A filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission indicates that SemiLEDs plans a $172.5 million initial public offering of stock.

Hoping to capitalize on the potential of LED-based solid-state lighting (SSL), SemiLEDs will seek to raise capital through an initial public offering (IPO) to both expand manufacturing and lower component costs. The company registered with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to sell $172.5 million in shares.

SemiLEDs hasn’t set a target share price, but the filing indicates that the offering will be underwritten by Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital, and Jefferies & Co. The stock will be traded on the NASDAQ exchange using the symbol LEDS.

In the filing, the company specifically identifies SSL as its target market. The filing references the projections from Strategies Unlimited (a sister business to LEDs Magazine) that component revenues for SSL will grow from $665 million in 2009 to $4.3 billion in 2014.

SemiLEDs’ filing notes that the upfront cost of SSL will gate the size of the market. One of the company stated strategies is to “reduce cost through technology and manufacturing improvements.” The filing also indicates a plan o expand manufacturing operations.

The company also claims in the filing that among its strengths is a vertical copper alloy chip structure. The technology presumably allows superior heat removal to sapphire-based structures and that thermal advantage translates to superior efficacy – reducing energy cost in SSL.

SemiLEDs both manufactures LED chips for sale and packages a portion of its production capacity for end component sales. The filing cites net revenue for the nine months ended May 31, 2010 as $24,275 million.

Light emitting diodes (LEDs) have been turning up all over the place, which leads one to wonder why. What’s so great about these little lights? Why are we seeing more and more LED light bulbs cropping up on everything from cars to traffic lights?  US Lighting Products is staying up to date on the latest technology to ensure our customers are saving energy and money.

LED light bulbs have some very clear advantages over other types of lighting, such as:

1. LED light bulbs last longer. Without a filament to break or burn out, LED light bulbs can last for over 100,000 hours without showing their age (that’s over eleven years at full brightness). This lifespan is twice that of typical fluorescent bulbs and twenty times longer than incandescent light bulbs.

2. They are energy efficient. An incandescent light bulb loses 80 percent of its energy to heat, leaving only the last 20 percent for light. LED light bulbs turn this around, giving up a scant 20 percent of their energy to heat loss. Not only that, but they operate at 10 to 20 percent of the power required for incandescent bulbs of similar brightness.

3. LEDs are more colorful. LED light bulbs can be made in a vast array of colors without the use of extra filters, which brings down production costs. They also provide a truer, brighter color than a filtered bulb.

4. LED light bulbs work in silence. The days of humming bulbs came to an end with the creation of LEDs, so there’s no need to lose sanity listening to the thrum, tick, or ping of other light bulbs.

5. They are incredibly safe. With so little energy lost to heat and so little energy used overall, LED light bulbs run cool, which means no burnt fingers or burnt down houses. They are extremely durable thanks to their solid-state construction, so there’s no broken glass to deal with, either.

6. LED light bulbs are focused. LEDs can be made to focus without the use of extra reflectors or lenses, which means less bulk and lower cost for the same beam of light.

7. They are the best for dimming. Incandescent bulbs turn yellow when dimmed, while LED light bulbs retain their true colors.

8. LEDs are versatile. Thanks to the wide array of colors and shapes LEDs be made to replace most any light bulb. Their diminutive size and power-sipping nature also open up a world of possibility, from infrared remote control lights to ultra-light headlamps.

9. LED light bulbs bring light quickly. Lighting up to their full brightness in microseconds, LEDs are a safer choice when reaction time is a factor, like when that car in the fast lane slams on the brakes.

10. They promise a brighter future. LED light bulbs don’t contain mercury, like compact fluorescent bulbs do. Combining that with the fact that they outlast their energy efficient cousins, makes the choice to go LED clear as day.

LED light bulbs have a staggering number of uses, and somehow they keep excelling at all of them. When it’s time to shed light on the subject, this jack-of-all-trades masters all.

Sources
eBay, Advantages of LED Lighting
LEDWorks, Basic LED Information–Advantages and Applications

If manufacturing technology development efforts now underway produce even a fraction of their projected improvements in production efficiency, solid-state lighting cost per lumen should come down drastically in the next few years. Driven by the growing market opportunity, and by $23 million in funding by the US Department of Energy (DOE), semiconductor equipment makers and their device-maker partners are at work on a series of projects. Each of these aims at major 30-50% improvements in basic manufacturing cycle time, yield, and cost, in part by applying approaches learned from high-volume semiconductor production (see http://www.ledsmagazine.com/news/7/1/12).

The greater semiconductor supply chain is starting to turn serious attention to the particular needs of the HB-LED market, as almost $1billion will be invested in building and equipping device-production facilities this year, according to SEMI’s Opto/LED Fab Watch.

With more than 180,000 visitors, no-one can deny the status of Light+Building, held this year in mid-April in Frankfurt, Germany, as one of the world’s pre-eminent tradeshows for the lighting industry.

With more than 180,000 visitors, no-one can deny the status of Light+Building, held this year in mid-April in Frankfurt, Germany, as one of the world’s pre-eminent tradeshows for the lighting industry. LEDs were everywhere, at least in the halls focused on lighting technology and applications. As we discussed in the Commentary piece in our last issue, exhibition booths lit with LED-based fixtures are no longer a novelty. Many lighting companies have now moved well beyond the discussion phase and are clearly committed to incorporating LED technology into their current and future generations of fixtures. In this show report, we present some of the products that caught the eye.

A new packaging company will target the LED-backlit TV market, with operations based in JiangSu Province, China.

LED-packaging specialists Everlight Electronics has announced its intention to launch a new company focused on LEDs for TV backlights with partners LG Display and Amtran Technology. The joint venture will be capitalized with $30 million, will be based in WeJiang City, JiangSu Province, China, and plans to start mass production by year’s end.

The joint venture will enter the LED backlight market at a time of high demand. Just last week, analyst iSuppli reaffirmed its belief that a shortage of LEDs for TV applications would persist through this year. The firm projects shipment of large-sized LCD panels with LED backlights to reach 276.7 million this year with the number growing to 477.6 million units in 2011 and 817.9 million units by 2014.

Jointly, the three partners in the new venture have shared experience relative to all key aspects of LED-backlit LCD TV technologies. Taiwan-based Everlight has deep experience in LED packaging. Korea-based LG Display is one of the leading manufacturers of thin-film transistor (TFT) LCD panels for TVs, monitors, and notebook computers.

Amtran technology is a contract manufacturer of computer monitors and TVs based in Taipei, Taiwan. The company has a close partnership with Vizio and in fact owns a stake in the company that was the market leader for TVs in the US for 2009.

The companies believe that their shared experience will enable the yet-to-be-named venture to rapidly offer state-of-the art LEDs for the backlight market.

LED street lights designed for a long service life can be operated at reduced power levels and still deliver the needed light output, plus controls can dim or extinguish lights as appropriate.

There’s an ongoing transition to LED-based street lighting globally as municipalities try to reduce energy and maintenance costs. LEDs will last far longer than legacy street lights and can use less energy as well, although the fact that LEDs can be dimmed accounts for part of the savings. Now Edward Smalley, director of the newly formed DOE Municipal Solid-state Street Lighting Consortium, points out that municipalities will be able to save even more energy by never operating the lights at maximum output early in their service life.

About new LED street light designs and deployments, Smalley stated, “You are designing for a time in the future.” The point is that LED street lights must be designed so that the light output 50,000 hours (perhaps 11 to 12 years) in the future is still acceptable. The design must account for the projected decline in light output that all LED lighting products exhibit over time.

Smalley suggests that at install time, “You are putting out 30% more light than is required.” So a street light with a controller could cut back drive current by 30% at install time both saving energy and potentially lengthening the service life of the LEDs and the drive electronics. Smalley stated, “We can save at least another 20% in energy.”

In the past, most of the discussion of controls and energy reduction has primarily focused on dimming street lights late at night when there is little automotive or pedestrian traffic. LEDs offer a significant advantage in dimming capability compared to alternatives such as high-pressure sodium (HPS) or metal-halide lamps.

Ironically, the question of controls came up during the May 6 DOE webcast on the new Consortium. During the Q&A session following the presentation, an attendee asked Bruce Kinzey whether the Consortium would focus on control issues. Kinzey is working with Smalley on the Consortium and is the DOE Gateway project demonstration manager. At the time Kinzey stressed that the Consortium would focus primarily on street lighting although he acknowledged that controls would invariably be included in some of the demonstration projects.

In a one-on-one interview subsequent to the DOE webcast, Smalley initiated the discussion of controls and the potential for additional energy savings. Smalley stated, The reason for the consortium is to get these other municipalities up to speed.” And Smalley meant up to speed both on LED lighting and the advantages afforded by controls.

The concept of operating LED street lights at a reduced power level and raising that level over time as light output declines does introduce logistics problems. A networked installation of lights would allow for remote control of drive current and light output — at significant added cost. Of course municipalities could manually check light output sporadically and adjust the lights, but that goes against the selling point of little to no maintenance of LED luminaires.

Asked whether municipalities might use networks or manual adjustment techniques, Smalley replied “All of the above.” Smalley pointed out that the city of Los Angeles, CA is in a multiyear street light upgrade program and is using the Roam remote monitoring system to monitor and control the lights.

Smalley also pointed out that Virginia Tech has developed a mobile unit that uses a camera to accurately measure light output without stopping traffic. Presumably, a municipality could survey street light performance on an annual or periodic basis and only make manual adjustments when required.

Both Smalley and DOE Lighting Program Manager Jim Brodrick have noted that zero maintenance is not a realistic expectation. In his keynote presentation at Lightfiar, Brodrick noted that dirty lenses could be just as problematic in an outdoor lighting application as LEDs with depreciated light output. So municipalities may have to perform periodic preventative maintenance in any event.

SolPix combines two of the biggest trends in facade architecture: Solar shielding and media walls. It functions first as a set of heavy-duty blinds that can shift according to the strength of the sun.

But the blinds themselves have photovoltaics in them, as well as LEDs. The PV array uses the energy it gathers to create the media facade pictured below:

In addition, the system monitors its own performance, and visualizes it in motion graphics that play across the facade:

This is among the biggest and most advanced installations being unveiled this Friday at the opening of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum’s Design Triennial. This year’s theme is design that tackles the world’s most pressing problems. SolPix is also largest working prototype produced by Simone Giostra & Partners Architects, so far. They hope that eventually, the system will be deployed by others looking to make their buildings both glitzy and green.

A period of very rapid LED market growth will see unit volume demand increase to more than 200 billion units by 2014, says BOB STEELE.

Coming out of a year of relatively low growth for the HB-LED market (up 5% to $5.3 billion in 2009), largely due to the worldwide economic recession, the industry is now faced with an abundance of riches. It will come as no surprise to the readers of LEDs Magazine that unprecedented growth opportunities for HB LEDs will be provided over the next five years by lighting applications and backlights for LCD displays (including notebook computers, TVs and monitors).

In 2009, these applications helped to raise the overall HB-LED market from what would otherwise have been a dismal (i.e. negative growth) year, with a combined contribution to the market total of 29%. In 2010 and beyond, these two applications will be thedominant market growth drivers.