Truck-Lite has developed an LED Perimeter lamp application that provides enhanced exterior visibility to either side or rear door lift gate areas of the trailer where conventional dome lamps won’t reach. This new product innovation uses crisp, white light LED technology to illuminate loading and unloading areas while increasing operator safety.

Dome lamps may exude some incidental exterior light at the rear and/or side of a traditional trailer or box truck. However, when mounted at an ideal height, Truck-Lite’s LED Perimeter lamp directs about 20 square feet of illumination to areas that do not receive direct lighting. The successful light projection is attributed to innovative mounting and optical design.

“The introduction of our LED Perimeter lamp application is significant to the trailer and body markets, filling a void for added lighting and safety to the lift gate area.” stated Jon Stineman, Truck-Lite National Sales Director. “The trucking industry is not a 9am-5pm business, but often requires critical deliveries at all hours throughout the day. This 24-hour business requires safe work environments for the fleets making deliveries. The LED perimeter lamp is an ideal solution to increase light and provide a safer work environment.”

Truck-Lite has engineered the new LED Perimeter lamp to be a robust, bright solution for the exterior application. Utilizing merely 4 diodes, the product offers 365 lumens of light output. Constructed of a heavy-duty, corrosion- resistant die-cast aluminum housing, the low profile lamp’s design protrudes only 2.5 inches from the vehicle surface. The lens is manufactured of impact resistant polycarbonate and rear fins keep heat away from the LEDs and lamp circuitry, allowing for increased light output and lamp longevity.

Austriamicrosystems, a leading global designer and manufacturer of high-performance analog ICs, has announced the AS1123 constant-current, 16-channel LED driver with an on-chip diagnostic read-back function. The AS1123 is designed for use in industrial applications, indoor/outdoor public information displays, LED panels, and large LED video walls.

Designed with a maximum LED supply voltage of 5.5 V, the new power-efficient AS1123 direct LED driver is optimized for LED panels where only a single LED is connected per output. The optimization of the LED driver to those low supply voltages allows for up to 50 % lower VDS versus existing higher voltage output drivers. This reduction of VDS gives better efficiency resulting in lower power dissipation. The AS1123 also features integrated diagnostics for over-temperature, open-LED and shorted-LED conditions. Internal registers store global fault status information as well as the detailed temperature / open-LED, shorted-LED conditions for future analysis.

The AS1123 also features a low-current diagnostic mode to eliminate display flicker during global fault testing. In this mode, a small test current is applied to the display for a very short time. As a result, LED testing is not visible and can therefore be applied during normal operation. These features make the AS1123 well suited for fixed- or slow-rolling displays. Other applications include large LED matrix displays, displays in elevators, public transportation, and even large displays in stadiums and public areas.

The output current of the AS1123 is adjustable up to 40 mA per channel using an external resistor, and features excellent output current accuracy of +/- 3 % between LEDs and between ICs. This ensures high picture quality and uniform brightness for an LED display since intensity variations between LEDs and LED modules virtually disappears.

“Large video walls such as those designed to the HDTV standard have an increased number of LEDs”, stated Rene Wutte, austriamicrosystems’ Marketing Manager for Lighting. “Since a full HD display uses 6 million LEDs, it’s important that the LED driver is optimized for power since saving a few milliwatts per LED times 6 million yields power savings in kilowatts. This not only results in cost savings during operation of the LED display, but also allows green and eco-friendly design as every saved kWh saves more than half a kilogram CO², a key selling feature that’s becoming more and more important.”

The AS1123 is available in a 4×4 mm TQFN-24 and a QSOP-24 package. It operates from a 3.0 to 5.5 V supply over a temperature range of -40 to +85 ºC.

Price and Availability

The AS1123 LED driver is priced at $0.75 in 1k quantities for the TQFN-24 package. A demo board is also available to reduce development time.

Diodes Incorporated, a leading global manufacturer and supplier of high-quality application specific standard products within the broad discrete, logic and analog semiconductor markets, today announced the AL5802 linear LED driver. Integrating a high gain NPN transistor with a 30V rated pre-biased NPN output transistor, the AL5802 provides a simple, cost-effective and low EMI solution for controlling current in up to 9 low-power series-connected LEDs. With an open-collector output capable of operating between 0.8V to 30V, the SOT26 packaged driver supports 12V and 24V power supplies and delivers LED currents between 20mA to 100mA for LED signs, lamps and automotive interior display applications.

The LED current is set by an external low-value resistor, the one additional component required by the driver. By generating a reference voltage of 0.65V across the resistor, the internal high-gain transistor helps minimize power losses and ensures supply voltage headroom. The negative temperature coefficient of the reference voltage means that LED current is automatically reduced at high temperatures, thereby helping to protect LEDs and improve circuit reliability.

PWM dimming of the LED string is also simple to achieve by either driving the device bias pin with a low-impedance voltage source or driving its enable pin with an external open-collector NPN transistor or open-drain N-Channel MOSFET. The AL5802’s wide ambient temperature operating range of -40ºC to +125ºC enables it to be circuit mounted very close to the LEDs in space-limited lighting applications.

About Diodes Incorporated

Diodes Incorporated, a Standard and Poor's SmallCap 600 and Russell 3000 Index company, is a leading global manufacturer and supplier of high-quality application specific standard products within the broad discrete, logic and analog semiconductor markets. Diodes serves the consumer electronics, computing, communications, industrial, and automotive markets. Diodes' products include diodes, rectifiers, transistors, MOSFETs, protection devices, functional specific arrays, single gate logic, amplifiers and comparators, Hall-effect and temperature sensors; power management devices, including LED drivers, DC-DC switching and linear voltage regulators, and voltage references along with special function devices, such as USB power switches, load switches, voltage supervisors, and motor controllers. The Company's corporate headquarters, logistics center, and Americas' sales office are located in Plano, Texas. Design, marketing, and engineering centers are located in Plano; San Jose, California; Taipei, Taiwan; Manchester, England; and Neuhaus, Germany. The Company's wafer fabrication facilities are located in Kansas City, Missouri and Manchester, with two manufacturing facilities located in Shanghai, China, another in Neuhaus, and two joint venture facilities located in Chengdu, China. Additional engineering, sales, warehouse, and logistics offices are located in Fort Worth, Texas; Taipei; Hong Kong; Manchester; and Munich, Germany, with support offices located throughout the world. For further information, including SEC filings.

Diodes Incorporated, a leading global manufacturer and supplier of high-quality application specific standard products within the broad discrete, logic and analog semiconductor markets, today announced the AL5802 linear LED driver. Integrating a high gain NPN transistor with a 30V rated pre-biased NPN output transistor, the AL5802 provides a simple, cost-effective and low EMI solution for controlling current in up to 9 low-power series-connected LEDs. With an open-collector output capable of operating between 0.8V to 30V, the SOT26 packaged driver supports 12V and 24V power supplies and delivers LED currents between 20mA to 100mA for LED signs, lamps and automotive interior display applications.

The LED current is set by an external low-value resistor, the one additional component required by the driver. By generating a reference voltage of 0.65V across the resistor, the internal high-gain transistor helps minimize power losses and ensures supply voltage headroom. The negative temperature coefficient of the reference voltage means that LED current is automatically reduced at high temperatures, thereby helping to protect LEDs and improve circuit reliability.

PWM dimming of the LED string is also simple to achieve by either driving the device bias pin with a low-impedance voltage source or driving its enable pin with an external open-collector NPN transistor or open-drain N-Channel MOSFET. The AL5802’s wide ambient temperature operating range of -40ºC to +125ºC enables it to be circuit mounted very close to the LEDs in space-limited lighting applications.

About Diodes Incorporated

Diodes Incorporated, a Standard and Poor's SmallCap 600 and Russell 3000 Index company, is a leading global manufacturer and supplier of high-quality application specific standard products within the broad discrete, logic and analog semiconductor markets. Diodes serves the consumer electronics, computing, communications, industrial, and automotive markets. Diodes' products include diodes, rectifiers, transistors, MOSFETs, protection devices, functional specific arrays, single gate logic, amplifiers and comparators, Hall-effect and temperature sensors; power management devices, including LED drivers, DC-DC switching and linear voltage regulators, and voltage references along with special function devices, such as USB power switches, load switches, voltage supervisors, and motor controllers. The Company's corporate headquarters, logistics center, and Americas' sales office are located in Plano, Texas. Design, marketing, and engineering centers are located in Plano; San Jose, California; Taipei, Taiwan; Manchester, England; and Neuhaus, Germany. The Company's wafer fabrication facilities are located in Kansas City, Missouri and Manchester, with two manufacturing facilities located in Shanghai, China, another in Neuhaus, and two joint venture facilities located in Chengdu, China. Additional engineering, sales, warehouse, and logistics offices are located in Fort Worth, Texas; Taipei; Hong Kong; Manchester; and Munich, Germany, with support offices located throughout the world. For further information, including SEC filings.

Diodes Incorporated, a leading global manufacturer and supplier of high-quality application specific standard products within the broad discrete, logic and analog semiconductor markets, today announced the AL5802 linear LED driver. Integrating a high gain NPN transistor with a 30V rated pre-biased NPN output transistor, the AL5802 provides a simple, cost-effective and low EMI solution for controlling current in up to 9 low-power series-connected LEDs. With an open-collector output capable of operating between 0.8V to 30V, the SOT26 packaged driver supports 12V and 24V power supplies and delivers LED currents between 20mA to 100mA for LED signs, lamps and automotive interior display applications.

The LED current is set by an external low-value resistor, the one additional component required by the driver. By generating a reference voltage of 0.65V across the resistor, the internal high-gain transistor helps minimize power losses and ensures supply voltage headroom. The negative temperature coefficient of the reference voltage means that LED current is automatically reduced at high temperatures, thereby helping to protect LEDs and improve circuit reliability.

PWM dimming of the LED string is also simple to achieve by either driving the device bias pin with a low-impedance voltage source or driving its enable pin with an external open-collector NPN transistor or open-drain N-Channel MOSFET. The AL5802’s wide ambient temperature operating range of -40ºC to +125ºC enables it to be circuit mounted very close to the LEDs in space-limited lighting applications.

About Diodes Incorporated

Diodes Incorporated, a Standard and Poor's SmallCap 600 and Russell 3000 Index company, is a leading global manufacturer and supplier of high-quality application specific standard products within the broad discrete, logic and analog semiconductor markets. Diodes serves the consumer electronics, computing, communications, industrial, and automotive markets. Diodes' products include diodes, rectifiers, transistors, MOSFETs, protection devices, functional specific arrays, single gate logic, amplifiers and comparators, Hall-effect and temperature sensors; power management devices, including LED drivers, DC-DC switching and linear voltage regulators, and voltage references along with special function devices, such as USB power switches, load switches, voltage supervisors, and motor controllers. The Company's corporate headquarters, logistics center, and Americas' sales office are located in Plano, Texas. Design, marketing, and engineering centers are located in Plano; San Jose, California; Taipei, Taiwan; Manchester, England; and Neuhaus, Germany. The Company's wafer fabrication facilities are located in Kansas City, Missouri and Manchester, with two manufacturing facilities located in Shanghai, China, another in Neuhaus, and two joint venture facilities located in Chengdu, China. Additional engineering, sales, warehouse, and logistics offices are located in Fort Worth, Texas; Taipei; Hong Kong; Manchester; and Munich, Germany, with support offices located throughout the world. For further information, including SEC filings.

Acuity Brands, a market leader in innovative energy-efficient lighting and control solutions, is pleased to report that its ROAM� wireless outdoor street light monitoring and control system continues to provide superior benefits to the City of Glendale, Arizona.� The ROAM system combines photo-control technology with remote monitoring and control capabilities to help manage and maintain outdoor lighting networks. The City reports that the ROAM implementation has been used as part of its comprehensive city-wide street light monitoring system since 2008, resulting in increased energy-efficiency and repair efficiencies and a dramatic reduction in street light outages.
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The City of Glendale, AZ was the first US city to have the ROAM wireless monitoring system installed. After the City had fully installed the system on each of its street lights, spread over 55 square miles, the ROAM system reported that over 10 percent of the City’s streetlights were either malfunctioning or not operating to industry standards. The monitoring, reporting, and measuring capabilities of the ROAM system, coupled with the system’s work order management functionality, helped the City and its repair crews decrease the average number of outages to less than 1% of the total lights. The integration of the ROAM system with the City’s streetlight repair operations has resulted in a dramatic reduction of resident-reported outages. As a result, the City’s resident satisfaction levels have improved, while City staff, contractors and utility companies are held more accountable for their performance, all as measured by the ROAM system.
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“The ROAM system has made a huge difference in efficiency of operations. Its remote monitoring functionality allows us to identify a light outage before residents call it in.� Since we know the exact location, our repair technician knows the correct light to work on.� With ROAM’s diagnostic information, the technician also has the needed information to know which component likely needs replacement,” said Mike Sills-Trausch, Street Lighting Program Manager for the City of Glendale. “Another critical benefit we received from ROAM is being able to establish accountability for new repairs and repairs that have been delayed for some reason. The reporting is so accurate, even small changes in repair service are noticeable by City staff,” continued Sills-Trausch.
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“We are pleased to provide the City of Glendale with an industry-leading outdoor control solution that lowers maintenance and energy costs while helping the City provide continued, sustainable, high-performance results for its citizens,” said Terry Utterback, Acuity Brands Lighting Vice President, Outdoor Controls.
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The ROAM solution enhances efficiency and reliability, prolonging the life of an entire street light system. ROAM reports, via a web-based portal, the exact location of malfunctioning streetlights, including those that remain illuminated during the day, a problem called day-burning. With ROAM, day-burning lights can be quickly identified, isolated and repaired, eliminating energy waste.� Fixtures not working during the expected nighttime hours can also be promptly repaired, enhancing illumination of public areas and reducing reliance on city residents to report these malfunctions. By capturing electrical data at each fixture, ROAM provides detailed energy consumption and tracking, while monitoring critical electric distribution system characteristics. The ROAM system’s asset management capabilities permit information about each streetlight, including pole type and color, fixture type, wattage and lamp type, to be bar coded into handheld communication devices, allowing service crews to know in advance what repair materials to take to a site, improving efficiency and reducing restoration time.
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The ROAM solution is being used successfully by several cities throughout the country, including College Station, TX, Los Angeles, CA, Austin, TX and Anderson, IN.

About Acuity Brands
Acuity Brands, Inc. is a North American market leader and one of the world’s leading providers of luminaires, lighting control systems and related products and services with fiscal year 2011 net sales of $1.8 billion. The Company’s lighting and system control product lines include Lithonia Lighting�, Holophane�, Peerless�, Mark Architectural Lighting™, Hydrel�, American Electric Lighting�, Gotham�, Carandini�, RELOC�, Antique Street Lamps™, Tersen�, Winona� Lighting, Syner�gy� Lighting Controls, Sensor Switch�, Lighting Control & Design™, Dark to Light�, ROAM�, Sunoptics�,� acculamp™ and Healthcare Lighting�. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Acuity Brands employs ap�proximately 6,000 associates and has operations throughout North America, Europe and Asia.
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Cree has announced revenue of $269.0 million for its first quarter of fiscal 2012, ended September 25, 2011.

This represents a 0.2% increase compared to revenue of $268.4 million reported for the first fiscal quarter last year and a 11% increase compared to the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011.

GAAP net income for the first quarter of $12.8 million, or $0.11 per diluted share, decreased 78% year-over-year compared to GAAP net income of $58.0 million, or $0.53 per diluted share, for the first quarter of fiscal 2011.

On a non-GAAP basis, net income for the first quarter of fiscal 2012 of $28.1 million, or $0.25 per diluted share, decreased 58% year-over-year compared to non-GAAP net income for the first quarter of fiscal 2011 of $66.3 million, or $0.60 per diluted share.

Financial results for the quarter reflect the acquisition of Ruud Lighting on August 17, 2011, approximately one month before the end of the quarter.

“We got off to a good start in Q1 as results were in-line with our updated targets and our LED lighting and LED components product lines continued to grow,” stated Chuck Swoboda, Cree chairman and CEO. “We also took the next step in our strategy to lead the LED lighting revolution with the acquisition of Ruud Lighting. Although we have seen tremendous growth in LED lighting sales over the last few years, it is clear that we have only scratched the surface of LED lighting adoption and there is growing demand for products that offer innovative solutions and good payback.”

Recently, as being concerned about Taiwan’s leading position may be replaced by South Korea and mainland China, LED specialists from Taiwan’s think tanks, academic institutions, trade organizations and private companies have urged the government to quickly pass laws to offer consumers subsidy for their procurements of LED lamps.

South Korea unseated Taiwan in 2009 as the world’s No.2 LED supplier. According to Director General Y.J. Chan of Electronics and Optoelectronics Research Laboratories of the government-backed Industrial Technology Research Institute , LED lighting market will take off worldwide in 2015 and South Korea will remain Taiwan’s prime competitor.

In mainland China, it plans to fill 70% of its domestic market for epitaxy wafers with homegrown suppliers, raising the possibility that Taiwan would lag behind the mainland in two years if the government remains ignorant about the trend.

Y.F. Yeh, chairman of Everlight,stressed that  “This is a serious warning for Taiwan, given the previous experience that DRAM and LCD conglomerates in South Korea surpassed their Taiwanese counterparts due to Taiwan government ignoring their undercutting schemes.”

In Yeh’s opinion, the government should emulate mainland Chinese, Japanese and South Korean governments to broadly replace LED for streetlights and traditional lamps in government organizations, encourage enterprises and shops to use LED lamps with tax incentives and subsidize consumers’ procurements of LED lamps.

According to Yeh , Despite Taiwan does not have mercury-light and energy-saving lamp industries, it has the world’s strongest LED-lighting industry in terms of advanced technology and complete patent coverage. Meanwhile, its manufacturing capability is as strong as that of Philips and Osram. If Taiwan government fails to take actions to foster Taiwan’s LED industry, the Taiwan industry will lose a good chance to become the world’s top LED-lighting maker.

Ledzworld Technology, an innovative R&D and manufacturing company of high-end LED retro-fit lamps for professional users, unveils its Chameleon Driver Technology during the International Lighting Fair in Hong Kong (Oct 27-30, 2011)

These intelligent drivers create the world’s first MR16 range that is truly compatible.

The biggest challenge for manufacturers of retrofit LED lamps is the compatibility with thousands of existing combinations of dimmers and transformers.

The Chameleon driver of Ledzworld is a technological break-through. Its arrival will change the industry standard.

The Chameleon driver adjusts itself to its environment.

The Chameleon driver first detects the transformer type, analyses its wave-form and then adjusts itself to make a perfect electrical fit with that particular transformer.

Chameleon drivers make Ledzworld retrofit lamps truly “plug and play” devices that can be used in most of the possible combinations of the commonly used drivers and dimmers.
Chameleon drivers will create lamps that are hassle free and true halogen replacements.

About Ledzworld
Ledzworld Technology is an innovative Malaysian based (Dutch owned) R&D- and – manufacturing company that continuously develops and integrates the latest available technologies into its complete LED-retrofit product range. By applying the last technology generations, Ledzworld’s products continue to out-perform the products of its competitors including those of all A-brands.

Ledzworld integrates new technologies faster than its competitors and has become a reputable OEM/ODM supplier of a growing number of large global brands in the lighting -industry. Ledzworld strives to be the quality technology provider behind the largest brands in the lighting industry who are increasingly facing difficulties to keep up with the fast pace of the LED retrofit industry.

Ledzworld received the LFI innovation award 2010 during the LFI lighting fair in Las Vegas in the “general lighting category”

Taiwan continues to dominate the global production of ceramic thermal substrates, accounting for more than 70 percent of total shipments and supplying to Cree, Lumileds, Osram, Philips and Edison Opto. Makers in the island will remain focused on this type amid wide adoption in high-powerLED lighting applications. It boasts greater heat conductivity than other thermal substrates such as metal-core PCB or MCPCB.

This emphasis on ceramic kinds also takes advantage of the fast-growing LED industry in the island. The latter’s production value in 2010 hit $5.6 billion, according to the Photonics Industry & Technology Development Association. The figure will reach $7.7 billion by year-end and $13.8 billion by 2013, registering an annual growth rate of 35 percent.

Automotive and solar equipment, LED TVs, and 3G and 4G mobile phones are the other major applications of ceramic thermal substances.

Thermal substrates can also be categorized as PCB, flexible PCB or MCPCB. The last is popular in LED and automotive fields. Among the major suppliers in Taiwan are Iteq, Taiflex, Polytronics, Gia Tzoong and Chin-Poon.

Ceramic substrates are either thick- or thin-film. The first is mainly utilized in automotive and military equipment, and the latter is for high-power LEDs and rules output. In terms of composition, the two major kinds are AlN and alumina or Al₂O₃. Although the last currently dominates supply, AlN is gradually growing in number as it offers better heat dissipation. Companies are also setting their sights on high-temperature co-fired ceramic with direct plated copper, which has a similar coefficient of thermal expansion to LED chips. This type provides good heat conductivity and stability under elevated temperatures. For the packaging, eutectic and wire bonding, flip chip and COB are the common methods used.

Viking Tech Corp. is among the manufacturers in Taiwan that have released metallized ceramic substrates such as Alâ‚‚O₃. The company said this variety delivers high heat conductivity, low resistance, and good thermal expansion and reliability. Alumina also boasts elevated power output and better refractive index matching and light uniformity. In addition, it can be easily packaged with Zener diodes and ICs. The surface finish can be gold, silver, copper, nickel or palladium. At Viking, some models have a silver coating and thermal conductivity of 17W/m•K.

There are currently 20 to 30 suppliers of thermal substrates in the island, most of which are publicly listed. New players from the PCB and CCL industries have entered the line, but their number will remain low due to the high capital and technology threshold. Viking, TA-I Technology Co. Ltd, Leatec, HolyStone, Tong Hsing and Polytronics are among the major players.