Developing white LED lighting systems and its technological roadmap in Japan

Abstract

This article is concerned with a summary of the future prospect of white light-emitting diode (LED) lighting technologies that have been heralded in "white LED lighting environment" special committee in the Illuminating Engineering Institute of Japan since 2002. The properties of various high-efficiency LEDs that are currently commercialized for practical application are firstly described. Since the characteristic feature of white LED lighting in terms of light distribution are strongly dependent on the light source design, we thus designate to construct new concept of light quality which takes into consideration both product design and lighting design. It is expected that the transition from traditional lighting is likely to progress from around 2010 in comparison with several kinds of incandescent bulbs and fluorescent lamps. Finally, the technological roadmap has been disclosed on the basis of our discussion.