+

OCTOBER 2017

LEDsmagazine.com

Office lighting
HCL pleases
workers P. 27

Lighting for
Health
Conference report P. 33

Thermal paths
TECHNOLOGY AND APPLICATIONS OF LIGHT EMITTING DIODES Materials cool
LEDs P. 43

Horticultural
SSL for lettuce
LEDs slash cycles P. 7

1710LEDS_C1 1 9/22/17 4:46 PM

1710LEDS_C2 2 9/22/17 3:30 PM
 ISSUE 100

2017
October Cover Story
SSL luminaires deliver serious growth
gains for growers in Vermont (see p. 7;
image courtesy of Heliospectra.)

features
24 INTERVIEW
Lumileds reveals the inspiration behind LEDs
designed for plants Maury Wright
columns/departments
27 SPECIAL SECTION:
HUMAN-CENTRIC LIGHTING
Human-centric lighting takes hold in the 3 COMMENTARY Maury Wright
AMA LED street-light guidelines were
commercial workplace Mark Halper among the hot topics at SALC

33 HCL: CONFERENCE
Speakers cover circadian disruption to healthcare 7 NEWS +ANALYSIS
Greenhouse boosts lettuce yield
assessment at new conference Maury Wright with Heliospectra LED luminaires

39 HCL: INDUSTRY INSIGHTS

Human-centric lighting is the next step in LED
design and control Charles Knuffke, Legrand
43 MANUFACTURING
Understand thermal characterization of high-power
LEDs for reliable SSL Nicholas Herrick and Ranjit
Pandher, Alpha Assembly Solutions
UNESCO site Wartburg Castle
gets LED lighting
Osram packs LEDs in module
with silicone lens for adaptable
beam auto headlamp
Smart cities: Acuity, Silver Spring, Tvlight,
Bouygues, Citelum, Philips Lighting
Lumileds brings Stylist white LED
technology to mid-power packages

48
CoeLux harnesses LEDs to
INDUSTRY INSIGHTS deliver California sunlight to a
Lighting controls can no longer be ‘set and forget’ Copenhagen restaurant
with IoT advances Beatrice Witzgall, LumiFi SSL business: Osram,
Digital Lumens, Cree
51 INNOVATION
New book looks to the past to determine the
future of SSL
21 FUNDING + PROGRAMS
ASABE publishes a metric standard
Bob Johnstone for LED-based horticultural lighting
NEMA files legal action that could stymie
56 LAST WORD
TLEDs can prove economical, but aren’t always
California regulations on LED lamps
DOE publishes Gateway report
the best choice on OLED office lighting
Stan Walerczyk, Lighting Wizards

LEDsmagazine.com OCTOBER 2017 1

1710LEDS_1 1 9/22/17 3:22 PM

1710LEDS_2 2 9/22/17 3:22 PM
 commentary

AMA LED street-light guidelines were

among the hot topics at SALC

I
’m writing this column after plaints about the 4000K lights. The utility we described after SALC two years back
returning from the IES (Illu- also said it’s tough to discern the difference (http://bit.ly/1ZzgAme). And once installed,
minating Engineering Society) in the two and that it will still install 4000K the controls and wireless connectivity
Street and Area Lighting Confer- lights when a customer requests them. can serve other applications and increase
ence (SALC) in Austin, TX. There The 3000K momentum comes even energy savings. The utility is installing the
were many hot topics, including though many speakers at SALC pointed controls on every new street light and plans
networked controls and IES Rec- out that CCT is not a proper way to eval- to upgrade older LED luminaires installed
ommended Practices for street uate how an LED luminaire may affect before it committed to controls.
lighting. Still, it was CCT, often human physiological systems. And a Alas, an undercurrent of contrarian
relative to the controversial AMA (Ameri- couple of speakers noted that the best thought pervaded many lunchtable discus-
can Medical Association) guidelines, that research on the issue of safety, by Ron Gib- sions and the networking reception. Sev-
dominated (http://bit.ly/2eW91WB). bons of the Virginia Tech Transportation eral lighting vendors told me that you can’t
Ironically, the AMA may win the day Institute, showed that drivers could detect get in the door on a bidding process with-
though its guidelines are no mandate to objects much better under 4100K lighting. out being able to check the box on a con-
the lighting community. The suggestion We reported on some of those tests several trols offer in your product portfolio. But it
that street lights be installed at 3000K CCT years back (http://bit.ly/1saaZU6). still seems that in many projects, controls
or warmer was just that — a suggestion. Yet It was very clear that the IES still regards end up being omitted from the actual con-
it appears many municipalities and utilities the AMA’s guidelines as an inappropriate tract because of cost. The controls under-
are moving toward 3000K, whether based intrusion. The AMA did not have a lighting current seemed to support the research
on citizen preference or on fears that the expert in the committee that established data that has been published by our sister
AMA position could become a legal issue. the guidelines. Moreover, it has rejected organization Strategies Unlimited (http://
Georgia Power, for instance, said it the offer of collaboration by the IES. The bit.ly/2rDik5q). Outdoors and in, there is
swapped from 4000K- to 3000K-CCT lumi- AMA seems to have completely missed the more talk about smart lighting than actual
naires in the middle of its LED conversion fact that public safety on roads and side- investment in it — a disturbing trend, given
program. The change occurred in the third walks is the reason we have street lights. the potential of the Internet of Things (IoT).
quarter of 2016. Later this year, the utility Moving to controls, they were again a We'll have more from SALC next month.
will transition to 3000K for residential secu- prevalent topic as they have been in recent
rity lights, too, even though LEDs in that SALC meetings. Back to Georgia Power, that Maury Wright,
application are replacing cool metal-halide company uses wireless controls as a key cog EDITOR
lamps. Georgia Power said it had some com- in its auto commissioning program that mauryw@pennwell.com

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1710LEDS_3 3 9/22/17 3:22 PM

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ADVERTISERS index
Alpha/Alent ..................................................................................... 37
American Bright Optoelectronics ............................................... 10, 54
Citizen Electronics Co. Ltd. .............................................................. 13
Cree, Inc. ...................................................................................... CV4
CSA Group ...................................................................................... 45
Eclipse Lighting, Inc. ....................................................................... 55
Eptronics .........................................................................................47
Exponation...................................................................................... 52
Future Electronics, Inc......................................................... 11, 20, 29
GL-Optic GmbH ............................................................................... 45
Griplock Systems, LLC .................................................................... 40
Guangdong Acevel Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. ......................... CV2
Inventronics (Hangzhou) Inc............................................................... 9
IOTA Engineering ............................................................................. 35
Lightspace California 2018 ............................................................. 38
Lumileds ....................................................................................... CV3
Lutron Electrics Co., Inc. ................................................................. 15
LUX Live 2017................................................................................. 42
Masterbond .................................................................................... 49
Moso Power Supply Techology Co., Ltd. ........................................... 16
Nitto, Inc. ........................................................................................ 26
Opticolor, Inc..................................................................................... 6
Osram Opto Semiconductors GmbH .................................................. 2
Philips Emergency Lighting .............................................................. 12
Sapphire Awards 2018.................................................................... 41
Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd, .......................................................... 5
Shenzhen Ledfriend Optoelectronics Co., Ltd, ..................................17
Shenzhen Sosen Electronics Co., Ltd, ............................................. 23
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Strategies Unlimited ....................................................................... 50
Thomas Research Products ............................................................ 19
Tosaf Compound ............................................................................. 31
Universal Lighting Technologies....................................................... 25

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4 OCTOBER 2017 LEDsmagazine.com

1710LEDS_4 4 9/22/17 3:22 PM

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 +
news views
HORTICULTURAL LIGHTING
Greenhouse boosts lettuce yield with
Heliospectra LED luminaires
Swedish horticultural LED luminaire spe-
cialist Heliospectra has supplied a green-
house grower of lettuce, herbs, and other
greens located in Vermont, with the green-
house operation realizing a 25% increase
in business attributable to the solid-state
lighting (SSL). Horticultural supplier and
consultant Griffin Greenhouse Supplies, Inc.
assisted with the project at grower Green
Mountain Harvest Hydroponics that has
both reduced the length of crop cycles and improved yield.
Green Mountain had been growing greens hydroponically
for some time with notable success in a controlled environ-
ment agriculture (CEA) setting under greenhouse cover.
Indeed, the grower had already been supplying Whole Foods
stores in the northeastern US. Green Mountain is focused
primarily on growing spring mix, summer crisp lettuce,
basil, and watercress on a year-round basis.
ARCHITECTURAL LIGHTING
UNESCO site Wartburg
Castle gets LED lighting
Zumtobel has announced a retrofit to LED-based lighting at Wartburg
Castle in Germany — the UNESCO (United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization) World Heritage Site that reflects
almost 1000 years of German
history. Perched above the
city of Eisenach in the state
of Thuringian, the castle inte-
rior now features SSL for 300
exhibit areas as well as in the
common areas of the venue.
The Wartburg Castle com-
plex dates to the 12th century
and is where Martin Luther
translated the New Testament of the Bible into German and laid the
foundation for a standardized German language. The site remains the
top Luther-centric historic venue in the world and is hosting a special
exhibition entitled “Luther and the Germans” tied to the ongoing Year
of Martin Luther celebration. » page 12
LEDsmagazine.com
1710LEDS_7 7
Griffin recommended that the grower install Heliospectra
LX60-family LED luminaires in place of existing high-pres-
sure sodium (HPS) lighting on a fixture-per-fixture basis.
The presumed advantage would be the fact that the LED
fixtures deliver energy peaks in the blue, red, and far-red
spectral regions that encourage chlorophyll absorption and
other growth attributes while still delivering broad spec-
trum white energy. Note, that there remain » page 8
AUTOMOTIVE LIGHTING
Osram packs LEDs in
module with silicone
lens for adaptable
beam auto headlamp
Osram has announced new Smartrix modules that
integrate LEDs, driver electronics, and a custom
silicone lens in a compact form factor that enables
advanced SSL headlamp systems for automobiles.
Osram believes that the modular approach will
enable auto makers to support features such as adap-
tive drive beams in more mainstream models, and
the company said it is already working on even more
capable Smartrix LED modules.
The conjured brand Smartrix, is a combination of
the words smart and matrix. Indeed, the word matrix
has been used generically and as a brand to describe
the concept of adaptive headlamps that can react
to other autos and to the road topography to selec-
tively mask or illuminate segments of a » page 8
OCTOBER 2017 7
9/22/17 3:19 PM
 news+views
from page 7 differing thoughts on light
recipes, especially for biomass crops, but the
red/blue combination seems to work well for
leafy greens as we covered in a story on hor-
ticultural lighting science and vertical farms
(http://bit.ly/2fwtLZB).
Back to Green Mountain, the grower
noticed an immediate improvement in crop
cycles that were attributed to the LED light-
ing, especially in the shorter winter days.
“As soon as the new Heliospectra LEDs
were installed, Green Mountain recognized
immediate benefits from the optimized light
spectrum,” said John Farr, managing partner
for Green Mountain. “We typically harvested
our summer crisp lettuce at 55 days. With
Heliospectra, we now harvest between 42
and 45 days. The opportunity to accelerate
harvest and create additional revenue cycles
significantly scales our business.”
Farr said that in the winter the grower
would get “stretchy crops” that took a long
time to grow. Moreover, he said the lettuce
leaves would experience yellowing in some
areas and that those leaves would have to
be removed as waste at harvest. The LED
lighting created a stable schedule through-
out the year and improved the crop quality
— meaning more weight and higher value.
At the same time, the LEDs eliminated light
pollution, which had previously generated
complaints from neighbors.
Peter Armando, sales manager and expert
grower at Griffin, said the SSL installation is
able to optimize lighting for the crop. He said
red and far-red lighting is used to enhance
flowering and that blue is used to enhance
the foliage. Armando claimed that the lights
can improve leaf structure by 30%. ◀
SMART CITIES
Acuity and Silver Spring team
up on smart street lighting
Another day, another alliance between
an LED lighting and an IT networking
company: Acuity Brands and Internet of
Things (IoT) network provider Silver Spring
Networks have teamed to boost their
smart street lighting capabilities with a
new product and via working as channel
partners for each other.
Lighting company Acuity, better known
for indoor products and IoT services, said
it has developed a photocontrol module
8 OCTOBER 2017
1710LEDS_8 8
Osram from page 7
headlamp systems. Rather than need-
ing low beams, for instance, an adap-
tive drive beam can simply ensure the
LEDs that might blind the driver of an
oncoming car are temporarily masked.
We first covered the concept of adap-
tive drive beams back in 2013 when
Audi rolled out its Matrix branded sys-
tem (http://bit.ly/1qtZK7k). We subse-
quently published feature articles on
the topic including a Developer Forum
piece on driver design for such a system
(http://bit.ly/1ZZ4bZ1).
For some time, it appeared that the US
might not allow such headlamp systems
to be sold, instead sticking with the low-
beam requirement. The European market
flourished, however, taking advantage of
the unique properties of LED sources to
improve on a decades-old approach to
forward lighting for autos. Now the US
has moved to develop standards that will
pave the way for adaptive drive beam
functionality (http://bit.ly/2wZVZ7s).
All along, Osram has been near the
forefront of matrix technology and was
most likely involved in that original Audi
design, although the company never
said so publicly. For example, the com-
pany revealed a new packaged LED com-
ponent late last year in the Oslon Black
Flat family that integrates multiple indi-
vidually-controllable emitter segments
(http://bit.ly/2j9Ayq0), with a five-seg-
ment model promised for early this year.
Now the Smartrix technology com-
bines the company’s work in LEDs
with the optics required in a headlamp
design. “By using new materials for the
lens systems, we have been able to make
the Smartrix modules even smaller and
more durable, so our customers have
even more freedom in designing their
headlights,” explained Hans-Joachim
that, when attached to a street light, will
work with Silver Spring wireless networks
to help improve the control and functional-
ity of street lights.
Silver Spring connects street lights and
other things such as smart electricity meters
via a mesh topology based on the IEEE
802.15.4g standard — also known as Wi-SUN
Schwabe, CEO
of the Specialty Lighting
business unit at Osram.
Osram said the plastic lenses com-
monly used in matrix-type systems could
not meet the requisite of location much
closer to the LED source. The silicone
optics offer high resistance to heat and
optical radiation, as well as long life; they
can be mounted directly adjacent to the
LEDs; and they are less expensive than
glass. The placement of the lens near the
LEDs enables the needed beam control in
a smaller module, thereby enabling auto
manufacturers to deliver on the evident
trend of narrow, low-profile headlamps,
according to the company.
Osram said headlamps based on the
Smartrix LED modules will be on the road
in commercial vehicles this fall. More-
over, the company said it will deliver a
version with multiple lines of pixels
or optical segments.
And, of course, Osram continues to
work on even more advanced headlamp
technology. As we have written before,
the company is partnered on develop-
ment with the Fraunhofer Institute for
Reliability and Microintegration (IZM),
semiconductor-manufacturer Infineon,
auto third-party OEM Hella, and auto
manufacturer Daimler with funding
from the German Federal Ministry of
Education and Research (BMBF). That
group is focused on a module with more
than 1000 individually controllable emit-
ters (http://bit.ly/2f9pQNV). ◀
for wireless smart utility network — using
the IPv6 Internet Protocol. Silver Spring
calls its network Starfish, and offers man-
agement software called Streetlight.Vision.
By joining forces, the two companies will
help large outdoor lighting customers such
as cities and utilities “leverage their smart
lighting canopy to easily and cost-effec-
LEDsmagazine.com
9/22/17 3:19 PM
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1710LEDS_9 9 9/22/17 3:19 PM

 news+views
Photo credit: Christian Barrette via Flickr.
tively deploy additional smart city appli-
cations over time,” said Trevor Palmer, vice
president of product management controls
for Acuity Brands Lighting.
The combination of Starfish and Street-
light.Vision allows cities to remotely control
lighting levels via both pre-programming
and on-demand commands. It also lowers
the cost of maintenance by remotely mon-
itoring each lamp’s performance.
The alliance with Acuity calls for inte-
gration of Acuity’s newly developed DTL
1710LEDS_10 10
DSN photocontrol module, which Sil-
ver Spring described as “an enhanced ver-
sion” of Acuity’s existing photocontroller,
called the DLL Elite. ◀
MORE: http://bit.ly/2xCb53x
Dutch port taps smart street
lighting, with IoT on the horizon
The Port of Moerdijk in southern Holland
(above) is installing smart street light-
ing controls across 2600 hectares of land
in a bid to slash energy consumption
and maintenance costs.
The Port will equip 1100 new LED street
lights with motion sensors and manage-
ment software from Amsterdam-based
Tvilight. Dutch company Dynniq will over-
see the rollout and the LED light instal-
lation. Dynniq is a technology firm that
specializes in managing infrastructure, traf-
fic, and energy systems.
The Port of Moerdijk is Holland’s fourth
largest port. It sits on the Hollands Diep
River, which is an estuary of the Rhine and
Meuse Rivers leading to the North Sea. The
port serves maritime as well as inland cargo,
and is connected by canal to Antwerp.
It made the decision to roll out the sys-
tem across its industrial park — Moerdijk
houses chemical companies that connect to
other chemical clusters in the Netherlands
and Belgium via pipelines — following a
trial in a small portion of the port using LED
luminaires from Philips Lighting. A public
tender will decide the luminaire provider
on the bigger rollout.
9/22/17 3:19 PM
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1710LEDS_11 11 9/22/17 3:20 PM

 news+views
A Tvilight spokesperson said the new
smart street lighting system should slash
the lighting electricity bill by up to 80% —
in large measure by dynamic dimming —
compared to the existing fluorescent lights,
which do not benefit from smart controls.
Tvilight’s CitySense sensors and CityMan-
ager software will also help cut maintenance
costs by as much as 50%, through preven-
tative maintenance, the spokesperson said.
The smart street lighting system will
play a key role in the port’s aim to become
“energy neutral” by 2030, noted Henk
from page 7 The castle is not Zum-
tobel’s first major project at a UNESCO
World Heritage Site. For example, we cov-
ered a project at the Aachen Cathedral
Treasury where Zumtobel LED products
delivered energy savings and better light-
ing for what was once the favored home
of Charlemagne (http://bit.ly/1Hhfp5I).
At Wartburg, Zumtobel Supersystem II
luminaires are delivering improved light-
ing for the exhibit areas that total 1000m2.
The SSL product family comprises minia-
turized and modular products that enable
many accent and direct lighting effects
and scenes to be installed on low-voltage
tracks. For example, the miniature spot-
lights only extend 45 mm below the track
and the track extends 30 mm below the
surface upon which it is mounted. The
tracks are available in lengths as short as
26 mm and in larger sizes.
The LED lighting replaced a 20-year-
old legacy system, and as we have noted
in coverage of other historic sites, the
low-power requirements of SSL are
often a critical element of the selection
criteria. There would not have been an
option to add more power cables in the
12 OCTOBER 2017
1710LEDS_12 12
Schakenraad, program
manager for infrastruc-
ture and maintenance.
The smar t lig ht-
ing announcement at
Moerdijk, which counts
chemicals among its main-
stays, is the second this
summer at a southern Hol-
land chemical facility, fol-
lowing the Chemelot Indus-
trial Park’s deployment of smart lighting
that uses mesh controls from Chess Wise
(http://bit.ly/2wdEfFY). ◀
MORE: http://bit.ly/2xnnfwv
PACKAGED LEDS
Lumileds brings Stylist white LED
technology to mid-power packages
Lumileds has announced an extension
of its Luxeon Stylist LED technology to a
range of components that will be supplied
in mid-power packages. The Stylist concept
castle, but the LED lighting easily could
be driven by existing wiring.
Of course, historic sites also raise the
issue of preserving the exhibits. In the
German project, the team added poten-
tiometers to each luminaire, enabling
precise control of light levels to a max-
imum of 50 lx. The optical accesso-
ries and luminaire design, meanwhile,
restrict light to just where it’s intended
for an optimum viewing experience.
The wide variety of products in the
Supersystem II family further pro-
vided a choice of finishes that could be
tailored to match colors and the set-
ting for each exhibit area. Moreover,
the modular system could enable the
curators to change the lighting for new
exhibits in the future.
We’ve covered SSL projects at a num-
ber of other UNESCO sites in both indoor
and outdoor settings. A few years back,
we covered an outdoor project at the
Durham Castle and Cathedral in England
(http://bit.ly/1oVQ324). And LED light-
ing of the Moroccan Walls of Rabat was
another very impressive SSL project at a
UNESCO site (http://bit.ly/1NEAMzd). ◀
LEDsmagazine.com
9/22/17 3:20 PM
1710LEDS_13 13 9/22/17 3:20 PM
 news+views
is based on spectral power distribution
(SPD) of individual components being tar-
geted specifically to lighting one type of
retail product optimally. The new Luxeon
Stylist mid-power packaged LEDs will
enable the technology to find usage in new
SSL product types such as linear fixtures
with diffuse optics.
Lumileds first announced Stylist LEDs
just over a year back when it rolled the
technology platform out in chip-on-board
(COB) LEDs (http://bit.ly/2kZTXhQ). The
COB products target directional light-
ing in lamp and luminaire product forms.
And the concept of a tuned SPD really orig-
inated with the CrispWhite COB LED that
earned the Lumileds development team
recognition as the LEDs Magazine Sap-
phire Awards Illumineer of the Year in 2015
(http://bit.ly/1Dn7EcD).
Specifically, Lumileds will offer Styl-
ist CrispColor technology in the Lux-
eon 2835 3V and 3535L HE LED fami-
lies. CrispColor reveals richer colors and
brighter whites in dry-goods retail — for
instance, lighting clothes.
The company will offer the Stylist Fresh-
Focus technology in the 2835 3V and the
Luxeon 3014 LED families. FreshFocus
includes SPD options designed for meats,
fish, baked goods, and produce in a grocery
lighting application. ◀
MORE: http://bit.ly/2xBValE
TUNABLE SSL
CoeLux harnesses LEDs to
deliver California sunlight in
a Copenhagen restaurant
European upstart CoeLux has enabled
an LED-lighting project in a California-
cuisine-themed restaurant in Copenhagen,
14 OCTOBER 2017
1710LEDS_14 14
Denmark that virtually transports diners to
the California sunshine. A planar SSL lumi-
naire looks to be a skylight, but in actual-
ity relies on multiple channels of hidden
LED sources along with light-guide optics
to simulate outdoor lighting scenes —
California sunshine in the case of the new
California Kitchen restaurant.
Such a lighting technique is often referred
to as spatial tuning because it mimics the
colors and angles of natural sunlight and the
impact of the atmosphere in changing natu-
ral light over the course of a day.
We have covered the concept of spatial
tuning a handful of times. An interview with
LED industry executive Brent York prior to
Strategies in Light this year highlights the
concept (http://bit.ly/2jsKkIH). Spatial
tuning is a new frontier for lighting design-
ers and specifiers now that we can control
the intensity of LED sources and indeed
offer tunable colors. Clever optical design
then allows SSL manufacturers to enable
the spatial element.
CoeLux, based in style-conscious Italy,
has been touting its ability to mimic natu-
ral light for several years. Indeed, our sister
publication Lux anointed CoeLux as a top-
ten must see exhibitor at the LuxLive exhi-
bition back in 2014 (http://bit.ly/1D2WKee).
The restaurant lighting was the result of
collaboration between California and Dan-
ish architects and designers. Diners can
experience California sunlight and other
scenes. Moreover, CoeLux said the product
“boosts the feeling of wellbeing and comfort”
and that the luminaire creates “the sensa-
tion of infinite space.” ◀
MORE: http://bit.ly/2wYpmH8
INTERNET OF THINGS
As lighting companies morph
into IT firms, they face stiff
competition — from IT vendors
Barclays Plc has deployed a series of heat
and motion sensors that help analyze office
space usage at investment banking facilities
in London. It’s the sort of system that light-
ing vendors are offering as part of their push
into the IoT, with one glaring difference:
Barclays does not appear to be housing the
sensors within the lighting infrastructure to
turn this into a smart building.
Rather, it is deploying black boxes
mounted underneath employees’ desks,
according to a recent article by Bloomberg
(https://bloom.bg/2xBR9xN).
The boxes, called OccupEye and provided
by British company Cad-Capture, gather
occupancy data and tie it into a cloud-con-
nected dashboard system that helps Bar-
clays decipher how efficiently or waste-
fully it is using space.
Lighting companies are promoting space
utilization analysis as a key IoT applica-
tion. For example, space management is
a principle component of a smart light-
ing system provided by Helvar as part of a
5G smart building trial at the University
of Oulu in Finland (http://bit.ly/2wtpJ86).
And smart luminaires from Feilo Sylva-
nia are helping Dutch standards body NEN
manage its headquarters space in Delft
(http://bit.ly/2iJoNtB).
The good news at Barclays for lighting
companies is that Cad-Capture’s Occup-
Eye system validates the concept of IoT-
linked facilities analysis. But as a high-pro-
file user, Barclays also serves as a stark
reminder that lighting vendors must com-
pete against IT vendors for IoT business. It’s
also why lighting vendors are striking part-
nerships with IT firms.
Lighting vendors are positioning IoT sys-
tems for varied uses, many of which are
linked to smartphones. In addition to space
analysis, other applications include indoor
positioning, location-specific advertising
and promotions, traffic alerts, parking infor-
mation, air and weather reporting, crime
warnings, and much more. ◀
MORE: http://bit.ly/2wdhQsf
SMART CITIES
Street lighting key to ambitious
$126M smart city scheme in Dijon
Dijon, famous for zesty mustard, is now
spreading something else with vim and
vigor: smart city technology. The Burgundy
city in eastern France is joining with neigh-
boring towns on a €105 million ($126 mil-
lion) information technology project
intended to improve operations and save
money on street lighting, traffic manage-
ment and public safety, while generating
data for other services across the metropolis.
In an ambitious 12-year project led by the
€31.7 billion ($38 billion) construction and
LEDsmagazine.com
9/22/17 3:20 PM
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 news+views

倀爀漀最爀愀洀洀愀戀氀攀
䰀䔀䐀䐀䐀爀椀瘀攀爀猀
䔀渀氀椀最栀琀攀渀䐀䘀椀砀琀甀爀攀䐀䐀攀猀椀最渀 Photo credit: Arnaud 25 via Wikimedia.

telecoms conglomerate Bouygues, Dijon Métropole will upgrade

34,000 street lights to LED, which it will connect to a central man-
agement system that will also tie into traffic lights, security cam-
eras, buses, and other assets in an IoT scheme.
The system is expected to cut public lighting costs by 65% using
the Muse control system from Citelum, a subsidiary of €71.2 billion
French state-owned utility giant EDF. Citelum specializes in lighting
management, and in using the lighting infrastructure to underpin
Muse-based urban digital services such as monitoring traffic, park-
ing, air quality, climate, crime, and other things.
“Muse will connect all the city’s actors,” Citelum said of Dijon.
“On the platform, the city’s public services will have access to infor-
mation about all the infrastructures of the municipality, efficiently
plan maintenance interventions, optimize costs management, and
inform their partners on their works progress. Citizens will also
have a tool to contact their city’s public services from their mobile
phone and signal any event on the streets requiring a quick and coor-
dinated management.” ◀
MORE: http://bit.ly/2ju23iY

Philips teams with wireless giant

䘀氀攀砀椀戀氀攀䐀☀䐀刀攀氀椀愀戀氀攀 on 4G and 5G light poles
Philips Lighting has teamed with a $5.8 billion provider of communi-
cation towers and other transmission real estate to develop a “smart
street pole” that houses cellular gear for 4G and 5G phone and broad-

Photo credit: Philips.

㨀 眀眀眀⸀洀漀猀漀瀀漀眀攀爀⸀挀漀洀 band service while also connecting lighting and other smart city
㨀 礀漀礀漀䀀洀漀猀漀瀀漀眀攀爀⸀挀漀洀 operations to those networks.
The alliance between the world’s largest lighting company and
㨀 ⬀㠀㘀 㜀㔀㔀 ㈀㜀㘀㔀㜀㜀　㠀 Boston-based American Tower Company marks the latest exam-
ple of how the lighting industry is pushing hard into information
and communications technology to secure a future that links light-
ing into IoT schemes.
“The companies are developing a collocation-ready, 4G/5G-
LEDsmagazine.com

1710LEDS_16 16 9/22/17 3:20 PM


enabled LED smart light pole for use in
roadways, streets, and parking lots that
will improve wireless broadband access
in dense urban areas while also providing
quality, energy-efficient connected LED
lighting,” Philips and American Tower said
in a joint press release.
Light poles that house cellular trans-
mitters can avoid “adding urban clut-
ter, changing the city landscape, or affect-
ing the aesthetics of a neighborhood,”
the companies noted.
While American Tower is known for
housing gear for cellular, television, and
radio networks on conventional tow-
ers, it also specializes in finding other
real estate, such as rooftops, on which to
place such equipment. The company oper-
ates as an REIT, or real estate investment
trust. It claims to have around 148,000
communications sites.
Philips will take advantage of the cel-
lular connection to remotely monitor
and control its LED luminaires via the
1710LEDS_17 17
Philips City Touch connected street-light-
ing management system.
The light poles can also house sensors
connected to IT networks. That, in turn,
will support the myriad smart city func-
tions that lighting companies hope to pro-
vide, such as monitoring traffic, parking,
air quality, noise, climate, ice, crime, and
many other things. ◀
MORE: http://bit.ly/2wsViis
London connects another
28,000 street lights to
wireless mesh controls
London is connecting another 28,000 LED
street lights to wireless mesh controls based
on Internet protocols, using a system pro-
vided by Silver Spring Networks.
Silver Spring said London’s financial
district, known as the City of London, as
well as the Borough of Barking and Dagen-
ham in the city’s northeast, will now con-
trol street lights remotely using the com-
pany’s Starfish mesh network. The City of
news+views
Westminster, another London borough, has
already been using Starfish.
The mesh topology treats street lights as
nodes in a network, allowing lights to relay
information to each other and thus ease the
process of remotely powering on/off and
adjusting their brightness. It also helps to
monitor the performance of each light, cut-
ting down on maintenance costs.
The control system suits a ser-
vice business model. Silver Spring now
describes Starfish as a “platform as a
service,” although it did not reveal its
arrangement in London.
The City of London will connect about
12,000 LED street lights to Starfish, and
Barking and Dagenham about 15,500.
The lights could eventually become
part of an IoT scheme.
“Silver Spring’s platform was selected to
provide 100% coverage in the dense urban
setting of the City of London, including
streets, lanes, and alleyways where cel-
lular technology is unavailable, and star
9/22/17 3:20 PM

Photo credit: Colin and Kim Hansen via Wikimedia.
networks could not reach,” a Silver Spring
spokesperson said. “The smart street lights
will help the City of London achieve its
energy savings goals and reduce opera-
tional costs, while also improving service
reliability and helping to lay a platform for
future IoT applications.”
Another company, Urban Control, is also
involved in the installation. The Hoddesdon,
England-based company is part of Britain’s
DW Windsor Group lighting company.
Barking and Dagenham are using the
Silver Spring and Urban Control system
“to drive energy efficiency through remote
dimming and brightening of the new smart
street lights,” the Silver Spring spokesper-
son said. “The program is a core aspect of
the Borough’s goal to become the green
energy capital of London, and an import-
ant aspect within the selection was Silver
Spring’s ability to deploy additional IoT ser-
vices in the future.” ◀
MORE: http://bit.ly/2jtu8H8
SSL BUSINESS
Osram has acquired connected
SSL pioneer Digital Lumens
Osram has announced the acquisition of
Boston-based Digital Lumens — a company
started in 2008 focused on connected SSL
systems and the use of autonomous and pro-
grammatic controls to further energy effi-
ciency beyond the baseline savings attribut-
able to efficient LED sources.
Digital Lumens was one of the first com-
panies that LEDs Magazine covered relative
to networked lighting systems and intelli-
gent controls — and what has evolved to
18 OCTOBER 2017
1710LEDS_18 18
become part of the IoT movement. Indeed,
back in 2010, we covered the bold claims
made by CEO Tom Pincince that the com-
pany’s technology would push energy con-
sumption to 90% lower than facilities lit
with legacy sources (http://bit.ly/1u8917q).
That claim was made relative to facilities
such as warehouses where workers are not
present in much of the facility at any given
moment — meaning sensors could dim or
extinguish lighting in much of the facility. In
2011, the company announced some major
installations of its connected lighting sys-
tems (http://bit.ly/2flI8Oy).
Osram has certainly developed its own
connected lighting platforms including the
IoT-centric Encelium technology, and the
Simplux platform intended for 10,000-ft 2
and smaller spaces. Still, Digital Lumens will
bring value via its cloud software expertise
and advanced sensor technology.
Digital Lumens has never really pro-
moted its business as lighting as a ser-
vices (LaaS), but the company is among
the industry leaders in terms of having
customers that pay a monthly fee to uti-
lize its LightRules management platform.
Indeed, co-founder Brian Chemel won the
Sapphire Illumineer of the Year Award
in 2016, largely for the Light Rules work
(http://bit.ly/256t5va). And profits from
that software-facing revenue have proba-
bly exceeded profits from Digital Lumens’
own luminaire portfolio.
The Osram announcement did not
reveal terms of the deal, only stating that
the acquisition was primarily from ven-
ture capital investors. Moreover, it’s not
completely clear how Digital Lumens will
operate going forward. The release did
say the company would integrate some
Osram technologies such as the Einstone
indoor-positioning technology into the Dig-
ital Lumens software. ◀
MORE: http://bit.ly/2y1WU3R
Cree releases tepid
quarterly results
Cree has announced financial results for
Q4 of its 2017 fiscal year (FY), and sales are
down year over year, although the report
foreshadows a potential positive trend
quarter over quarter.
Cree said it earned $359 million (M) for
Q4 in FY2017. That figure was down 8%
from the same quarter one year back. But
in fairness, the SSL sector has hit a flat spot
in the summer of 2017 that hasn’t been fully
explained but that is foreseen by most to
be a temporary lull.
The recent trend for Cree has been rela-
tively constant. Back in January, we reported
a year-over-year drop in Q2, although that
report exceeded analysts’ expectations
(http://bit.ly/2wgCA2t). And a lot has
transpired for the company since. Cree
subsequently canceled its planned dives-
titure to Infineon of the Wolfspeed RF-
and power-semiconductor business unit
(http://bit.ly/2mmzmUD). And in May
the company announced that long-time-
CEO Chuck Swoboda would step down
and a search for a replacement contin-
ues(http://bit.ly/2whg618).
Back to the Q4 report, the company did
enjoy a 5% increase in earnings relative to
the prior quarter. “We made progress in
Q4, with good results in each business and
non-GAAP earnings per share that were
in the middle of our target range,” stated
Swoboda. “We built a solid foundation for
growth in all three businesses over the last
year. In the near term, we will have some
incremental spending to expand capac-
ity and are excited about the opportu-
nity for Cree to grow revenue and prof-
its in the year ahead.”
In other recent Cree news, the company
announced it had reached a patent settle-
ment with tactical flashlight maker Emson,
which sells products using the Bell+ Howell
brand. Cree said Emson has agreed to exclu-
sively buy Cree packaged LEDs for its flash-
lights as part of the settlement. ◀
LEDsmagazine.com
9/22/17 3:20 PM
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 + funding
programs
ASABE publishes a metric standard
for LED-based horticultural lighting
The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) has announced pub-
lication of the ANSI/ASABE S640 standard entitled “Quantities and Units of Electromagnetic
Radiation for Plants (Photosynthetic Organisms).” The work is the first in an expected three-
prong effort of standards development by ASABE that can forward the proliferation of LED-
based horticultural lighting. Solid-state lighting (SSL) is increasingly important to horticul-
ture in both vertical farms and as
supplemental under-cover applica-
tions in greenhouses, and the stan-
dards effort is intended to provide
a common language for character-
izing LED-based systems relative
to plants.
The standards effort for char-
acterizing LED-based lighting for
humans has been underway for a
decade or more now. But basic met-
rics such as efficacy (lm/W) that
are directly applicable to humans,
since the lumen is based on human
visual sensitivity, have little appli-
cability to the effectiveness of light
for plant growth. That issue is one
we have covered in a number of arti-
cles including a feature last Septem-
ber (http://bit.ly/2fwtLZB).
Last November, we published a
detailed article about the work of
the ASABE that had begun back in
2015 and that by last year had become a three-part proactive effort on standards develop-
ment (http://bit.ly/2xsz0SX). As our article described, the first priority was definition of
metrics and a new plant biologically active radiation (PBAR) radiometric band that spans
280–800 nm — covering the ultraviolet (UV) region below human visual sensitivity and the
far-red region above.
The horticultural sector has for some time used de facto metrics such as photosynthetic
photon flux (PPF) and photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) that are based on the pho-
tosynthetically active radiation (PAR) band from 400–700 nm. Those metrics remain useful.
But UV light is now known to impact plant morphology. And the far-red region can impact
seed germination, flower induction, plant height, and leaf expansion. The new standard will
add new metrics in those regions. ◀
MORE: http://bit.ly/2eR0ark
NEMA files legal action
that could stymie
California regulations
on LED lamps
The National Electrical Manufacturers
Association (NEMA) has announced
that it filed legal action seeking to pre-
empt regulations established by the
California Energy Commission (CEC)
from taking effect. Parts of the CEC reg-
ulatory policy have come under attack
from many in the SSL industry, high-
lighted probably by rules that require
90-CRI light quality along with strin-
gent efficacy levels. The NEMA action
is broad and would stop the CEC from
enforcing any regulatory action relative
to general service lamps (GSLs) that is
in conflict with policy under develop-
ment at the federal level such as by the
US Department of Energy (DOE).
The NEMA versus CEC conflict was
foreshadowed in early 2016 when it
became clear that many in the light-
ing sector would oppose new CEC Title
20 regulations, which essentially man-
dated that only 90-CRI lamps be sold
in the state. The industry also disliked
the fact that the policy was to apply to
small-diameter reflector lamps such as
MR16 products, in addition to A-lamps.
We voiced our opinion at the time
that color quality should be a consumer
choice (http://bit.ly/1q5q6Dw). NEMA,
among others, opposed the CEC regu-
lations from the start and the poten-
tial of consumers having to » page 22

LEDsmagazine.com OCTOBER 2017 21

1710LEDS_21 21 9/22/17 3:22 PM

 funding programs +
DOE publishes Gateway report NEMA from page 23
buy more-expensive and less-efficient
on OLED office lighting lamps. And the potential of a DOE
conflict was readily apparent (http://
The DOE has published another Gateway report that evaluates the performance of real-world SSL bit.ly/1W22fkV).
projects in general illumination applications. The latest project primarily uses OLED-based light- Now NEMA has taken bold action.
ing, although some LED-based products were used to hit required light levels. The report states The industry association filed a
that the OLED lighting delivers light on vertical surfaces better than LED products and makes declaratory judgement with the
faces and expressions clearly visible, but the OLED products increase lighting power density rel- United States District Court in Sac-
ative to a primarily LED-based installation. ramento, CA seeking to effectively
The latest Gateway report is based on the new offices of accounting firm DeJoy, Knauf & Blood, eliminate the impact of CEC regula-
LLP (often called TeamDKB) located in Rochester, NY. David DeJoy is a founding partner at the tions on GSLs, by declaring the state
firm and is also the founder and CEO of OLEDWorks — a manufacturer of OLED panels. OLED- regulations preempted based on the
Works had pursued OLED panel technology on its own for years and then acquired the Lumiblade Energy Policy and Conservation Act
OLED operation from Philips Lighting in 2015 (EPCA). EPCA can be used by states to
(http://bit.ly/1MWhWSl). seek and sometimes win exceptions to
The TeamDKB office project uses luminaires federal policy, but NEMA asserts that
from a number of lighting manufacturers, but the CEC policy does not fall within the
all of the products installed are based on panels narrowly defined exceptions in lamps
from OLEDWorks. The OLED lighting products for federal preemption.
were installed in what were called visually- NEMA president and CEO Kevin
prominent areas including partners’ offices, Cosgriff issued a lengthy statement
conference rooms, entry corridors and recep- on the legal action: “NEMA has long
tion, and the break room and lounge area. supported national energy efficiency
Amber OLED fixtures were also installed in a standards for certain electrical prod-
Zen/mother’s room and OLED desk lamps are ucts, including light bulbs. NEMA sup-
located on desks in many offices. Recessed and ported congressional energy stan-
pendant linear luminaires and recessed down- dards for light bulbs enacted in 1992,
lights based on LEDs were used in other private 2005, and 2007, and we supported
offices and in the open office space. Congress’ delegation to the Secretary
Some offices feature the Visa Limit OLED pen- of Energy to consider new national
dant (shown) with a zigzag form that directs light energy conservation standards for
where it’s needed. Moreover, the Acuity Winona light bulbs if economically justified
Trilia adds geometric ceiling elements while delivering diffuse light. We discussed Trilia relative and technologically feasible.
to another DOE Gateway report on an office project last year (http://bit.ly/29Rzdix). Visa’s stylish “A critical statutory component of
Petal pendants serve in a lounge area. Other OLED products came from Birot Zhen, OMLED, and the federal energy efficiency regula-
OLED Devices. The lighting design took a layered approach. The LED products installed were tory scheme is that states are prohib-
specified at 3500K CCT and the OLED products at 3000K. The mismatch was intentional with the ited from enacting their own energy
OLED lighting meant to stand out in the manner that 3000K halogen lamps are sometimes used conservation standards for products
for accent lighting. CRI of the OLED products varied from 79 to 91. covered by the federal efficiency pro-
The DOE tested the entire office area for temporal lighting artifacts or flicker based on the IEEE gram both before and after federal
P1789-2015 standard (although that standard remains controversial; http://bit.ly/1hNX4TT). Most energy efficiency standards are effec-
of the installed OLED products include dimming capability based on 0–10V controls, and the DOE tive. Since 1987, Congress has recog-
tested the lights at maximum and minimum light levels. Only one of the OLED products and one nized that such state standards put an
of the LED products had problematic flicker performance. undue burden on manufacturers, who
The report details that the OLED panels have surface luminances as high as 9300 cd/m2. The were being ‘confronted with a grow-
LED products range from 12,000–28,000 cd/m2. ing patchwork of differing state regu-
Efficacy for the OLED products used ranged from 21–58 lm/W compared to 80–90 lm/W for lations that would increasingly com-
the LED products deployed. The lighting power density was calculated to be 0.6 W/ft2 for the com- plicate their design, production and
bined LED and OLED installation. That density is below the 0.82 W/ft2 required by ASHRAE/IES marketing plans.’
90.1-2013. An all-LED installation would be lower. The Gateway report noted that actual power “In late 2013, the U.S. Department of
use will be below the calculated level because there are vacancy sensors in many areas that can Energy (DOE) began a rulemaking to
automatically dim lights and employees are dimming the lights locally for visual comfort. You can determine whether or not standards
read the complete Gateway report on the DOE SSL website (http://bit.ly/2wTd4zC). for light bulbs should be amended
MORE: http://bit.ly/2jiHTbq

22 OCTOBER 2017 LEDsmagazine.com

1710LEDS_22 22 9/22/17 3:22 PM


and whether new standards for certain unregulated light bulbs
should be adopted. That rulemaking is ongoing. In the course
of that rulemaking, NEMA has supported robust new national
energy efficiency standards for LED light bulbs, as well as new
standards for other types of light bulbs. DOE proposed standards
for LED light bulbs in this rulemaking.
“While that rulemaking was underway, the California Energy
Commission (CEC) adopted energy efficiency standards for LED
light bulbs that are different from what DOE has been consid-
ering. At the same time, CEC also proposed energy efficiency
requirements for small diameter directional or reflector lamps
that DOE has indicated it is regulating. This is exactly the kind
of state regulation that Congress declared is not permissible.
“The 2007 energy law recognized a certain narrow exception
to federal preemption for California in the case of light bulbs.
None of the California regulations for light bulbs fall within the
ambit of the narrow exception recognized by Congress.
“NEMA will ask the court to issue a ruling at the earliest
possible time.”
Our coverage of the CEC policy, meanwhile, escalated over the
course of the past year. First proponents of the CEC policy includ-
ing the California Lighting Technology Center (CLTC) wrote an
article arguing that more-stringent color requirements would
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ensure that consumers would have better experience with LED
lamps and hasten adoption (http://bit.ly/2dub325). Moreover, the
CEC proponents said higher-CRI LED lamps can enable humans
to see better even if lumen output is reduced in a tradeoff.
Subsequently, scientists from the Lighting Research Center
(LRC) of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute wrote that CRI should
never be used as what they termed a “color patch” to efficacy
requirements (http://bit.ly/2gyozEC). Those authors suggested
a better lumen definition would solve the problem. And the dis-
agreement will surely continue.
Now the industry will wait on a court to decide the fate of the
CEC policy. The court decision could possibly have even greater
impact than just on lamps down the road, because there are
many other elements of CEC policy in areas such as controls that
could at some point conflict with federal policy. ◀
MORE: http://bit.ly/2gWQAHP
COMING NEXT MONTH
The International Well Building Institute’s WELL standard is
expected to quantify the role that building design plays in human
health. This article covers a project that achieved the next level of
sustainability (and productivity) in a commercial office example.
V Series
9/22/17 3:22 PM
 interview | SAPPHIRE AWARDS
Lumileds reveals the inspiration
behind LEDs designed for plants
MAURY WRIGHT interviews Jennifer Holland relative to the LEDs Magazine Sapphire Award that
Lumileds won for the SunPlus family of packaged LEDs designed for horticultural lighting.
L
EDs Magazine announced the winners
in the 2017 Sapphire Awards program
on March 1, 2017 in Anaheim, CA, at
a Gala that took place coincident with the
Strategies in Light tradeshow. Lumileds has
been well known for its LEDs designed for
general illumination, automotive, and simi-
lar applications, but on the night of the Gala
the company took honors for the Luxeon
SunPlus family of LEDs in the Horticultural
Lighting category. You can peruse the full list
of Sapphire winners in a feature article that
we published on the awards (http://bit.ly/2m
m5dER). The SunPlus family, meanwhile, won
the votes of judges via a broad feature set in
terms of different spectral power distribu-
tions (SPDs) tuned to specific plant needs.
We recently had a chance to talk with Jennifer
Holland, product line director for the SunPlus
Series, about the inspiration behind the prod-
uct family, how the company delivered such
wide choices in spectra, and how the LEDs
will be utilized in horticultural fixtures.
LEDs Magazine: Hi Jennifer, and con-
gratulations on winning an LEDs Magazine
Sapphire Award for your Lumileds SunPlus
portfolio of LEDs for horticultural lighting
applications. We’ve regularly written that
LED manufacturers are increasingly devel-
oping packaged LED products that target
specific applications. Still, SunPlus takes
the concept to a new level in terms of the
breadth of the portfolio and how closely
tied it is to the application. Tell us about the
inspiration behind the concept. How did
the decision and strategy evolve to develop
LEDs with so many SPDs and across mid-
and high-power sectors?
Jennifer Holland: First, we don’t refer
to the SunPlus 35 as a mid-power LED, but
rather both the 35 and 20 families as LEDs
with specific combinations of radiometric
24 OCTOBER 2017
1710LEDS_24 24
output and SPD that match horticultural potential to general lighting or automotive?
needs. We wanted to develop a product line And how do you think it might compare
that enabled our customers to design the to other niches such as lighting for health
optimal fixtures for each of and wellbeing?
the applications within the Holland: While our com-
horticulture segment. Dif- petitors might, Lumileds
ferent applications call for has never viewed horticul-
different specs and require- ture as a niche market. We
ments from the LED. see horticulture as a strong,
LEDs: On a more general important, and growing ver-
LED development level, how tical market segment. Both
does the Lumileds team pur- horticulture and lighting
sue a new product concept? for health and wellbeing are
Does it start with the basic developing areas for LEDs
performance capacity of an and present opportunity
epitaxial platform and then JENNIFER HOLLAND for growth.
proceed to what can be accom- LEDs: Getting back to the
plished with phosphor, optics, and package? specifics of SunPlus, we have been fasci-
Holland: We look at market trends, nated with the purple LED since the origi-
industry views, and listen to our customers nal announcement of the family. How, spe-
in order to develop the best product possible cifically, did that concept originate? The
that will fit a need in the market and provide concept seems simple — put phosphor on a
value to our customers. blue chip in a mid-power package — you do
LEDs: How often does a customer, or that every day with mid-power white LEDs.
maybe several customers, spark the devel- But what special challenges did purple pose
opment process with a need, idea, or appli- in development and moving the LED to vol-
cation? It would seem that you would have to ume manufacturing?
gate that type of development process care- Holland: We have a team of phosphor
fully, or the Lumileds team would be chas- experts based at our facility in Aachen. We
ing even far more application-specific devel- have the differentiator to be able to draw
opments than the impressive number you from their unique expertise to develop phos-
already support. phor that no one else is capable of develop-
Holland: We regularly take into account ing. This is not only limited to the horticul-
customer feedback. ture market, but can be seen in other product
LEDs: About the horticultural niche, how lines as well such as our Stylist Series.
important is that application to Lumileds? LEDs: Are there any early success sto-
Judging from SunPlus, we’d expect the ries you can share in terms of luminaires
answer to be that horticulture is pretty sig- using the purple LED? What do you expect
nificant to Lumileds. It’s certainly import- it to enable in a luminaire? And how do
ant to us in the PennWell LED & Lighting you expect luminaire makers to choose
Network and extraordinarily interesting. among the versions with varying amounts
Still, how might it compare in volume sales of blue energy?
LEDSMAGAZINE.COM
9/22/17 3:23 PM
 Holland: Our customers are very
savvy and know how to select
and implement the purple
LED that will best fit their
needs and provide the highest
crop yield based on the type of
crop they are growing.
LEDs: As for the entire SunPlus
family, we don’t remember a single
announcement that crossed the mid- and
high-power LED sectors before from any
packaged LED manufacturer. And while
you might not differentiate the 35 and 20
lines by mid- or high-power descriptors, Lumileds’ Luxeon
the packages resemble LEDs in the general SunPlus families
lighting market described in that manner. bring a mix of
In any case, you could have easily separated monochromatic and
the SunPlus announcement into multiple phosphor-converted
announcements. Is there anything to read LEDs to horticultural
in to the release of the entire portfolio at one lighting designs.
time? Did these SunPlus LEDs matriculate
in a different manner at Lumileds relative to other LED products?
Holland: We recognized a need early on to develop a complete
portfolio to cover all of the major applications in the horticulture
segment — greenhouses, vertical farms, and interweaving. By
launching a complete portfolio, we are enabling our customers to
select the best product to fit their specific need.
LEDs: Would you expect to see the 35- and 20-Series LEDs
mixed in one system design, or is it more likely that any given prod-
uct will use one or the other? If the latter is the more likely case,
would you expect luminaire makers to more easily move between
the families for different fixture designs because of some architec-
tural similarities?
are your customers using
the PPF binning and data?
Holland: PPF is a
metric that is relevant
for crops. LEDs that are
binned in lumens are not spe-
cifically made for horticulture applica-
tions. Lumens are a relevant metric for humans,
but not for plants. In order to enable our customers to
design the best fixtures possible, we give them the tools to make
sure it is relevant and easy for them — such as binning in PPF.
LEDs: Winning Sapphire is nothing new for Lumileds. Your com-
pany took our first ever Illumineer of the Year award — ironically,
or maybe not, in part because of an application-specific focus in the
CrispWhite development. What prompted Lumileds to choose Sun-
Plus for entry and what did it mean to the team to win?
Holland: This is a great achievement for the entire team that
gets shared across all functions since everyone contributed to make
this happen. As a matter of fact, we approached LEDs Magazine and
purchased a dozen replica awards to hand out to the various teams,
such as manufacturing, product management, R&D, marketing com-
munications, etc., at Lumileds who worked on the development and
launch of the Luxeon SunPlus Series. They were very excited about
the recognition!
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Holland: We see both types of fixture designs on the market.
LEDs: And speaking of similarities in the 35 and 20 lines, the phos-
phor-converted lime-green LEDs are the others that really caught our
eye. We know that monochromatic green LED efficiency trails other
colors. Was efficiency the primary reason for the phosphor approach?
Were there other reasons relative to horticulture such as a broader
emission band than what a monochromatic LED would deliver?
Holland: Lime offers several distinct advantages to our custom-
ers. For example, mixing lime with purple generates a white light
that makes it easy to conduct visual inspection on the plants. Lime
is a full-spectrum part which can benefit certain crops. Efficiency,
as has been pointed out, is also a benefit that the Lime LED provides.
LEDs: What about the choice of green spectrum? Does the lime
spectrum offer an advantage in horticulture or does it again come We’re more than ballasts.
down to efficiency? We’re Panasonic.
Holland: Depending on the type of crop, Lime can offer an advan-
tage in terms of crop yield, taste, etc. For more information, visit www.unvlt.com
LEDs: One other innovation that came with the SunPlus introduc- or call 1.800.225.5278.
tion was binning based on PPF (photosynthetic photon flux; http://
bit.ly/2eTORNS). Has that proven important to customers? We keep
hearing that even PPF falls short as a metric for horticultural lighting A member of the Panasonic Group
because two LEDs with vastly different SPDs can have equal PPF. How
LEDsmagazine.com OCTOBER 2017 25

1710LEDS_25 25 9/22/17 3:23 PM

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 human-centric lighting | COMMERCIAL SSL

Human-centric lighting takes hold

in the commercial workplace
There’s still no empirical link with productivity, but common sense says that a happier, healthier
employee is a better worker. In a two-part series, MARK HALPER finds offices that are taking to
tunable LEDs to boost the circadian cycle.

C
all it what you will — human-centric FIG. 1. The LED sources
lighting, circadian lighting, light- tested in the LRC study
ing for biology, or choose your own installation were tuned
catchphrase. But whatever you call it, there’s to produce a 0.3 CS
no escaping the claim that properly tuned (circadian stimulus)
lighting can foster desirable conditions in to increase alertness.
human beings throughout a 24-hour period. Subjects reported feeling
And there’s no light source as “tunable” more awake and energized.
as an LED, a light-emitting diode which, by
virtue of its digital nature, can deliver light Nevertheless, common
at made-to-order color temperatures, spec- sense would say that a properly
tral power, color, and brightness. lit workplace might well be a
Simply put, human-centric lighting can more productive workplace.
stimulate people during the morning and The science is still evolv-
Photo credit: Lighting Research Center.

afternoon when alertness is in order, and it ing. And experts disagree on

can relax them at night. It can tune to the which light properties trigger
same levels that the Sun delivers, and thus which reactions. For example,
reinforce the circadian rhythm that millions see what Deborah Burnett of
of years of sunrises and sunsets and 24-hour Benya Burnett Consultancy
periods of day and night have instilled. had to say at the recent Light-
If designers also mix in as much natu- ing for Health and Wellbeing
ral daylight as possible to a palette of LED Conference (p. 36), in regard
hues, the ramifications are enormous. to blue energy as part of the
Common sense says that stimulation and (http://bit.ly/2cL4Fnn), and then in offices spectral power distribution rather than just
thus alertness could buoy learning and pro- (http://bit.ly/2iEsGPI). We found examples relying on CCT.
ductivity. Relaxation could aid sleep. Con- in both settings, particularly in hospitals, But there are plenty of early adopters. So
versely, the wrong light at the wrong time where LEDs tuned at certain times of the day in another two-part series, we’ve rounded up
could ruin those things. Some researchers to stimulating blue frequencies and at oth- several examples where offices are deploy-
believe it contributes to cancer, diabetes, ers to relaxing warmer tones helped patients ing the precepts of HCL (we’ll explore Benya
and other maladies. sleep and heal. Burnett’s spectral power ideas in our next
The principles of tunable human-cen- The office examples seemed to be at an issue). These are a mix of studies and full-on
tric lighting (HCL) could apply anywhere earlier stage of exploration and analysis. deployments, but they are all pioneering
— in schools, offices, hospitals, homes, Whereas in hospitals it’s easier to chart illustrations of HCL in the workplace.
you name it. cause and effect, offices lack the monitor-
••••
A year ago, LEDs Magazine explored the ing equipment that’s typically in place at
subject in a two-part series, looking first a hospital. The upshot is that there is less General Services Administration:
at HCL applications in healthcare settings empirical evidence in an office setting. Thus, A daily dose of light
HCL can be a difficult sell, if, say, a corporate Mariana Figueiro, the director of Rensselaer
MARK HALPER is a contributing editor for buyer wants irrefutable proof that a finely Polytechnic Institute’s Lighting Research
LEDs Magazine, and an energy, technology, and engineered lighting system can boost morale Center (LRC), has long hypothesized that the
business journalist (markhalper@aol.com). and its kindred spirit, productivity. correct circadian light in offices during the
LEDsmagazine.com OCTOBER 2017 27

1710LEDS_27 27 9/22/17 3:23 PM

 human-centric lighting | COMMERCIAL SSL
day could help workers sleep better at night
and could help keep their spirits up. Now she
knows it does.
After a three-year study at five differ-
ent General Services Administration (GSA)
buildings in the US, the LRC and the GSA
together reported last May that “office
workers who receive a robust dose of cir-
cadian-effective light in the morning, from
electric lighting or daylight, experience bet-
ter sleep and lower levels of depression and
stress, than those who spend their mornings
in dim or low light levels.”
The study involved 109 participants who
wore an LRC-designed electronic pendant
called a “daysimeter” to measure light intake
including an LRC metric called “CS” for circa-
dian stimulus. CS ranges from a low of 0.1 to
a high of 0.7. The 0.7 represents the circadian
stimulation of natural daylight, which is the
ideal light for stoking up. If light were applied
in the nighttime hours when the sleep-related
hormone melatonin is produced, then a 0.7 CS
would suppress melatonin by 70%.
Figueiro and crew found that work-
ers who were exposed in the morning to a
CS of at least 0.3 “exhibited greater circa-
dian entrainment, were able to fall asleep
more quickly at bedtime, and experienced
better-quality sleep than those receiv-
ing a morning CS of 0.15 or less.” They also
“exhibited greater circadian entrainment,”
the results stated. Circadian entrainment is
a measure of how strongly the body clock is
tuned to natural day/night patterns.
Participants wore the daysimeter for
seven consecutive days in the winter, and
also for seven consecutive days in the sum-
mer. Results showed that the sleep benefit
of a CS at 0.3 or higher was even stronger
during the winter months, when partici-
pants receiving a low CS took about 45 min-
utes to fall asleep. The stress reduction
advantages associated with a 0.3 CS or
higher was consistent across winter and
summer months. And while morning doses
of 0.3 CS or higher were the most beneficial,
the study revealed that an entire day’s worth
— 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. — also improved sleep and
reduced depression.
A day for a night
“I was not surprised by the results,” Figueiro
told LEDs Magazine. “It’s something we were
expecting. Light during the day matters.
28 OCTOBER 2017
1710LEDS_28 28
There’s a lot of talk about
light in the evening and light
from your cellphone displays
before you go to bed (keep-
ing you up at night). All of
this is important. But people
are not talking about light
during the day. We spend
80%, 90% of our time indoors.
We spend at least two-thirds
of our day in our offices. And
people are not talking about
how important the lighting
is in the offices to help you
sleep better at night.”
Photo credit: Casambi.
One group talking about
this strategy is the GSA,
which hosted the study at
five locations: the GSA Cen-
tral Office in Washington,
DC; the Edith Green-Wen- FIG. 2. Casambi offers Bluetooth control of circadian
dell Wyatt Federal Building lighting via different means such as with this wall unit,
in Portland, OR; the Federal or via apps on smartphones, tablets, and other devices
Center South Building 1202 that offer a wider range of color temperatures. None of
in Seattle, WA; the Wayne the devices requires a gateway.
N. Aspinall Federal Building
and US Courthouse in Grand Junction, CO; light to a 0.3 CS by increasing the quotient of
and the GSA Regional Office Building in DC. short-wavelength blue frequencies (around
“We are supporting this type of research 470 nm) at low lux levels, or by jacking up
so we can learn more about the connections lux levels on white light, or by any in-be-
between lighting and health,” said Bryan tween variation.
Steverson, program advisor for the GSA’s In Phase 2 at two federal locations in the
office of federal high-performance build- summer and fall of 2016, the LRC mounted
ings. “The data from this research will help LED panel lights behind workers’ computer
support our efforts in developing new light- screens, pointing straight at the eyes of about
ing practices that can optimize health bene- 40 participants split between the Federal
fits for federal employees working in our fed- Highway Administration headquarters in DC
eral buildings.” and at the Veterans Administration facility
The 3-year LRC/GSA work served as what in White River Junction, VT (Fig. 1). The LRC
the LRC’s Figueiro described as “Phase 1” took one day of baseline readings without the
of a three-stage study. Notably, Phase 1 did LED light, and two days of readings with it.
not involve tuning lights. Rather, it mea-
sured the light that participants received The eyes have it
from existing light sources, which was a Rather than measuring the effect on night-
combination of natural daylight and con- time sleep, stress, and depression as it
ventional fluorescent office lights. It did not did in Phase 1, LRC scientists took note
even entail LED light sources. of any stimulating effects. The hypoth-
In research parlance, the GSA study did esis was that a blast of 0.3 CS straight at
not use any “intervention.” the eye should indeed induce alertness.
But with the 0.3 CS level very much in mind, That’s because when light hits the retina’s
the LRC recently completed a short-term non-visual receptors — known as ipRGCs
Phase 2 intervening with tunable LEDs. And (for intrinsically photosensitive retinal gan-
at the time of this writing, it was expecting to glion cells) — it excites a pigment called
soon extend its tunable LED work to Phase 3. melanopsin. Not to be confused with the
The idea is to tune direct doses of LED sleep-related hormone melatonin (and many
LEDsmagazine.com
9/22/17 3:23 PM
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1710LEDS_29 29 9/22/17 3:23 PM


FIG. 3. Tunable lighting at the Registers of Scotland offices is managed via iPad controls from Casambi mounted on the walls.
people do indeed muddle the two together),
melanopsin sends signals to the brain that
stir up the body’s master clock, establish-
ing a circadian connection first discovered
by Oxford University neuroscientist Russell
Foster and others in the early 1990s.
The result of Phase 2 and the LEDs: “With
the intervention, we showed that subjects
were self-reporting being more alert, less
sleepy, and having more energy,” Figue-
iro told LEDs. “We collected the data in the
winter and we showed that if you’re adding
a light that delivers the circadian stimulus
of 0.3, you were increasing their subjective
feelings of alertness, and reducing sleepiness
and increasing energy and vitality.”
The LRC noticed similar results in what
Figueiro described as “Phase 2B,” mounting
the same lights for a short period of time ear-
lier this year at US embassies in Reykjavik
and Riga. That study was co-funded by the
GSA and the US Department of State.
Now, it’s on to Phase 3, in which the LRC
will apply the LED panel lights for two weeks
at a time rather than for the two days of
Phase 2, while also taking a week of non-in-
tervention readings. It will also examine the
effect on sleep, stress, and depression — as
in Phase 1 — as well as on alertness. When
LEDs spoke with Figueiro in July, the final
locations had not yet been determined, but
GSA, State Department, and FHA facilities in
30 OCTOBER 2017
1710LEDS_30 30
DC were all under consideration.
Phase 3 is expected to help further demon-
strate the potential effectiveness of tuning
LEDs for circadian benefit. It should also back
up Figueiro’s assertion that healthy lighting
should be delivered in “layers,” in which ambi-
ent lighting could, for example, come from ceil-
ing fixtures while circadian stimulus could
come from low-lux blue frequencies aimed at
the retina. While light aimed directly at the eye
might sound like a turnoff, Figueiro noted that
at the low level of 30 lx, the blue still stimulates
but does not cause annoying glare. “If you do
the 470 nm you only need 30 lx, so people found
it very comfortable,” she said. “You don’t even
see it as much because you have the ambient
light, and the blue light blends in.”
While LED tunability holds tremendous
potential, Figueiro was also clear that office
designers must embrace daylight.
“One of the things we learned is that
daylighting design has to be much more
improved to be able to deliver that circa-
dian stimulus that we need,” Figueiro said.
“Daylight is the best circadian stimulus.
The thing is, it’s not always brought into the
space the way it should be.”
••••
Registers of Scotland gets tuned up
If you can’t have natural light beaming on
you all day in the office — and who can
Photo credit: Casambi.
— then tunable LEDs isn’t a bad way to go.
To that end, Finnish controls company
Casambi has a prescription: wireless Blue-
tooth controls that adjust color tempera-
tures and can help deliver stimulating blues
at the right time of the day and dial them
down when required, either in an automatic
pre-programmed manner or in a made-to-
order way (Fig. 2).
“The main thing really is the color tem-
perature control,” said Casambi CEO Timo
Pakkala. “One of the phrases that we’ve been
using for offices is ‘lighting that’s fit for pur-
pose.’ When people talk about human-cen-
tric lighting, it’s the color temperature con-
trol. It’s definitely happening, but it’s also
very early days. One of the reasons it’s still
early days is it’s a bit of chicken and egg. You
not only need new light sources, but you also
need new controls.”
While gear from Casambi controls lights
at thousands of locations in a multitude of
countries, no more than 10% of those instal-
lations are yet deploying adjustable CCT.
But the percentage is growing. And per-
haps there’s no more logical place to install it
than at a new construction, which provides
a fresh engineering canvas.
One such place is the 12-story St. Vincent
Plaza building in the middle of Glasgow,
which opened late last year. When govern-
ment agency Registers of Scotland took
LEDsmagazine.com
9/22/17 3:23 PM

over the third floor a few months later, it
embraced the HCL concept with a Casambi
system that controls some 300 LED lights
across 17,300 ft2.
Registers, which oversees land and prop-
erty deeds, has divided the LED ceiling lights
into 8 groups across the open-plan portion
of the space, plus 12 meeting rooms. Each
group and room has its own iPad controls —
they are wall mounted in the open-plan sec-
tion — which can alter brightness and color
temperature, according to Registers facili-
ties manager Kevin Stewart (Fig. 3).
And according to Casambi UK and Ire-
land business manager Stephen Jackson,
the lights are pre-programmed to change
color temperatures throughout the day.
They drive the suspended LED ceiling lights
from German architectural LED lighting
provider Lightnet that reside over every
desk in the open office. They also control
spots from two Italian companies, iGuzz-
ini and Targetti.
Along with the pre-programming, the
LEDsmagazine.com
1710LEDS_31 31
human-centric lighting
iPad controls permit Registers to alter the
settings. While the agency has indeed played
with brightness, it has thus far not fiddled
much with color temperature settings.
The principles of tunable human-centric
lighting could apply anywhere — in schools,
offices, hospitals, homes, you name it.
“We’ve just been in the building for six
months, and we’re just getting to know the
system,” said Registers’ Stewart. “We want
to go through a whole year to gather data
to best inform us.” After that — starting
around February — Registers will almost
certainly tinker more with the CCT.
Thus, to the average eye in the office, the
CCT generally stays an off-white all day,
even though the level subtly shifts. One
place where it’s programmed to a more
relaxing amber tone is the office’s social-
izing area, where employees eat and relax,
| COMMERCIAL SSL
and where the interior includes wood pan-
els. There, the amber tones “bring out the
ambience,” Stewart noted. Much of the area
can also flexibly partition into conference
rooms, in which case the Casambi system
can switch to a cooler CCT.
The agency has even installed a few
Philips Hue lights that can change colors,
although neither Stewart nor Jackson were
aware of any instances of Registers using
them yet.
LEDs Magazine will endeavor to follow the
colorful progress.
Editor’s note: In Part II, we’ll uncover stellar
uses of natural light and of spectral power dis-
tribution at distinctive commercial buildings
in Washington, DC, Seattle, and elsewhere.
OCTOBER 2017 31
9/22/17 3:23 PM
 ADVANCING THE FUTURE OF LIGHT

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1710LEDS_32 32 9/22/17 3:23 PM

 human-centric lighting | CONFERENCE
Speakers cover circadian disruption to
healthcare assessment at new conference
At the LEDs Magazine Lighting for Health and Wellbeing Conference, speakers covered topics ranging
from the perils of shift work and nighttime lighting to the up and down sides of blue spectral energy,
as well as the need for better lighting in healthcare facilities, reports MAURY WRIGHT.
T
his past summer, we held our first
one-day immersive Lighting for
Health and Wellbeing Conference.
The program was exciting, the speakers
were passionate, and the field is burgeon-
ing with opportunity. But if there was one
phrase uttered more than any other on July
27, it was “It’s complicated.” Read on for a
synopsis of the program and plan to join us
at our next event.
The conference started with a keynote
presentation by Shadab Rahman, PhD, who
is an instructor in medicine at Harvard Med-
ical School’s Division of Sleep Medicine, and
an associate neuroscientist at Brigham and
Women’s Hospital Division of Sleep and Cir-
cadian Disorders (Fig. 1). Rahman’s presen-
tation focused on circadian issues with shift
workers and the potential of circadian adap-
tation techniques to improve sleep patterns
and boost alertness among shift workers.
Shift work is, of course, unavoidable in
our society today. Indeed, Rahman pointed
out that many first responders — for
instance, from fire and police departments
— and healthcare workers invariably work
on shifts and often face the challenges of
working at night and sleeping during the
day during a series of workdays, and then
transitioning to a normal day/night cycle
during a series of off days. Proper rest is a
concern for all shift workers, but the exam-
ples noted are certainly occupations where
alertness is critical.
Rahman said, “Shift work forces us to work
against our body clock.” He described how a
master pacemaker called the SCN (suprachi-
asmatic nucleus) sends out time cues to other
physiological systems, and ultimately keeps
humans entrained to the 24-hour day (Fig.
2). Essentially, the SCN controls other slave
LEDsmagazine.com
1710LEDS_33 33
oscillators in the liver, adrenal,
and heart areas. Rahman said
it’s not just sleep but also meta-
bolic and other systems that are
impacted by shift work.
There are many factors that
can impact these systems, but
Rahman described how light
has the greatest impact on
the 24-hour biological clock.
It can be affected by inten-
sity, duration, pattern, history,
and wavelength. For example,
Rahman said exposure to a lit
smartphone is only 30 lx, but
its blue-enriched spectrum can
delay the clock by an hour and
a half, making sleep difficult.
He said that a 15-second pulse
of light can shift the clock by
about an hour. And the impact
of light can even be influenced
by light patterns a person was FIG. 1. Shadab Rahman of Harvard delivered the
exposed to a week or more prior. keynote at the inaugural Lighting for Health and
Wellbeing Conference.
Focus on wavelength
Rahman has focused much of his work on tor in the longer list of potential maladies.
wavelength and how it impacts the action So Rahman has done considerable work
spectra of non-visual receptors or intrinsi- studying ways to treat circadian misalign-
cally photosensitive retinal ganglion cells ment. And we’re not talking treatment for
(ipRGCs). We first covered the existence of symptoms such as sleeping pills to help
these receptors in an interview we published someone get to sleep, or naps prescribed to
back in 2014 (http://bit.ly/1q7GM4G). increase alertness at other times. Rahman
The long-term impact of shift work is not said, “To treat the underlying cause, you have
fully understood, although it surely extends to shift the circadian clock appropriately.”
beyond sleep issues. Research has suggested Rahman covered three possible avenues
it can lead to higher cancer rates, cardiovas- that could help with circadian misalignment
cular disorders, depression and other mental among shift workers:
health issues, gastrointestinal disorders, and • Complete adaptation
more. Of course, lack of sleep caused by cir- • Partial adaptation
cadian misalignment could be in part a fac- • No adaptation
OCTOBER 2017 33
9/22/17 3:23 PM
 human-centric lighting | COnfEREnCE

SCN
els between 7000 and 10,000 lx can other neuroscientists confirms his findings.
(master pacemaker) enable a nine-hour shift over the Rahman stressed that much more
course of a week. But he added, research is needed on the no-adaptation
Receptor “Unfortunately, a lot of shift work- concept, but he clearly believes it could
ers don’t have seven nights to shift become a viable tool to battle circadian
their clock.” issues. The research on the nurses showed
that the intervention did enable the workers
International Space Station to sleep for slightly longer periods during the
Rahman has been involved on a team day while working at night.
studying the use of dynamic light- Moving on to other presentations, the dis-
ing, entailing tunable correlated cussion of blue-rich light recurred through-
color temperature (CCT) or spectral out the day of the conference. And the pre-
power distribution (SPD) and inten- vailing theme was that blue spectral energy
sity, that was developed to help astro- is neither universally good nor bad for
nauts living on the International humans. It simply depends on when a per-
Space Station (ISS) to adapt to con- son is exposed to the blue-rich light that dic-
stantly shifting schedules. We first tates the impact. Moreover, several speak-
covered the development of the light- ers dismissed completely the notion that
ing system following a presentation the blue emitter or pump used in phos-
Liver Adrenal Heart at Strategies in Light back in 2016 phor-converted white LEDs, is dangerous
(http://bit.ly/1Y8jcbe).
Peripheral organs Members of the research team first SB
(slave oscillators)
tested the system aimed at partial
Sunlight
FIG. 2. The SCN (suprachiasmatic nucleus) adaptation on volunteers in the lab
serves as the master clock for circadian and the system is now being further
entrainment and also cues other physiological tested on the ISS. Subjects would be
25%
systems that have local clocks, according to exposed to 6500K-CCT light at a level
Shadab Rahman. of 750 lx to instigate a shift. There is
a moderate 4500K-CCT mode for nor-
In a complete adaptation scenario, scientists mal work. And there is a pre-sleep LED
100–200
would look for a way to invert someone’s sched- mode that delivers just 50 lx at 2700K. lm/W
ule completely. If a work schedule shifts by 12 The goal of the project was the ability to
hours relative to the normal day/night cycle, shift the circadian clock by eight hours. The
then the body clock must shift by 12 hours. Par- lab tests realized an actual five-hour shift.
tial adaptation might be more easily achieved. The team awaits more results from the ISS, 20%
In a partial scenario, a work schedule might although the system seems like it improves
shift by 12 hours, but perhaps the body clock sleep periods and alertness to some extent.
shifts by only eight or ten hours. Fluorescent 60
The final possibility — no adaptation — is Intervention to adaptation lm/W
15%
the most difficult of the concepts to under- The final example of research presented by
stand. Rahman stressed that it doesn’t mean Rahman involved a no-adaptation approach
to do nothing. It implies that we pursue tech- that involved nine nurses tracked for two
niques, or what neuroscientists call inter- months, with them alternating between
ventions, to prevent the clock from shifting. day and night work periods. Basically, the Incandescent 10–15
The general problem that shift workers face workers wore blue-blocker glasses that fil- lm/W
at night is that they aren’t typically exposed tered the light spectrum under 480 nm. The
5%
to a high enough level of light to shift the biggest surprise was that the data indicates
clock by more than an hour. But Rahman lack of blue light exposure didn’t increase
discussed studies of complete adaptation. He sleepiness. Rahman said that result was
400 500 600 700
said a typical room where workers are pres- first challenged by other neuroscientists
ent at night might have a 100-lx ambient level because the prevailing notion has been that FIG. 3. A move to more-energy-efficient
and that figure would translate to a biological blue spectrum increases alertness. Indeed, light sources has also resulted in more
shift of the aforementioned one hour over the he said the data caused a number of medical indoor exposure to bio-active blue light,
course of a seven-day period of night work. journals to refuse to publish the research, as Martin Moore-Ede of Circadian Light
Rahman said exposing workers to lev- but he also noted that more recent work by explained.
34 OCTOBER 2017 LEDsmagazine.com

1710LEDS_34 34 9/22/17 3:23 PM


for the human eye. It was repeatedly pointed
out that our eyes get far more blue energy
in brief exposure to the Sun than in pro-
longed exposure to artificial light. A group of
researchers in Europe recently reached the
same conclusion, as we reported in a news
story (http://bit.ly/2wXqN8C).
Martin Moore-Ede, M.D., Ph.D., and CEO
of Circadian Light, was first to address the
issue of blue spectra. Moore-Ede was a pro-
fessor at Harvard Medical School and led the
team that discovered the SCN back in 1980.
But it wasn’t until 2001 that researchers
discovered it was exposure to what Moore-
Ede calls “bio-active blue light” as the key
to entrainment of the circadian clock. The
prior thinking had been that exposure to
white light in general was the key.
As Fig. 3 depicts and Moore-Ede detailed,
the driver for more efficient lighting has
increased the amount of blue energy that
we are exposed to indoors — first with the
move to fluorescent lamps and later to LEDs.
And Moore-Ede described a metric, the Cir-
1710LEDS_35 35
cadian Bio-Active Blue Dose, as the percent-
age of blue energy in the total spectrum to
which we are exposed (SB) multiplied by the
intensity (I or total visible irradiance).
Serious health risks
High doses of blue light are acceptable and
even preferred during the normal workday
as a way to boost alertness and productivity.
But Moore-Ede dug into the details of why
blue energy has negative impacts beyond
lost sleep at night. He cited several organiza-
tions, such as the World Health Organization
and the American Medical Association, that
have published reports associating shift
work and circadian disruption to serious
health issues. But he said we now under-
stand the causal chain of what is happening.
For instance, consider the increased
rate of breast, colon, and prostate cancer
associated with people working at night.
Moore-Ede directly attributed that hazard
to blue light disrupting the circadian clock,
thereby suppressing melatonin release by
human-centric lighting | conference
the pineal gland. We have written many
times that melatonin is thought to be needed
to induce restful sleep, but it is important
for other reasons. Moore-Ede said cancer
tumors grow 2–3 times faster when mela-
tonin is suppressed. He suggested that the
body would fight and even heal small tumors
with proper melatonin levels, but the tumors
grow to become problematic without the
hormone present at the proper levels.
There is also a causal chain that Moore-Ede
discussed relative to the claimed increase in
obesity and diabetes among shift workers.
He said after as little as two nights of expo-
sure to blue light at night, the body develops
an increased insulin resistance. Moreover,
he said circadian disruption also disrupts
the insulin release from pancreatic beta cells.
Circadian Light is, of course, an entre-
preneurial company and is selling LED
lighting on a commercial basis that would
presumably eliminate the blue light issue.
The fixtures use a violet emitter and have
a depleted, almost non-existent amount of
9/22/17 3:23 PM
 human-centric lighting | COnfEREnCE

energy in the bio-active blue range. to light exposure at night. Zeitzer noted, “The changed their biology and all we really came
The company, however, has completed research all shows that we have the capacity to up with was a very complicated way to piss
some impressive research in its own small respond to this type of light, not that we will teens off.” The message was that changing
sleep center where volunteers have lived and respond to the light.” light does not change behavior, and behav-
worked 24 hours a day in what the company ior is different in each situation. In a hospital,
called a light-controlled facility. The com- Blue sensitivity is not an exact science for instance, nurse behavior could impact a
pany has run studies on volunteers making Zeitzer was moving into a discussion of planned lighting scheme for a patient because
two visits, one with conventional white LED smartphones and tablets and the impact of the nurse needs extra light to read or perform
lights and another with Circadian blue-de- blue light exposure. He said he would worry an examination in a patient room.
pleted luminaires. Moore-Ede showed data more about what someone is doing on such a
suggesting that the blue-depleted lights elim- device at night as opposed to the blue light. If Preventing health issues
inate melatonin suppression and also reverse it is a relaxing experience, the positive impact But not all presentations on the day were
appetite increases that the test documented would outweigh the potential impact of the on non-visual impacts of light. Deborah
under the standard white LED fixtures. blue light in terms of a circadian disruption, Burnett, principal of the Benya Burnett
according to Zeitzer. Consultancy, focused her talk on how qual-
Non-image-forming effects Zeitzer further warned about focusing ity light can impact human health by mak-
Jamie Zeitzer, PhD at Stanford University, just on blue light and on not understand- ing sure that practitioners in healthcare can
presented a talk entitled “Biological impacts ing fully the interactions between cones properly assess patients (Fig. 5).
of human centric lighting,” and speaking and melanopsin at different times in terms Burnett said the first thing that doctors
late in the program said he learn in medical school is the protocol for
would try and draw a thread assessing a patient. And the eye is ultimately
through many of the differ- the most important tool doctors have, espe-
ent topics discussed during cially to detect skin conditions that are “tells”
the day (Fig. 4). for doctors, even for serious conditions such
He started by introduc- as sepsis or cyanosis. Burnett presented sev-
ing the term NIF (non-im- eral disturbing cases where under poor light-
age-forming) effects. And it ing doctors had missed “tells” that would
seems there is a subtle differ- have indicated a looming drastic situation.
ence between that phrase and Ultimately, Burnett was championing
the more common discussion an algorithm for characterizing the SPD of
of non-visual effects. Zeitzer general lighting products used in health-
said, “There are a tremen- care facilities, which would enable doctors
dous amount of things that the best shot at an accurate assessment.
light does in the human brain The technology emerged many years ago
besides just forming images.” from the lab of Stephen Dain, professor at
As an example, he said if you the University of New South Wales in Sydney,
were exposed to 20,000 lx FIG. 4. Jamie Zeitzer of Stanford University pointed out Australia. The algorithm measures the cya-
indoors you would perceive it that you can change the biological clock with lighting, nosis observation index (COI) of a luminaire
as very bright uncomfortable but you can’t change the behavior of people that and is an indication of sufficient energy in
light; however, if you walk ultimately determines the success of the biological the 660-nm red area of the SPD and the pres-
outside on a nice day into intervention. ence of cyan. These energy bands are often
20,000 lx your perception is not in general lighting products because
that it’s quite nice, so there is also apparently of chronological exposure to light. He said, adding red energy adds to cost and hurts
a gain-setting mechanism in the mix. “We are not at the point where we under- energy efficiency. Burnett said researchers
Zeitzer showed data that suggested the NIF stand enough to make actual recommen- found “this was the most critical factor for
response to changing light levels is dependent dations in terms of exactly the patterns of the human eye to be able to correctly assess
on background or the light to which a person light that are necessary to change a person’s the reflectance of blood and other areas that
has been recently exposed. For example, if you health or behavior.” are important for blood evaluation.”
are exposed to very low light levels, such as The last warning from Zeitzer came rela-
in a lab setting, and then to a brighter light tive to human behavior. He asked the ques- Cyanosis observation index
pulse, his research would show that circadian tion, “Does changing biology change behav- Today, there are few luminaires on the mar-
disruption and melatonin suppression are the ior?” He then related a study focused on a ket in most of the world that garner a pass-
greatest at just over 100 lx. Moreover, he said group of teenagers. People have suggested ing score on the COI metric. Exceptions are
if you are exposed to a lot of light during the that shifting the circadian clock in teens in Australia, Japan, Sweden, and a few other
day, your body may not respond as adversely could provide them more sleep. He said, “We countries where compliance is required for
36 OCTOBER 2017 LEDsmagazine.com

1710LEDS_36 36 9/22/17 3:23 PM

 human-centric lighting | confErEncE

FIG. 5. Deborah Burnett of the Benya Burnett Consultancy argued LEDs ARE THE FUTURE OF LIGHTING.
passionately that lighting manufacturers should deliver products
that meet the requirements of the cyanosis observation index.
YOU NEED AN ASSEMBLY
PROCESS THAT PROVES IT.
luminaires to be used in healthcare settings.
Ultimately, Burnett’s message was targeted at lighting manufac-
turers that need to add products with the required red spectrum.
She said the US faces a crisis with more hospitals closing each year
and more care being outsourced to places such as retail clinics or
what she called a “doc in a box.” All would ideally get lighting that
complies with the COI algorithm.
The proof is in numbers. For instance, in the area of sepsis, the US
has around 500,000 deaths annually related to sepsis and the mor-
tality rate in the US is 40–60%, according to Burnett. She said Aus-
tralia has a mortality rate of 15% and suggested the difference is
the COI lighting that leads to earlier detection because doctors can
accurately assess skin.
As you can see, our first Lighting for Health and Wellbeing Con-
ference was information packed and the field is in its infancy. It will
be a significant profit opportunity for lighting manufacturers. But
it will take diligence. We hope to help. We will soon be planning
our conference for next summer and we will have a similar Euro-
pean event. Watch our website for details (lightingforhealthandwell With LED technology, it’s still a brave new world. The challenge
being.com). Meanwhile, we will have a few lighting for health talks for you is to bring to market a product with the performance,
at Strategies in Light (strategiesinlight.com) in February.
cost efficiency and quality that delivers a compelling value
LINKS proposition to your customers. At Alpha, we can help you
SSL impacts speak and the lighting industry listens achieve this with industry changing innovation, global support
As you can see, we’ve invested a lot of time into delivering the latest and application expertise that have made us the technological
thinking on lighting for health and wellbeing, via the conference as leader in electronic assembly. Our knowledge of die attach
well as the pages of our magazine issues and on our website. In our
coverage, you will find an interesting transition from research (http:// and soldering process solutions in LED applications means a
bit.ly/1q7GM4G) to designed studies (http://bit.ly/2x1T5y8) to more efficient and reliable solution for every bonding event
installations (http://bit.ly/2cL4Fnn) that are showing the potential of
throughout your assembly process. AlphaAssembly.com
well-designed and implemented SSL to influence the human experience
and condition. Look forward to more lighting for health and wellbeing in
our next issue.

LEDsmagazine.com

1710LEDS_37 37 9/22/17 3:23 PM

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1710LEDS_38 38 9/22/17 3:23 PM

 industry insights | HUMAN-CENTRIC LIGHTING

Human-centric lighting is the next

step in LED design and control
The key to prioritizing human-centric lighting in commercial projects is understanding the
controllability that it affords, writes CHARLES KNUFFKE .

F
or centuries, architects, designers,
and builders have looked at how to
improve aspects of our work environ-
ment, be it through security, technology,
or functional design. And for the past few
decades we have seen an explosion of inno-
vation in workplace technology from the
personal computer, cell phone, Internet, and
lighting. These advances have helped work-
ers be more efficient.
But what if we could add a new axis of
innovation to the work environment? What
if in addition to improving the tools in our
spaces, we could also improve the pro-
ductivity of workers and at the same time
increase efficiency?
In terms of lighting, we can improve the
workplace experience by thinking about
building design in an entirely new way. There
are emotions associated with buildings, and
many of these emotions are conjured from
the effects of lighting on people (http://bit.
ly/2kSXDlh). A dark, poorly lit space is ster-
ile and cold. The hum and slight flickering of
old fluorescent lamps is corrosive to concen-
tration and therefore performance. The best LED-based human-centric lighting is controllable and tunable across a spectrum of
spaces, where lighting works with the envi- correlated color temperatures (CCTs) to evoke particular human biological responses
ronment, evoke positive emotions of happi- and behavior in well-designed indoor environments.
ness, healthiness, and energy.
The advent of LED lighting has provided eral lighting applications. Light levels were intensity of the light, but also the color qual-
more consistent and positively scalable altered by directly adjusting the fixture’s ity — comprising correlated color tempera-
lighting outcomes. LEDs offer huge energy electrical power circuit. And while there are ture (CCT) and color rendering (http://bit.
savings, flexibility, and reliability, and are LED lamps that can be managed with the ly/2tXQlxc). By controlling both the intensity
now entering nearly every application in the previous generation of controls, the future and the color of the light, the lighting design
built environment. lies in embedding the control capability into can provide an additional improvement in
For more than 50 years, dimming tech- the LED’s driver and using digital protocols occupant satisfaction and productivity.
nology has been available for commercial that communicate to the driver directly.
spaces, although previously it was consid- The new vision on how to maximize the Human-centric lighting at work
ered prohibitively expensive for most gen- value of LED lighting is to not only adjust the Using tunable LEDs in this manner is known
as human-centric lighting (HCL), and it
CHARLES KNUFFKE is the Wattstopper Systems vice president and evangelist at Legrand offers many potential advantages in offices
(https://www.legrand.us/wattstopper.aspx). and workspaces (http://bit.ly/2iEsGPI).
LEDsmagazine.com OCTOBER 2017 39

1710LEDS_39 39 9/22/17 3:23 PM

 industry insights | HUMAN- CENTRIC LIGHTING
Research is underway into the potential emotional and biological
outcomes of lighting that mimics the changes in color temperatures
found in natural daylight. (see “Speakers cover circadian disruption
to healthcare assessment at new conference” on p. 33 for details on
the latest scientific findings presented at the Lighting for Health and
Wellbeing Conference.)
What is known for certain right now is HCL has visual benefits
that increase the value for the occupants in the environments where
the luminaires are installed. The lighting refines the space, alters
how architecture is perceived, and creates tangible ways of providing
more comfortable and customizable atmospheres within buildings.
Healthcare facilities are using HCL to add cooler CCTs in staff
areas to keep employees alert during shifts, while also using warmer
CCTs in patient rooms to keep individuals comfortable as they rest
and recover (http://bit.ly/2cL4Fnn). Schools utilize HCL to both calm
students and to keep them alert depending on the time of day (http://
bit.ly/2wV7jk8). And in commercial workplaces, the effects of appro-
priate lighting CCT can make the office environment feel more natu-
ral and comfortable while improving productivity and retention (see
“Human-centric lighting takes hold in the commercial workplace”
on p. 27 for examples of commercial HCL projects).
The effort to keep workers healthy, engaged, and attentive is a
cause rooted in very real financial outcomes. And just as ergonomic
chairs and keyboards, on-site health centers, and standing desks
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have helped businesses to have happier, healthier employees, HCL
offers an additional opportunity to improve worker outcomes.
The next steps in lighting control
To bring HCL into a building means installing both tunable fixtures
and smart lighting controls that can drive intensity and CCT. One
innovative technology that can be implemented into these controls
is a scheduling device (whether local to the room, or as an element
of the building’s overall lighting control system) that automatically
synchronizes a building’s lighting cycle through astronomical-
ly-based event times. That means a building can match the exact
lighting conditions outside the building dependent on the precise
latitude and longitude of the location. Of course, this setting can be
overridden or customized. The important takeaway is an intelligent
HCL system can manage itself in the background, so facilities man-
agers don’t need to make daily adjustments to allow the system to
perform and offer the full benefits of quality light.
The HCL system is also a standalone system. Rather, it is another
dimension in the broader lighting control system that utilizes occu-
pancy sensors and photocells to automatically adjust light levels
and conserve energy.
For those considering adding HCL as a potential offering, there
are a few things to be aware of in the current ecosystem of products.
Enabled fixtures must work with the lighting control system with-
out adding any complexity. Not all manufacturers have made this
available, and users won’t be happy being stuck with an advanced,
HCL-enabled fixture with no way of controlling it, or with systems
that are more complex because of the new color control capabil-
ity. This means providing a light engine and control system that
have been co-developed and created with end users in mind —
that’s critical.
Furthermore, the installation and programming can be com-
plex — and costly — with some types of HCL systems. Custom soft-
ware can be required from the control manufacturer to achieve
CCT results. Also, most contractors you may work with are proba-
bly not as familiar with digital lighting protocols such as DALI (dig-
ital addressable lighting interface) or DMX controls used with tun-
able fixtures.
The future is tunable
The reality is that tunable light will soon become as common as dim-
ming. The reality is that all light is not created equal. Just as with
other products or technologies, there are varying degrees of quality.
People will begin to encounter HCL more, and they will soon come to
expect it in the spaces where they spend prolonged amounts of time.
That means new construction will soon demand this option in the
design and specification stage. Also, retrofit opportunities must be
available to existing buildings.
The end goal for a facility’s lighting, new or old, should be that it
fades into the background in such a way that the built environment
feels just as visually comfortable as the lighting in our natural envi-
ronments — with abilities to simulate the daily transitions outside
within the indoor space. And in the moments where manual adjust-
ment is needed, the system can be optimized and altered to suit the
specific task at hand.
LEDsmagazine.com
9/22/17 3:23 PM
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 manufacturing | THERMAL & MATERIALS
Understand thermal characterization
of high-power LEDs for reliable SSL
NICHOLAS HERRICK and RANJIT PANDHER detail the thermal path that LEDs used in SSL applications
follow to ambient and contemplate the advantages of a sintered silver approach for die attachment.
D
ie attach materials used in the
assembly of LEDs directly influence
device operating temperatures, and
of course we know that heat is the enemy of
reliable LED components and finished sol-
id-state lighting (SSL) products. Higher ther-
mally conductive materials, such as sintered
nano-silver, allow an LED to operate at lower
temperatures. This impact leads to higher
luminous flux, efficiency, color stability, and
reliability. LED and SSL product developers
should fully understand thermal mitiga-
tion to yield optimal product performance.
Here we will cover research that explains the
thermal characterization process that can
further guide LED packaging decisions.
LEDs are predominantly cooled via con-
duction through the material stack to the
heat sink. The die attach layer is one of many
layers in the thermal stack, but it can serve
as a bottleneck if materials with sufficiently
high thermal conductivity aren’t used. Typi-
cally, 10–30% of the electrical power an LED
consumes is radiated as visible light, while
the rest is released as heat. This heat pre-
dominantly leaves the LED via conduction
through the die attach layer stack.
The most common industry evaluation of
LED thermal behavior is the junction-to-am-
bient thermal resistance. In this test, the
whole LED stack is measured at once, with
no differentiation between various com-
ponent layers. This method is sensitive to
variations in the die, package layers, ther-
mal interface material (TIM), and heat sink.
In this article, we outline a method to mea-
sure the high thermal conductivity of a sin-
tered-silver die attach layer.
NICHOLAS HERRICK and RANJIT PANDHER
represent Alpha Assembly Solutions
(alphaassembly.com).
LEDsmagazine.com
1710LEDS_43 43
LED assembly — Dies and packages an active substrate with no dielectric layer,
LEDs are most commonly packaged for ease which as you will see enabled high-sensitiv-
of assembly into SSL products. LED chips ity measurements.
are adhered to a substrate with a die attach The LEDs used for this experiment were
material. The die attach material forms an based on aluminum gallium indium phos-
important link in the ther-
Voltage (V)
mal path of the LED to ambi-
ent. In many cases, the die 1.78
attach material also forms 1.76
the electrical connections. 1.74
An LED chip affixed directly 1.72
to a metal substrate is an 1.70
example of chip-on-board 1.68
(COB) architecture and is 1.66
Slope = -0.00171 V/C
common in high-power LED
1.64 R2 = 0.99975
designs. Heat generated at
1.62
the LED junction conducts
1.60
through the stack layers to
1.58
reach the heat sink. These 0 20 40 60 80 100 120
layers include the chip, die Temperature (°C)
attach layer (Level 1), pack-
age substrate, package attach FIG. 1. Forward voltage versus temperature plot of an
layer (Level 2), dielectric, and LED. The slope of the line, measured in V/°C, is the
metal substrate. K-factor temperature-sensitive parameter. For best
The layered structure of results, LEDs should be calibrated in an oven; however,
a single COB LED stack can simplified LED assemblies (such as vertical LEDs on
be considered one-dimen- active pedestals) can be calibrated on thermoelectric
sional from the p-n junction heat sinks.
through the die attach layer.
After heat enters the metal substrate, it can phide (AlGaInP) layers on silicon (Si) sub-
spread in-plane before it is conducted to the strates. They were 1×1 mm in footprint and
heat sink and then to ambient. Therefore, 225-µm thick. The typical operating current
because of the small cross-sectional area of for the LEDs is 350 mA with a forward volt-
the one-dimensional stack, each layer needs age of 2.4V. The peak wavelength is 624 nm.
to be highly thermally conductive (or, equiv-
alently, have low thermal resistance; see Die attach materials
Table 2). As we will detail shortly, the dielec- In this study, we sought to develop a test
tric layer in a typical stack dominates the method to understand the influence of the
total thermal resistance of a packaged LED. die attach layer on the thermal performance
For the experiment we will discuss here, we of high-power LEDs. Die attach materials
mounted LED chips with a die attach layer vary widely in their thermal performance,
directly to copper pedestals in what is called price, and intended applications (Table 1).
OCTOBER 2017 43
9/22/17 3:23 PM
 manufacturing | THERMAL & MATERIALS

We compared two die attach materials: a Therefore, sintered silver LED applications Thermal measurements
mid-performance, industry-standard sol- packages must be evaluated in situ, i.e., by The test we performed is based on JEDEC
der alloy (SAC305) and a high-performance attaching an LED die to a substrate. Standard EIA/JESD51-1 “Integrated Circuits
alternative (sintered nano-silver paste). The thickness of the die attach layer, also Thermal Measurement Method Electrical
SAC305 is an electronics industry-stan- referred to as the bond line thickness (BLT), Test Method (Single Semiconductor Device),”
dard, lead-free solder alloy composed of is a key property of an LED assembly. Thicker 1995. Because the forward voltage of a diode
96.5% tin, 3.0% silver, and 0.5% copper. The BLTs relieve thermal stresses, but contrib- varies with the temperature of the p-n junc-
Voltage (V) ute to higher overall thermal tion, it can be used as a temperature sensor.
resistance. We measured the Also, LEDs generate significant heat when
2.3
BLT of our LEDs via a vertical they are operated at high power, so they can
2.2
measuring microscope with also be used as heaters. To use an LED as a
2.1
follow-up cross sectioning to temperature sensor, it should be operated at
2.0 confirm the results. very low current so that there is no internal
1.9 heating. By rapidly switching between high
1.8 No Dielectric Substrate and dielectric and low currents, we can utilize LEDs as test
1.7 Dielectric LED COB substrates are typ- devices to measure the thermal resistance of
1.6 ically made of copper or alu- all the layers in the die attach stack. If the
0.00 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.10
minum. These high-conduc- switch between heating and sensing cur-
Time (s)
tivity metals allow heat to rents happens fast enough, then the sensing
FIG. 2. The graph shows the voltage response of two spread before it enters the TIMcurrent can be used to measure the tempera-
LEDs following current switching from 0.7A to 0.01A. One and the heat sink. However, ture of the previous heating phase.
LED was assembled on a substrate with a dielectric, the most LED substrates have a Using an LED as a temperature sensor
other on an active pedestal. The time t=0 corresponds to dielectric layer between the requires calibration, i.e., we need to deter-
when the current was switched from the heating current die attach pad and the metal mine its temperature sensitive parameter.
to the sensing current. The difference between the two core. This layer has compara- The temperature sensitive parameter of an
substrates shows that the dielectric layer contributes tively high thermal resistance LED, also known as the k-factor, is a linear
significantly to the total thermal resistance of the system, — so much so that the total relationship between the forward voltage of
thereby slowing down the temperature change (see Fig. 5). thermal resistance of the LED the LED and the junction temperature. Fig. 1
stack is overwhelmingly dom- shows a plot of forward voltage as a function
purpose of SAC305 in this experiment was to inated by the thermal resistance of the dielec- of the temperature for a typical LED used in
function as the control as we investigated the tric layer (Table 2). our experiment. The slope of the line is the
unknown in-situ thermal conductivity of sin- In our experiment, we needed to measure k-factor, measured in volts/degree Celsius.
tered nano-silver. the very small thermal resistance of sintered The LEDs in this study had measured k-fac-
The sintered nano-silver paste used here is silver. With the dielectric layer present, the tors of 0.00171 V/°C.
designed for pressure-less die attach assem- thermal resistance of a sintered silver layer
bly and uses typical SMD (surface-mount was only 0.8% of the total thermal resis- LED heating transient
device) manufacturing processes such as tance, making accurate measurement Fig. 2 shows the voltage of an LED when it
printing or dispensing and pick-and-place. impossible. Solder die attach layers comprise rapidly switches from high to low current.
It must, however, be sintered at high tem- only 2.7% of the total thermal resistance In this case, the LED was operating at 0.7A
perature in an oven. when a dielectric is present,
The thermal conductivity of bulk silver is making these measurements Junction temperature (¡C)
429 W/mK, but because of nano-pores the challenging but possible. 70
expected thermal conductivity of sintered Removing the dielectric
nano-silver is lower. Laser-flash thermal gives a direct heat path to the 60
conductivity measurements of bulk sintered metal substrate and vastly
50
silver samples are >200 W/mK. decreases junction-to-ambient
Dielectric
Measuring the thermal conductivity of thermal resistance. Without a 40
sintered nano-silver layers is challenging dielectric, the sintered silver
because of their high thermal conductivity. die attach layer’s contribu- 30 No Dielectric
The microscopic porosity of sintered mate- tion is 8.4% of the total stack 20
rials is highly dependent on sintering con- resistance and solder’s contri- 0.00 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.10
Time (s)
ditions, such as pressure, temperature, and bution is 21.3%. This ten-fold
duration. Because of this, measurements increase makes the measure- FIG. 3. The graph depicts the calculated junction
done on a large sample are not representative ment possible with commer- temperatures of two LEDs following current switching
of thin die attach layers in an LED assembly. cial off-the-shelf hardware. from 0.7A to 0.01A. The current change occurred at t=0.
44 OCTOBER 2017 LEDsmagazine.com

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 manufacturing | THERMAL & MATERIALS

Junction temperature (¡C) FIG. 4. The plots show will have a longer duration and higher ampli-
33 average junction temperature tude transient than a dielectric-less substrate.
32
versus heating power for LEDs A shorter-duration transient is the downside
Sintered Ag Rth = 4.95°C/ W
with bond line thickneses of removing the dielectric and necessitates a
31 SAC305 Rth = 6.22°C/ W
from 25–75 µm. The slope of fast switching and high-resolution power sup-
30 the line is the total thermal ply. The transient duration for LEDs assem-
SAC305 resistance of the LED bled on dielectric substrates was around 50
29
assembly and ms, while LEDs assembled on dielectric-less
28 Sintered Ag
heat sink. substrates were less than 10 ms.
27 In our experiment, we used a source mea-
26
surement unit capable of switching currents
junction temperature of the in under 30 µs. The current and voltage were
25
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 LED during this time (Fig. 3). monitored at 10 kS/s (kilo-samples per sec-
Heating power (W) If the power supply switches ond) during switching. By acquiring the
sufficiently fast, then the volt- electrical data at high speed, we avoided
for long enough to thermally stabilize, then age immediately after the switch will corre- the need to extrapolate voltage data to t=0.
switched to 0.01A. At the moment of switch- spond to the temperature of the LED when it
ing (t=0), there is a transient event in which was operating at the heating current. Junction temperature
the voltage rises quickly because the LED The duration of the transient voltage The junction temperature (Tj ) of an LED is
begins to cool after the current switches. As response is proportional to the total ther- the temperature at the p-n junction where
the LED temperature approaches the heat mal resistance of the LED assembly, while light is generated. It is the chief contributor
sink temperature, the voltage stabilizes at the amplitude is proportional to the highest to the total lifetime of the LED and influ-
the reference voltage. Using the temperature temperature the LED sees during its heating ences the LED’s color, total luminous flux,
sensitive parameter we can calculate the phase. Therefore, a substrate with a dielectric and efficiency.

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1710LEDS_45 45 9/22/17 3:23 PM

 manufacturing | THERMAL & MATERIALS

The following equation, referred to as the TABLE 2. Calculated thermal resistances (Rth) for each layer of the LED
forward voltage shift method, can be used to assembly used in this experiment. The dielectric layer contributes the most
measure Tj during LED operation: to the total Rth, after which is the die attach layer.
Thermal Layer
V R – VS Layer conductivity thickness
Cross-sectional Thermal resistance,
Tj = + THS area (m2) Rth (K/W)
k (w/m·K) (µm)
Where: LED (Si) 149 175 10-6 1.17
VR is the reference voltage of the LED when
the current is below the self-heating thresh- Die attach layer
10–250 50 10-6 5–0.2
old (measuring current) and the LED is at (see Table 1)
THS temperature. Dielectric
2.4 25–75 10-6 10.4–31.3
VS is the sensing voltage of the LED imme- (optional)
diately after switching from heating to sens-
MCPCB (Cu) 390 1200 10-4 0.03
ing current.
k is the temperature sensitive parameter
in units of volts/degree Celsius. TIM (Indium) 82 200 10-4 0.02
THS is the temperature of the heat sink
in Celsius. verted into light. Heating power, therefore, independent variable and thermal resistance
is defined as: the dependent variable. Using this method,
Thermal resistance calculation we measured the thermal conductivity of the
Ph = PE – Po
The thermal resistance of the LED package die attach material:
can be calculated by knowing the junction Where:
Rth = RS . Th + R Rem
temperature of the LED at several operat- P h is the heating power of the LED,
ing currents: in watts. Where:
PE is the electrical power of the LED, Rth is the total thermal resistance of the
Tj = Rth . Ph + THS
in watts. LED package, which is a function of Th .
Where: P0 is the optical power of the LED mea- R S is the thickness of the die attach
Tj is the junction temperature, which is a sured in an integrating sphere, in watts. layer (BLT).
function of heating power, Ph. Using the equations above, we can plot Th is the scaled thermal resistance of the
Ph is the heating power of the LED (see junction temperature versus heating power die attach layer, measured in (K/W.m).
equation below). (Fig. 4). The slope of the line is the total R REM is the thermal resistance remnant. It
Rth is the thermal resistance of the LED thermal resistance of the LED package, in corresponds to the y-intercept of this linear
assembly, in °C/W (or equivalently, K/W). units of °C/W. equation, meaning it is the theoretical ther-
THS is the temperature of the heat sink, mal resistance of the package if the BLT = 0.
in Celsius. Thermal conductivity In other words, it is the thermal resistance
We are focused on the heating power By assembling LEDs identically except for of all the non-die attach layers.
of the LED versus the electrical power, the bond line thickness (BLT), we formed Once the scaled thermal resistance, RS , is
because some of the electrical power is con- an experiment in which BLT was the known then the thermal conductivity of the
material can be calculated:
TABLE 1. A few of the common die attach materials and their thermal 1
conductivities used in LED assembly. This experiment used SAC305 and k=
A . Rs
sintered silver.
Where:
Die attach material Thermal conductivity (W/m∙K) Application k is the thermal conductivity of the die
attach material, in W/m-K.
SnBi solder 20 Low temperature assembly A is the surface area of the die attach layer.
The thermal resistance remnant R REM
80Au/20Sn 57 High reliability merits additional discussion — it is the total
resistance of all the in-common elements of
SAC305 solder 64 Inexpensive the LEDs tested, including the resistance of
the die, boundary layers of the die attach
Electrical insulator, high thermal material, dielectric (if present), substrate,
Silver-filled epoxy 149
conductivity
TIM, and heat sink. The die attach bound-
Electrical conductor, high thermal ary layers have different resistance prop-
Sintered silver 100–250
conductivity erties than the bulk die attach material
46 OCTOBER 2017 LEDsmagazine.com

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 manufacturing | THERMAL & MATERIALS

Absolute thermal resistance (K/W) assurance that our measurements of sin-

FIG. 5. Thermal resistance
7.5
tered silver are also accurate. The results are
of LEDs assembled with
encouraging because they accurately mea-
SAC305: y = 16227x + 4.505 SAC305 or sintered silver
7.0 sure the thermal conductivity of SAC305 at
Sintered Ag: y = 4834x + 3.933 are plotted here. Each point
6.5
61.6 W/mK, which is known to be 64 W/mK.
SAC305 on the graph represents the
Our results are within 10% of the published
6.0 Rth of an LED plotted against
value. We can therefore state with confi-
its bond line thickness.
5.5
dence that the bulk, in-situ thermal conduc-
The slope of each fitted
tivity of Alpha sintered silver paste is within
5.0 Sintered Ag
line is the scaled thermal
10% of 206.8 W/mK.
resistance of that die attach
4.5 material. The y-intercept of
Conclusion
4.0
each line corresponds to the
The die attach layer is an essential heat con-
remnant thermal resistance
3.5 duction layer in an LED assembly and its
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 for that die attach material.
performance strongly depends on thermal
Bond line thickness (10-6m) conductivity. While JESD51-1 is the standard
for determining the total thermal resistance
because, in the case of sintered silver, the material makes imper- of an LED assembly, we adapted it to measure the bulk thermal
fect physical contact with the adjacent surfaces or, in the case of conductivity of high-performance sintered silver. By assembling
solder, there exists an alloy gradient at the interface. However, by test samples without dielectric and using sufficient power switch-
varying only the BLT of a die attach material we can discount all ing, we measured the thermal conductivity of our sintered silver
the other resistance layers, thereby measuring the bulk conductiv- material and compared it to SAC305. Sintered silver die attach
ity of the material in situ. materials offer excellent thermal performance improvements ver-
sus SAC305 solder.
Results
Twenty-seven LEDs were assembled with sintered silver covering a BLT
range of 10–160 µm. These were sintered for 1.5 hours at 225°C. Twenty
LEDs were assembled with SAC305 preforms to achieve a BLT range of
18–133 µm. These were reflowed in vacuum to minimize voiding. Two
wirebonds were used on each LED. Voids were measured and only sam-
ples with percentages less than 10% were used in the study. For testing,
each LED was mounted to a thermoelectric cooler set to 25°C with a
layer of indium to act as a TIM.
For every measurement, the LED was required to thermally sta-
bilize to within 0.02°C of the set temperature for at least 10 seconds.
Each LED was powered via constant current at 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, and 0.7A
and the junction temperature was measured. The optical power of
every LED was measured in an integrating sphere to calculate each
sample’s thermal power at each current.
Junction temperature measurements gave a scaled Rth of 4834 K/
Wm for sintered silver samples (Fig. 5). This corresponds to a ther-
mal conductivity of 206.8 W/mK. LEDs assembled with SAC305
showed a scaled Rth of 16,227 K/Wm and corresponding 61.6 W/mK
thermal conductivity.
The y-intercepts of the fitted lines in Fig. 5 indicate that sintered
silver has slightly lower interfacial resistance than SAC305. This is
likely due to interfacial inter-metallic compounds and voids in SAC305
(despite significant efforts to minimize them). The unavoidable exis-
tence of voids in solder assemblies (even when using preforms and
reflowing in vacuum), versus near void-less sintered silver perfor-
mance, is a significant drawback.
The purpose of this experiment was to measure the thermal con-
ductivity of sintered silver in-situ. In order to verify the accuracy
of the method, we also measured SAC305. Therefore, if our mea-
surement results for SAC305 were accurate, then we have some
LEDsmagazine.com OCTOBER 2017 47

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 industry insights | SSL CONTROLS

Lighting controls can no longer be

‘set and forget’ with IoT advances
The days of convoluted programming for lighting scenes have ended. With the advent of IoT, lighting
designers must embrace flexible wireless lighting schemes with intuitive interfaces and controls,
advises BEATRICE WITZGALL.

A
s far back as I can remem- abled lighting controls? We live
ber, lighting controls were in a society where all consum-
always the responsibility of ers have come to expect the
IT experts. Lighting designers and best and most technologically-
end users were dependent on their advanced options to simplify
skills to program our lighting vision. their lives. Are clients not ask-
Any change to a lighting scene or ing for it, or do we ignore their
a setting required the secure pass- requests, since we don’t know of
word and the inevitable and expen- better alternatives? With that in
sive onsite visit by a tech-IT inte- mind, there are many new pos-
grator. For all users and designers, sibilities and features available
the hours of the final light setting for lighting control that we’d
were precious and we often found never thought about (http://bit.
ourselves having a long wait. Once ly/2kRkT3o). Why do we still
they arrived, they’d settle into their accept a static light-scene but-
IT closets with their laptops, click- ton in a world of personalization
ing on keys and making changes for and flexibility as the Holy Grail
us, sometimes even with a walk- of controls?
ie-talkie as the control logic wasn’t These days there is a lot of
inside the space where you pro- talk about wireless systems
Photo credit: LumiFi.

grammed. Each change of a set- and the IoT. So, it begs the ques-
ting required deciphering control tion: What are IoT-based light-
zones, symbols, and minutes in the ing controls? The power and
laptop to identify the correspond- the possibilities are in wire-
ing setting. From an end user’s or less controls. Wireless con-
designer’s standpoint, lighting FIG. 1. Lighting scene options are opened up to the end user trol means when the LED, its
scene setting has been a challeng- with a familiar graphical user interface (GUI). driver, and communication
ing and arduous process. It is nei- chip are integrated into one
ther intuitive nor easily accessible. No one face) just like you’d find on an iPhone or any unit and the intelligence and controls are
ever wanted to repeat this complicated and Apple product. Steve Jobs and Apple’s intu- software-based.
pricy process. The goal became to set it once itive GUIs left their mark, rendering pro- Nowadays, many companies pitch a wire-
and then forget about it. grammers a thing of the past and empow- less solution, but in fact most are hybrid
Now, this complex process is a thing of the ering users to take control (Fig. 1). Why solutions where the backbone is still wired
past. You can forget those old DOS PC ter- is lighting still stuck in a multiple-de- and they offer a mobile app as an extension
minals that were only understood by pro- cade-old technology? of their system. Some others promote wire-
grammers. With the advent of the Internet Is it due to the established distribution less proprietary hardware with a mobile
of Things (IoT) and controls, anyone can and sales structures of a handful of com- app. The hardware is not integrated with
get an intuitive GUI (graphical user inter- panies that keep a firm grip on the mar- the actual lighting fixture; it still requires
ket? Is it because the lighting industry still additional control gear and hence is not a
BEATRICE WITZGALL is CEO of LumiFi thinks users are not ready to embrace all true integrated system. It doesn’t tap into
(lumifi.com). the possibilities that come with IoT-en- the new possibilities of an IoT-based system,
48 OCTOBER 2017 LEDSMAGAZINE.COM

1710LEDS_48 48 9/22/17 3:30 PM

 industry insights | SSL CONTROLS

which allows personalization, flexibility, and

IoT enabled lighting hardware LumiFi ecosystem and IT infrastructure
dynamic lighting capabilities.
An integrated system means that the hard-
Mobile Web
ware manufacturer adds a wireless chip with app admin
firmware (the software that runs the wireless
chip) onto its LED or driver (http://bit.ly/2w Various third-party manufacturers
with different types, quality,
TAchX). No additional control gear is needed Access code
and price points
other than the software that replaces the leg-
acy lighting control system. It simplifies the
Location-based
whole setup and technology, offers an open Bluetooth ZigBee software Web API
platform approach, and reduces not only controller and cloud
hardware requirements but also infrastruc- HTTP JenNet-IP
ture and labor efforts.
Let’s be honest: Significant progress can- FIG. 2. An integrated command system that is compatible with various smart
not be made based on legacy technology. lighting products and communications protocols will provides users with intuitive
Can you imagine a “selfie culture” with the lighting controls.
lengthy chemical processing of traditional
film? Or can you imagine not being able to take a phone call in as the lighting community to seriously consider new systems and
another country while you are running errands, because your land- specify them into a project? Progress and innovation can only be
line phone still had you chained to one physical location with its done with knowledge and an open mind to try something different.
cable like a dog leash? Now, we will be able to set and reset, modify, and personalize as
Why is it so hard for lighting technology providers to embrace many times as we want with ease and convenience. We can take con-
that lighting controls have now changed? Hardware gets replaced trol of our lighting and put a customized experience into the plan
by software everywhere. Why hold on to your old closet full of hard- as a priority.
ware when the dimmer, wireless communication chip, and soft-
ware integrated together can all replace that and make the hard-
ware obsolete?
Is the lack of understanding a result of being unaware of alterna- APPROVED for Critical
tive options, or is there inherent mistrust in innovation that causes
us to still hang onto the conventional?
Bonding Applications by
Lighting has so much more potential than as a one-time pro-
grammed scene switch at the door that we set once and forget. Light-
ing should be dynamic and transformative not only for space but also
for the humans within. Why don’t we try to engage with lighting in EP30-2 EPOXY ADHESIVE
new forms and ways?
Let’s stop ignoring controls and instead enhance them with an
interface that we can easily engage with. Let’s start to design light-
ing with the human in mind: transformative, fun, and interac-
tive. Let’s connect people with lighting and create more meaning-
ful experiences.
The power of true integrated lighting controls is in a future
where software replaces closets full of hardware, and where the
software can evolve into being flexible and intelligent and can be
easily updated over the air. We are no longer in a time where we TESTED BY LIGO* FOR:
need to send an expensive expert installer to modify a light set-  Low outgassing rates
ting on a piece of hardware; it’s a time where we just send a soft-
 Vacuum serviceability
ware update to add new functions and features. Tesla reinvented
 Advanced optical assemblies
the automotive industry with software-driven vehicles; why is the
* The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory
lighting industry still hesitant to follow where every other indus-
try has already gone?
Embrace new possibilities and technology and don’t hide behind
legacy structures just because that’s all you know.
The question is, how do we switch and find these new technolo- Hackensack NJ 07601, USA ∙ +1.201.343.8983 ∙ main@masterbond.com
gies? It may be just too convenient to call up our established dealer
www.masterbond.com
to have him do what he always has done. Isn’t it our responsibility
LEDsmagazine.com OCTOBER 2017 49

1710LEDS_49 49 9/22/17 3:30 PM

 ORDER NOW TO SAVE 15%
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HORTICULTURAL LIGHTING: MARKET ANALYSIS AND FORECAST 2017

Horticultural lighting is one of the most exciting applications in which LED

technologies can make a significant impact. Incumbent lighting technologies,
including high pressure sodium, metal halide and fluorescent to name a few,
are beginning to be replaced with LED. While energy efficiency continues to be
the major factor behind the adoption of LED technologies in the horticultural
illumination market, additional benefits, including their low heat, tunability and
controllability, will all accelerate their acceptance into the growing horticulture
market. Strategies Unlimited has forecasted that the horticultural lighting market
will grow more than 180% in the next five years, with LED comprising the majority
of this growth.

QUESTIONS? Please contact:

USA West Coast & Asia USA Northeast & Canada USA Southeast & Europe
Tim Carli Katrina Frazer Sabrina Straub Leslie Brown
Sales Director Business Solutions Manager Business Solutions Manager Business Solutions Associate
510.701.0512 603.891.9186 603.770.6569 785.766.5770
tcarli@pennwell.com katrinaf@pennwell.com sabrina.straub@luxreview.com leslieb@pennwell.com

1710LEDS_50 50 9/22/17 3:30 PM

 innovation | LED TECHNOLOGY

New book looks to the past to

determine the future of SSL
After sharing his work about LED pioneer Shuji Nakamura, journalist BOB JOHNSTONE followed the
path carved through new technology terrain by other LED innovators in his new book, L.E.D.:
A History of the Future of Lighting — where he chronicles the origins of the light-emitting diode,
its evolution, and the applications it promises to enable, illustrated in this excerpt.

T
he ability to foresee the future, espe-
cially when crucial parts of that
future remain to be invented, is rare.
Ton Begemann acquired the oracular abil-
ity through serving as a science attaché at
the Dutch embassy in Washington during
the 1970s. One of his reports, on American
doubts about the prospects for fast-breeder
nuclear reactors, caused an uproar in his
native Holland. “There were seventeen
questions in parliament and headlines in
the newspapers,” Begemann said, chuck-
ling as he recalled the furore he had inad-
vertently caused. “So I decided, Well, this is
the end of my career as a diplomat.” On his
return to Holland in 1975, he was offered
a job with Philips Lighting in Eindhoven,
Holland. In 1990, losing money and stung
by criticisms that it had become staid and
hidebound, Philips brought in new manage-
ment. The incoming team included Einar
Kloster, a canny Norwegian, who took over
as CEO Philips Lighting. One of Kloster’s first
actions was to appoint Begemann as his res-
ident soothsayer. Though lighting had not
changed much in the past hundred years,
complacency was dangerous because it left
the business vulnerable to unexpected inno-
vation. “Ton,” Kloster instructed Begemann,
“you are going to sit in the office next to me
and look at what is going to happen with
lighting technologies.”
In his new role one of the first items that
caught Begemann’s eye was an advertise-
Republished from May 2017 edition of L.E.D.: A History of the Future of Lighting by BOB
JOHNSTONE (shown). Excerpt from Chapter One, “Only One Girl To Dance With.” Copyright May
2017; published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (available at: http://amzn.
to/2x5R1p5). No revisions have been made to the original published text.
LEDsmagazine.com
ment in a trade journal for a new, fourth-gen-
eration light emitting diode, a device that
emitted bright amber light. This was of
interest because one of Philips best-selling
products also emitted bright
amber light: high-pressure
sodium-vapor street lamps.
Begemann saw that street
lights based on LEDs would
consume much less energy
than sodium-vapor lights.
He also recognized that light
emitting diodes would have
another advantage over con-
ventional sources. LEDs were
directional, shining only
where pointed, in this case,
downwards. To achieve the required illumi-
nation at street level, you would not need to
produce so much light. Begemann ordered
some of the new bright orange LEDs. Tech-
nicians in Philips’ lab soldered couple of
hundred devices onto a circuit board then
hooked it up to an electric current. The tiny
lights shone brightly. Not nearly enough to
compete with sodium, but doubtless they
would get brighter.
In 1993, seeking to share his findings
with colleagues, Begemann staged a stra-
tegic directions workshop. He understood
that LED lighting was not going to be an
easy sell. Only a few years previously, believ-
ing the technology to be a dead-end, Philips
had disbanded its LED group and ignomin-
iously exited the field. In 1992 a working
group at the company investigating “uncon-
ventional light sources” had concluded that
LEDs were not suited for general illumina-
tion. But in the interim the
efficiency of LEDs had dou-
bled, then doubled again. It
was time for another look.
Begemann began his pre-
sentation with a cautionary
tale. Imaging had long been
dominated by Kodak. But the
recent advent of digital cam-
eras meant that the writing
was on the wall for the ven-
erable US firm. Light emit-
ting diodes, he asserted, rep-
resented the same kind of existential threat
in the lighting market. Admittedly, LEDs
were as yet not capable of producing white
light. But that was not the issue, Begemann
argued, he fully expected that they would
eventually acquire this capacity. In the long
term LEDs had the potential to radically
change illumination. For the moment, the
important thing was to get cracking with
the amber, then continue with the white
when it became available. “LED lighting is
something we need to look at,” he concluded.
His story fell on deaf ears. “They didn’t
really believe it,” Begemann told me.
“Nobody said, Yes — that is something.” For-
tunately, he still enjoyed the backing of his
boss. Kloster had been disturbed by the pre-
sentation and its implications for the future
of Philips Lighting. It was imperative to find
out how much brighter amber LEDs would
become. The best ones were made by Hewl-
ett Packard. As it happened, one of Kloster’s
OCTOBER 2017 51

1710LEDS_51 51 9/22/17 3:30 PM

 innovation | LED TECHNOLOGY

close friends, a fellow Philips board member
called Frank Carubba, had formerly been a
senior manager at Hewlett Packard. It was
arranged that in January 1994 Begemann
would travel to San Jose in Silicon Valley
to meet with executives at HP’s Optoelec-
tronics Division, the source of the best lit-
tle orange lights.
The visit did not go well. Begemann
wanted to discuss the role that LEDs might
play in lighting. But the HP guys sim-
ply didn’t get what he was talking about.
Though frustrated, Begemann stubbornly
persisted. Back in Eindhoven, he kept pes-
tering Hewlett Packard to send some-
one over to Holland so that he could show
them what he meant. Eventually, in March
1994, keen to get the pesky Dutchman off
his back, the division manager capitulated.
Roland Haitz, the number-one technology
guy, not just of the optoelectronics division
but of HP’s entire Semiconductor Products
Group, happened to be in Japan. Haitz was
scheduled fly to his native Germany for a
trade show. Would he mind dropping in on
Philips in Holland on his way home? Reluc-
tantly, Haitz agreed.
••••
The visible light emitting diode was
invented in 1962 by Nick Holonyak, a
researcher then working for GE. It glowed
a dull red. The tiny size of the device made
the LED ideal for its first application, as an
on/off indicator. With the advent of digital
watches and calculators, LEDs were pressed
into service as displays, to provide alphanu-
meric read-outs. Hewlett Packard got into
LEDs because, as a maker of test and mea-
suring kit, read-outs were vital to its core
business. The conventional display device
was the Nixie tube. Nixies were cumber-
some, power hungry, hard to read, prone
to breakdown and — worse — an anach-
ronistic embarrassment at a time when the
rest of the electronics in HP’s products had
shrunk to low-power transistors and chips.
The capability of LEDs was thus closely
aligned with HP’s corporate strategy.
In 1970 Bill Hewlett committed his com-
pany to building a handheld scientific calcu-
lator, an electronic slide-rule that would fit
in a shirt pocket. Since production was lim-
ited by how many displays HP could make, the
company poured resources into the research,
development, and manufacturing of LEDs.
The calculator turned out to be a huge hit
commercially. “This was a big deal for HP,”
Haitz recalled. “After that, Hewlett was so
proud we had helped the company to get such
a big success that we were the fair-haired
boys for a long time to come.” HP continued
to innovate in the materials from which LEDs
are fabricated. In 1979 Haitz hired George Cra-
ford, a former student of Holonyak’s who had
made the first yellow LED. The potential for
LEDs to play a role in general illumination
had been clear to Holonyak more or less from
day one. “We believe there is a strong possi-
bility of developing [the LED] as a practical
white source,” he told an interviewer back in
1963. Holonyak and Craford continued bandy

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around the notion light emitting diodes as
the shape of lighting things to come. But
most people simply laughed this off. So long
as LEDs could only glow dull red they would
continue to be a niche market. LEDs were
merely light to be seen, not light to see by,
which is what Ton Begemann was proposing.
Then, beginning in the mid eight-
ies, new light-emitting compounds were
investigated. For the first time an unfa-
miliar adjective began to be applied to
describe the output of LEDs. At long last
the tiny lights were becoming bright. Ser-
endipitously, a new application popped
up for which bright red LEDs were a per-
fect fit. In 1985, to reduce read-end colli-
sions — one of the most common forms
of road accident — the US National High-
way Traffic Safety Administration required
that thenceforth all automobiles must be
equipped with a third brake light. This
would be mounted at eye-level in the center
of the rear windshield. By the early 1990s
it was clear that bright red LEDs would
prevail in the brake light market. Armed
with its new bright orange lights, Hewl-
ett Packard was eyeing a related niche —
automotive turn-signals. Then, in Decem-
ber 1993, came a bombshell. An obscure,
previously unknown Japanese firm named
Nichia announced that it had achieved
what many of the biggest names in the
electronics industry had been trying to
make for the past two decades: namely, a
bright blue LED. Overnight, the game had
changed. With red, green, and blue LEDs,
it would now be possible to make white
light — as just a few months earlier, with
remarkable prescience, Ton Begemann had
anticipated. Roland Haitz told his boss that
HP urgently needed to set up a blue LED
development program. Haitz himself took
off for Japan to meet with Nichia. Which is
where he was when the request for him to
visit Philips Lighting arrived.
••••
“It was the most nerve-wracking trip I
ever did,” was how Haitz remembered his
late-evening drive through the Ruhr from
Hanover to Holland. After a horrendous
three hours negotiating heavy traffic amid
torrential rain, he finally reached Eind-
hoven. Next morning Ton Begemann gave
him a guided tour of Philips Lighting’s lab-
LEDsmagazine.com
1710LEDS_53 53
oratory. It was a revelation for Haitz who
until that point, as Begemann recalled
with a chuckle, had known nothing about
lighting. Haitz himself described his tour
as an introduction to a completely differ-
ent world. “I learned so much on that day
about what counts in lighting,” he told me.
In return, Begemann badgered Haitz for
answers to his questions: The efficiency of
HP’s amber LEDs had doubled twice in
recent months. How much improvement
in their output could be expected by the
year 2000? In his role as chief technologist
Haitz was, like Begemann, accustomed to
peering into the future. HP’s customers in
the automotive industry were always eager
to learn what was in the product pipeline.
LEDs like the ones that had
caught Begemann’s eye were
based on technology Hewl-
ett Packard had commercial-
ized two years previously and
developed three years before
that. Between what Haitz
knew was in HP’s labs back
in Silicon Valley and what
Philips had acquired there
was thus a five-year gap. In
addition to which, he was able
extrapolate product develop-
ment five years hence. Though Haitz kept
his cards close to his chest — Philips had
yet to sign a non-disclosure agreement
with HP — some hasty, back-of-the-en-
velope calculations left both parties in no
doubt by the end of the day that the future
of LEDs lay in the lighting business.
On the plane home to California Haitz
wrote up his impressions in a trip report.
LEDs would clearly be in lighting and light-
ing was a huge market. If Hewlett Packard
wanted to remain a major player in the LED
business, the company had no choice but
to participate. But HP could not go it alone
because it didn’t understand the market. “If
we are not tied up with a lighting company,
we will make mistake after mistake, and we
are going to get our ass kicked,” Haitz con-
cluded, with characteristic brusqueness.
“We have to find a partner.” There were
three possibilities: Osram-Sylvania, GE, and
Philips. Osram already had its own internal
LED business; GE was no longer interested
in making investments in lighting technol-
ogy. “So there was really only one girl to
Origin of Haitz’s Law
In early ‘99 Roland Haitz started to consider
how much energy would be saved by
converting incandescent lamps to LEDs
based on two decades’ worth of historical
data he had in his files. “I’m somewhat of a
pack rat,” Haitz told me. “I dug through my
old reports, which went back to 1971 or so.
We used to have an annual review with the
top brass at HP, when I had to present our
accomplishments and performance targets
for the next five years. So I had a lot of
information about how many LEDs we’d sold
in a year, what was the average selling price,
and the efficiency at that time. I basically
plotted a historical collection of points of
what was the most powerful LED you could
buy commercially in that year. Then I also
dug into what was the cost per lumen.”
Haitz was not a big believer in numerical
analysis by spreadsheets. For him, a
simple formula was a far better tool for
understanding. The result was what came
to be known as Haitz’s Law. In graphical
terms, it plotted two lines, price and
performance, versus time; the former
headed straight down, the latter straight
up. Haitz’s Law states that every decade
the price per lumen falls by a factor of
ten, while the amount of lumens output
by an LED increases by a factor of twenty.
Extrapolating the lines, Haitz estimated
that by the middle of the next decade,
that is, around 2005, LEDs would begin
to become competitive with conventional
light sources. He also worked out what the
potential energy savings of LEDs would be.
The numbers turned out to be huge. “I was
shocked by how big they were,” Haitz said.
“And that’s what convinced me: Dammit —
we have to do something!” ◀
OCTOBER 2017 53
9/22/17 3:30 PM
 innovation | LED TECHNOLOGY

dance with, and that was Philips.”
LEDs as light to see by required a leap of the
imagination. Their output compared to that
of conventional lamps was still puny. HP’s
top brass took a lot of persuading that there
would be value in teaming up with Philips
Lighting. But Haitz persevered; eventually, he
succeeded in winning them over. For his part,
Begemann reported back to Philips that Haitz
had told him that by 2000 it would be possible
to make LED street-lights that were as good as
the most efficient conventional products. Most
of his colleagues still thought he was crazy.
But his boss gave him the go-ahead to set up
a feasibility study with HP, to be followed by
a demonstration project. The two compa-
nies initiated their cooperation in late 1994.
It was decided to focus initially on the develop-
ment of a prototype street-light based on HP’s
amber LEDs because that market was already
accustomed to orange-colored illumination.
“I got two guys from HP and two guys from
Philips Lighting and they spent half a year
locked up in our lab here in Holland,” Bege-
mann recalled. Such a tight deadline was very
different from the leisurely way that develop-
ment programs were usually run at Philips.
“This was a project where we were exposed
to Bay Area dynamics and the semiconduc-
tor world, where things are three times faster
if not more,” recalled Berry Kock, one of the
two Philips representatives. Team members
were under strict instructions not to discuss
their work with anyone. The benchmark had
been defined: the efficiency of high-pressure
sodium lights was about one hundred lumens
per watt. LEDs could only manage half as
many lumens, but by directing the light more
efficiently in a much tighter beam, the team
showed it was possible to match the perfor-
mance of conventional products.
By October 1995, they were ready to unveil
their work. Begemann made sure that all his
colleagues in top management at Philips
Lighting attended. Three prototype LED
streetlights were set up in a warehouse-like
building in Eindhoven. Inside it was like a
movie set, complete with props, in this case
traffic signals and lines painted on the floor to
simulate an actual street. “We tried to make it
as real as possible,” Kock said. For maximum
effect, the curtains were tightly drawn to
make it very dark inside. The element of sur-
prise worked in their favour. “Everyone was
completely flabbergasted that we were doing
such a thing with LEDs which were thought
to be tiny lights on your stereo set,” Kock told
me. “It was definitely a moment when people
noticed something which they did not believe
would ever exist.”
Gerard Harbers, then an optical designer
from Philips Research, would never forget the
thrill of seeing LED streetlights for the first

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1710LEDS_54 54 9/22/17 3:30 PM

 PRODUCT showcase
time. “It made a huge impression on me,” Harbers said. “Here you
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dressed it up with our exclusive Gravura Graphic fin-
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available with over
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50 unique options
The aim was to take LED component technology from HP, couple it
including wood,
with applications and assembly expertise from Philips, and target
stone and carbon
sections of the lighting market. The first niche chosen was red and
fiber. Standard
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LED light engines
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include 186LPW chips and additional options & acces-
cations like street lights.
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In 1999, encouraged by the results from this first niche market,
Bluetooth or Dali drivers. Suitable for indoor or outdoor
Philips led by Ton Begemann initiated a push to scale up the joint
locations, the Astro can go where traditional vandal
venture. It was decided to locate the new firm, named Lumileds, in
fixtures cannot with your choice of
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it as much like a startup as possible, complete with stock options for
employees. This was an unprecedented move for the Dutch company,
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porate culture stifling the entrepreneurial spirit. For Hewlett Pack- Fax: (847) 260-0344
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stretch. It helped that HP was then undergoing a wrenching corpo- Web: www.eclipselightinginc.com
rate restructure. In 1999 the firm split itself in two, with the original
company retaining the computer-related businesses and a new entity
called Agilent formed to retain the test and measurement businesses.
Among the latter was the semiconductor products group, which con-
tained the optoelectronics division. Eventually most of the division
— around three hundred individuals — left to join Lumileds.
In the joint venture there were, inevitably, clashes of culture. The
Dutch were accustomed to calling a spade a spade: their bluntness
could upset the milder-mannered Silicon Valley folk. There was
also a gulf between the worlds of lighting and semiconductors. The
Philips people were top-down in their approach, accustomed to
thinking in terms of system solutions, how lighting could be used in
offices and retail spaces to create a better atmosphere; or, if it was
street lights, how illumination could make roads safer for drivers.
The HP folk were by contrast bottom-up. They saw things in terms
of nuts and bolts, what increased light output would mean for pack-
age design, how thermal performance would need to be improved.
In higher-level discussions the components guys would sometimes
struggle to comprehend the issues. Nonetheless, the US-Dutch rela-
tionship worked remarkably well.
In 2005, when Agilent decided to sell off its semiconductor oper-
ations, Philips acquired the US firm’s share of the company. In that
List Your
year Lumileds employed 1,760 people and earned $83 million profit
on sales of $324 million. It was, Begemann boasted, the best invest-
Company Now!
ment Philips had ever made. “We paid $80 million for the original
fifty percent, then five years later, Philips acquired the remaining
fifty percent for eleven times that value [$950 million]. If you tell
somebody in the financial world that you will multiply the value
of your investment by a factor of eleven, you’re a hero!”
LEDsmagazine.com OCTOBER 2017 55

1710LEDS_55 55 9/22/17 3:30 PM

 last word
TLEDs can prove economical, but
aren’t always the best choice
STAN WALERCZYK, principal at Lighting Wizards, offers advice on LED-based
fluorescent replacement products and discusses what is quickly becoming a
commodity market.
A
lthough Ethan Biery from Lutron
provided some good information
in a recent LEDs Magazine fea-
ture article entitled “Tackle TLED tradeoffs
to manage retrofit expectations” (http://
bit.ly/2x8jxY3), there is much more that
lighting designers and specifiers need to
understand about the LED retrofit tubes
intended for usage in fluorescent fixtures.
I addressed the topic in a presentation at
the 2016 US Department of Energy (DOE)
Solid-State Lighting (SSL) Technology
Development Workshop (http://bit.ly/2w
3GR4s). Here I will provide some of the infor-
mation from the prior presentation and
share some personal experience that can
benefit participants in the SSL sector.
Type A TLEDs are generally considered
the most popular and least expensive. These
TLEDs often cost around $8 these days and
sometimes less than $5. With such products
that work with the existing ballast, labor
is fast and low cost. Some rebates cover all
the parts, labor, and recycling costs. Plus,
TLEDs used with existing ballasts do not
trigger California’s Title 24, which can save
a lot of hassle and money. Since these TLEDs
do not require high voltage to start and the
ballasts operate at cooler temperatures than
with fluorescent lamps, ballasts may last
considerably longer. After existing ballasts
die, many Type A TLEDs can also be wired
directly to line voltage.
Type B TLEDs are usually not recom-
mended because wiring to line voltage
increases labor costs and there may be safety
concerns. Type C is also not recommended
because of extra parts and labor costs.
56 OCTOBER 2017
1710LEDS_56 56
Philips InstantFit TLEDs with EasySmart are TLEDs with 340°–360° distribution.
technology, which are Type A, can dim wire- If Type A TLEDs are not a good fit for a
lessly with existing fixed BF (ballast factor) project, it’s probably best to go with LED
ballasts (http://philips.to/2f0ygtu). lightbars or LED troffer kits.
Other manufacturers are developing sim- Since parabolic and perforated metal bas-
ilar products as well as tunable (dimming ket troffers have such low fixture efficiency
and Kelvin changing) ones with existing and other problems, it is usually better to
fixed BF ballasts. retrofit them with LED troffer kits, espe-
Although Ethan Biery stated that Type cially ones which can be installed in about
C TLEDs do not have a safety issue, it is five minutes, instead of using TLEDs.
my understanding that the new Non-dimmable and dimmable
ANSI G6.6 T-LED Fit System will troffers and troffer kits are more
require specialized lamp hold- efficacious than TLEDs out of
ers for both Type B and C TLEDs the fixture and have really come
(http://bit.ly/2gDA A9V). That down in price. There are several
requirement will increase parts good ones that only cost $45–
and labor costs. $60. Some Chinese companies
Many TLEDs have 120° beam are quoting as low as $15. This is
distribution, which is usually a STAN WALERCZYK an example of how LED lighting
wide enough angle for good light- is becoming a commodity market
ing quality. Furthermore, the energy sav- faster than most people expected. Tunable
ings may be more than expected compared fixture pricing will probably also drop soon.
to 360° linear fluorescent lamps in typical Falling prices are good for consumers but
lensed troffers and similar fixtures. In a typ- tough on manufacturers. It is amazing that
ical enclosed fixture, about 10% of the light many lighting companies are having a chal-
is lost with every bounce into a reflective lenge growing and being profitable while
surface or another lamp. Plus, if a light ray some non-lighting companies, including
hits a lens at too low of an angle, it bounces NuWave (alsetled.com) and Dyson (http://
off with about 10% loss instead of going bit.ly/2j07Ood), have recently gotten into
through. With fluorescent lamps, there may commercial lighting.
be an average of three bounces from each Dimming can be quite desirable for some
light ray. So a 100-lm/W high-performance specific applications, but power consump-
fluorescent T8 and ballast may really pro- tion is getting so low with LED products that
vide less than 80 lm/W out of the fixture, and dimming and controls are often not cost-ef-
that may even be less with thermal losses. fective paths to saving energy. That has not
Most light rays from a 120° TLED can get out stopped certain individuals, manufacturers,
of the fixture without any bounces or losses. energy codes, and organizations from push-
For suspended indirect/direct fixtures, there ing dimming and controls to save energy.
LEDsmagazine.com
9/22/17 3:30 PM
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