As the industry enters LED lighting era, Taiwan needs to speed up its smart driver IC network (power control and ballast), which has interchangeable spec and electrical interface, said FOREPI Chairman Chien Fen-Ren at the 2013 Renewable Energy Summit. In the short term, the LED industry needs to prioritize solving electrical specification protocol and integration for drivers and luminary modules to resolve bottleneck situation.

The first stage is most important where electric interface spec standardization for luminary modules and rectifiers are set up allowing products from different manufacturers to be able to reach mutually beneficial specs. This will benefit lighting design manufacturers, who rely on power controller specs to design products by shortening LED lighting development cycle, said Chien.

Although LED lighting luminosity has met the lighting market demands, driver stability still has difficulty matching light modules (LED chips) long life span. This in turn causes electrical malfunctions leading to a situation of throwing away entire LED lighting products. If consumers view LEDs as energy efficient, but environmentally unfriendly, they might begin to lose faith in the products.

Targeting this issue, Taiwan LED Lighting Industry Association (TLLIA) has brought up interchangeable electric specs and replaceable specs that can first resolve luminary module and driver (ballast) electric specs. This concept not only can be applied towards indoor lighting but also includes outdoor lighting, such as street lamps.