Cree introduces new class of lights

Cree has introduced a new class of lighting devices that will help its products move from parking garages into kitchens and living rooms.

The Durham semiconductor company announced this morning that it has developed LEDs that produce warm white light comparable to the incandescent lightbulbs consumers prefer in their homes.

The new product line will be critical to helping the tiny, energy-efficient devices make the transition to home lighting, said Paul Thieken, Cree’s marketing director.

“This opens up a new market opportunity for Cree in general lighting,” he said. “Without this color temperature, we wouldn’t see penetration of this technology in the indoor applications.”

Until now, Cree and its competitors hadn’t been able to make bright LEDs that maintained the same color of light over their lifespans, Thieken said. He said the company’s new products produce twice as much warm light as any other LED, and the color is stable over the 50,000-hour life of the device.

Cree released a group of similar products on the cool end of the spectrum last fall that have been incorporated into streetlights, parking garage lights, flashlights and light fixtures for freezer trucks.

LED Lighting Fixtures, a group led by Cree co-founder Neal Hunter, is one of the few companies to have developed indoor light fixtures using LEDs. The availability of Cree’s new technology should spur the development of other LED-based fixtures for indoor use, Thieken said.