LED Lighting: Cool and Bright

Mr. Benny Smith
Consultant Visionsmith, Hidden Valley Lake, CA

Cerent Engineering Science Complex, Salazar Hall 2009A
4:00 PM

Abstract - LED lighting is rapidly replacing the incandescent and fluorescent lighting. As LEDs become more efficient and more affordable, they will accelerate the demise of all other forms of lighting. Some interesting questions one can ask are: How much more efficient are they? And, why is that so? Why do they cost so much, relative to an incandescent light? How does an LED work? What kind of power do they require? What is the simplest way to make an LED light? We look at three common applications in automotive, home, and commercial and how practical LED fixtures are designed and what we can expect in the future for LED lighting.

Mr. Benny Smith grew up in Texas and graduated from Texas A&M University with a BSEE degree in 1966. He spent two years in the U.S. Army as a Second Lieutenant (Armor). Benny attained a Teaching Certificate in elementary education in 1971 and taught junior-high math and science for one year. He then pursue graduate work and received his MSEE from Arizona State University in 1976. He worked as a design engineer at Motorola Semiconductor in Phoenix and moved to Sonoma County in 1976 to work at HP’s Santa Rosa Division. Benny retired from Agilent in 2004 and built his first commercial LED light fixture for Visionsmith in 2012.