Lighting

A Bright Future for Climate Change

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Creating Tomorrow's Solutions

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A Bright Future for Climate Change

“LEDs are revolutionizing lighting technology,” says Dr. Klaus Angermaier, senior marketing manager of Transportation & Energy at WACKER. Analysts predict that, by 2025, one in every three light sources will be an LED.
Dr. Philipp Müller and his colleague Gudrun Rosenberger evaluating a silicone mixture in the lab mixer.
And this could cut global electricity consumption by 10%. After all, LEDs are significantly more efficient than conventional light bulbs, and they'll put energy-saving lamps in the shade. “High energy efficiency, great color variety, stability, long life, brilliance and completely new design options are what make light-emitting diodes attractive for all lighting applications,” says Angermaier.
However, high-power LEDs require a lens system that outcouples and diffuses the light emitted by the diode. The tremendous increase in LED performance over the last few years has meant that the traditional organic packaging materials are no longer capable of withstanding the light flux. “We need new materials for the LED lenses and they must have high light stability,” says Angermaier.
WACKER now markets a new family of high-performance optical silicones under the trade name LUMISIL®.

Required Heat and Light Stability

Now, high-power LED manufacturers are focusing on silicones: “Silicone elastomers have the necessary heat and light stability,” explains Dr. Philipp Müller, an applications engineer at WACKER in Burghausen. He has developed a novel high-performance optical-grade silicone. Sold by WACKER under the name LUMISIL® , these new silicone elastomers allow optical lenses for LEDs to be applied directly to the light-emitting diode chip.
This is a particularly efficient manufacturing approach and it eliminates the high costs associated with conventional processes. Up until now, LED manufacturers used the complex injection-molding process to make the silicone lenses. Not only does it call for huge injection-molding machines, but also high-precision molds, metering, sorting and assembly devices. What’s more, everything has to take place under clean-room conditions. “We have now eliminated about five steps,” says Müller. “The simultaneous shaping and assembly of the LED optics is especially efficient. We have thus made a real breakthrough in low-cost mass production of LEDs.”
The novel silicone elastomer is applied as a liquid directly onto the chip.

Perfect Replication of the Lens Geometry

Perfect replication of the lens geometry is accomplished through a novel, UV-activated curing mechanism. Indeed, the adhesive properties of LUMISIL® 419 UV are so good that it's possible to omit an additional silicone encapsulant. The UV silicone not only performs an optical function, it also protects the LED chip.
With LUMISIL® UV, WACKER researchers have already switched on the light source of the future.
Further Information

The Fascination of Chemistry – WACKER’s Audio Magazine

LEDs Light Up Cities

The cost of keeping 50 million outdated streetlights in operation in the EU each year runs to €5 billion. Some European cities are already testing LED streetlights that are fully compliant with specifications concerning light distribution, intensity and color.

“The street lamp of the future is an LED lamp. The savings potential is huge," says Professor Tran Quoc Khanh of the Lighting department at Darmstadt Technical University. He estimates that current technology could cut CO2 emissions in Germany by 1.6 million metric tons per year.

This would translate into annual savings of €400 million. So far, however, the LED lamps are not as efficient as high-pressure sodium lamps.

UV-Curable Silicone for the Solar and Auto Sectors

The innovative silicone elastomers could also help cut process costs in other industries, with applications conceivable both in the solar industry and in healthcare, where they could be used for novel plasters, for example.

In the auto industry, too, UV silicone could help slash production costs, especially for applications under the hood, where silicones are prevalent and shorter curing times would have a direct impact on production costs.