Lumileds Debuts World's First Functional Camera Phone Flash LEDs; Low-Light Photography is Now a Snap with More Powerful Luxeon Flash LEDs

Business Wire, Oct 6, 2004

TOKYO & SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The camera phone market just got brighter--12 times brighter, in fact--thanks to the availability of two new Luxeon(R) Flash light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that create a new level of performance, value and fun for millions of cell phone camera users worldwide. Lumileds announced immediate availability of the world's smallest and brightest LED light for camera phones.

Luxeon Flash LXCL-PWF1 provides output of 40 lumens at 1 Ampere, and an LXCL-PWF2 LED delivers 80 lumens at 1 Ampere. Conventional LEDs produce just 6-7 lumens. The new Luxeon Flash products are rated for 100,000 flashes at 1 Ampere and 168 hours of DC (flashlight/torch mode) at 350 mA. These surface-mount products are only 1.0mm in height; their footprints (2.0 x 1.6 mm or 3.2 x 1.6 mm) make them the smallest functional camera flash sources on the market.

With industry leading light output, Luxeon Flash is capable of illuminating subjects at distances of 1-2 meters and it provides excellent color illumination resulting in consistently high quality images. Luxeon Flash can also function as a flashlight, allowing mobile phones to be used as safety devices and adding another competitive advantage for cell phone manufacturers.

Luxeon Flash, designed from the ground up for camera flash use, promises to transform the cell phone camera into a robust and dependable photographic platform. Flash capability is critical for megapixel phone cameras now coming to market and for picture taking in low light environments. Luxeon Flash offers the light output required by the high-resolution CMOS camera modules that are used in these camera phones.

"Although some camera phones have conventional LEDs that operate as 'fun' flash, they don't provide sufficient light for picture-taking in dimly lit environments such as clubs and restaurants," said Julian Carey, Lumileds Business Development Manager. "Luxeon Flash provides enough light to vibrantly render images that would otherwise not be captured."

Major cell phone manufacturers are expected to roll out models using Luxeon Flash in Japan, the U.S., Europe and Asia before the 2004 holiday season.

Complete solutions are already available to speed implementation of Luxeon Flash. Off-the-shelf driver solutions and optics have already been designed and optimized for Luxeon Flash. Luxeon Flash LEDs and driver and optics solutions are available through Future Electronics (www.futureelectronics.com).

About Lumileds Lighting

Lumileds Lighting is the world's leading manufacturer of high-power LEDs and a pioneer in the use of solid-state lighting solutions for everyday purposes including automotive lighting, camera flash, LCD displays and televisions, portable lighting, projection and general lighting. The company's patented Luxeon Power Light Sources are the first to combine the brightness of conventional lighting with the small footprint, long life and other advantages of LEDs. Lumileds also supplies core LED material and LED packaging, and manufactures billions of LEDs annually. Lumileds is headquartered in San Jose, California, with operations in the Netherlands, Japan and Malaysia and sales offices throughout the world. For more information, call Lumileds at 408-435-6111 or visit www.lumileds.com.