LED-based Light Guides Presented As Thinnest for Portable Devices, Laptop/Desktop LCDs and Keypads/Keyboards
Global Lighting Technologies (GLT) has introduced LED-based high-brightness backlights that offer thinness down to 0.4 mm or less for LCDs in an array of consumer electronics products, as well as the keypads/keyboards used in mobile phones and laptop and desktop PCs. The light guides leverage the company¡¯s MicroLens light extraction technology and improved manufacturing processes to enable backlight assemblies less than 1 mm high using light guides as thin as 0.4 mm or less to become a reality. The result is BLUs that offer the thinness of electroluminescent (EL) backlighting, but with all the characteristics of today¡¯s advanced LEDs combined with desirable light extraction. The efficient edge-lit backlights offer thinner packages that can backlight LCDs from 0.25" up to 50" diagonal and higher. Light is extracted precisely where needed, such as around thru-holes for keypads. According to the company, MicroLens can reduce the number of LEDs required, providing bright, uniform light in a thinner form factor with no hot spots or dark areas. The reduced number of LEDs needed can also mean less material required, resulting in lower manufacturing costs.
