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Cree Gets COO
LIGHTimes Staff
August 19, 2008... Cree Inc. of Durham, North Carolina USA, reported that Steve Kelley will join the company as executive vice president and chief operating officer, effective today. Previously, Kelley served as VP of the Standard Linear and Logic Group at Texas Instruments. Prior to working at Texas Instruments for five years, Kelley held various management positions at Philips Semiconductor for ten years. “Steve's breadth of experience and track record of success in the semiconductor business will be a strong addition to the Cree leadership team as we drive the adoption of energy-efficient LED lighting,” said Chuck Swoboda, Cree chairman and chief executive officer. The new position comes after the company posted record revenues for the quarter and for the year. The new position appears to be part of the company’s strategy to delve further into the LED luminaire market. Company News Release
Koito to Debut Low-Priced LED Headlights Next Year
LIGHTimes Staff
August 19, 2008...Koito Mfg. Co., Japan's largest maker of automotive lighting, plans to release a line of low-priced LED headlights beginning in 2009, according to a Nikkei Net article. The company releasing car headlights based on LEDs in 2007, however, the price of the headlights was nearly three times that of typical incandescent or halogen headlights. The LED headlights were only adopted in high-end luxury vehicles, but did not catch on in the low to mid-range vehicles. The company chose to redesign its headlights with two or three high-output LEDs instead of five, and a lower number of peripheral parts... LIGHTimes SecondPage members login for more. Guests can view membership details.
Duracell Introduces Brighter LED-based Flashlight
LIGHTimes Staff
August 19, 2008...Duracell a division of the Procter & Gamble company most commonly associated with batteries, has announced a new LED-based flashlight that it is calling the Duracell Daylite. The company says that the Daylite with its patented TrueBeam technology forms a whiter beam than any flashlight on the market. The company says that it is the “... first in a new line of flashlights that are durable enough to be used in the harshest of environments and compact enough to take into any space.”
The main technology difference in the flashlight is not the LED bulb itself, but the optics. The company touts its TrueBeam technology, which it says captures, focuses, and projects more light than the typical LED and bulb technologies in stores. The optical settings allow users to transform the flashlight from a focused spotlight to a floodlight.
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Near-Infrared LEDs Aid in Contrasting Tumors During Surgery
LIGHTimes Staff
August 19, 2008...Cancer surgeons have had to operate blindly with no real-time images of where tumors are. They can use MRI’s for reference, but they cannot take MRI’s during surgery. They therefore do not know whether a tumor has been completely removed or not. Researchers in Massachusetts have created a device and a method which can provide real-time images of the tumors. The research was presented at the 236th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS).The device is in early clinical trials.
The device is called the Fluorescence-Assisted Resection and Exploration (FLARE) device. The portable system has reportedly been under development for the past decade. It consists of a near-infrared (NIR) imaging system, a video monitor, and a computer. According to the researchers, the system uses chemical dyes, called NIR fluorophores, that are designed to target specific structures such as cancer cells when the dyes are injected into patients. The contrast agents light up the cancer cells when they are exposed to NIR light from LEDs. The lit up cancer cells are shown on a video monitor, and images of these "glowing" cancer cells are then superimposed over images of the normal surgical field.
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What We Would Do
Tom Griffiths - Publisher
August 21, 2008...Trust me, when it comes to LED lighting, and the solid state lighting industry in general, we don't have all the answers. But we do have the opportunity to listen, absorb and synthesize the information that is coming our way from all levels of the industry, whether it is materials and equipment, LED chips and lamps, or modules and luminaires; so here are some semi-cohesive thoughts that are passing in, through and around us on how to get to some of the answers.
If you have clients or prospects, get them informed. If they are within driving distance of New Jersey, for instance, tell them they need to be at the SSLdesign Summit for August 26 & 27 (next Tuesday and Wednesday, as of the time of this writing). Is this merely a shameless plug for this first of its kind conference whose goal is to bring together the top tiers of the SSL "food chain" (lighting specifiers/designers, luminaire manufacturers and enablers)? Nope. It's a plug for the industry. If an LED luminaire or module provider is worth their stuff, they need better informed customers who will demand the complete answer, and by so doing, will separate "the wheat from the chaff" and avoid committing to inferior products or suppliers.
Our speculation, backed up by everyone we've discussed it with, is that probably less than 10% of the LED-based luminaire models that are offered for sale right now could be considered "high quality". Ouch. In many instances, the issue might be how the luminaire is used, or how a perfectly great SSL "module" ends up being implemented in the full-up luminaire (starved for cooling air, missing consideration for its directionality, etc.). Regardless of the reason for the miss, consider this analogy: How would a key specifier, such as an automotive fleet buyer, approach the situation where 90% of the cars offered weren't going to last the first year? Would they simply not buy cars (and shut down their fleet operations) or would they get more educated than they really prefer to be, and take market share from the companies that stuck with the horse and buggy?
Latch on to understanding and implementing what is happening with the US Department of Energy-driven portion of Energy Star program for SSL. Late last week, the DOE did what they had said they were going to do by adding in specification elements that covered more general purpose and residential types of fixtures. Here's a quick timeline for those that missed out on some of the most recent happenings: September 12, 2007- DOE announces a finalized spec for SSL products in the commercial/industrial market, stating "DOE will monitor the technical progress of the technology, steadily adding additional Category A products in future versions."; Mar 21 - DOE announces the additional categories to be added; May 15 - DOE hosts a stakeholder's meeting in Washington DC to discuss the additional proposed specs; June - EPA announces a hastily drawn up, secretly contrived, "technical amendment" to the existing CFL-based residential lighting fixture spec in apparent hopes of capturing some territory in the SSL arena that the DOE had already stated it was addressing; July - the industry objects and undertakes a number of complaints to the EPA over the lack of an open process, wasteful practices and overlapping and ineffective specifications; August - the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) investigation of the EPA's actions is launched (and we still haven't gotten a promised call back from the EPA folks); August 15 - DOE announces the draft amendments to the SSL specification that add criteria for residential light fixtures and opens the formal comment period, just like they said they would. Shorter summary: After the DOE announced it's general plans last year, and followed up with the specifics early this year, the EPA tried to preempt those plans with a hack specification they could call their own. The only way to accomplish that was to keep it hidden until it was announced "as a final specification with immediate effectivity".
So how to sort out the new criteria? Perhaps finding a way to be in New Jersey August 26 & 27 to hear from Jeff McCullough, who is a key part of the implementation team for the DOE Energy Star SSL specifications with Pacific Northwest National Labs would help...
Understand where the middle market is going, so you have a clear picture of the technology paths that will change how we light our world. Partnerships are going to be forming up left and right as implementers (luminaire providers) rush to connect with LED lighting enablers who have the expertise and intellectual property that the "luminairies" need to succeed. There's not a lot of room for additional LED manufacturers or packagers, but there is plenty of innovation space available at the luminaire level, if you can find a partner. So how do you find out the motivations, intentions and directions of those mid-market enablers? Maybe finding a way to be in New Jersey August 26 & 27 to hear from Govi Rao, CEO of Lighting Science Group, which appears to have a bit of an appetite for good IP and market channels, as witnessed by their recent acquisitions, including Lamina Lighting. And whether you're a lighting artist (designer) or a "metal bender", there will be plenty to shake up one's preconceived notions of how lights need to work. After changing the game in the projection TV and now projector and backlighting markets with their innovative "Phlatlight" technology, Luminus Devices will likely mess with us some more as they offer up new approaches to general lighting. Why put a light source behind a shade when the shade could be the light source..? And it can change color too.
Grab a piece of the bigger vision. You have to know the "why" that's beyond simply the money. Filling real needs creates reward, but you don't create the reward without the need. At this year's Summit, Jed Dorsheimer, who serves as a lighting advisor to the Clinton Foundation's Climate Initiative and is championing the "sustainable technology marketplace" as a Principal with Canaccord Adams, will share some of the global "big picture" of why we all need to care about solid state lighting. He'll bring specific numbers, along with a heart for being involved in a technology space that has just scratched the surface of its global impact.
It's a "wow" of an agenda, and everyone there will come away with some key nuggets that will make a difference in their business.
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