With many national governments actively promoting the development and implementation of LED lighting, LED components and engines have become a major area of growth for the electronics industry with expected market growth of CAGR 20% over the next five years. Not surprisingly, interconnect companies like FCI are closely following these developments to determine how their product lines can be expanded or enhanced to support future LED technology.

The growth of LED lighting is fueled by governmentsupported incentive programs encouraging the change from incandescent bulb technology to LED lamps. Additionally, technical improvements in

lumens per watt performance, brightness, and warm and cool color ranges make more applications viable for LED solutions. Finally, rising energy costs are driving interest in LEDs’ low-energy consumption, long life, and low maintenance requirements. LED technology is now suited for a growing number of applications – especially in the area of (smaller) signs and displays.

Today there are application-specific interconnects for every LED level, including connecting LEDs to printed circuit boards to form a string and small, direct-board attach solutions. But the connector design, as such, is fairly limited; $1 in development costs for the LED requires up to $8 in total design package, which is mainly for power management, colour controls, software and ICs. The connector content is typical less than 4% or $0.32, so while there are dedicated connector solutions created specifically for LED applications, many LED fixture designers tend to use more standard, off-the-shelf solutions or slightly modified ones.

Using standard connectors rather than those created or customized specifically for LED applications is following a general trend in the connector industry. For example, when creating an LED wall where LED modules are being used on a variety of structures so that designers can create any shape or design they want, an LED-specific connector could be costly and not allow for flexibility.

For one of the world leaders in LED wall technology, FCI was asked to replace an expensive custom interconnect with a more typical (and economical) pin-on-socket solution for the application. The engineering team selected FCI’s Minitek™ connector because the standard product line would fit this demanding application in terms of size, flexibility and outdoor environment requirements. By using the Minitek connector, a very substantial cost reduction was achieved without giving up on performance or LED package density. And with more and more LED modules being built in a wide variety of applications (from elevator lighting up to bus stop displays!) there will be an increasing need for a connector customization, thereby building on the proven quality of known connector families.

Opportunities for connector suppliers in the LED market are also available at the application/infrastructure level, not just at the package level. For example, power consumption facilitation and optimization requires more advanced power controllers which means more electronics and therefore, more connectors. Or when several LEDs are used together in a single application LED

controllers or switching regulators are required. All of these LED-related applications can benefit from standard interconnects like pin-on-socket solutions, D-sub, USB, FFC/ FPC, and smaller-pitch mezzanine applications, with versions offering highest density and lowest profile being the most popular.

DSUB                               USB + Power                FFC / FPC (Flex)               Conan (1.0 mm Mezzanine)

Order your DSUB, USB, Flex and Conan samples from Newark's extensive inventory !

With quick advancements in power reduction and minimizing and controlling LED heat, it is expected that future applications will use less-expensive, rigid aluminum-backed printed circuit boards for proper heat dissipation and move towards more costeffective flexible circuits. This is also being driven by signal and display applications, where most of the future LED growth is expected. For connector suppliers, this may mean LED customers will be moving away from pin-on-socket interconnect solutions towards more flexible solutions such as FFC-FPC connectors or small-pitch wire-to-board and board- to-board connectors similar to what we see in many consumer applications.