What exactly is an LED standard optical component?

With the rapid development of the LED industry, the concept of LED standard optical components or light engines has been hotly discussed and controversial in recent years. The topic of shuffling is no longer fashionable, and LED companies have long passed the era of going it alone. Today, with the close cooperation between the upper, middle and lower reaches of the LED industry, the birth of LED lighting standard optical components will surely set off a revolution in new models of innovative lighting applications. For most Chinese companies who are still confused about the road ahead, what exactly are LED lighting standard optical components? Why standards? What are the competitive advantages of optical components? As the leading unit in the development of LED standard optical components in Guangdong Province, Jinko Electronics also participates in the research and development of many standards such as CSA and ZHAGA. On this basis, it has developed a series of indoor lighting component products and solutions that are convenient for lighting manufacturers to apply.

In an online seminar on August 13 with the theme "Standard Optical Components Leading Innovative Application Models", Jinko Electronics Lighting Project Manager Zheng Yongsheng solved many doubts for everyone. What is a standard optical component? LED lighting standard light components refer to the development of unified digital standards for LED lighting light components. Each middleware has specific optical-mechanical interface data and middleware with specific unified coding standards. In fact, whether it is components, optical engines, or interfaces, it is a standardized definition of the four interfaces of optical, mechanical, electrical, and thermal of existing products, and is applied to different application fields through different product forms. At present, both the government and market levels are involved in the development. The standard optical components were proposed by the Guangdong Joint Innovation Center (GSC), and the optical engine was proposed by ZHAGA. New interfaces may also be added later, such as communication interfaces. Why do we need standard light components? This is the need for the development of the entire market. It was first proposed by ZHAGA. About 200 companies participated in jointly defining standard product interfaces. Why do we do it? Reason 1: In traditional lamps, the product components are similar, and customers can assemble the products according to their needs. At present, LED lamps cannot do this. For example, downlights, except for slight differences in shape, have little difference in parameters, and more differences are reflected in reliability, which is difficult to evaluate and discover as an end customer. This is a dilemma in the current development of the entire lighting market. If standard light components are defined, customers can specify different brands of brackets, power supplies, light sources, etc. in the selection of lamps. By making a simple selection and matching according to application needs, the overall cost-effectiveness will be greatly improved. At the same time, there is also a standard for users to refer to when comparing prices. The LED market is still a replacement market, so for a long time we still need to follow the traditional lighting practices and gradually separate some devices independently and make standard interfaces so that customers can have suitable choices and combinations. This is the only way for the development of the market segment.
In addition, from the perspective of upstream, midstream and downstream enterprises, the current repetitive investment is very high. If there are no standards for upstream products, companies in the application chain will encounter inconsistent interface sizes when purchasing different brands of light sources. The lamp design will require a new set of molds based on each company's products, such as heat dissipation or light distribution. This cost is very high. This increases the cost of lamp manufacturing to a certain extent. From the perspective of market circulation, customer shipments are currently relatively slow because upstream technology updates too quickly, which prevents everyone from preparing inventory. As a result, many manufacturers only dare to produce when they have orders or in anticipation of orders, and this cycle is prolonged. If the upstream can standardize its products, then no matter how the upstream light source is improved, as long as the interface remains unchanged, the corresponding PCB, heat dissipation interface, etc. will not need to be changed. Downstream companies can stock up in advance and improve supply efficiency. What is the current progress of the implementation of optical components, and what are the commonalities and differences between different organizations? At present, the consensus of the entire industry is that it must be promoted, so how to promote it and in what product form is the biggest dispute here. In the industry, ZHAGA is the number one international brand, and they are promoting light engines; CSA is doing interface projects in the form of projects, Guangdong Province is making optical components in the form of standard optical components, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is promoting LED industry standards and national standards. At present, ZHAGA has standard application products from downlights to spotlights to lightbars and street lights, and the overall controversy is also relatively large. But as far as its design concept is concerned, everyone actually agrees with it. Nowadays, the international promotion situation is relatively good, and several major manufacturers have launched many products. However, domestic progress is slow due to cost-effectiveness. The standard optical components of Guangdong Province are different from ZHAGA. They put forward their own new ideas and organized the industrial chain according to the levels: level 0 refers to epitaxy and chips, level 1 refers to packaged components, level 2 refers to lighting modules, level 3 refers to lighting sources, level 4 refers to integrated lamps, and level 5 refers to lighting systems. This division is relatively more reasonable. Jinko is currently working on Level 1 to Level 1 Developed at Level 3, both 3535 and 3014 meet the standards and have passed the MaBiao certification. At the same time, ceiling light series, HV series, and downlight series components that integrate power supply, heat dissipation, lens, etc. have gained market favor and recognition. CSA mainly engages in interface projects, and Jinko Electronics also participates in the entire R&D process. It hopes to upgrade the project results to industry standards. Currently, the standard of CSA016 street light module has been approved as a national standard project. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is responsible for setting standards for the entire industry, and its scope is even wider. There are market-led behaviors and government-led behaviors. The difference is obvious. But no matter which organization they are, they have begun to cooperate with each other and learn from each other, so there is no need to worry about whether the standards of different organizations will conflict in the future, it just takes some time. Who should do it and at what level? The future market development will definitely not be as long as the current industrial chain. Each factory does a complicated job but has no characteristics. In the future, it may evolve into the existence of a few large manufacturers, focusing mainly on branding and R&D. More companies will become brand OEMs, and they will also focus on brands and channels. However, it is not ruled out that some companies focus on both branding, R&D, and international channels. So who should make the optical components and at what level is a matter of great controversy. At least one point, from the perspective of LED development, the reason why LED has so much controversy and uncertainty is that the upstream technology of LED has not yet been developed. Why traditional lamps give people the impression that the overall industry shape is relatively clear is because the technical development of traditional lamps has been completed. For example, when buying lamps in the market, there is basically no difference in parameters and appearance between buying them this year and buying them next year. At most, there is only a difference in price. This is related to our CPI. The overall technology of LED is still improving rapidly. From the perspective of future development space, the improvement of upstream chip and packaging technology will lead to a fundamental change in the form of downstream products. For example, there may be no heat dissipation link in the future. Place It can be said that the design of optical components needs to be done jointly by upstream, mid-stream and downstream. It is necessary to listen to the opinions of downstream and look at the development trend of upstream. The entire product form should have a certain life cycle and is not static. As a result, upstream technology affects downstream changes, and it is more reasonable to make optical component products upstream for a period of time. What benefits does standard optical components bring to the development of industries and enterprises? In summary, 1) it can reduce the repetitive R&D investment of downstream enterprises; 2) it can speed up the circulation speed of the entire terminal. The interface is fixed, and downstream can do some inventory to improve shipping efficiency; 3) The interchangeability and compatibility of components can make it easier for end customers to match and combine according to the application environment, improving product cost performance; 4) The existence of components makes the maintenance of the entire lamp more convenient, reducing the burden on the original manufacturer.