As governments around the world turn their attention to alternative sources of energy, Taiwan is focusing on solar power and AC light-emitting diodes (LED) as the main drivers of the nation’s green technology initiatives.
The local AC LED Alliance, under the direction of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院), is ready to submit the world’s first AC-powered LED technology standard proposal to the International Commission on Illumination in the hopes of taking a lead in the field and setting standards for the burgeoning technology.
Taiwan owns 80 patents on various AC LED innovations and is working closely with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a US federal technology agency that develops and promotes measurements and scientific standards, as well as Germany’s Underwriters Laboratories Inc, which provides product safety certification and compliance solutions in Germany.
“From upstream to downstream, we are strategically mapping our AC LED-related patents to avoid patent disputes because we don’t own the core technologies,” Ian Chan (詹益仁), vice president and director-general of ITRI’s Electronics and Optoelectronics Research Laboratories, said at a product exhibition in Taipei yesterday.
“Out goal is to become the international leader in AC LED technology,” he said.
By 2015, ITRI expects Taiwan’s AC LED industry to generate more than NT$60 billion (US$1.84 billion), Can Wei-ji (甘薇璣), senior specialist at the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ industrial technology department, said at the meeting.
“Currently, Taiwan is the world leader in terms of LED shipment value and volume,” Can said.
Also present at the product exposition were companies such as Liquidleds Lighting Corp (液光固態照明), Everlight Electronic Light (億光電子), Forward Electronics Co (福華電子) and Lustrous Technology Ltd (齊瀚光電).
AC LED is basically LED lighting that can operate on AC power without the need for a DC converter, Epistar Corp (晶元光電) executive assistant Wang Shi-wei (王希維) told the Taipei Times yesterday.
Espistar is Taiwan’s largest maker of LED and began shipping AC LED chips to downstream companies this quarter for mainstream mass manufacturing.
The major benefits of AC LED are its lack of requirement for a power transformer, low cost, compact size and no electrostatic discharges, Wang said.
“What makes AC LED green is its energy efficiency, which effectively saves between 15 percent and 30 percent of electricity compared with regular LED. It can replace traditional light bulbs, incandescent tubes and halogen used in households,” Wang said.
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