Executives chart future of LEDs and lighting

Lightfair International (LFI) 2013 marked the dawn of a new attitude among many top executives at both LED and lighting companies — and realize that some of the companies we will discuss are vertically integrated, building their own LEDs and solid-state lighting (SSL) products. However, across the board, the largest players have settled into strategies intended to seize the opportunity being presented by a transition to solar lighting. The companies are also in a sense going back to basics and making sure they get fundamentals such as thermal management, optical performance, and aesthetics right. Meanwhile the executives all recognize that their companies must execute on emerging trends such as tunable lighting, both color and white point, and a transition to networked lighting.

The SSL industry has hit a clear fork in the road with a lot of short-term interest in LED-based replacement lamps, but more long-term belief in integral luminaires that may have little resemblance to legacy fixtures. Let's first consider developments in lamps.

Clearly the industry is moving toward products that mimic the look of legacy products, despite the fact that the look of the lamp is hidden in many applications. That trend became evident when Philips Lighting first introduced an A-lamp with a white optic in the shape of its yellow/orange EnduraLED lamps last December, then followed with a lamp sporting a more traditional rounded globe in March.

LFI revealed a continuation of that trend with GE Lighting introducing a new LED lamp in its Reveal branded family. Reveal is a premium line that GE touts as being superior for rendering colors and revealing nuanced patterns and textures. But the push around the LED-based Reveal lamp was its resemblance to legacy looks, whereas prior GE LED lamps have featured visible heat fins that extend vertically over sections of the globe.

John Strainic, general manager for North America consumer lighting, said Reveal buyers are "loyal and discriminating." And evidently the new design was driven by consumer research. "At the forefront of all of our engineering is consumer research, and we heard across the board that the size and the shape of an LED bulb is very important to shoppers," said Tom Boyle, chief innovation manager at GE Lighting. GE showed a Reveal A-lamp due to market shortly for 40W and 60W replacements and said a BR-30 is coming as well.

The maturity of both LED components and lamp design, especially in thermal management, enables products with a traditional look and no evident heat sinks. LEDs with higher efficacy produce less heat and can be driven at lower currents to further reduce heat. However, lamps designers and materials companies are ultimately enabling the change. See our recent feature on thermal products for a look at the technologies available to mitigate heat, including moldable thermoplastics that can conduct heat.

Philips first produced BR and PAR lamps with a legacy look when it introduced its AirFlux-branded products at LFI 2012. Now the same technology is being applied to A-lamps. Bruno Biasiotta , president and CEO of Philips Lighting, said that having Lumileds as a vertically integrated part of the company has been vital to making rapid progress in lighting whether it was developing the L Prize winner or the new lamps with a legacy look. The two divisions work closely in areas such as thermal mitigation. However, other companies such as GE are also moving forward without in-house LED manufacturing, and we will discuss vertical integration more a bit later.