LEDs "get there" for general lighting purposes.

[skids]

US LED manufacturer Cree has opened up a whole new field of general lighting applications with its latest generation of XLamp power LEDs. The company describes the XR-E series as a "new class of lighting LED".

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These are highly impressive numbers, but the most useful comparison is given by the typical values at the center of the production distribution. For the XR-E, these numbers are 80 lumens at 350 mA, with 70 lm/W. Many low-power LEDs operating at 20 mA would struggle to achieve this efficacy value.



http://www.ledsmagazine.com/news/3/10/10

Mark McClear, Cree's director of marketing for solid-state lighting, emphasized that LEDs typically producing 80 lm are already in volume production. "We've already shipped more than one-quarter million devices," he told LEDs Magazine.

In the lab, CREE has samples running about 25% more efficient than these do.

We are about one year away from the point at which LED bulbs (ones that are actually efficient and not just underpowered with deceitful advertising) will be available retail and steal the efficiency crown from compact fluorescents -- so don't worry about the mercury in them, by the time you replace them you'll be using LEDs -- it's a one-time thing and it will save more mercury from being emitted by coal plants.

Of course, the lawsuits always follow on the heels of success...

Honeywell claims it has the rights to U.S. Patent No. 6,373,188 B1 issued April 16, 2002. The patent is for an Efficient Solid-State Light Emitting Device with Excited Phosphors for Producing a Visible Light Output. The patent was assigned to Honeywell by inventors Burgess R. Johnson and Wei Yang.

Honeywell alleges that Philips infringes the patent through the manufacture, sales and distribution of lighting products incorporating light emitting diodes. The products include automobiles, emergency lighting systems, general lighting systems, commercial lighting and flashlights.

Co-defendant Cree Inc. also infringes on the patent through products that include mobile phones, automobiles, digital still cameras, outdoor displays, general lighting, outdoor lighting, aircraft lighting, traffic signal lighting, crosswalk signs, televisions and monitors.


http://www.setexasrecord.com/news/203080-recent-patentcopyright-infringement-cases-filed-in-u.s.-district-courts

Honeywell doesn't actually make mass quantities of LEDs, just precursor products. We really need a "use it or lose it" patent reform law. Fortunately cases like this usually just result in some sort of settlement with the plaintiff weighing its legal fees against the offer. (Don't count Lumileds as the clearcut victim on this, though, they've been in court lately for being sleazy in a patent suit they launched against another LED company.)

A good look at some of the players is here:

http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/667253/

As the volume producers are working out the last few kinks (stability of phosphor colors over time and temperature tolerance of the junction for operation in very hot environments), the next leap, nanocrystals, is popping up on more university lab benches.