South Korean LED maker Seoul Semiconductor says that SunLike (which is claimed to emit light that comes closest to sunlight) has received an RG-1 Eye Safety certification based on the safety of its light source, and has been recognized for the highest level of safety among 25W COB (chip-on-board)-type LEDs.
Eye Safety certification is a rating based on safety from analyzing the LED wavelengths. In Europe, where priority is placed on the safety of lighting, Eye Safety certification is essential, and the light source must rate higher than the RG-3 level otherwise eye-sight may be impaired if stared at directly, in which case the finished product must carry a warning label.
SunLike received the RG-1 grade in Eye Safety certification for its natural-light LED, which applies TRI-R technology from Toshiba Materials Co Ltd of Yokohama city, Japan. The RG-1 grade is granted to a safe light source for which there is no biological risk, even if our entire lives were spend exposed to the light source. In particular, achievement of the RG-1 grade for the first time for a 25W single light source widely used for commercial and residential lighting is significant, says Seoul Semiconductor, as a natural light source with the highest level of safety has been commercialized.
Interest in the impact of light on health has increased since the award of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to professor Jeffrey C. Hall of Maine University, professor Michel Rosbash of Brandeis University and professor Michael Young of Rockefeller University of USA, acknowledging the causal relationship between biorhythms and human health. So, the SunLike natural-light LED is in the spotlight as a next-generation light source, Seoul Semiconductor reckons.
In addition, SunLike is not prone to the blurring problem that occur in most other artificial light sources. As a result, the unique color of an object appears at its best and the three-dimensional appearance of the object remains intact. SunLike is hence expected to be widely applied not only in places requiring a healthy lighting environment (such as home, offices, schools, medical institutions etc) but also in commercial facilities, museums, clothes stores, distribution stores etc, which must reproduce the natural color and texture of an object.
“Interest in the relationship between light and human health is increasing with the award of Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine by the scientists researching biorhythms, and consequently also the volume of inquiries for SunLike from commercial, industrial and medical institutions, as well as customers in lighting, throughout the world,” says Dr Kibum Nam, head of Seoul’s R&D Center and Chief Technology Officer. “We are opening the healthy lighting era of natural light thanks to LED SunLike which comes closest to the spectrum of sunlight as human beings have enjoyed for thousands of years.”
