The 8801 chip is small–about the size of a penny–and will be about the same price as existing LED lighting electronics. If Marvell signs on light manufacturer customers, it could bring the very good light quality of some commercial LEDs to more affordable consumer products, said Kishore Manghnani, vice president of Marvell’s Communications and Consumer business. He said the chip, which integrates multiple functions on this single controller chip, is being tested by commercial or consumer light fixture makers now and it takes them about six months to introduce products with new chips.

Light quality for consumer LED bulbs has improved over the past few years but the color rending index (CRI), a measure of quality, is still not as high as incandescent bulbs. With the chip, Manghnani said a CRI of 95, higher than most of the consumer LED bulbs available now, is possible.

The chip can control the current and temperature of two types of LED light sources. So a fixture or bulb maker could use the chip and driver to use LEDs with two different colors, such as white and red, to improve color rendering. Until now, the electronics to control different colored LEDs would be too large or expensive for consumer products, Manghnani said.

LED lighting company Cree is taking on the overhead fluorescent lights that are a fixture of office buildings with a light source it says will quickly recoup the investment.

The company today announced a new line of “architectural troffers,” or rectangular-shaped fixtures designed for overhead lighting. The troffers use Cree’s LED light sources, which offer a longer life and improved efficiency over fluorescent lights, according to the company.

Cree LED light sources in the overhead fixtures.

The fixtures offer a white light with an efficiency of 110 lumens per watt and a color rendering index, a measure of light quality, of 90. The lights can be dimmed and are designed to last 50,000 hours, which would be more than 10 years at 12 hours a day. The fixtures have a thermal management system designed for long life.

Design services company O’Brien/Atkins Associates said in a statement that the measuring efficiency over the full product life cycle, including sizing, heating and cooling, and disposal, can be cut lighting costs by 60 percent.

Using the national average for electricity prices of 10 cents a kilowatt-hour, Cree calculates that the payoff of office upgrades to LEDs can be less than one year to replace typical fluorescent tubes. Because of the higher upfront cost of LED lighting technology, consumer adoption of LED bulbs is expected to be slower than that of commercial customers.

I never thought much about how I could give my aching eyes a break until Antec’s “soundscience bias lighting halo 6 LED kit” showed up in my mailbox. That’s a long lowercase name for a long strip of USB-powered LED lighting. The $12.95 kit just launched today.

It’s a pretty simple concept. You remove the adhesive backing and slap the strip onto the back of your monitor. It’s good for up to a 24-inch display. Plug it into a USB port and it emanates with a gentle glow from behind your monitor. The LEDs can be pretty subtle, especially with daylight streaming through a nearby window. As it gets darker, the effect is more pronounced.

Monitors with built-in LED backlights have been around for a bit. The Apple LED Cinema Display is a prominent example. What’s new with the halo 6 kit is the idea of adding your own LEDs after the fact to any old monitor you have hanging around.

I’ll admit, my eyes did seem to feel a little better than usual after a few days of using the halo 6. I can’t offer up any hard scientific proof, but there’s something comforting about having a display that glows from behind. I’m thinking of attaching some little feathery cherub wings to complete the look.

I can see the halo 6 kit becoming part of gamers’ arsenals. Gaming computers have long been at the forefront when it comes to components that glow. A little light can be helpful if you like to spend hours in a darkened room blasting aliens off of their home planets.

I can’t help but think of other ways this LED gadget could be put to work. Landing strip lights for an RC helicopter would be cool. Spruce up your office with a little mood lighting. I successfully hooked it up to my iPad 2 using the USB adapter from the Apple Camera Connection Kit. Tinkerers could have a blast coming up with creative side projects.

GE believes that the modules address a problem in some professional lighting applications, which is that designers remain reticent about specifying LED everywhere in their schemes, with one critical reason being the difficulty in servicing and upgrading the luminaires.

The Infusion module is designed to be upgraded as required, since it can be connected to the luminaire body with a simple twist-lock mechanism, which provides the necessary thermal, electrical and mechanical connectivity.

The easy interchangeability has other benefits too. “One luminaire will accept a complete range of LED modules,” explains Phil Marshall, President & CEO for EMEA at GE Lighting. “This overcomes the inflexibility of integrated luminaires, giving retailers the ability to vary color temperatures, beam angles and light packages by simply swapping modules.”

At the launch event, attendees viewed a range of high-quality ProSpex downlights from Lucent Lighting which are built using the GE modules.

Attendees also learned a new term, “hot-swap protection,” which refers to protection against the surge current experienced when the LED module is connected to a live driver. The modules also have an onboard thermal protection feature that turns off the LEDs if the module gets too hot.

Thermal management is a key issue for the modules, especially when the output can reach 3000 lm. GE is working with various partners for both active and passive cooling solutions, namely AVC for heat sinks, Sunon for fans and Nuventix for synthetic jets. The performance figures quoted for the modules are recorded at a temperature of 65°C measured at a dedicated measurement point on the rear of the module.

GE is also offering an “Infusion Ultra” version, with a color rendering index (CRI) of 90, combined with 2-step color consistency, compared with a CRI of 80 and a 4-step color range. GE is using packaged LEDs from Cree, and uses a precise mix of different LEDs from different bins in each module to give the desired light output. This is the same approach used by Cree in its own EasyWhite LEDs.

The GE modules are designed to run from external electronic control gear. GE is in the process of qualifying a number of LED drivers as being compatible with its modules, from driver partners including AEG, Harvard Engineering, IST Ltd, Lightech, Roal Electronics and TCI. The 1100-lm and 1500-lm modules contain single LED strings and operate from 700 mA, while the 2000-lm and 3000-lm modules have two strings and require 1400 mA.

Unlike earlier versions, the modules are supplied without integrated optics. From May 2011 the modules will have an optical interface that will allow the attachment of reflectors via a twist-lock mechanism. GE plans to introduce a series of optical accessories with a range of beam angles in categories including spot, flood, wide flood and extra-wide flood.

Researchers at the University of California in Irvine and Davis crushed LED bulbs from strands of Christmas lights and found that the red ones had up to eight times the amount of lead allowed under California law, while the other colours bulbs had even more contaminants. White bulbs contained the least lead, but they had high levels of nickel, said researcher Oladele Ogunseitan, chair of the university’s department of population health and disease prevention.

“LEDs are touted as the next generation of lighting. But as we try to find better products that do not deplete energy resources or contribute to global warming, we have to be vigilant about the toxicity hazards of those marketed as replacements,” he said in a statement.

The report is the first to look for toxic chemicals in LEDs, he added.

His team also studied larger LED bulbs in everything from traffic lights to headlights in cars. But the results, which are similar to the Christmas lights, have not been published yet.

LED lights have been widely hailed as a safer, more green choice compared to fluorescent bulbs, which contain mercury. Ogunseitan said he sent his findings to U.S. health regulators to warn them of potential dangers consumers could be facing.

LEDs are not classified as toxic products and there aren’t any disposal regulations, although the scientists now urge consumers to use gloves, a mask and a broom when they handle broken LED lights. Manufacturers and emergency crews who clean broken traffic lights should treat the LEDs as hazardous waste, they said.

The lead and other metals in the bulbs have been linked to hundreds of previous studies that look at cancer, neurological damage, kidney disease, skin rashes and other sicknesses, his team writes in their report, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

Inhaling the fumes of a single broken light would not lead to cancer, but it could be a “tipping point” on top of chronic exposure to other carcinogens, the report warns.

It said that the copper used in some LEDs is also an ecological threat to fish, rivers and lakes.

“Risks are present in all parts of the lights and at every stage during production, use and disposal . . . consumers, manufacturers and first responders to accident scenes ought to be aware of this,” Ogunseitan said in the statement.

The LEDs could be redesigned so they’re made of safer materials, he said, calling the concern a “preventable risk.”

Strategies Unlimited predicted that the global market for LED light fixtures would grow to $8.3 billion (£5.1 billion), up from £3.8 billion in 2010.

This represents a compound annual growth rate of 22 per cent.

The report listed a number of factors driving increased take-up of LED lighting.

They included improvements in the performance and price of commercially available LEDs and growing awareness of the importance of energy efficiency.

Fiscal stimulus measures undertaken by numerous countries and the phasing out of incandescent light bulbs have also played a part.

Meanwhile, lighting designer Victoria Lee has predicted that the LED lighting market will grow with “reckless abandon” in the year ahead.

“LEDs are getting so much better, and the market is flooded with them so there are so many to choose from,” she remarked.

Rapid Electronics is a leading supplier of LEDs and optoelectronic components, and the main UK distributor of Kingbright LEDs.

The University of California at Irvine last week published results of a study into the materials used for LEDs in Christmas tree lights and car brake lights and headlights. After crushing these types of lights, researchers measured the contents and found they contained varying amounts of toxic materials, including lead and arsenic.

“What our study showed clearly was that some LED lights qualify as hazardous waste, depending on color and light intensity, according to federal (US EPA) regulations, and State (California) regulations. The red, low intensity fixtures that we tested exceeded lead (Pb) standards for California regulation by about 8 times, and exceed the federal regulations by about 35 times,” said Oladele Ogunseitan, chair of UC Irvine’s Department of Population Health & Disease Prevention via e-mail.

Right now, these products are not classified as hazardous waste, but Ogunseitan recommended that people dispatched to clean up vehicle collisions use protective gear. Homeowners should also wear gloves and masks in the case of clean-up. The copper used in some LEDs can pose health hazards to river and lake ecosystems as well if disposed of in a landfill.

Ogunseitan said that the move to LED lighting is a case in which there should be mandatory product replacement testing. He claims that the potential environmental health impacts were not sufficiently tested before manufacturers put them in products as a replacement for incandescent bulbs.

Recycling recommended for large LEDs
Large LEDs bulbs with a screw-in bottom designed for home use are just coming onto the market as replacements for 40-watt or 60-watt incandescent bulbs. In addition to good efficiency and long life, these bulbs are marketed as an improvement over compact florescent bulbs because they don’t contain mercury. CFLs can be returned to many retail stores or municipal hazardous waste handling services for recycling.

When LED maker Cree introduced an LED bulb it expects to come out later this year, I asked about toxins and disposal. Cree vice president of marketing Greg Merritt said that there were no hazardous materials used in its bulb and that it is expected to comply with the ROHS European hazardous material directive.

UC Irvine’s Ogunseitan is testing large LED bulbs but has not yet published the results. “However, I can say that precautionary principle supports not throwing this in the regular trash for landfills,” he said.

Last month, I asked the Department of Energy about hazardous materials and large LED bulbs designed for home use. A representative said that, in general, these LED bulbs do not contain toxic chemicals in any significant amount. She added that consumers will face disposal only a few times in their lives given the long projected life of LEDs, which could be over 20 years, but it’s best for consumers to recycle them.

“That said, like most consumer electronics, at the end of their useful life, LEDs contain materials that are both valuable and recyclable. Where available, LEDs should be recycled using municipal recycling programs,” she said.

Originally lighting the Ball with specially designed halogen “Millennium” bulbs to mark the century passage from 1999 to 2000, Philips converted the Times Square Ball to all Philips LUXEON® LEDs (light emitting diodes) in 2007-2008 to mark the Ball’s milestone 100th anniversary. The Ball was upgraded to higher-power, more energy-efficient LUXEON LEDs yet again in 2008-2009 when the ball was doubled in size. Today’s Ball is lit all year round and uses just 12 percent of the energy that would have been required to light it with the original technology.

The Ball benefits from Philips’ unmatched investment in LED technology, with its modules lasting about 30,000 hours and using just 22 watts of electricity. If the Ball were still lit with Halogen lamps, it would use 1.1 million KWh, whereas the new LED Ball uses just 140,000. In addition, these LED modules will last years, compared with months for the halogens which they replace, drastically reducing the amount of maintenance and re-lamping required by the Ball. This same LED technology is available to consumers through Philips’ AmbientLED line, which includes such innovations as the world’s first 60 watt LED equivalent lamp, the Philips AmbientLED 12 watt.

At a Glance: Times Square Ball Lighting Facts

* As a result of being lit by Philips LEDs,
- The Ball will consume only the same amount of energy per hour as it takes to operate just two traditional home ovens. (Source: U.S. Department of Energy – Consumer Appliance Energy Use)
- The numerals will consume the same amount of energy per hour as it takes to operate just one 40 gallon home water heater. (Source: U.S. Department of Energy – Consumer Appliance Energy Use)
* The Ball is lit by 32,256 Philips LUXEON® LEDs, each of which can be digitally controlled to create extraordinary effects.
* Red, green, blue and white LEDs in the Ball create a palette of more than 16 million vivid, vibrant, and highly-saturated colors as well as billions of possible lighting effects.
* The LED lighting in the Ball has a rated average life of 30,000 hours, compared to the roughly 1,000 hour life span of previous incandescent and halogen solutions. This is especially important as the Ball is now lit year-round.
* The light source in the Ball is 88% more energy efficient than in previous years, requiring only 22 watts of power for Philips’ red, green, blue, and white LUXEON LEDs to produce the same amount of light output as it took 180 watts of incandescent light bulbs to produce in previous years. This represents a 158-watt (or 88%) reduction in electricity consumption per four-color series.
* The Ball features waterproof modules and connections as well as the ability to passively dissipate heat. Each LED in the ball has its own specific address, enabling a level of two-way communication and digital controllability never before possible.
* LEDs demand far less electricity than incandescent or halogen technology by delivering an equivalent level of light output with significantly fewer watts of power. This reduces the amount of electricity that utilities will have to generate, which helps avoid the airborne emission of such hazardous pollutants as CO2, mercury and sulfur dioxide – all by-products of the electricity generation process.
* Whereas incandescent and halogen bulbs may be subject to failure if dropped or bounced, LEDs can withstand vibration and shock, delivering superior durability.
* Philips LEDs are lead and mercury-free as well as RoHS-compliant (a European standard known as “reduction of hazardous substances”).

+ Backgrounder “Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball”

About Royal Philips Electronics

Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) is a diversified health and well-being company, focused on improving people’s lives through timely innovations. As a world leader in healthcare, lifestyle and lighting, Philips integrates technologies and design into people-centric solutions, based on fundamental customer insights and the brand promise of “sense and simplicity”. Headquartered in the Netherlands, Philips employs more than 118,000 employees in more than 60 countries worldwide. With sales of EUR 23 billion in 2009, the company is a market leader in cardiac care, acute care and home healthcare, energy efficient lighting solutions and new lighting applications, as well as lifestyle products for personal well-being and pleasure with strong leadership positions in flat TV, male shaving and grooming, portable entertainment and oral healthcare.