Welcome to the LEDs Magazine News & Insights newsletter for Nov. 25, 2020. As I’m sure virtually all of you have read, the news on the coronavirus vaccine front has been better than expected for three candidates. We all need to be especially careful in the near term and curtail the ongoing surge of COVID-19 around the globe and just maybe we can meet in person at events next summer.
Still, interest in germicidal ultraviolet (UV) technology remains, and I suspect it will remain with us once we overcome COVID-19. I would certainly hope that no one ignores the potential of another pandemic and the importance of protective measures. We have two news stories for you this week focused on germicidal UV-C-band (100–280-nm) radiation. Signify has supplied UV-C technology to the Edeka German supermarket chain. The project includes sanitizing fixtures mounted near the ceiling intended to cleanse the air and also some dedicated UV-C chambers for disinfecting handheld devices and equipment.
We also have a novel air-disinfection UV-C implementation from the aptly named Big Ass Fans company — the company sells extremely large ceiling fans. The company is installing UV-C sources on the fans which circulate air to the ceiling where it can be disinfected and then propelled downward into a space. Our Mark Halper wrote the story and also wrote that he wasn’t able to learn what type of UV-C source was used on the fans. We are still investigating, but I believe UV-C LEDs are being utilized.
Moving to visible-light LED technology, we had a really interesting licensing deal break late last week involving GE Current and Nichia. Back in the early days of solid-state lighting, the company then called GE Lighting was a research leader in LED technology and indeed many prognosticators expected GE to either organically launch an LED manufacturing operation or buy one of the startups. It was GE researcher Nick Holonyak who invented the first practical LED back in 1962.
Ultimately what was GE Lighting and now GE Current has prospered in LED lighting buying components on the commercial market in cases. But the company’s highest-light-quality products use the TriGain phosphor integrated in LEDs custom made for GE Current. The technology delivers high-CRI, warm-CCT light with little to no efficacy penalty and is a tangible benefit of the company’s earlier research prowess. Now GE Current has licensed Nichia to sell Tri-Gain-based LEDs on the open market for general illumination applications.
We are in a bit of a dead period in terms of feature-length editorial given that our November/December issue was our Industry Guide. That guide is available for your perusal. But we are also hoping to deliver web-exclusive technical features to keep you well informed during gaps in the issue schedule. We’ve just posted such a feature article covering changes in European SSL regulatory policies.
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You will find many more stories of interest in the body of today’s newsletter. And always feel free to contact me to discuss content we post or to pitch a contributed article.
- Maury Wright, (858) 748-6785, [email protected]