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Leitat participates in a European project to develop LED light bulbs for domestic use

By 7 de July de 2010November 18th, 2020No Comments
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 07.07.2010

Leitat participates in a European project to develop LED light bulbs for domestic use

The Leitat Technological Centre, -present at the Barcelona Science Park, by means of its Biomedicine Division-, and the Microelectronics Institute of Barcelona –National Centre of Microelectronics (IMB-CNM) in collaboration with several European entities, have launched the project Consumerizing Solid State Lighting (CSSL), the main objective of which is to develop a Light Emiting Diode (LED) technology-based bulb- an option that is more economical, has a higher energetic efficiency and resolves the quality limitations in this type of lighting for the domestic use market. Twenty-five entities from seven countries of the European Union (Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic) are participating in the CSSL project.


Some of the institutions and companies that are part of the project’s consortium include the Dutch research centre TNO; the multinational STMicroelectronics; the company NXP Semiconductors and the University of Cambridge. The electricity providers British Gas New Energy and Électricité of France will be participating as representatives of the product’s final users. The Leitat Technological Centre is promoting the project at a national scale, and the company Inteesa is also participating. The applied research project is expected to last approximately 36 months and is funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation by means of the E plan, and the ENIAC Joint Technology Initiative on Nanotechnology.

The European Union has recently approved the withdrawal plan for incandescent bulbs, by which these high energy-consuming lights will gradually disappear until their complete elimination in 2012. LEDs based on the Solid State Lighting Diode (SSL) technology –Solid State Lighting- and fluorescent lights are, so far, the most effective options to tackle conventional systems; although there are still some technological and economic difficulties for the domestic user to gain access to these solutions.

In regards to the technological development of the CSSL project, the Smart Systems Unit of Leitat will be involved in the definition and requirements of the CSSL system, and in the study and definition of domestic situations for its demonstration. Leitat will also be involved in the characterization of the electric, optical and thermal components of the SSL devices developed, and in the operative life and accelerated passive tests, by means of climate chambers located within the facilities of Leitat. The Catalan technological centre will also participate in the creation and validation of prototypes and will be the entity in charge of organizing, together with the IMB-CNM, a workshop to disseminate the results of the project in the industrial sector.

With over one hundred years of history, Leitat is a technological centre located in Terrassa (Barcelona) which focuses its activity on promoting the transfer of R+D+I to the production tissue. Leitat is member of TECNIO, the network that encompasses the primary technological transfer agents of Catalonia, and wishes to provide the industry with technological solutions, adding value to products and procedures. The Biomed Division of Leitat –located at the Barcelona Science Park-, in spite of being a new unit, is composed of a team of professionals with over 15 years of experience in the field of basic and applied cancer research in the pharmaceutical industry. Some of the drugs that had been previously created and developed by the members of this team are currently undergoing phase III, II and I oncologic clinical trials.