Print
Email
Print Edition Stories
W. Marc Bernsau
Friday, April 17, 2009
New England's 'White LEDs' mark a beacon of economic hope
By Efrain Viscarolasaga
Google's Summer of Code
Local Motors: Open source car maker
Terrafugia Transition First Flight
As the semiconductor industry continues to wade through the challenging economic times, light-emitting diodes — semiconductors that produce light — are shining brightly. Advances in so-called “white LEDs” are driving the devices into the multibillion-dollar general illumination market, and a handful of New England companies are leading the way.
One of the biggest names in lighting, Osram Sylvania Inc., calls New England home for its solid-state lighting research. Last week, the Danvers company opened a new, multimillion-dollar clean room facility in Beverly, focused on developing new LED technologies for lighting applications.
The facility will employ approximately 100 people, according to officials, and help the company expand its lighting product portfolio. A large part of that research will go into white LEDs for general consumer lighting applications, and the materials needed to make them efficient and marketable to a mass audience, said Matt Stough, a research manager for materials science and analysis at Osram Sylvania.
Besides the new lab, Osram Sylvania has also brought in $2 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop an LED replacement for small halogen spotlight bulbs used in retail and other environments.
Not replacing light bulbs yet
The quest for white LEDs is aimed at replacing traditional consumer lighting products such as incandescent and fluorescent bulbs with semiconductor-based devices. While LEDs are more efficient than current lighting options, they generate considerably more heat in a smaller area and are more expensive. Researchers have been successful in developing some household lighting products using LEDs for new construction, but designing an LED bulb that can screw into a traditional bulb socket at a consumer-friendly cost has yet to materialize.
“We’re a few years from getting products that are as efficient as a direct retrofit fluorescent,” said Alexei Erchak, CTO of Billerica-based LED-maker Luminus Devices Inc. “The parts are there, but they haven’t all been put in an efficient package.”
At the same time, the general lighting market, which includes retail and display lighting, street and municipal lighting and other environments, continues to grow. According to a report released last month by market research firm Strategies Unlimited, the market for general illumination applications is expected to exceed $5 billion in 2012, with a compound growth rate of 28 percent between 2008 and 2012.
That kind of demand has made white LEDs a hot commodity.
“You can’t be a player in the lighting industry without efficient white-lighting products,” said Erchak, whose company has been successful at producing LEDs for a range of applications, such as consumer electronics, but has shifted a lot of its focus to lighting. “Lighting is going to be a big part of our business moving forward.”
Philips Color Kinetics is another local player vying for position in the white LED space. Formed through Netherlands-based Royal Philips Electronics NV’s $688 million acquisition of Boston’s Color Kinetics Inc. in 2007, Philips Color Kinetics in Burlington serves as the company’s LED headquarters.
According to Kevin Dowling, Philips Color Kinetics vice president of innovation, white lighting is not only the company’s fastest-growing segment, but it also holds the largest opportunity, despite the economic downturn.
“The great thing about being in a business like this is that everybody needs lights,” he said. “In the semiconductor industry as a whole, the two bright spots are LEDs and photovoltaics, and Massachusetts is strong in both.”
RSS Feeds
Comments
Please Login/Register to post comments.
No comments have been added or approved.