家中的LED：挑戰(zhàn)與機(jī)遇

　　發(fā)光二極管（LED）是非常受歡迎的，而且SSL行業(yè)的內(nèi)部和外部幾乎沒有問題，它是當(dāng)今最好的照明技術(shù)。與其他類型的照明相比，LED的優(yōu)越性開始于它在能源效率和使用壽命方面的巨大優(yōu)勢。LED燈泡可以提供大約相當(dāng)于傳統(tǒng)白熾燈和熒光燈的照明，而只消耗能源的三分之一。LED燈泡也有望比基于成熟照明技術(shù)的產(chǎn)品壽命長20倍以上。更重要的是，LED燈泡的固態(tài)元件比相對(duì)脆弱的傳統(tǒng)照明技術(shù)提供更好的機(jī)械損傷防護(hù)。總之，這些特性為LED照明解決方案用戶提供了一個(gè)極具吸引力的投資回報(bào)率，特別是在商業(yè)和工業(yè)應(yīng)用中，維修和燈泡更換是困難的和/或昂貴的。

　　基于這些原因，美國能源部估計(jì)，2030，固態(tài)的采用LED照明將減少照明用電消耗的四分之一的國家，相當(dāng)于約190太瓦小時(shí)和150億美元，同時(shí)減少二氧化碳?xì)怏w排放量相當(dāng)于2100萬輛汽車。

　　不幸的是，住宅用戶并不關(guān)心商業(yè)用戶的這些優(yōu)勢。雖然他們可能想要發(fā)光二極管，但他們想要的是具有競爭力的價(jià)格，而且他們并不急于購買LED燈產(chǎn)品，價(jià)格仍然比緊湊型熒光燈高2到三倍，而且比六包白熾燈要貴得多，大約要花費(fèi)8美元。

　　Research confirms that LEDs are used in a plethora of applications. For example， Fig. 1 shows many of the places you will see LEDs （note especially general lighting）。 But what it does not tell you is how residential lighting’s LED numbers compare to the existing types of lighting （CFL， incandescent， etc.）。

　　Again， while cost is one obvious stumbling block in the residential market， it is not the only one. Premature failure is another hurdle for early adopters， and designers have to figure out what to do to prevent product breakdown. The LED lighting solution is a system and there are many contributing factors that must be mitigated to ensure a long-lived fixture design. LED manufacturers must continue to make in-roads into improved reliability with regard to thermal management， manufacturing variances （reduced binning tolerances）， overall LED package robustness， and lumen maintenance. Inherently， cost and performance are intertwined through engineering design trade-offs at the product level. Therefore， any improvements on performance （flux， efficacy and color quality） have to be leveraged against system costs in order to address the customers‘ needs. Other possible methods for lowering costs and customer price point to a combination of manufacturing efficiency and performance improvement via the use of larger wafers， improvements in LED epitaxy， cost of ownership through yield and throughput， improved packaging technologies （phosphors， optics）， and improved package and luminaire design.