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LabSphere Releases Forward Flux Lamp Standards for Light Measurement System Calibration
LIGHTimes Staff
December 18, 2008...LabSphere of North Sutton, New Hampshire USA reports that makers of LEDs, LED fixtures, and LED displays can now calibrate their spectral or luminous flux measurement systems with with the new Forward Flux Lamp standards from LabSphere. According to LabSphere, its entirely new proprietary technology provides an exceptional artifact for maintaining and verifying integrating sphere spectrometer calibration with a highly reliable standard calibrated directly to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) lumen. The Foward Flux Lamp Standards are available in 400 and 1000 lumen models. LabSphere says that they can be used to calibrate integrating sphere spectrometers for total forward spectral radiant flux responsivity from 350 nm to 1050 nm. The lamp standards are designed to meet the recommended practices of the Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) LM-79 for measurements of solid state lighting. LabSphere News Release, LIGHTimes SecondPage members login for more. Guests can view membership details.
Permlight for Signs Expands Internationally; Names Sales Manager for UK
LIGHTimes Staff
December 16, 2008...Permlight for Signs, a division of Permlight Products, Inc., of Tustin, California USA, announced that it has expanded to the United Kingdom to manage increased demand for LED signage solutions from overseas customers. The company named Guy Young as national sales manager for the United Kingdom to support the expansion. Company News Release, LIGHTimes SecondPage members login for more. Guests can view membership details.
Cypress Design Software Supports Nichia Power LEDs
LIGHTimes Staff
December 16, 2008...Cypress Intelligent Lighting Solutions announced that its PSoC Designer 5.0 visual design software now supports designs using the Power LED series from Nichia. According to the Cypress, its software with the aid of the CY3265N-RGB evaluation kit allows easy module and luminaire design in which users can input the selected Power device; select bin specifications through easy-to-use, drop-down menus; and choose a color, including white - without having to write a single line of firmware. The company contends that its software saves lighting designers from having to be experts in LED binning and temperature specifications. The company indicated that the software allows lighting designers to focus on their main concern, the desired lighting effects. LIGHTimes SecondPage members login for more. Guests can view membership details.
Supertex Offers LED Driver with Hysteretic Control
LIGHTimes Staff
December 16, 2008...Supertex, Inc., of Sunnyvale, California USA, has introduced an LED driver designed to drive LEDs using a buck topology. According to the company, the HV9919, a pulse-width managed (PWM) controller integrated circuit (IC), is well suited for solid-state lighting applications, such as: industrial, architectural, signage, or decorative lighting; indicator or emergency lighting; and those requiring a general purpose constant current source.
The green and RoHS compliant HV9919 reportedly has a hysteretic control function that maintains its output current between a fixed minimum and maximum level at all times, ensuring that the LED current will not change, despite surges in the input conditions. Company News Release,
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Watchfire Digital Outdoor Installs Over 100 LED-based Billboards in Less Than Two Years
LIGHTimes Staff
December 16, 2008...Watchfire Digital Outdoor, a maker of LED-based billboards with headquarters in Danville, Illinois USA, reports that the company has made over 100 in less than two years. The company says that the sales milestone was reached with a combination of new sales and returning customers. Watchfire notes that some customers who started as digital billboard buyers became repeat customers after experiencing the satisfaction of owning one of the company's quality LED-based billboards.
One such repeat customer is Drury Southwest Signs (DSW Signs) of Cape, Giradeau, Missouri USA. DSW Signs was Watchfire's first billboard customer. Then, about two years later, the company ordered three additional 19mm, poster-sized boards for installation in Missouri and Southern Illinois. DSW Signs purchased their first two digital billboards from Watchfire because of their rugged design and industry-wide reputation, built over the years in the on-premise LED sign business. Watchfire News Release,
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Researchers Demonstrate Monolithic WLED Based on Quantum Wells
LIGHTimes Staff
December 11, 2008...Benjamin Damilano and a group of researchers of the CRHEA-CNRS in Valbonne Sophia-Antipolis, France, have reportedly created quantum well-based white LEDs (WLEDs). In research published in Applied Physics Letters, the group of scientists was able to create WLEDs using gallium, indium nitride/gallium nitride quantum wells. In their unique design, the white light is created when the light from a blue emitter and a yellow/green emitter combines. The CNRS team and others demonstrated that monolithic WLEDs can be made from stacking blue and yellow/green emitting (GaIn)N/GaN quantum wells inside a GaN p-n junction. Instead of the epitaxial growth plus the deposition of a light converter such as a phosphor, the researchers' new WLEDs required only epitaxial growth run. The researchers speculate that such a design could bring down the costs of producing white LEDs, and increase their reliability and perhaps their performance. Applied Physics Letters Article Abstract LIGHTimes SecondPage members login for more. Guests can view membership details.
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Light Up The World Doing Good Work
Tom Griffiths - Publisher
December 18, 2008...As we mention on our SSL Design home page introduction, almost 2 billion people in the world live without access to electricity. Many rely on kerosene fuel as a source of light in their homes, an expensive, inadequate and unhealthy solution (inhaling the toxic fumes can be equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes a day for the people living in the house!). One organization doing great work to address this is the Light Up the World (www.lutw.org). Through partnerships with a variety of organizations across the globe, LUTW works to install solar powered LED lighting for people living in off-grid communities. We've written a bit about them from time to time, and in the spirit of the holiday season, we felt it appropriate to share a few of their program updates.
Project Profile: Sierra Leone
The Sierra Leone Lighting for Education Project is an initiative that will enhance opportunities for education in the Koinadugu district of Sierra Leone. This project involves the installation of solar panels and 110 LED luminaires in schools and literacy centers, including a community library. In total, lighting systems will be installed in six buildings which house education programs in Kabala, the capital city of the Koinadugu district in Northwestern Sierra Leone.
This project is complementing CAUSE Canada's education programs in the community of Kabala. The schools and literacy centers that will receive the solar lighting systems will support the education of over 1200 school children in three schools, 50 teachers and community facilitators, 700 women taking part in an adult literacy project and over 1000 people who use the community library. Currently, all education programs take place during the day and end at around six o'clock in the evening once the sun goes down. As lighting becomes available, these spaces will be available after dark and to enhance the lives of the people of Kabala.
The Sierra Leone Lighting for Education Project is a joint initiative between Light Up The World, Philips, and CAUSE Canada. The Environmental Foundation for Africa (EFA) and SunEnergy Power International are also partners in this project. Installations have already taken place in the community library, two schools and the literacy program's administration office. Installation work will continue on the final two buildings in 2009. As of the last update, LUTW still requires $15,000 CDN to complete the final phase for the Sierra Leone project. For further inquiries about the Sierra Leone project, please contact j.kohlhammer@lutw.org or visit the LUTW projects site.
LUTW Partner Profile: The Environmental Foundation for Africa
The Environmental Foundation for Africa (EFA) was founded in 1992 in the United Kingdom, with a primary focus on Sierra Leone. The Solar Initiative is EFA's newest large scale project line and began in 2007. Their first major project was conducted in concert with the United Nation's High Council for Refugees and consisted of installations at five medical clinics and seven schools in areas with a high concentration of refugees, internally displaced persons and/or returnees in Liberia. Since then, EFA has continued to expand its photovoltaic program, conducting numerous other installations across Sierra Leone and 'greening' its own operations by going solar at its Lakka compound and the Tiwai Island site it jointly manages.
The installation of solar power systems has reportedly had a great impact on the areas they serve. The clinics, which each support communities of between 10,000 and 80,000 people, are now completely free from costly generator running costs and have vastly increased service. The schools can now operate classes at night, giving a much wider variety of people the choice of an education and training outside of working hours. EFA is also playing an instrumental role in LUTW's Sierra Leone project with contributing roles in project planning, solar system design and layout, procurement, system installation, and training the local community on system usage and maintenance. To learn more about EFA, please see their contact information below: Sierra Leone Website at www.efasl.org.uk
The Gift of Light
Recently, LUTW has developed a new giving program to help illuminate lives and let you connect a little better to where your gift is serving. There is still time to give the gift of light as part of the Light Up a Home for the Holidays campaign. What better way to reflect the season than to bring modern lighting to a family in the developing world that has never before had access to electricity. A gift of $250 CDN, enables LUTW to provide a solar-powered LED lighting system to a family in need. In return, you or the person whom you have donated on behalf of, will receive a card with details about the people served by your generosity, including the GPS coordinates of their location. Gifts can be made online through their secure website at the program link above. Pass the promise of LED lighting along! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all!
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