LIGHTING FEATURE

Lighting the Way

Ongoing improvements in LED technology continue to open up new possibilities for high brightness, highly efficient and reliable solid state lighting solutions in a wide variety of indoor and outdoor illumination, backlighting and indication applications. Arrow's combination of lighting products, complementary technologies and engineering support allows the company to provide full solutions for traditional lighting manufacturers as well as satisfying the modular and component level needs of engineers looking to create their own lighting designs.



Recent years have seen huge advances in LED technology. In addition to a wide range of colours for more conventional indication and backlighting applications, for example, new ‘lighting class' LEDs now deliver the brightness, efficacy, lifetime, colour temperatures and white point stability required for general illumination. In the last year alone, for example, the efficacy (@ 350mA) of white LEDs offered by leading manufacturer Cree have doubled from barely 60 lumens to 122 lumens.


Figure 1: Led Efficiency Gains

Such advances mean that LEDs are finding their way into many indoor and outdoor lighting applications including streetlights and downlighters. Here they can match or exceed the performance of existing solutions while providing lifetimes between five and 50 times longer and reductions in overall energy costs.

With the advances in LED technology has come a fragmentation in the market for companies using LEDs. More specifically, we can segment the market into traditional lighting manufacturers and electronic design OEMs. The former are looking for complete LED solutions that allow them to quickly replace incandescent or other existing techniques with LEDs, while the latter wish to design their own LED-based applications from the circuit board up. And Arrow has the technologies, solutions and support infrastructure to meet the needs of both of these market segments.

Let's start with the product portfolio. Arrow has always offered a wide variety of LED colours, styles, power ratings and brightnesses – not to mention complementary devices including LED drivers and other silicon support products - from leading semiconductor manufacturers. The company has also signed agreements with companies who specialise in those high brightness, high power LED technologies that are providing viable alternatives for general lighting designs. These include the previously mentioned Cree – a market leader for supply of cool white, neutral white, warm white as well as blue, green, red and amber offerings – along with Osram and Avago.


Figure 2: Cree XLamp LEDs – Cool White to Warm White

But meeting the needs of today's market goes beyond simply having a wide LED product portfolio. Lighting manufacturers who have worked with incandescent technologies for many years, for example, often have little or no in-house electronic design capabilities. These manufacturers are looking for designs that allow them to deliver all of the benefits associated with LED technologies as quickly and as easily as possible. This leaves them free to concentrate on their own core competencies and the aspects of the design that will lead to true competitive advantage. Arrow is well placed to meet the needs of such companies through solution specialists that use the company's technology portfolio and their own technical expertise to create full LED-based solutions. These solutions bring together the LEDs with key elements including the secondary optics, the thermal management technologies (essential for modern power LEDs) and the driver, power supply and other components needed for successful LED-based designs.


Figure 3: Fraen FDT3 Lenses Family MR16 (50mm) Standard

Arrow can also meet the needs of those companies who have some electronic engineering expertise and who wish to do a certain element of the design themselves. For these manufacturers Arrow can offer a range of intermediate and modular technologies including PCBs that are pre-populated with LEDs, secondary optics from suppliers such as Fraen, and drivers. This modular approach, supported by development tools and starter kits, ensures the rapid creation, prototyping and delivery of application-specific lighting products.

Finally, Arrow can also provide the technologies and the technical support needed to meet the requirements of electronic design OEMs. Such companies will typically source components for their own discrete designs and look to Arrow for both a broad linecard of products and the expertise to help them select the optimum devices for a specific design.


Figure 4: Module Solutions – LEDs Mounted on MCPCB ‘Star’ Board with TIR Lenses

In support of its lighting capabilities, Arrow will be exhibiting at euroLED/Eurolight 2008, Europe's leading conference and exhibition dedicated to solid state lighting technologies and applications. This year's event will be held from 4th to 5th June.

For further information on Arrow's full range of LED lighting technologies and solutions, including Luminaire and Downlighter Design Guides and an LED FAQ document, please click here