What's New in Lighting Technology & Design【Tsutomu Ochiai】

Lighting Fair 2005 Review--Part 1: LED Lights

Aug 12, 2005

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3 LED Lights
Japan is the number one maker of LED lamps in the world, and the Lighting Fair 2005 was held in this LED top-runner country. Various LED lights were on display, and they were not gifts or novelty goods but real lighting equipment for homes and commercial buildings. Numerous new products and models that effectively utilize and explore the LED's characteristics were there. Japan has the world's first-class technologies and material processing methodologies, and its LED technologies and ideas were presented in an excellent and unique manner. Purpose-specific, original, and diverse exhibits were very interesting for me personally, and four days of the event was not enough for me to check out all of them.

The world's largest lighting exhibition "Light + Building" (reported in this column last time) held in Frankfurt last spring introduced glamorous and colorful LED lighting arrangements, which left a strong impression among the parties involved in the lighting industry of the world that the era of LED has come. However, at Light + Building, the main focus was on the lighting arrangements using LED lamps, and not many examples of specific LED lighting fixtures were exhibited. Therefore, as a lighting fixture designer, I have been patiently waiting for the Lighting Fair this year to see more developments in that regard.

LED is the acronym for Light Emitting Diode (which means luminous semiconductor). Its energy consumption is about one tenth of that of a light globe, and its life is more than ten times longer. LED lamps are rapidly accepted and disseminated as the mainstream light sources of the 21st century, as they can be made without involving harmful substances. Some of the latest traffic lights use the small LED light sources, and it is believed that converting all the traffic lights in Japan to the energy-saving LED lamps will decommission two nuclear power stations in the country. In this year's Lighting Fair, lighting fixtures effectively utilizing the characteristics of LED lamps were presented for more specific applications. We can finally say the curtain is up for the LED lighting fixtures.

Originally, LED was realized as a commercial product in the U.S. in the 1960s. However, the light from the product was still very dark and used only for experimental purposes. After the 1970s, mass production of high-luminance LEDs was realized by the Japanese technological prowess to achieve higher brightness and consistent quality. The first such LEDs were red, followed by green ones in the 1980s and blue ones in the 1990s, all mass-produced in Japan. (Mass production of the three prime-colored LEDs enabled the market launch of white LEDs.)

The top three light source makers of the world are OSRAM Opto Semiconductors, Royal Philips Electronics, and General Electric Company, however, the top three LED makers are Nichia Corp., Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd., and Cree, Inc. (from U.S.), and Japan accounts for more than half the world's LED production.

Various LED mounting fixtures were displayed at the Lighting Fair. They included exterior fixtures (spotlights, garden lights, signboard lights, street lights, etc.), interior lighting fixtures for floor, wall, and ceiling mounted lights (down lights, pendent lights, footlights for staircases, handrail lamps, brackets, stands, etc.) and all of them effectively utilized the unique characteristics of LEDs. The shear number surprised me. Among the 60 Japanese makers grouped together in the Domestic Lighting Area, more than half had their LED products on display. (More than half of all the exhibitors including overseas exhibitors did so.) At this year's Tokyo Lighting Fair, LED lighting played the leading role. The variety was definitely wider than that seen at the Light + Building Exhibition in Frankfurt last spring, and the quality was much higher, though the quantity was not necessarily higher. Henceforth, I will comment on some of the notable examples.

Japan's top two lighting makers, Matsushita (Lighting Products, Matsushita Electric Works + Lighting Company, Matsushita Electric Industrial) and Toshiba (Toshiba Lighting & Technology) both had a large-scale LED special display area, which attracted a large number of crowd. Both makers displayed their extensive line-ups of LED modules and LED fixtures.

In Matsushita's booth, various LED fixtures were installed for each space type, to let the visitor experience the lighting effects and applications and their characteristics in an easy-to-understand manner. Matsushita's "card-type LED light source" has 64 high-luminance LEDs embedded in the 20-mm square in a formation of 8 rows x 8 lines. Its usability and brightness received much admiration from the visitors. This card-type LED takes full advantage of Japan's semiconductor technologies, and if it is launched (in May 2005 as scheduled), it will become the world's first card-type light source to be disseminated in the global market. I also found an LED product (pendent type) among the display of the GEOREO G Series, the maker's new product family for commercial space lighting, away from their LED special display area. The product was neatly suspended thanks to the adoption of a new low-voltage wire. The new suspension method was enabled by the LED lamp that can be switched on with a very safe low voltage (approximately 4V). I am looking forward to the variations of this wire suspension idea in future.

Adjacent to Matsushita's booth was Toshiba Lighting & Technology's booth, where an outstanding lighting simulation space was set up. Utilizing the light source characteristics of LEDs to the full, the space was a reproduction of the "time and space axes." One step into the space, my five senses were fully awakened, and I could feel the natural light on the face of the Earth. The intricate color light presentation (from sunrise to sunset to starlight to the first light of the dawn) was truly wonderful, graceful, beautiful, and comforting. I learned that about 3,000 high-power LEDs were used for creating this space. It must have taken a perfectionist to prepare this piece of art, but the creator of this mystical space, Mr. Kazuo Egawa, casually said, "This space will disappear when the Lighting Fair ends." He also said, "The know-how acquired through this simulation is great. We will use it in our future LED business." The lighting simulation depicted the highly refined corporate spirit of Toshiba, the main player in the history of lighting (from light globes to fluorescent lamps) in Japan. I stood in awe of the people who made this outstanding effort for the advancement of LEDs, the next-generation light sources, and saw the glimpse of the future with new creation of LED light sources.

Toshiba LED corner had a display of various products (including new products) under the brand name of "T.LED's," and their basic concept (product realization to pursue practical brightness). In the area closest to the entrance were a variety of practical high-power (1.5W) LED devices and high-luminance LED devices as well as starter control systems (scheduled for launch in April 2005). Toshiba has launched a part of its LED product line-up from last year, and intends to further enhance them. More notable was another display corner entitled "next T.LED's." In this area, there were many prototype samples presenting the maker's future direction for more comfortable LED lighting equipment with better color presentation, less light variance, less glare, enhanced color lineup, and improved usability. I cannot wait for the day the "next T.LED's" are launched with their objectives of better color rendition (90Ra), wider color temperature range (3,000 to 10,000K), less glare, and more even brightness all realized in the products.

The last Lighting Fair (March 2003) can be described as the trigger event for LED lighting equipment to receive its clear and official recognition by the Japanese lighting industry. The last time around, however, there were less practical products on display than product models, which were the major exhibits. This year, in addition to the two companies mentioned above, many businesses (including the new entries to the market) displayed their LED products.

In the Trendy Display Corner of the Koizumi Sangyo Corp.'s booth that attracted a high level of attention to its unique new products, I saw the much talked-about organic EL lights and LED lights to light up the inside of showcases. The LED lights with higher illuminance and clearer color presentation for inside showcases received particularly high interest. In addition, high-luminance LED footlights and high-power LED compact spotlights were displayed in their respective application examples to demonstrate the effectiveness of LED lighting.

Iwasaki Electric Co., Ltd.'s LEDioc Series display included the maker's original LED modules (reflective LED units that suppress LED glare, jumbo LED units using high-power LEDs, etc.) and their mounting fixtures. These modules demonstrated carefully designed reflective boards, as well as new ideas for better LED light distribution and irradiation efficiency.

ODELIC's lighting fixtures for entrance approaches of urban condominium buildings displayed under the title of "LEDs for the Exterior" are a series of products using 8 high-luminance LED light sources, and their prominent feature was the reflector of an optically reflective design (having three curved surfaces) that makes the module highly adaptable to specific applications. The LED module, which has reduced the glare to the minimum, employs the same methodology as that used in Iwasaki Electric's LEDioc Series, though the manifestations of the concept are different.

Yamada Shomei Lighting Co., Ltd. and Daiko Electric Co., Ltd. were two of the first makers that pioneered LED mounting fixture developments in the Japanese lighting industry. At the last Lighting Fair, the two makers actively displayed and publicized their respective LED products, however, they seemed to make a lesser impact this year, perhaps due to the other makers' stronger emphasis on LED product displays. Having said that, these two makers still made the point that they have the upper hand in handling LEDs, coming naturally from the length of time they have been handling them, and demonstrated fixtures that snugly fit the requirements. Yamada Shomei Lighting displayed high-power LED-based arm stands for hospital use and compact valued lights and compact spotlights for outdoor use. Daiko Electric presented a light guide plate fixture that utilizes LED's uniquely straight-line optical characteristic. This light guide plate fixture also uses high-power LEDs. The maker's resolve to always aim for the most advanced area of the new era matches the direction that the world's LED makers are heading for.

Focusing on mass production, Hitachi Lighting, Ltd. and NEC Lighting, Ltd. set up their LED display corners accordingly. Both makers have their own fluorescent lamp production plants and are the industry leaders of the country with impressive sales records of fluorescent lamp lighting fixtures. These two companies clearly demonstrated their intention to enter the market of LED lighting, which is said to be one of the major light sources of the 21st century. This time around, they displayed new application ideas of LED light sources and LED devices, rather than specific products scheduled for launch. It will be interesting to know with what kind of LED products they will aim to expand their shares in the market and what kind of products they will actually release.

Mitsubishi Electric Lighting Corp. is one of the leading lighting fixture makers, and the company set up a joint booth with another group company, MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC OSRAM Ltd. MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC OSRAM presented its LED light sources manufactured by its partner, OSRAM GmbH based in Germany. These included the high-power (high-luminance) LED DRAGON module of OSRAM (one of the three biggest lamp makers of the world) that attracted worldwide attention after its announcement at the Light + Building in Frankfurt last year. Many were interested in the module, and in addition, there was the W2 Type that improves (doubles the brightness of) the general LEDs.

I found an LED product that is worth a special mention among the fixtures displayed by Mitsubishi Electric Lighting. These days, it is not unusual to use LED light sources in guiding lights and emergency lights, however, Mitsubishi Electric Lighting was the first to adopt and deploy the LEDs in guiding light products as early as the year 2000, when LEDs were not much recognized by the public. The maker made the world's first LED guiding light combining a light guide plate and LED's optical characteristics. Back then, the product size was 100 mm x 100 mm, and this time the size has become 200 mm x 200 mm. By the way, Japan is the only country where these internally-lit guiding lights are disseminated (by law making their installation obligatory), however, the rest of the world has recently started to recognize their importance as an essential element of preparedness for fires, earthquakes, and other situations where people need to be evacuated. Therefore, we can expect to see a worldwide dissemination of this type of lights in future.

Thus, many makers displayed numerous new LED products, and the new LED modules of the below-mentioned two makers were particularly interesting. Yoshikawa Kasei Co., Ltd. is a company whose main line of business is precision-molded resin products, including mobile phone cases. This company presented an LED module backed up by its original technology and unique idea, which seemed to be very popular among the visitors. Utilizing the extremely compact light source size of an LED in combination with an ultra-compact lens, its product, YP Spot, had a high-power LED installed in the cylindrical structure of an outer diameter of 13.5 mm, and a height of 9.52 mm. The light concentrated through this LED lens, made with meticulous design and ultimate processing precision, was so sharp that it was a beautiful piece of art. I had never seen such a compact light-concentrating LED module, and I suspect that this is indeed the world's first.

Another booth that attracted a crowd of visitors was that of the new printed circuit boards (PCBs) to replace the conventional PCBs with LEDs mounted. The new board is entitled "LEDs Board," and it is made by pressing an ultra-thin copper plate (pressed copper conductor) and consolidating it with a special socket. LED chips are mounted on it, and the number of the LEDs mountable on the board is, incredibly, from one to infinite. There are some predefined mounting patterns, however, there is a new type of a board already on the market that allows LED mounting on both face and reverse sides, and such variety of products will create yet unknown market segments. Moriyama Corp. is the maker of this new module, and it is a maker of common light source components for automotive meters. The module itself was attractive enough, and in addition, the display booth was lit up and decorated with LEDs and related components. It was a beautifully presented, fun booth where one could never get bored.

There were many outstanding items found in the overseas exhibitors' area, and in particular, the various LED modules by VLM S.P.A Italy were worth a special mention. The most impressive was their new module using OSRAM's high-power LED "DRAGON," which provided excellent brightness and usability. In addition to the LED modules, VLM displayed a whole range of LED-compliant products including inverter-type step-down transformer necessary for starter and other extremely usable related components. I interviewed VLM's Export Manager visiting Japan on his impression of the Lighting Fair and got the following reply: "The business is going well, and I am surprised at the level of perfection of all these products. In particular, the LED products of MAXRAY Inc. and Koizumi Sangyo are very well made."

I was also interested in the wire terminals for LEDs by BJB Co., Ltd., which specializes in the sales of European-made parts, and Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd. whose high-luminance LEDs attracted much attention. LED module kit launched by Philips from Netherlands last spring and Korean-made latest high-power RGB3 in-chip LEDs were also displayed in other booths, making the LED product display particularly informative with products that are rarely seen in Japan or in the rest of the world.

Speaking of overseas exhibitors, I cannot forget to mention Color Kinetics Japan Incorporated. Color Kinetics Incorporated (based in the U.S.) was one of the first makers to get the world's recognition for its color lighting presentation, and its Japanese affiliate, Color Kinetics Japan, deployed its LED color lighting business in this country. It handled a number of color lighting creation jobs to significantly influence the country's lighting industry. It can be said that Color Kinetics Japan was in fact a reason behind the trend to promote color lighting arrangements in Japan in the recent years.

A number of LED lights were seen on the floor of JAPAN SHOP, another fair that was held concurrently with the Lighting Fair. Some examples included Chuai's display of an LED system used for louver-type illumination of building exterior, "Through Light Panel" by Shizuoka Giken Kogyou Co. LTd., "Line Illumination" by Ad Work, LED modules by TRAXON JAPAN CO., LTD., and AZ Crew's LED glass boards, which all are slightly different from general lighting arrangements but can be used for application ideas of unconventional lighting designs for commercial space. Among these exhibitors, ALFACTO (Shibasaki Inc.) and Fujisaki Electric Co., Ltd. attracted a large number of crowd to their booths, the former is with proposal of a fusion between aluminum processing and LEDs, and the latter with its "Lumine Canvas," which enables anyone to easily and freely create their own illumination signs using bullet-shaped LEDs. "Lumine Canvas" is, quite naturally, flat, but can be used to construct three-dimensional objects. Moreover, it can be used outdoors for any general use.

Thus was my visit to the Lighting Fair 2005, where so many unique products were on display to foretell the future trends of LEDs. (Unfortunately I did not have space to mention to all of them.) The next installment of this report will cover organic EL products, fluorescent lamps, evolved HIDs (high-intensity discharge lamps), and their mounting fixtures. (To be continued.)

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Lighting Fair 2007 Review--Part 1: OLED

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Lighting Fair 2005 Review--Part 3: Inspirations, Ideas, and Future Directions of the Exhibitors