37" LCD Television Screen Illuminate by Seven PhlatLight LED Modules

Luminus Devices, Inc. and Global Lighting Technologies (GLT) Inc. have announced that they will demonstrate their PhlatLight BLU (Backlight Unit) for LCD TVs during the Flat Panel Display International 2007 Conference. The PhlatLight BLU uses Luminus' PhlatLight LEDs and GLT's MicroLens light guides to create a cost-effective BLU for large screen LCD TVs with a very low LED count.

Backlighting using conventional LEDs requires hundreds or thousands of LEDs behind the screen. The PhlatLight BLU demonstrated by Luminus and GLT uses only seven PhlatLight LED modules, each containing a single red, green and blue chip, to illuminate a 37" LCD television screen. Each PhlatLight module couples light into a MicroLens light guide, which uniformly spreads light across the screen. This unique, cost-effective approach is less than 20 mm thick and is easily scalable to larger screen sizes. Color uniformity and intelligent features such as progressive scanning and local dimming are more easily implemented with the design's dramatically reduced LED count.

According to John Langevin, vice president of sales and marketing at Luminus, "Manufacturers want LED backlighting to improve color, contrast and motion performance. Unlike CCFL lamps, LEDs are a 'green' technology and do not contain any hazardous materials. With fewer LEDs, our approach provides these benefits in a thin design and at a lower cost."

Luminus and GLT formed a partnership in 2006 to develop and produce modular LED-based edge-lighting assemblies for large-screen LCD TVs. Luminus' PhlatLight LEDs are an advanced solid state light (SSL) source based on the company's patented photonic lattice technology and have already been commercialized in other display technologies.

According to David DeAgazio, director of sales worldwide at GLT, "The scalability of this BLU technology allows our customers to utilize LED backlighting in increasingly thinner and larger screen products. A solution that can be tailored to fit a variety of models will prove more important as consumers continue to look for better quality in bigger screens."