News

28 December 2006

 

Avnet to distribute for Seoul Semiconductor

South Korea’s Seoul Semiconductor Co Ltd (SSC) has selected Avnet Electronics Marketing of Phoenix, AZ, USA (the largest operating group of Avnet Inc) to distribute its entire line of LED and solid-state illumination products in the Americas, via Avnet’s illumination-focused business unit LightSpeed (launched in September).

SSC was founded in 1987 and owns nearly 1000 patents. In the last few months, SSC has introduced the P4 (the brightest single-die white LED available, at 240 lumens) and Acriche (the world’s only LED that can be driven directly from household AC mains current). Such LEDs can serve as lighting sources for automotive designers, commercial /residential lighting and tactical flashlight manufacturers, architects, traffic signaling and signage applications, says SSC.

Avnet says that, unlike other distributors, its LightSpeed unit works with customers through a national team of dedicated illumination-focused engineers (‘illumineers’), with experience in thermal, drive stage and optics design, who focus solely on LED-based lighting applications. “Taking a requirements-driven solution approach, LightSpeed develops complete solid-state lighting systems designed to accelerate the performance, cost and reliability benefits of LED light sources,” says LightSpeed’s director Cary Eskow. Avnet also has about 900 account managers and 200 field application engineers, who work on-site with local customers.

SSC’s CEO C. H. Lee says that the first reason for the partnership with LightSpeed is “their broad reach into many emerging illumination sectors; second is the LightSpeed team’s unique technical knowledge of LEDs and the associated optical, thermal, and analog solutions; and Avnet’s extensive offering of related semiconductors and supply chain services.”

* In November SSC appointed Mouser Electronics Inc as a distributor for its LED products in North America. However, Mouser has a different strategy for the market compared to Avnet, as Mouser specializes in catalogue distribution /small-order sales.

See related items:

Nichia loses Korean design patent rights for backlighting side-view white LED

Seoul Semiconductor claims record with 100 lm/W @ 350 mA P4 LED


Visit Avnet: http://em.avnet.com/lightspeed

Visit SSC: http://www.seoulsemicon.com