design of the driver as well as fulfill the application requirements of light distribution and quality. Streetlights, ceiling troffers, and other SSL products that employ large numbers of single-emitter LEDs have consistently had high-voltage designs at the driver level, making them successful and have innovative system efficacy within the SSL-industry.

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