industry news ♦ compound semiconductor ♦ news digest


Würth Solar launched the world’s first mass production of CIGS solar modules in Schwäbisch Hall, Germany. It now achieves a capacity of 30 megawatts per year.


ZSW employs around 170 scientists, engineers, and technicians are currently employed at its three facilities in Stuttgart, Ulm, and Widderstall. They generate an annual turnover of €22 million.


Lasers could be used to induce precipitation


European scientists have showcased research highlighting how lasers could be used to induce precipitation.


A new technique for inducing rain using lasers has been tested by researchers from Switzerland, France and Germany.


Dr Jerome Kasparian of the University of Geneva headed the team of scientists and showed how a pulse from a Teramobile femtosecond-terawatt laser into an atmosphere that is high in humidity can result in cloud formation and precipitation - a technique which could be useful in fighting drought.


The study concluded: “The phenomenon provides a new and attractive tool for remote characterisation of the humid atmosphere and cloud formation ... It may even provide the potential to influence or trigger water precipitation using continuously operating lasers rather than rockets.”


Philips Lumileds report ‘Evaluating the Lifetime Behavior of LED Systems’


Publication provides LED manufacturers with guidelines on how to assess LED lifetime, performance, reliability and maintain them


Philips Lumileds has published a report June www.compoundsemiconductor.net 65


providing the lighting industry with a methodology for evaluating how arrays of LEDs behave over time and how LED luminaire manufacturers can confidently make business decisions such as warranty commitments.


The paper includes maintenance data of lumens used in multiple LEDs in a wide variety of usage conditions and the failure modes of power LEDs along with their impacts on reliability.


An LED luminaire’s usable life is determined by a manufacturer’s determination of expected lumen maintenance and by the actual usable life of every part included in the system. All components must be independently analyzed so as to provide an accurate analysis.


Over 700 million hours of LUXEON LED reliability test data has been acquired and statistical analysis models describing how a luminaire manufacturer can define LED lifetime in a system has been reported. The paper also details how to scale from the behavior of one LED to many LEDs and how reliability models are derived.


“Luminaire manufacturers no longer have to rely on the lumen maintenance behavior of a single LED as a proxy for the lifetime,” commented Rudi Hechfellner, Director of Applications. “With these new methods, companies can now balance business objectives with engineering realities to provide products and warranties that the market wants and can have confidence in.”


The paper is publicly available at the websites www.philipslumileds.com and from www. futurelightingsolutions.com


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