Originally Published EMDM May/June 2002
TECHNOLOGY NEWS
ELECTRONICSLED Monitor Backlights May Mean Lights Out for Fluorescent Lamps
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| Luxeon LEDs from Lumileds Lighting offer tunable white points and increased brightness in monitor backlighting applications. |
High-flux LEDs that offer excellent colour fidelity and lengthy product life cycles may replace cold-cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs) in monitor-backlighting applications. Produced by Lumileds Lighting (Best, Netherlands), Luxeon diodes facilitate more-accurate diagnoses in a range of medical applications by providing users with tunable white points and adjustable colour spectrum control. "With these diodes, you can dynamically control and tune in colours to get just the image perspective that you want," says director of corporate communications Doug Silkwood. "And unlike CCFL products, LED-backlit monitors allow this colour manipulation without requiring a reduction in gray-scale levels."
In addition to providing enhanced control, Luxeon diodes also offer display manufacturers the ability to produce a greater range of colours. According to company estimates, monitors backlit with these diodes generate 120% of the NTSC colour spectrum; conventional displays typically produce only 70%.
Other product benefits include the capability to generate twice the brightness levels of some liquid-crystal displays, and the ability to calibrate different monitors to the same white point to ensure a common view when the same image is displayed at multiple locations. LCD-backlit monitors also last longer, adds Silkwood. "With no tubes to break or degrade, these devices have a 50,000-hour life expectancy."
Though primarily marketed for 15- to 18-in. monitors, the LEDs are suited for use in displays ranging in size from 5 to 20 in. FIMI S.r.l. (Saronno, Italy) will be the first company to take advantage of this novel technology when it begins production of a 15-in. medical display in the third quarter of 2002.
Copyright ©2002 European Medical Device Manufacturer
