OSRAM Enters Large-Area, LCD Backlighting Market

OSRAM Opto Semiconductors has expanded its Golden DRAGON™ LED family. The new Golden DRAGON ARGUS™ provides uniform backlighting with perfect color mixing, ideal for large display applications and suitable for backlighting a 32- to 82-inch liquid crystal display (LCD) panel.

"Display backlighting requires a uniformly lit flat light source rather than a point light source," said Ellen Sizemore, director, LED Products Group, OSRAM Opto Semiconductors. "The integration of our patented ARGUS lens into our already high-performance, thin-film Golden DRAGON LEDs enables flat, uniform lighting and paves OSRAM Opto Semiconductors' way into the emerging, large-area, LCD backlighting market. We continue to look for new and innovative ways to further advance LED technology in both consumer and commercial applications."

Each new Golden DRAGON includes a proprietary lens that enables the product's high luminous efficacy. The Golden DRAGON ARGUS assembly comprises four thin-film, highly luminous LEDs (two green, one blue and one red) in a "marquis jewel" arrangement. Any number of marquis configurations can be combined, either offset or in rows, to form infinitely scalable, high-intensity backlighting systems. Large displays, from 32- to 82-inch prototypes, backlit with LEDs do not need active cooling, even at high outputs.

This technology allows the highest brightness levels at the lowest operating voltage, is scalable and supports all wavelengths. Each LED can be individually controlled to change the color hue using the Golden DRAGON LED footprint with a low-profile optics package height of only 4 millimeters (mm). Golden DRAGON ARGUS LEDs and lenses are much smaller than comparable systems, enabling extremely low-profile LCD assemblies.

Golden DRAGON ARGUS LEDs provide a switching time of less than 100 nanoseconds (ns), creating an ideal solution for sequential coloring, a process in which the three basic colors are pulsed at high frequency and in a particular sequence. As the speed of liquid crystals increases, sequential color driver strategies will enable further enhancements in LCD display performance by reducing the need for costly color filters. The human eye cannot follow such high-speed changes and instead views the process as full-color moving pictures of exceptional brilliance. Pulsing ensures the moving pictures are sharp with excellent contrast, enabling the light sources to be faded to any level of brightness with distinguishable clarity.

Golden DRAGON ARGUS will be available in January 2006 in white, red, green and blue. Samples are currently available.