Making light work of LED design

. “Although power LEDs are becoming more efficient, a significant amount of input power translates into heat,” explained Gordon Routledge, VP of illumination products. “Cooling of the electronics and LED devices is critical to long term reliability and so thermal analysis, including airflow analysis, is vital to help us meet our demanding development schedules.” Dialight produces component LEDs used for status indication in electronic equipment and also high brightness LEDs for applications such as traffic and railway signals, hazardous location flashing beacons, US school bus signals, FAA certified hazard lights for the tops of masts, tall buildings and bridges, and is developing applications for more general lighting markets. The FAA certified lights only require 100W of power compared with 1200W for incandescent lights and last 10 times longer before they have to be replaced.