LED lighting needs smarts to be competitive

摘要

The introduction of new and ever-more-energy efficient and powerful LED solid-state lighting (SSL) solutions has recently accelerated so much that some believe a major revolution of the entire lighting market is imminent. In many vertical applications, such as in signaling, automotive, and LCD TV backlighting, LEDs are becoming an irresistible alternative. Yet, the next obvious step—wide adoption in general lighting applications—cannot be taken for granted and may lag the vertical applications by a number of years. No doubt the cost and energy efficiency of SSL solutions continues to improve rapidly and should soon reach the critical thresholds for mass adoption of the technology—some say it will be in 2007, some in 2008, some are only willing to bet on 2010.