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23 Nov 2006
Seoul Semiconductor can now mass produce its Acriche semiconductor lighting sources, which run on mains/wall power at 220/110 Vac.
Seoul Semiconductor has has succeeded in mass producing its Acriche semiconductor lighting source, which can be directly connected to 110 V or 220 Vac outlets using a simple circuit, eliminating the need for a DC converter.
As conventional LED products can only work with DC power, it was previously impossible for consumers to use LED products with AC light-bulb outlets without using a converter.
"This technological achievement was not expected by the LED industry," said Lee Jung-Hoon, CEO of Seoul Semiconductor. "Now that mass production of semiconductor lighting for AC outlets is possible, LED applications are no longer limited to cell phones, computers or cars, but can be expanded to general lighting applications as well."
Seoul says Acriche offers improved power efficiency compared to incandescent and halogen lamps, and outpaces fluorescent lamps in terms of life span, power usage, and convenience. The company is planning to improve Acriche's brightness from current 40 lm/W to 80 lm/W by Q4 2007 and to 120 lm/W by Q4 2008.
Considering that an Acriche source lasts 30,000 hours, compared with 1,000 for incandescent lamps, 3,000 for halogen lamps, and 8,000 hours for fluorescent lamps, electricity costs are significantly reduced. As a result, Seoul Semiconductor claims that Acriche would typically cost consumers 75% less than incandescent lamp and 40% less than a general fluorescent lamp.
The development of Acriche was largely thanks to a packaging process that Seoul Semiconductor developed for a semiconductor chip that works with direct current. Seoul Optodevice holds the patent for this chip, which it developed and improved, and the company also has more than 100 patents for this upgraded chip.
The developers calculate that if Acriche sources were to replace all the lights in Korea by 2010, the electricity savings would reach 60 billion kWh, which is equivalent to a nuclear power plant's output, saving six million tons of CO2 emission a year.
Even before Seoul's announcement, a recent report from Display Asia declared that LED technology is rapidly replacing conventional light sources. Seoul Semiconductor said it believes that the development of Acriche will accelerate this trend. Acriche sales are expected to reach 20 billion Korean won by 2007, 100 billion in 2008 and 300 billion in 2009.
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