Jason Lomberg, North American Editor, PSD
Welcome to the September issue!
We hope you had a fantastic summer, and if your kids are still at home, they weren’t too much of a nuisance.
But seriously, the end of summer is always an exciting time, with the spooky season imminent, the Holidays right around the corner, and coming up in October, the event celebrating one of the hottest industry topics, The Battery Show in Detroit, MI. With the world going through a rapid period of electrification, it goes without saying that energy storage has become critically important.
In addition, Fall of 2024 brings us the grand spectacle of electronica at the Trade Fair Center Messe München in Munich, Germany.
As per usual, electronica will bring tens of thousands of visitors and 2,000+ exhibitors to the third-largest city in Germany for four days of exciting announcements, schmoozing, and after-hours shenanigans.
And one of the premier topics of discussion in Munich is this month’s focus, “Lighting and Illumination.”
Partly because of government regulations forcing less efficient lighting tech (like the Edison bulb) into early retirement along with the versatility and long life of solid state lighting, LEDs have been booming – according to Raul Wang and Ron Demcko from KYOCERA AVX Corporation, the market was worth $71.59 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 11.20% from 2024–2032.
As the pair mention, LEDs present a number of benefits, not the least of which is superior energy efficiency. Naturally, there’s also a higher upfront investment.
“The relative complexity of LED lighting compared to competing lighting technologies is reflected in its costs, but the high-reliability and long lifetime performance of LED lighting technologies more than compensates for that initial disparity,” say Raul and Ron.
And in order to realize all those advantages, LED drivers are critically important.
“LED drivers must be small, energy-efficient, user-friendly, and reliable to deliver the inherent benefits of solid-state lighting,” note the pair.
Because, of course, the reliability of the drivers directly correlates with the health and stability of the LED fixtures.
Meanwhile, Cree addresses some of the design guidelines and board-level assembly issues involved with choosing the right LED for your application.
Multi-channel LEDs can be advantageous, but they also add more complexity to the LED selection process. Moreover, as Cree points out, “Multi-channel lighting designs are easiest to implement when the LEDs chosen share as many design features as possible, since items such as PCB footprints can be reused in the design.”
In the end, it’s worth the trouble since multi-channel LEDs can add product differentiation and flexibility to the end product.
Enjoy the September issue!
Best Regards,
Jason Lomberg
North American Editor, PSD
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