A Giant Plays with LED Colours
Source/Type: Company News Releases

February 6, 2004... A push of a button is all it takes for the driver to choose any one of 127 colours for the instrument backlighting on the new 300 horse-power Ford Mustang. Behind the angular retro design of this powerful beast of a car, which was premiered at this year’s North American International Auto Show in Detroit, is the latest LED technology from Osram Opto Semiconductors.

This wonderful selection of colours is made possible by controlling specific combinations of red, blue and green LEDs. At the push of a button, drivers can adjust the colour to suit their own personal preferences and colour perception. Multicolour LED solutions have their origins in video displays. With improved chip and package properties they are now starting to conquer the automotive market. Thanks to intelligent heat dissipation these light sources require no additional cooling and therefore take up very little space. These 6leadMultiLEDs, as they are known, surpass previous LED versions not only in terms of brightness. The improved package also allows the LEDs to be arranged very close together and flat on the board, with the result that the light is distributed more evenly in all colours.

These high-performance LED solutions from Osram Opto Semiconductors provide state-of-the-art lighting not only to the Mustang but also to the two other Ford sports car legends, the Ford GT and the Shelby Cobra. In the Ford GT, white single-chip TopLEDs are used for backlighting the display elements in the middle console and the entire dashboard. High-brightness Golden Dragon LEDs in yellow underline the unusual design of front indicators on the Shelby Cobra. Injection of light into a light guide leads to a particularly high luminous efficacy.

All three models benefit from the reliable long-life LEDs such as Golden Dragon and Power TOPLED, which meet the stringent requirements of the automotive industry. These light sources of the future reduce power consumption and, with their lead-free metal packaging, already comply with the regulations for environmentally friendly electronic products that are due to come into force from 2006 onwards. As SMT components they are also suitable for low-cost standard solder operations.

About Osram Opto Semiconductors
Osram Opto Semiconductors GmbH of Regensburg, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Osram, one of the two largest lamp manufacturers in the world. It offers its customers solutions based on semiconductor technology for lighting, sensor and visualization applications. The company has sites in Regensburg (Germany), San José (USA) and Penang (Malaysia). In the 2003 fiscal year (ending in September) around 3.300 employees produced sales totaling EURO 392 million. Further information is available at www.osram-os.com.


Contact for the technical press:
Marion Reichl
Tel. +49 941 850 1693
Fax +49 941 850 3305
E-mail: Marion.Reichl@Osram-os.com

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