Lighting

The Lighting Group was created at the end of 2009, when it began its first activities related to lighting materials and control systems, as well as to photometry and colourimetry. The group’s vision responds to the pressing need on a worldwide level to reduce energy con-sumption used for lighting, which accounts for approximately 20% of total power consump-tion. One of the group’s distinguishing features and one of its strengths is its presence on all the points of the pipeline or value chain, which places it in an excellent position for con-ducting research, as well as for assessing and transferring technology to businesses in the sector. Thus, in 2010 the group devoted a great deal of its research efforts to new materials and concepts, which have now been taken into more advanced phases in preparation for the launch of differentiated products on the market.

In order to transfer this knowledge, the Lighting Group works alongside or has agreements with various organisations and institutions, such as the Lighting Cluster of Catalonia (CICAT), the Southern European Cluster in Photonics and Optics (SECPhO), the Energy Efficiency Cluster of Catalonia (CEEC), the Spanish Lighting Committee (CEI) and the Cali-fornia Lighting Technology Center (CLTC).

 

Group’s research lines

• Innovative materials and concepts. New advanced nanomaterials (nanostructures, OLEDs, etc.) and new concepts that will potentially generate industrial property rights.
   
• Intelligent lighting. This is an extremely diverse field with applications that range from devices (LED, sensors, processors, etc.) to holistic solutions (net-zero buildings and communities) and public lighting systems.
   
• Photometry, colour and human response. This is also a very board and active line that deals with topics as diverse as the proper meas-urement of light, optic design, colour, texture, user preferences and the potential effect of light in relation to public health and safety.

Thesis

• LIGHTELLIGENCE: (Valor2010 – AGAUR). Exploiting the spectral versatility of arrays of multicoloured LEDs in several fields of applications that may require the utilization of concrete spectral content for use in either decorative, technical and medical applications.


• SILENCE2: (projectes de recerca fonamental no orientada - MICINN 2010) (SIlicon Light ENhancement for Colour and Energy Efficiency). New line of research that focuses on the implementation of novel solid-state sources intended for general illumination using a CMOS compatible technology. This provides an excellent environment to develop a solid-state lighting technology fully based on Silicon, which would bring costs down dramatically by enabling mass-production within the omnipresent semiconductor industry.


• Eficiencia mediante COntrol por captura de Energía (ECOE): The project aims at developing and testing a new system and methodology for energy management of buildings. The system will minimize wiring requirements and energy consumption by means of a holistic lighting and air conditioning control system that extracts the energy required for operation from the surrounding environment (Energy Harvesting). In this sense, the solution will be flexible and adaptable to new buildings and retrofitting, minimizing costs and the return of investment.


• TERMOLED: In this project, led by IREC in collaboration with a private institution, the Lighting Group provides to manufacturers and designers assistance in the inception of innovative and thermally efficient luminaires.