LED tail lights

	Mainland China supplier Shanghai Cata offers the 95-2 model. The product has 44 LEDs and a service life of 50,000 hours. Price is $18.

Companies are adopting new technologies to improve models and address problems on heat dissipation and brightness.

LED taillight makers in mainland China and Taiwan are stepping up R&D efforts in response to stiffer competition in terms of quality and performance.

As LEDs gain ground in the automotive lighting industry, many suppliers are focusing on making models more cost-efficient and longer-lasting. These value-added features also translate into higher prices, even as the cost of diodes decreases gradually.

Compared with conventional bulbs, LEDs consume less energy and can last up to 100,000 hours with proper usage. In addition, a diode’s small size enables it to be arranged in rows, rings, clusters or individual points. It can also emit different colors, allowing for a wider range of designs. Further, LEDs are more durable as they do not use filaments or tubes, materials prone to breakage.

The LED industries in the mainland and Taiwan are rather young. As such, suppliers are seeking an edge by devising various solutions to improve heat dissipation and brightness, disadvantages associated with the component.

For better cooling, most companies are employing structural changes in the configuration of the LED chips to enlarge the surface area that absorbs heat.

Another method to encourage heat dissipation is the reflex housing design. Materials with high conductivity such as aluminum are used as rear casing to draw in heat from the diodes. This allows for proper cooling in spite of the airtight construction of LED taillights. Moreover, it increases light-emitting efficiency by 8 percent and widens the view angle.

In the mainland, Changzhou Haochen Imports & Exports Co. Ltd and Shanghai Cata Signal Co. Ltd adopt this technology. To ensure quality, the latter also incorporates high-power diodes.

To lower the temperature of bulbs, Guangzhou Forda Signal Co. Ltd installs cooling fans in units besides using aluminum as housing material.

Suppliers in Taiwan are incorporating thermal bases in their products to serve as heat sinks. These are made of a material that has good heat conductivity.

This is a cost-effective method of expanding the surface area as necessary to diffuse high temperature generated by the LED array.

Frontend Analog & Digital Technology Corp.’s heat dissipation design uses a direct heat sink that eliminates the need for auxiliaries such as cooling fans and thermal laminates.

Ningbo Hongjin Optoelectronic Co. Ltd has adapted transparent or neutral-colored cases. Aside from increasing brightness, this makes LED taillights more energy-efficient than those with red or amber housings.

The company’s R&D efforts are focused on creating products that emit even and coincident illumination.

	The GS-LTLRAR model from Shangyu Groupstar of mainland China is a water-resistant LED taillight with 16 LEDs. Price is $14.

Most China suppliers are using parallel-connected LEDs, instead of adopting a serial confi guration. Such architecture enables a simple digital interface for flexible brightness control.

Along with this, companies produce models that employ multicircuit and chip technology. These have slim housings, low power consumption, high brightness and short excitation response time. They are also easier to install.

Moreover, the structure provides extra protection for the whole unit. This is because if one of the circuits fails, the current will continue to flow to the rest of the diodes and the unit will still operate. It also improves brightness.

Among the featured mainland companies, Guangzhou Forda and Shangyu Groupstar Electric Appliance Co. Ltd use the arrangement in their products.

In Taiwan, Big Sun Industry Co. Ltd has released LED taillights with multichip designs. These can be fitted in cars and trucks. The company said it is the first to produce a model that has a 360-degree view angle, providing full coverage of an area. Equipped with a 2W LED diode, the brightness of the unit is 80 lumens.

Another technology being used to improve product performance is ultrabonding, a method that creates a weld or a bond in only a few seconds with significant melting of loose materials.

Guangzhou Forda employs this process to make its products aseismatic and usable under any weather condition.

The mainland’s Shanghai Cata applies a reflex housing that lets the LED beam convert to directional light for output. However, this increases the manufacturing cost and product price.

Taiwan suppliers are producing models with a power efficiency of 40 to 145 lumens per watt, a range that is sufficient for automotive lighting requirements. Makers are currently developing 1 to 3W high-power single-diode
taillights.

Aidlite Co. Ltd offers high-power LED taillights featuring a service life of more than 30,000 hours. ODM orders account for 50 percent of the supplier’s output.