Feeding the fires

Since the first humans kept flame, we have had to feed the fire in order to maintain the light. Harnessing the waste heat from the decay of unstable elements or burning fossil fuels is not a far remove from tossing sticks into a fire to keep it from going out. No matter how the light is generated, there will always be a need for the energy to drive it.

The impending solid-state lighting revolution will create a new cross-disciplinary field where power, thermal management, optics, and packaging are as important as how the light is generated. New opportunities abound for those able to provide solutions for driving and managing LED, EL, OLED, and other SSL technologies.

In a recent reader survey of design and development engineers across the USA, power (drive current and voltage) was named the top information requirement for specifying LED-based lighting solutions. Packaging (optics and thermal management) was No. 2 and the light itself was No. 3. This underscores the importance of power electronics in the new world of SSL.

We will always need energy to illuminate, no matter the emitter technology.

Just as SSL is poised to displace incandescent lamps, LEDs may be challenged by an alternative lighting technology one day. No matter what technology is used, there will always be a need to drive it.