It’s reported that India's US$1.5 billion lighting industry is growing 15% a year and bringing in new technologies. At the Light India International Exhibition and Conference early in 2008, the focus was on saving energy in lighting and the spotlight was on LEDs.
Indian lighting engineers are excited about the LED opportunity, said HS Mamak, president emeritus, Indian Society of Lighting Engineers. Mamak said: "Because of the pricing problem, the share of LED-based lighting is still very small. However, anticipated potential is tremendous: in five years 4-5% of the lighting market could be LED-based, rising to 10% a few years after. Lighting companies like Philips, GE and Osram, which have a presence in India, see up to 50% of their production LED-based in the next 7-10 years."
Philips, which controls 30% of the local market, is setting up a global lighting electronics R&D center near Delhi. Philips' India CEO, Murali Sivaraman noted that engineers will work on globally defined lighting R&D programs. Philips is investing Rs80-100 million in the center which will function by the year-end.
A nanotechnology research center at Anna University, Chennai, has come up, with Rs75 million in government money, to work mainly on crystal growth and characterization of gallium nitride-based semiconductor nanostructures for LED applications. Materials for white LEDs are a main focus area, and a key department, the Crystal Growth Center (CGC), functions as an inter-university facility for relevant research, besides implementing industrial consultancy work.
According to Dr K Baskar, assistant professor at CGC, thay are taking the aluminum gallium nitride route to push wavelengths into the deep ultra violet region suitable for white LEDs, which has acquired a Rs55 million MOCVD system.
While big Japanese names initially dominated India's LED imports, Chinese and Korean companies have appeared recently. Seoul Semiconductor has sales agents in Mumbai and Delhi, and is technology partner to lighting solutions startup d.light. YS Baik, Seoul Semiconductor's general manager, said, "We don't have specific products for the India market, but are willing to consider a design partner." Small Indian design startups are growing fast to tap the design opportunities. Arrow Asia and Cree Inc conducted seminars on LED lighting to create interest among Indian designers. Baik noted, "The Indian market needs Chinese prices with Japanese quality. Seoul Semiconductor is strong in R&D, and is famous for its LEDs with high luminous efficacy of 100lm/W. Our product Acriche is the world's first AC-driven solid state lighting device, which works at high AC voltages (110V~220V) without secondary components like converters and drivers. It's the most promising device for future LED lighting, as the generally used DC LEDs can sometimes be constrained by the 20,000-hour life span of AC-DC converters."
LED lighting has hitherto failed in India's rural areas because of the US$50 to US$100 price tag. Now, said Gabriel Risk, CTO, d.light, "LED efficiency has improved and prices of LEDs superior to CFLs in luminous efficacy have dropped." d.light's Nova lamp, which sells for US$15 to US$30, has a battery with patented circuitry to protect it from deep discharging and over-charging, and fast-charges under a range of voltage conditions. Alternatively, a portable solar panel fully charges the Nova in 10-12 hours of direct sunlight.
d.light's Comet, described as "The world's most affordable solar light," uses an ultra efficient Seoul Semiconductor LED and sells for US$8 to US$15. "We use the highest efficacy LEDs available, rated 90-100L, for the lowest possible price. The products are contract manufactured in Shenzhen, and lamp designs and charging methods are tweaked to regulate brightness according to end-use and to keep costs low," said Risk.
