Philips teams with Lumileds to target automotive applications

Royal Philips Electronics and Lumileds Lighting have announced a partnership to develop and market new modular LED lighting products for the automotive industry.

Lumileds, a specialist in high-power LEDs, is a joint venture between Philips and Agilent Technologies.

The new lighting products will combine the design, development and integration expertise of Philips Automotive Lighting, one of the world's leading providers of automotive lighting products, with high-power Luxeon® LEDs from Lumileds.

The partners expect that the new lighting modules will significantly simplify LED lighting design and accelerate the adoption of solid-state lighting technology by automotive manufacturers.

"Our expertise in system design and the development of breakthrough lighting systems allows us to use Lumileds' Luxeon technology to its full potential," said Hans de Jong, CEO of Philips Automotive Lighting. "Solid-state lighting will represent a significant portion of the future automotive market and Philips Automotive Lighting and Lumileds will set the pace in that market."

The two companies expect the first Luxeon-based products to reach the market in 2005 and to be available worldwide.