“Poor light quality ruined many consumers’ confidence in compact fluorescents,” stated Mike Krames, CTO of Soraa. “The Energy Star qualification must be associated with LED lamps that provide a better quality of light; otherwise, the program will start to lack credibility with end-users and the low adoption rate history of CFLs will be repeated by LED lamps.”

Soraa pointed out that while Energy Star is not a mandatory standard; the EPA must recognize that it has become a de facto standard for utility rebate dollars critical to lowering the initial cost of LED products. Soraa explained that in absence of a second high color rendering index (CRI) tier, like the historical situation with CFLs, the vast majority of lamp products will be engineered to perform close to the lower boundaries of quality requirements as set in the Energy Star lamp specification for cost reasons (see Figure). Soraa contends that if light quality (specifically color rendering) is unaddressed, the lack of high color quality lighting products will lead to a stalling in consumer adoption of energy efficient lighting technology, observing that consumers have become accustomed to high color rendering index of incandescent and halogen light sources over decades.

In the provided graphic, both PAR Lamps (left) and CFL (right) from the Energy Star® Qualified Lighting Product List (QLPL), have lower color rendering indexes than conventional light sources which consumers have become accustomed to over many decades (red ovals). Soraa asserts that the current standards drive the industry to predominantly produce modest color quality lamps, which do not address the color quality barrier to adoption.

“To persuade consumers to purchase LEDs instead of incandescent lamps, LED lamps must be seen as high-quality products worth the initial higher price differential. Therefore, LED lamps must closely replicate the color rendering of the incandescent and halogen lamps that they replace,” said Ravi Parikh, Energy Services Specialist at Burlington Electric in Vermont. “As a utility, we are always willing to consider higher incentives for projects utilizing lamps such as SORAA’s. We want to ensure customer satisfaction by reduced energy bills and maintained—if not, improved—quality of light. There is no need to sacrifice quality for efficiency. It is critical we understand the value in both.”

Soraa's suggestion follows the basic approach of their ideas for Draft 3, but this time around proposed to keep the existing minimum efficacy requirements, but apply those to lamps that provide a CRI above 90, while raising the minimum efficacy of those lamps with a CRI between 80 and 90. Soraa’s proposal argues that this will increase overall energy savings through enhanced adoption of higher light quality lamps as well as through higher energy efficiency in lamps of modest light quality.

The new XP-E2 color LEDs are built on Cree’s SC³ Technology™ LED platform, which uses silicon carbide and combines advances in chip design, packaging, and phosphors, to provide higher lumens-per-watt and lumens-per-dollar compared to the original XP-E color LEDs. Cree indicated that switching to XP-E2 LEDs in existing XP-E LED designs, lowers system costs. The new XP-E2 color LEDs have the same XP footprint (3.45mm x 3.45mm) and are optically compatible with the original XP-E LED providing what the company describes as a drop-in-ready performance enhancement to shorten design cycle and improve customer time to market.

“We are excited that Cree is offering higher performance color LEDs in the XP footprint,” said Greg Campbell, executive vice president and chief technology officer, Lumenpulse. “The brighter XP-E2 color LEDs enable Lumenpulse to continue to provide innovative, high-performance LED lighting systems.”

The XP-E2 color LEDs have a maximum drive current of 1A and a viewing angle of 110 to 135 degrees. The royal blue version of the XLamp XP-E2 color LEDs at maximum drive current delivers up to 1409 mW. Also at maximum drive current, the XLamp XP-E2 color LEDs provide up to 109 lumens for blue, 253 lumens for green, 203 lumens for amber, 193 lumens for red-orange and 155 lumens for red. All have the 3.45mm x 3.45mm footprint. Cree says samples are available now and production quantities are available with standard lead times.

Mr. Kim emphasized that three evolving “environments” will likely make displays the central focus of the increasingly pervasive use of electronic devices.

The first environment is the spread of cloud computing. The cloud computing environment, gives electronic networked devices to infinitely extend their ability to processing and store data. Thus, users everywhere, can easily enjoy content that only highly advanced devices can fully process today, including ultra HD (3840 x 2160) images and 3D games. Higher levels of display technology will be required to support our increasing reliance on the cloud.

Kim indicated that the second environment is the accelerating evolution of high-speed networks. By 2015, the velocity of 4G LTE will rise to 3 gigabits per second (Gbps), so the transmission time for a two-hour UHD-resolution movie will be under 35 seconds. Mr. Kim said, “As image quality of video content improves, larger and even more vibrant displays will emerge as a key differentiating point in mobile devices.”

The third environment, according to Mr. Kim, is the spread of connectivity among electronic devices. He said that the exploding prevalence devices connected to WiFi networks will usher in the N-Screen era. He predicted that a massive network environment will be established by connecting not only smartphones and tablet PCs but also automobiles, home appliances and wearable computing devices. Due to this explosion in “data flow,” there will be a huge surge of interest in touch-enabled displays.

Mr. Kim said that the innovative advantages of AMOLED technology will allow consumers to realize more possibilities in electronic convenience than we might have ever imagined.

Mr. Kim noted that AMOLED displays have superior color and can embody true colors closest to natural colors with their color space 1.4 times broader than that of LCD displays. He said that by supporting nearly 100% of the Adobe RGB color space, AMOLED displays will expand the range of displays well suited to printed media, where specialized color is frequently required.

A second advantage of AMOLED displays, according to Kim is its flexibility and transparency. AMOLED displays can reportedly be made foldable and rollable, curved, or transparent. In addition, they are lighter weight than other display technologies.

The third advantage of AMOLED displays will be their responsiveness to touch and sensors. Using Samsung’s new Diamond Pixel™ technology, which has been optimized for the human retina, AMOLED displays can now depict natural colors and images with super high resolution.

Mr. Kim went on to say that display applications, with advantages of AMOLED technology, will rapidly spread throughout other business sectors like the automotive, publishing, bio-genetic and building industries.

Mr. Kim forecasts that in the automotive business, AMOLED displays will replace conventional glass and mirrors that have been used for digital mirrors and head-up displays. He said that AMOLED display panels also will be used for watch displays and for products in the fashion and health care market sectors.

Further, Mr. Kim contends that in publication and building, AMOLED displays will set the trend for the building market sector with AMOLED architectural displays in and outside buildings being used as highly desirable decorative and information-delivering products.

Mr. Kim expressed confidence that "The display market is unlimited in the amount of growth that it can achieve, as technical innovation continues to accelerate.” He added that "Samsung Display will play a leading role in the global display industry, as the display company possessing the most advanced AMOLED technology."

Stapp brings more than a dozen years of executive experience in LED lighting technologies. Most recently Stapp served as general manager and senior vice president of Osram AG’s SSL unit, Stapp was responsible for the company’s professional LED and OLED business. Earlier, as SSL vice president and general manager at OSRAM Opto Semiconductors, he launched and managed the general-lighting LED business and oversaw launch of the world’s first OLED lighting products. Prior to that, Stapp was vice president and CTO of the semiconductor company, where he oversaw global LED, laser and OLED R&D. Earlier in his career, he held a variety of management positions in Siemens AG’s Corporate Technology division.

Giorgio Anania, Aledia’s co-founder, president and CEO said, “Bernhard has been a key player at the heart of the global LED industry since its inception, and also has an outstanding technical background. His unique perspective on this industry’s future will be invaluable as Aledia moves into the next stage of its evolution.”

WireLED®, Aledia’s unique 3D microwire GaN-on-silicon technology, was developed at the CEA-Leti nanotech research institute in Grenoble . The company says that its WireLED technology allows production of LEDs on inexpensive industry-standard 200mm silicon wafers using standard semiconductor processes and tools.

“Aledia’s technology is, quite simply, a breakthrough for the entire LED sector,” said Stapp. “It can meet the industry’s critical requirement for cost-reduction, while using far simpler production processes and much less material than conventional approaches. I am very excited about the opportunity to join this team.”

The company says that it has created the first mass-produced 4.99-inch Full HD mobile AMOLED display. Samsung Display claims that the AMOLED display offers the broadest color gamut with a 94 percent average rate of reproduction for the Adobe RGB color space. The Adobe RGB standard is about 30 percent broader than general sRGB standards.

The AMOLED display uses the company's Diamond Pixel™ technology, which is based on the idea that the human retina reacts more to green than other colors. Therefore the technology places more green than red and blue pixels in the pixel structure of AMOLED display panels.

With the new technology, Samsung's Full HD AMOLED display can provide text messages 2.2 times clearer than HD (1280×720) displays. So, when curvilinear letters on the panel are magnified two or three times, Samsung’s Diamond Pixel™ technology enables text to be reproduced more smoothly (fewer “jaggies”) and accurately than those produced with conventional LCD technology.

Samsung Display is also providing Display Week participants with firsthand experience comparing the color gamut, color accuracy and letter quality of Full HD AMOLED displays in a special “experience zone” within its booth. The booth will provide a clear comparison between AMOLED and LCD displays. Attendees can see not only true crisp colors in the intricate wing pattern of morpho butterfly images, but can also view an image of a strand of knitting wool so detailed that it can only be appreciated using a Full HD AMOLED display.

Furthermore, Samsung Display's exhibit of an 85-inch ultra HD TV panel showcases a LCD technology that enables local-dimming control in a direct LED-based LCD panel. The panel can save 30 percent of typical LED BLU power consumption. Its local-dimming control enables vivid color rendering including incredible black images, 80 percent brightness uniformity, and a remarkably-enhanced contrast ratio.

Samsung Display highlighted advanced power-saving solutions for smart mobile devices including smartphones and tablets. Samsung says its Full HD AMOLED displays provide a 25 percent power-savings over that of existing HD AMOLED displays because of the efficacy of the AMOLEDs.

Samsung Display is also exhibiting a 10.1-inch WQXGA (2560 x 1600) LCD for tablets and a 13.3-inch WQXGA+ (3200 x 1800) LCD for notebooks. Samsung says that each can deliver 30 percent greater power-savings than that of existing LCD tablet displays, by decreasing the number of driver circuits and increasing the efficiency of the LED BLU.

Also, Samsung unveiling a 23-inch multi-touch LCD display that can detect 10 touch points simultaneously. The prototype enables playing of the piano, or drawing a highly detailed picture on a monitor or a tablet.

The agreement includes an expanded licensing and manufacturing supply relationship. Bridgelux says it will continue to develop and market its GaN-on-Sapphire LED products as a fabless solid state lighting company. The companies began their collaboration in early 2012, and later in 2012 Toshiba became an investor in Bridgelux. As part of the previously announced agreement, Toshiba hired Bridgelux’s GaN-on-Silicon development team. In turn, Bridgelux reportedly retains a majority of its revenue generating operations as a fabless LED company.

“We are thrilled to be moving into the next stage of our joint work with Toshiba to advance GaN-on-Silicon-based solid state lighting technologies,” said Brad Bullington, CEO of Bridgelux. “As we outlined last month, Bridgelux will focus on commercializing, productizing and bringing to market GaN-on-Silicon technologies alongside a proven global scale semiconductor manufacturer. At the same time, we remain committed to our GaN-on-Sapphire business and look forward to continuing to provide world-class innovation and service to our customers.”