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To: slacker711 who wrote (5645)	12/21/2001 9:22:15 AM
From: slacker711	Respond to of 10714

LED-Based Displays, Lighting Equipment Gain Popularity nni.nikkei.co.jp Friday, December 21, 2001 TOKYO (Nikkei)--Light-emitting diodes have been used widely in many consumer electronics products, but their applications have mainly been limited to lighting power indicators and switches. These days, however, companies are developing a variety of LED-based lighting products and building decorations because progress in production technology has boosted the brightness and performance of LEDs while pushing down the price. The commercialization of the blue LED in particular has had a major impact on the potential of LED displays because it has made it possible to display a wide range of colors. Avix Inc., an image display equipment maker in Yokohama, has developed a 100-inch indoor LED display as a part of its Cyber Vision LED display lineup. The 25 million yen product displays a rainbow of colors as each pixel is made up of red, blue and green LEDs. Avix's outdoor Cyber Vision display, released in 1999, has only a quarter of the LEDs a comparable LED display would normally have, but still offers high-quality images by increasing the LED response speed fourfold and showing images four times faster than a TV at 120 frames per second. The product has been a hit since the price is also around a quarter that of conventional LED displays at 56 million yen for a 12 sq. meter model. After selling 30 units so far, the company expects to sell around 50 in 2002. Large-screen displays are not the only new application for LEDs. Matsushita Electric Works Ltd. (6991) released a USB-powered LED light for notebook PCs in February. Designed to help use a notebook PC in a dark environment, such as in an airplane or train at night, the product takes advantage of a white LED, which produces white light by exciting a yellow fluorescent material with light from a blue LED. The product, which sells for around 3,000 yen, has been a great success, with more than 50,000 units sold so far. The company is also selling an LED-based garden decoration light that can be planted in the ground. Because LEDs do not emit heat, the 16,500 yen device does not harm plants, the company said. It also plans to release next spring an LED-based door/address plate light and desktop lamp. Moriyama Electric Ind. Co., a Tokyo maker of automotive lighting, released tube-type LED lights in December. The lights can be bent flexibly and come in dimensions of 5mm and 9mm in diameter, 30cm and 60cm in length, and white, blue, and green in color. Intended for use in shop windows, display cases and window frames, the lights cost 25,000 yen for a white 9mm-diameter, 30cm light and 23,000 yen for a blue/green 9mm, 30cm light. It is likely to take some time before LEDs start replacing conventional lighting equipment, such as fluorescent lights, because LEDs still cost a lot more to produce. But many experts believe LED-based products will become a major part of both consumer and commercial lighting equipment within several years. (The Nikkei Industrial Daily Friday edition)