Energy management is become the vital necessity today for both economic prosperity and environmental safety. To support this, South Korea-based consumer electronics company, Samsung Electronics, has singed a new partnership agreement with Freescale Semiconductor, a provider of embedded semiconductor solutions, to offer mercury free, energy efficient light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

 

Compared to the traditional cold-cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) lighting systems, LED technology has several advantages. Sources reveal that LED backlights with local dimming can help reduce power consumption by up to 60 percent.

 

"Freescale's LED backlight driver technology is the industry's most compact and integrated solution," said Arman Naghavi, vice president and general manager of Freescale's Analog, Mixed-Signal and Power Division.

 

"Our collaboration with Samsung (News - Alert) on LED backlighting - clearly a disruptive technology - will help spur further innovation and growth in the LCD market," added Naghavi.

 

From early 2007, Freescale and Samsung have been working together to develop power efficient products. Freescale began sampling its LED display technology to Samsung in December 2007. Additionally, in September 2008, Freescale launched the first LED backlight product in its portfolio of standard power management ICs. The white LED driver IC is designed for control of LED backlights in TVs, as well as in flat-panel monitors.

 

Studies from IMS Research, a provider of detailed, quality market research to the global electronics industry, indicate that the market for semiconductors used in backlighting applications, including LED driver ICs, is expected to grow from $1.1 billion (USD) in 2008 to $2.0 billion in 2012.

 

"We expect the market for LED backlighting in notebooks, monitors and TVs to grow strongly," said Jamie Fox, a market research analyst for IMS Research.

 

According to Fox, there is going to be a rapid growth from 2008 to 2010, especially for notebooks.

 

Owing to the successful launches of various green products in association with Samsung, Freescale said it will be announcing additional LED backlighting solutions for LCD TVs, monitors and notebooks in the first half of next year and said it plans to pursue the automotive, commercial and residential LED lighting markets.