Luminus' John Langevin talks about pocket projectors, the company's $72 million round, and an eventual initial public offering.

The lights are shining bright on Billerica, Mass.-based Luminus Devices.

The maker of light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, pulled in $72 million in its latest round of financing, and the company plans to use that cash to move into new applications for its products.

The funding was led by Boston's Braemar Energy Ventures and included San Francisco-based CMEA Ventures and Washington, D.C.-based Paladin Capital Group, as well as other funds and all of Luminus' previous investors.

Luminus makes LEDs which are designed to be much brighter than traditional LEDs, calling the product PhlatLights, after the photonic lattice technology it's based on.

The company's LEDs are already being used in things like projection televisions as well as pocket projectors, a handy device for road warriors that some other LED firms, like San Jose, Calif.'s YLX, are also targeting (see LEDs, fuel cells grab the gold in Beijing).

Energy efficient, and environmentally friendly, lighting is a growing sector, with some significant LED competition from companies like Durham, N.C.'s Cree (Nasdaq: CREE) and Fairfield, Conn.-based lighting giant General Electric (NYSE: GE).

GE recently demonstrated a roll-to-roll manufacturing process for organic light-emitting diodes, or OLEDs (see GE shows how to roll out OLEDs).

But the new funding for Luminus means it can move into more specialized lighting fields that it says traditional LEDs can't compete in, including medical devices and stage lighting.

Talking about it all with Cleantech.com is John Langevin, VP of sales and marketing at Luminus, who said the company's first new product announcement would probably coincide with the Lightfair trade show in May.