These are among the findings in Strategies Unlimited’s new report “LED Driver ICs – 2011.” Sales for LCD backlights will dominate through the period, with growth from edge-lit TVs and monitors. LED lighting applications will be the “next big thing” for LED drivers and driver ICs, beginning with LED replacement bulbs, as a response to improvements in technology and the phase-out of incandescent bulbs.

LED driver IC revenues are threatened, however, by continued integration into fewer ICs, as well as by competition from organic LEDs (OLEDs), compact fluorescent lamps, and other technologies.

Severe price erosion for driver ICs will limit the revenue growth as volumes increase, but new, higher-priced ICs are appearing that reduce the overall bill of materials and also help maintain the average price of the ICs.

Also, AC-LED products minimize the driver and some eliminate the driver IC, but will not have a significant impact on overall revenues through the period, and may even help accelerate adoption of LED lighting.

Lighting market

The production value of drivers for lighting will see strong 40% compound annual growth through the period. The driver is defined as the entire LED circuit, including the driver IC but excluding the LEDs. Innovations in driver design will help take LED lighting mainstream, but the market will quickly shake out those who cannot meet strict goals for dimming, efficiency, power factor, and price.

To meet these goals, large and small companies are bringing innovations to market, such as digital control and novel high-voltage designs. Industry and government are moving toward more standardized specifications that will reduce manufacturing costs and accelerate adoption.

The top 10 LED driver IC suppliers hold more than 55% of revenues, with about 30 IC suppliers and captive manufacturers sharing the other 44%. With the acquisition of National Semiconductor by Texas Instruments, TI is now the number one supplier of LED driver ICs. Winners will be those who can keep delivering innovative products at competitive prices. Fabrication with leading-edge, high-voltage BCD processes and 8-inch (or larger) wafers will play a key role.

Report details

“LED Driver ICs – 2011” is the latest in a series of reports from Strategies Unlimited on LEDs and LED lighting. It takes a fresh look at the LED driver electronics market, with more than 300 pages of detail on technology and application trends. It is a revision of an earlier report, with perspectives on the LED applications, driver technology, requirements on the drivers and driver ICs, and findings on suppliers and market shares. It provides unit, price, and revenue forecasts to 2015 for all LED driver IC segments, and for the overall driver for LED lighting.

Following a preliminary installation at the museum beginning in October 2010 and involving multiple manufacturers, Solais Lighting’s 18 Watt PAR 30 Long-Neck LED lamps with 10°, 25°, and 40° beam spread successfully met performance objectives and were selected from a wide field of competitors to participate in next-tier testing, the outcomes of which will be officially monitored by the Department of Energy through the installation’s appointment as a DOE Solid State Lighting GATEWAY Demonstration Project.

Solais Lighting’s PAR30 LED lamps are currently being evaluated by the Smithsonian American Art Museum for their performance in a permanent collection gallery which displays more than a dozen early modernist artworks and a mural by Thomas Hart Benton. Within the room, which features 15-16 foot ceilings, the museum aims to upgrade to a high quality, long-lasting, and more energy-efficient light source than the technology previously installed and is testing the LED lamps’ ability to light the walls flatly and achieve a broad distribution of light on the floors while spotlighting the artwork precisely.

According to Naomi Miller, Senior Lighting Engineer within the Energy and Environment Division at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, “performance criteria include beam spread, color appearance, light output, and the absence of UV or IR that could damage artwork without providing any visual benefit, as well as how the LED lamps fit into the museum’s existing track heads and deliver the desired effect.” As part of the DOE’s GATEWAY initiative, the lamps’ performance will be tracked and documented at several different points over their lifespan.

Solais Lighting’s PAR30 Long-Neck lamps combine the long life and outstanding energy efficiency of LEDs with the high output and intensity of halogen technology, resulting in a high-performance product ideal for track and recessed applications within commercial, museum, retail, hospitality and residential settings. Delivering a CRI of 82 and sporting a rated average life of 50,000 hours, the lamps are fully dimmable, free of hazardous substances such as lead and mercury, and are ETL-certified (certified to UL Standard 1993) and RoHS-compliant.

“We’re delighted to have been selected to participate in such an elite lighting test within one of the most prestigious and discriminating applications in the world,” said James Leahy, president of Solais Lighting. “Through the unique thermal management capabilities enabled by our Luxiance technology, Solais offers the lightest and best-performing LED lamps on the market, delivering superior light quality and higher light output than passively-cooled LED lamps with bulky metal heat sinks. We’re excited to be recognized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum for our cutting-edge lighting technology and to be in consideration for supporting the lighting performance and environmental goals of this national treasure.”

When grilling, it helps to be able to see.

Grilling is all about good times that nobody wants to see come to end. So despite the encroachment of dark, boundaries get pushed as one more item gets thrown on the grill. And then ends up burnt to a crisp because nobody can see when grilling in the dark. Fun in the sun is fun and all, but when the sun goes down, it doesn’t mean the party (or the food) has to end.

The LED Barbeque Grill Light is a heavy-duty model that supplies illumination via 18 LEDs. The 13-inch light mounts horizontally, vertically, or even to angled surfaces up to almost 5 inches thick. The business end of the light is at the end of a flexible gooseneck, allowing for maximum versatility and illumination wherever the light is needed.

Capable of extending the grill session well past the recommended limit (at least as dictated by Mother Nature), the light also features a weatherproof housing. Three D batteries supply the oomph needed to get through the night, and the unit features an automatic shutoff for those who forget. With low heat, bright LEDs supplying the light, and three hefty batteries the power, the oncoming of night doesn’t need to mean the end of the good times–or anymore burnt hot dogs and burgers.

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.

Enjoy instant-on light your home—closet, pantry, shop, garage, basement, garden shed, virtually anywhere! No fumbling for a switch—this battery-powered light detects motion and switches on automatically.

The light is simple to set up and easy to install. And the light comes on instantly and is very bright. Comes on as soon as I round the corner of my house to the front door and it actually brighten the area well.

Having husband with some mental deficiencies from head trauma, he sometimes couldn’t remember how to turn off/on light switches; now no need to worry about him not being able to see when he gets up in the dark; I have not attached them permanently to the wall, just set it on the floor next to baseboard and adjusted with swivel so light shines exactly where we want it.

Probably, though, it’s because whenever I’m in my kitchen, I am pinned beneath the clinical glare of a monstrous 45-by-16-inch fluorescent light fixture situated over my island. Just a few feet away, a second one (22 by 22 inches) stares down from above the sink. The effect is far from soothing, and in fact rather unsettling, as though my kitchen were a morgue and my island an autopsy table.

The good news, as I contemplate a kitchen overhaul in the (hopefully) near future, is that lighting in kitchens has changed a lot since the previous owner of my home remodeled the space some 15 years ago.

Kitchen designer Mary Galloway of Onesta Design in Alexandria agrees, saying she views the kitchen as a place of many scenes set, in large part, by how it is lit. “You think about someone cooking, someone eating, someone snacking at midnight,” Galloway says. ” . . . Your lighting needs change depending on the scene.”

Recessed lighting, which provides the general lighting in many kitchens these days, has come a long way, says designer Jennifer Gilmer of Jennifer Gilmer Kitchen & Bath in Chevy Chase. Most types now use smaller cans than the once-standard six-inch size, and incandescent bulbs have been replaced by more efficient lights.

Indeed, just as we’ve seen the proliferation of tiny, bright LED (light-emitting diode) bulbs on trees and roofs during the holidays, so are these energy-efficient lights making their way into the kitchen, not only in recessed lighting but also in task and accent lights.

More and more kitchens are also adding accent lights — those that draw attention to a particular appliance or decorative piece, the inside of a cabinet, or the so-called toe-kick space just above the floor — though the latter seems to have its detractors. “I would say that 50 percent of our customers love the toe-space lighting, while the other 50 percent see no point in it,” says Anderson. Its primary function (and appeal) is that it can softly light the kitchen at night, he says.

Pendant lights continue to be popular. They are “a good way to add color and some bling,” Anderson says. Gilmer says the sheer variety in styles makes pendant lighting a good option for almost any kitchen. In fact, it was a pendant light that helped solve a puzzle for one of Gilmer’s clients. “This particular person has contemporary tastes, but we needed something that would fit in with the traditional look of their Georgetown brownstone.” In the end she chose a pair of spare, vessel-shaped frosted glass and chrome pendants to hang above the sink and adjacent cream, black and gray mottled granite countertop.

CRS Electronics Ltd. (LED.V) based in Welland, Ont., CRS developed, designed and manufactures solid-state lamps that use light-emitting diodes (LEDs) as their light source. It’s a disruptive technology that’s on the cusp of transforming the estimated US$100 billion global lighting industry. If well designed, LEDs can provide light that is the same as or better than conventional light sources, with significant energy and cost savings. According to Strategies Unlimited, a Mountain View, Calif. research firm, the commercial and industrial market for LED replacement lamps is forecast to roughly double each year through 2013.

CRS, whose roots are in school-bus lights, makes a low-watt MR16 LED replacement lamp that replaces halogen technology. MR16s are widely used for accent, task and display lighting in stores, hotels, restaurants, condominiums, commercial buildings, museums and art galleries.

“We didn’t just want to do LED because it’s green, and it saves energy and costs. It also had to have an aesthetic value, and match up with the coloring of the bulb that was already in the hallways. And that’s what we achieved. The bulb itself was just a better product than I could get anywhere else,” he says.

He’s ordered 500 lamps, and expects a 12-to-14 month return on investment, since each lamp can burn for 50,000 hours.

The commercial market for MR16s is estimated to be about US$2.2 billion, according to industry statistics. It’s such a big market that hundreds of upstarts, primarily from China, are popping up, primarily because the lighting giants, such as GE, are looking further afield. “It’s buyer beware. There’s a lot of misleading information out there,” says Mia Paget, who manages the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solid-state Lighting product testing program, CALiPER.

The CRS MR16 is technologically and aesthetically superior, a claim that’s backed up by the results of both independent laboratory and DOE testing.

In May, CRS went public, listing on the TSX Venture Exchange.

CRS, which installed the LED street lamps in downtown Welland, is eyeing the US$61 billion street and area lighting market, where there was 0% LED penetration in 2008, according to an October 2008 Navigant Consulting report.

“Our doors are open to commercial, industrial and residential consumers who are looking for the best selection of quality LED products to provide energy efficiency and solid state lighting,” says Greg Klepper, CEO of LED Illumination Direct.

LED Illumination Direct’s lights are recyclable, energy efficient and cost effective and emit 90% less heat than a conventional bulb. The LED low emission bulbs can be touched by the human hand, unlike that of incandescent, CFLs, and Fluorescent lights. The showroom is set up where the lights can be touched, held and controlled by anyone present.

“Greg Klepper and LED Illumination Direct produce the highest quality LED products on the market today and are the leaders of the LED lighting industry,” said Anthony Newberg, Senior Vice President Sales & Marketing, Dealers Electrical Supply Company. “Without LED Illumination Direct the lighting industry would not be where it is today.” Dealers Electrical Supply is the authorized distributor in Texas for LED Illumination Direct.

The technologically advanced showroom at LED Illumination Direct displays LED lighting products ranging from LED tube lights, LED high power bulbs and spotlights, LED household lights, LED PAR/Flood lights, LED flexible strips and LED Modules.

LED Lighting Types include:

• High Bay
• High Power Bulb
• Household Bulb
• Low Bay Light
• PAR Light
• Street Lights
• Tube Light
• Bi-Pin Down Light
• Growlights
• Grid Lights
• Wall Washers

Green Mountain Power plans to replace worn-out street lights throughout its service area with energy-efficient, long-lasting LEDs. The LED lights have a life span of more than 25 years, compared to the 5 to 7 years for traditional street lamp bulbs.

LEDs are traditionally used in Christmas tree lights, newer flash lights and basketball scoreboards. They use a different technology from standard incandescent bulbs.

“By reducing the amount of electricity that you use by more than half, it eliminates any environmental effects that will be needed to produce that power,” said Dotty Schnure of GMP. “Also, with the lights they’ll be replacing, mercury lights, those lights have mercury in them and have very specific disposal issues. With LED, we’ll be avoiding all the mercury disposal issues.”

GMP submitted the plan to the Vermont Public Service Board. If approved, the lights could be installed as early as March 1.