Designing Safety Critical Systems with Microcontrollers

Light Matters Vol 20
A “really cool” product for high-power LED applications has been introduced by ebm-papst, one of the most innovative manufacturers of precision fans and blowers that I’ve come across. Their Active Cooling products are interesting to me because they engineered these small, specialized fan/heatsinks expressly for LEDs.

Light Matters Vol 19
Industrial environments present special challenges for switches, buttons, rotary controls and other user input devices. Keeping dust, moisture and contaminants on the outside of any electronic product is always a concern. When that instrument or machine requires frequent human interaction, it’s a difficult and expensive challenge as well. These are critical reliability and “ease of use” problems for engineers developing systems.

Light Matters Vol 18
"I frequently mention a type of high-power LED called “Chip on Board” (CoB). A CoB device isn’t really a single LED; it’s a dense array of individual LED die, typically wired in a series/parallel arrangement, placed on a small thermally-optimized metal or ceramic base and covered with a layer of phosphor. For many applications, especially general lighting, they’re nearly ideal."

Light Matters Vol 17
Last month I highlighted two very small, very intense high-brightness LED families called the Oslon SSL and Oslon Square. If you recall, the Oslon SSL devices are unique because they’re offered in both an 80° and 150° beam angle1 version. The 80° pattern can be advantageous when a relatively narrow spot is required, or when creating narrower beams using a secondary lens placed over the LED package.

Light Matters Vol 16
This month's column is a "Guide to the Stars"...

Light Matters Vol 15
Next time you visit Paris, look up at the Eiffel Tower...

Light Matters Vol 14
Chip-on-Board (CoB) LEDs are one of the fastest-growing categories of LEDs for general lighting products. Sometimes the innovative technology in a new LED family is not based on advanced physics or phosphor—it’s an improved LED die packaging concept. CoB type LEDs are an excellent example of this...

Light Matters Vol 13
Multispectral imaging can offer unique perspectives into nature. The concept of multispectral imaging (MSI) and sensing is simple. Imagine if your eyes could see/sense a much wider set of spectral wavelengths.Certain flowers, for example, would look quite different...

Light Matters Vol 12
A powerful new microcontroller, especially well ”ARM”ed for LEDs and Solid State Lighting, has entered the market. Perhaps you have heard of, or already use, 32-bit CPUs or microcontrollers (MCUs) based on the ARM architecture…

Light Matters Vol 11
One of the most fascinating applications for LEDs is based on the interplay of light and physiology. Over the last few years, it’s been the subject of over half of my papers and presentations. Physiology, in this case, isn’t necessarily limited to animals. Plants can be influenced in many potentially beneficial ways...

Light Matters Vol 10
Recently, I highlighted a very interesting CoB (Chip-on-Board) LED array from Sharp Microelectronics, called the “Tiger Zenigata”. The CoB concept entails placing tens to hundreds of individual tiny LED die in an array on a thermally-conductive substrate such as metal or alumina ceramic, then covering the entire area with a layer of phosphor. The result is an intense light source ideal for area-type lighting such as floodlights, street lights, down lights, etc...

Light Matters Vol 9
The best color sensors and soap bubbles have something in common… thin-film technology

Light Matters Vol 8
The interplay of light and physiology is fascinating. Life has evolved to respond to light in remarkable ways. This holds true not just for the animal kingdom, but also for plants and fungi. This is a summary of Cary Eskow’s paper on the potential use of LEDs to “tailor” plant photomorphogenesis (light-mediated development) and photoperiodicity.

Light Matters Vol 7
Today we have smart thinking about lighting, tomorrow we will have smart lighting that thinks...

Light Matters Vol 6
There are many interesting uses for infra-red LEDs (IRLEDs)...