OSRAM LEDs, IREDs and Semiconductor Lasers and Detectors

For several decades, OSRAM Opto Semiconductors has been investing in technology and quality, continuously expanding its competencies and resources. It now sets the highest standards internationally in the fields of illumination, visualisation and sensing.

High-performance LEDs and IREDs

Our products range from high-performance light-emitting diodes (LED) and infrared diodes (IRED) to semiconductor lasers and detectors. At OSRAM Opto Semiconductors, the future of light is LED technology, and the company has an extensive portfolio of high-performance LEDs for diverse applications.

The company works closely with customers and partners on product development and lighting solutions. These collaborative efforts have contributed greatly to building a broad portfolio of products and applications in televisions, displays and laptops, which OSRAM Opto Semiconductors presented to the market in fiscal year 2010.

Applications for mobile phones, digital music players and home cinema

Projectors are becoming ever smaller, and will soon be more than just centimeter-sized add-ons for computers, cameras and mobile phones. In the next step, they will be integrated into these devices, with high-efficiency light sources, such as LEDs or lasers, providing extremely sharp, bright and richly coloured images. New developments include small projectors in mobile phones and MP4 players, high-performance projection systems, e.g. for the home cinema sector with screen diagonals exceeding 70in, and office projectors. All of these devices depend on very small and highly efficient light sources.

The semiconductor specialist’s portfolio now covers the entire projection system output range from 1W to 300W. OSRAM Opto Semiconductors is also working on laser light sources for use in projection, and was able to report advancements in direct-emitting, green laser diodes in 2010.

LED technology for television manufacture

Extensive progress has been made since 2004 in LED technology for the backlighting of large-size LCDs. In this area, as well as in the notebook and display segments, cold cathode tubes are increasingly being replaced by LED backlighting. The diodes have clear advantages; not only do they offer a brilliant spectrum of colour, they also are small, highly efficient and robust. Infrared-emitting diodes give off light invisible to the human eye and are likewise gaining significance. Without them, today’s shutter glasses for 3D-TV would be an impossibility.

LEDs for the automotive industry

With their high-powered properties, LEDs have also hit the automotive headlamp segment. In addition to serving as functional light sources in standard vehicle daytime running light and tail light systems, LEDs are now proving they have what it takes to fulfil all the remaining lighting functions. In the Audi A8, for instance, they power not only the low and high beams, but also the all-weather lights and highway beams.

LEDs have been playing an active role in automobiles for many years. Up to 300 are installed in the interior alone, where they can be found in controls, instruments and switches, roof liners, navigation system displays, reading lights and entertainment systems. On the vehicle exterior, they are firmly established in tail and brake-lights, blinkers and, as mentioned, in daytime running lights.

The automotive industry has long since discovered the advantages of these all-rounders in ‘invisible’ applications: semiconductor lasers and high-power infrared diodes, for example, enhance safety in pedestrian protection and driver assistance systems.

Efficient LED lighting for general use

General lighting is one of the most promising future fields. The energy efficiency of the latest light technologies is impressive and LEDs still hold a great deal of further potential in terms of efficiency. LEDs are steadily becoming the standard lamp solution in numerous fields of application, indoor and outdoor.

About OSRAM Opto Semiconductors

OSRAM Opto Semiconductors is headquartered in Regensburg, Germany, where it develops and produces its highly complex semiconductor chips and designs new products for new applications. LED production and global distribution have been based in Penang, Malaysia, for over 30 years. A chip production facility was additionally opened there in 2009.

Together with the plant in Regensburg, OSRAM Opto Semiconductors now has the two most modern LED chip production facilities in the world. Its North American headquarters are located in Sunnyvale, US, and its Asian headquarters in Hong Kong. Having formerly been part of the semiconductors division of Siemens, the company has many years of experience in the development and manufacturing of LED light solutions. Today it is a wholly owned subsidiary of light manufacturer OSRAM and thus part of the Siemens industry sector.