Newswise — Cree, Inc., the Federal Aviation Administration, and Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd. are new sponsors of the Alliance for Solid-State Illumination Systems and Technologies (ASSIST), a collaboration of researchers, manufacturers, and government organizations designed to identify and reduce major technical hurdles and help light-emitting diode (LED) technology gain widespread use in lighting applications.
ASSIST was established in 2002 by the Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The LRC conducts a wide range of research projects, demonstrations and evaluations, and educational activities on behalf of ASSIST.
"ASSIST is working in parallel with manufacturers and the applications community to help improve LED product performance while identifying good quality products that provide value to the end user," said Nadarajah Narendran, Ph.D., LRC director of research. "Successful LED applications will help rapidly transform the market."
LED lighting offers many benefits, including energy and maintenance savings, long life, durability, safety, and flexibility. As a first step toward establishing the means for product consistency and reliability, ASSIST created ASSIST Recommends, a research initiative to develop formal recommendations about issues important for LED performance and applications. ASSIST published its first set of recommendations in 2005 for defining and measuring LED life for general illumination.
The Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance recently signed on as a new sponsor of the ASSIST Recommends initiative to help fund research for future recommendations. Under this initiative, LRC is conducting research to identify metrics for evaluating LED systems which then would be used for developing guidelines for testing and evaluating LED luminaires.
According to Narendran, ASSIST will continue to work to ensure that people understand the benefits and complexities of using LEDs for lighting by disseminating research results, case studies, and guidelines. One example of the program's emphasis on education is the ASSIST-sponsored LED Lighting Institute, an intensive three-day workshop where participants start by learning LED basics and progress to hands-on lab sessions where they design and build their own LED fixtures using the newest LED products on the market.
Existing ASSIST sponsors working with the LRC to synthesize LED technology and real-world applications include Boeing, GELcore, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, NICHIA America Corporation, OSRAM SYLVANIA, Philips Lighting, and United States Environmental Protection Agency.
To learn more about ASSIST, please visit http://www.lrc.rpi.edu/programs/solidstate/assist/. A free download of "ASSIST recommends: LED Life for General Lighting" is available on the LRC Web site at http://www.lrc.rpi.edu/programs/solidstate/assist/recommends.asp.
ABOUT LED TECHNOLOGYLEDs are made of semiconductor chips and emit light when a current passes through them. LED lighting offers many benefits, such as energy savings, long life, and durability. LED lighting systems are very effective in applications where brightness, visibility, and small size are important. Typically used for exit signs and traffic signals, LED systems are increasingly being used for small-area general lighting as well.
Lighting applications that use light-emitting diodes are referred to as solid-state lighting (SSL). According to the U.S. Department of Energy, by 2025, SSL could displace general illumination light sources such as incandescent and fluorescent lamps, decreasing national energy consumption for lighting by 29 percent.To learn more about the ground-breaking SSL research taking place at the LRC, visit its SSL Web site at http://www.lrc.rpi.edu/programs/solidstate/.
ABOUT THE LIGHTING RESEARCH CENTERThe Lighting Research Center (LRC) is part of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute of Troy, N.Y., and is the leading university-based research center devoted to lighting. The LRC offers the world's premier graduate education in lighting, including one- and two-year master's programs and a Ph.D. program. Since 1988 the LRC has built an international reputation as a reliable source for objective information about lighting technologies, applications, and products. The LRC also provides training programs for government agencies, utilities, contractors, lighting designers, and other lighting professionals. For more information, visit http://www.lrc.rpi.edu.
ABOUT RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTERensselaer Polytechnic Institute, founded in 1824, is the nation's oldest technological university. The university offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in engineering, the sciences, information technology, architecture, management, and the humanities and social sciences. Institute programs serve undergraduates, graduate students, and working professionals around the world. Rensselaer faculty are known for pre-eminence in research conducted in a wide range of fields, with particular emphasis in biotechnology, nanotechnology, information technology, and the media arts and technology. The Institute is well known for its success in the transfer of technology from the laboratory to the marketplace so that new discoveries and inventions benefit human life, protect the environment, and strengthen economic development. For more information, visit http://www.rpi.edu.
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