COB LED Market to Grow Rapidly Through 2018

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Market research firm Research and Markets forecasts that the global Chip on Board LED market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 40.71 percent over the period 2013-2018. The company contends that one of the key factors contributing to this market growth is the declining average selling price of LEDs. The Global Chip on Board LED market has also been witnessing the increasing demand of chip-on-board (COB) LEDs in general lighting applications. However, the company says that fluctuating global economic conditions could present a challenge to the growth of the COB LED market.

According to Research and Markets, the key vendors dominating this market space are Citizen Electronics co. Ltd., Cree Inc., Nichia Corp., Osram Opto Semiconductors GmbH, Philips Lumileds Lighting Co., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., and Seoul Semiconductor Co. Ltd. Other vendors in the market include Everlight Electronics Co. Ltd., Lumens Co. Ltd., and LG Innotek Co. Ltd.

A company analyst stated, “The shift from traditional lighting sources to solid-state lighting technology has resulted in the wider adoption of COB LEDs. COB LEDs are wide-area light emitters and thus, are increasingly used in highway and street lighting, which require large amounts of light spread across a large area.” The analyst added, “COB LEDs produce better color mixing, better lighting effect, and require very low thermal resistance systems, thereby enhancing the total consumer experience. Thus, greater power density, efficient heat dissipation, small space requirement, and high performance makes COB LEDs more suitable than conventional LED packages for various general lighting applications.”

The company also pointed out that COB LEDs offer high intensity with a homogenous luminous field suitable for high-power LED applications, which also increases the potential for savings.

COB LED Market to Grow Rapidly Through 2018

Philips Lumileds Signs Partnership with MechaTronix for LED Thermal Management Solutions

With the launch of the newest generation Philips Lumileds Luxeon Chip-On-Board (COB) LED modules there was an immediate need for a wide range of standard LED coolers. In the cooperation with MechaTronix Philips Lumileds found a practical and easy way to launch a wide range of standard LED coolers fitting mechanically with the various dimensions of the Luxeon COBs and matching the cooling capacities needed for the whole series.

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Six passive coolers have been launched, ranging from a diameter of 50mm for the Luxeon COB 1203 and 1204, over a diameter 70mm and 99mm for the COB 1204, 1205 and 1208:

With this passive LED cooler range MechaTronix aimed at spot, track and down light designs from 600 lumen all the way up to 4.500 lumen in a small size extrusion profile. The ModuLED Xtra LED coolers are developed in this way that there is an optimal balance between creating cooling surface and leaving enough intermediate space for free air convection.

In this way MechaTronix was able to reach a ModuLED Xtra cooling performance of 1.02°C/W in a package of only 99mm diameter and a height of 80mm, and keeps the Luxeon 1208 COB running at 4.800 lumen at an ambient temperature of 40° Celsius below a case temperature of 80° Celsius.

For those applications running at an extreme high ambient temperature, two active coolers packages where designed:

The IceLED Xtra active LED coolers are developed in a package for indoor low bay use with an extremely low noise factor, this delivering a cooling performance of 0.46°C/W.

This makes them extremely suitable for spot, track and down light designs in office, shop environments and silent rooms where extra noise has to be avoided

All ModuLED and IceLED coolers are foreseen from direct mounting patterns for the various Philips Lumileds Luxeon COB’s, but also offer Zhaga book 3 mounting holes so designers can use COB LED holders if they require solderless mounting of the COB’s on the coolers

MechaTronix performs thermal compatibility tests on all combinations of the Luxeon LED COB’s with the various standard coolers:

A major point of improvement according Koen Vangorp, General Manager of MechaTronix, is the extreme low internal thermal resistance of the Luxeon COB’s. “Philips Lumileds clearly understood the mission of developing high lumen packages in combination with a low thermal resistance. Maybe it is not so obvious to understand what this means because most LED manufacturers offer an external thermal measurement point and all publish similar numbers for these, but the consequences are enormous. With these low thermal resistances from junction to case Philips Lumileds is able to keep their junctions easily 10 to 15 degrees Kelvin lower than most chip-on-board modules on the market. And that immediately affects the life time of the LED dies in a very positive way. Either designers can take advantage of this by using smaller LED coolers, or just use the same LED coolers like they did before but gain on life time.”

All MechaTronix LED coolers are off-the-shelf available through their worldwide distributor and agent network.

About Philips Lumileds

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Philips Lumileds Lighting Company is the manufacturer of a wide range of high-power/high-efficiency light-emitting diodes (LEDs). It is now a fully owned division of Philips Lighting. LumiLeds Lighting B.V. was formed in November 1999 as a joint venture between Philips Lighting and Agilent Technologies, a spin-off of Hewlett-Packard. At the time of formation, it was an equal partnership with each company owning a 50% share in Lumileds Lighting.[1] In August 2005, Philips acquired a controlling stake in Lumileds when it purchased Agilent’s 47% share of the company for $950 million USD. This resulted in Philips owning 96.5% of the company with the remaining 3.5% owned by employees. In December 2006/January 2007, Philips acquired the remaining 3.5% of the company, making Lumileds a fully owned subsidiary of Philips Lighting.

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About MechaTronix

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MechaTronix was founded as a creative designer & manufacturer of high end mechanical plastic & metal parts. With its Asia-based headquarters in Kaohsiung Taiwan, MechaTronix became a powerhouse at designing and manufacturing heat sinks and thermal solutions for OEM and LED lighting applications. Strategic partnerships with major LED manufacturers and sharing our thermal knowledge with their luminaire designers are our core missions. Simple passive cooling, advanced heat pipe technology or active cooling solutions? MechaTronix offers of the shelf and tailored solutions to its worldwide professional customer base. For more information about the company, please visit : www.mechatronix-asia.com

Philips Lumileds Signs Partnership with MechaTronix for LED Thermal Management Solutions

Thomas Research and Lynk Labs" Strategic partnership - New LED and SSL funding, LED manufacturing

An AC-LED partnership between Lynk Labs and Thomas Research Products; funding announcements from Ledzworld, EcoSense, and Once Innovations; and new large-diameter patterned sapphire substrates from Rubicon top the recent SSL news space.

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Thomas Research and Lynk Labs announced a partnership that will yield cobranded AC-LED products including chip-on-board (COB) LEDs and modules, and perhaps discrete AC-driver products. Rubicon is now making patterned sapphire substrates available to LED manufacturers in large diameters. Several LED and solid-state lighting (SSL) companies have announced new investment financing including Ledzworld, EcoSense, and Once Innovations.

Strategic partnership

The partnership announcement between Lynk Labs and Thomas Research Products is a bit tough to decipher although the duo defined it as a strategic relationship. Lynk Labs is a manufacturer of LED light engines using AC-driver technology, while Thomas manufactures modular AC-DC drivers for luminaires. Both do sell to luminaire makers, although there is little synergy between the existing product lines of each company.

Lynk Labs, however, said that Thomas can help Lynk reach a broader audience with AC-LED technology just as the SSL industry is increasingly receptive to the AC technology. “Not only is AC LED now an established market segment, but one seeing rapid and substantial growth,” said Chick Huber, Lynk Labs vice president of business development. “We’re excited that this new partnership brings TRP’s manufacturing strength and broad distribution reach to our AC-LED offering.”

The announcement did specifically mention COB LEDs — an increasingly popular technology for SSL manufacturers that allows development of a lamp or luminaire using a single source. Presumably, you could integrate the AC-driver technology, which is much simpler than an AC-DC driver, directly on the COB substrate. But the partners didn’t provide any such detail.

We’d suspect that the partnership might ultimately make Lynk’s AC-driver intellectual property (IP) available in some form, an IC or a module, independent of the LED light engine. That’s a growing trend with Texas Instruments most recently announcing an AC driver IC. Such a product would be a natural addition to the Thomas portfolio. But Lynk CEO Mike Miskin would not confirm any such plans.

Miskin did comment on the growing popularity of AC-driver technology and its evolution in the SSL space, saying it’s quickly becoming a mainstream technology. “AC-LED circuits can be looked at like an enabling IP,” sadi Miskin. “Like phosphor-enabled white light, AC-LED circuits enable AC-LED products up the food chain from the circuit level [including] chips, COBs, packages, drive methods, systems, and end product. Lynk has created IP vertically in all these areas.”

New LED and SSL funding

We have had a bit of a rush of new funding announcements. Ledzworld, an LED manufacturer located in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, announced $5 million in new funding from its existing private shareholders. The company also announced the appointment of Ken Chakravarti as CEO.

“This new round of funding will enable us to meet the rapidly growing demand for our industry-leading products from an ever-expanding customer base across the globe and build up the necessary scale to remain competitive in this fast evolving market,” said Chakravarti. “With this latest capital commitment, our shareholders have signaled their readiness to support the company in reaching the next level and have given Ledzworld the means to determine its own strategic path towards that point. This path could include forging partnerships with industry players to even more firmly secure our leading position in the premium segment of the LED lighting market.”

EcoSense Lighting, an SSL manufacture based in New York, NY, announced a $15 million funding round led by Flagship Ventures and Bain Capital Ventures. “We are impressed with the contributions EcoSense is making to the evolving LED market,” said Ed Kania, managing partner and chairman of Flagship Ventures. “EcoSense has a strong leadership team and a compelling strategy. We are eager to support their aggressive growth efforts.”

Once Innovations announced a $5.3 million funding round led by New Fashion Pork, the Ag Ventures Alliance, and Lateral Capital. A couple of those names aren’t as well known in the high-tech financing world but speak to the broad applicability of LED lighting and the mission of Once. The Plymouth, Minnesota company specializes in lighting that can increase production in a scenario such as pig farming, enhancing the environment for the stock.

“The Once team is working on the frontiers of science, in areas never researched before,” said Zdenko Grajcar, CEO of Once. “We are working on new concepts and technologies which significantly depart from mainstream, orthodox theories. We are discovering new, essential roles animal-specific lighting plays in every animal’s life. We are discovering that lighting can not only impact, but it can actually direct animal growth and development. We are developing technologies which can help a growing world produce more food at lower costs.”

LED manufacturing

In closing we will move to the LED manufacturing space. Many LED manufacturers have moved to patterned sapphire substrates (PSS) in LED manufacturing because the patterning enhances light extraction. The largest LED manufacturers have developed their own substrate technology. But Rubicon is a commercial supplier of substrates and now will offer larger 6- and 8-in. PSS wafers to large and small LED makers.

“As LED-based general lighting gains worldwide adoption, large-diameter patterned sapphire substrates will become necessary to meet the demands of the rapidly growing lighting market,” said Raja Parvez, president and CEO of Rubicon Technology. “Rubicon has developed an unmatched technology platform that is vertically integrated from raw material through crystal growth, large-diameter polished wafers, and now custom PSS in 4-, 6-, and 8-in. diameters. Our vertical integration enables Rubicon to produce progressively larger sapphire products while providing customers with exceptional quality, cost control, reliability, and consistency.”

Thomas Research and Lynk Labs" Strategic partnership - New LED and SSL funding, LED manufacturing