LED the Sunshine In

After a relatively slow start, LED lamps are now becoming affordable, and domestic LED lighting is about to take off. It is expected that by 2020, more than 65 to 70% of all lighting will use LED lamps or LED modules. The manufacturing process for LED lamps is based on SMT, and this month’s column explains some of manufacturing’s special requirements.

To save energy and limit carbon emissions related to lighting energy, the EU has legislated to ban incandescent lamps. Starting in 2009 with 100-watt lamps, all incandescent lamps were phased out of the market by the end of 2012. Customers have three options to replace them: improved efficiency (halogen) incandescent lamps, energy-saving fluorescent lamps, or LEDs (the benefits of LEDs make them clear favorites for most domestic lighting).

In the early days, drop-in replacement LED lamps did not come up to customer expectations. Luminous flux and light color (too cold) were disappointing, and prices were high (up to US$52 for a 60-watt equivalent). The promised long (50,000 hrs) lifetimes were usually not met. In the past few years, LED technology has made a giant leap forwards, though. Affordable lamps now offer warm white light color, light flux comparable to conventional lamps and good quality (constant lighting properties over time, and long life). LED lamps also offer much better lighting efficiency and controllability (both luminance and color). Finally, the small form factor of LEDs gives the lamp designer new possibilities for elegant design.

The world market for packaged LEDs is expected to grow until 2016, and stabilize between 2017 and 2020 at a revenue level of about $16 billion (Figure 1). There are two main reasons for this stabilization: market saturation since most incandescent lamps will have been replaced by LED lamps/modules (with a lifetime 10–50 times longer!) and upcoming OLED lighting solutions (offering large area homogenous lighting).

Figure 1: Packaged LED market by application (source: Yole Développement, September 2013). 

Read the full column here.


Editor's Note: This column originally appeared in the May 2014 issue of SMT Magazine.

Back

2014

LED the Sunshine In

06-11-2014

After a relatively slow start, LED lamps are now becoming affordable, and domestic LED lighting is about to take off. It is expected that by 2020, more than 65 to 70% of all lighting will use LED lamps or LED modules. The manufacturing process for LED lamps is based on SMT, and this month's column explains some of manufacturing's special requirements.

View Story

SMT Trends and Technologies: LED the Sunshine In

06-11-2014

After a relatively slow start, LED lamps are now becoming affordable, and domestic LED lighting is about to take off. It is expected that by 2020, more than 65 to 70% of all lighting will use LED lamps or LED modules. The manufacturing process for LED lamps is based on SMT, and this month's column explains some of manufacturing's special requirements.

View Story
Back

2013

Making Sense of Bringing Manufacturing Back Home

11-20-2013

Columnist Sjef van Gastel writes: "Recently, Royal Philips moved its electric shaver production from China back to the Netherlands, where the high-quality shavers will be assembled in the same highly-automated factory where development, manufacturing, and logistics processing takes place. Does moving back home mean sense and simplicity?"

View Story

SMT Trends and Technologies: Route 66

09-18-2013

The 2013 iNEMI roadmap predicts an average market growth of 7.9% in the automotive electronics market. This market will definitely boost the electronics manufacturing industry and will contribute to a more sustainable world, but will also bring new challenges for pick-and-place machine manufacturers.

View Story

Get More (Products) Out of Your Day

06-25-2013

A PCB assembly plant invests in SMT flow lines and intends to produce as many quality boards of the required product mix as possible. But, in reality, there will be a big difference in performance over different SMT lines. Why?

View Story
Copyright © 2023 I-Connect007 | IPC Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.