Electricity used for lighting homes, shops, offices, signs, public spaces, and streetlights – accounts for roughly 20 percent of all electricity consumption worldwide. With a number that high, it’s no surprise that consumers, companies, and governments around the globe are looking for energy-efficient alternatives to traditional lighting. NXP calculates that switching to more efficient technologies, such as CFL (Compact Fluorescent Lighting) would enable up to an 80 percent saving in electricity costs from lighting. These energy efficient CFL lamps have become a familiar replacement for incandescent lights and promise to continue growing in popularity.
“Lighting is a vital area of focus for the semiconductor industry because of the clear impact that we can have on the world’s energy resources,” commented Stephane Curral, manager, Power and Lighting Solutions Product Line, NXP Semiconductors. “We were one of the first semiconductor companies to recognize the importance of energy-efficient lighting, and have made lighting a focus for more than 15 years.”
NXP is committed to supporting energy-saving trends in the lighting industry, for example, daylight harvesting, in which lighting levels are adjusted according to the amount of natural daylight available. NXP supplies the dimmable drivers for a range of technologies used in everyday lighting for shops and offices, such as HF TL (High Frequency Tube Lamp), CFL, HID (High Intensity Discharge Lighting) and Solid State Lighting (SSL), amongst others.
NXP is also supplying a broad portfolio of driver IC’s for a new lighting technology called Solid State Lighting, which is based on high-brightness LEDs. Solid State Lighting shows great promise for reliability, design flexibility, and longevity. It delivers bright colors at a high intensity, while consuming less overall power. Potential uses include, amongst other, outdoor applications, where it can provide efficient, dimmable lighting along city streets and highways. During quieter periods, using the dimmable drivers supplied by NXP, SSL lights can control light intensity. This saves energy and reduces light pollution while maintaining safe driving conditions. Solid State Lighting is also penetrating residential lighting applications, where the demand for dimmability is increasing. In this area too, NXP can offer dimmable driver solutions.
“At NXP we believe that taking responsibility for our impact on the world around us is fundamental to success. Environmental conscious design principles are reflected across the NXP’s leadership domains, involving home electronics, automotive and multi-market semiconductors. After our recent achievement in lowering PC power wastage with our GreenChip PC solution, which attained the 80plus GOLD level, I am proud that NXP technology has been able to play such an important role in driving energy saving in the lighting application area,” commented Rene Penning de Vries, chief technology officer, NXP.