Busy week for high-brightness LED sockets and lights

Some intriguing LED announcements this week: Molex is showing its LED socket technology for the Acriche high-brightness (HB) LED at LightFair in Las Vegas next week. This is apparently a mounting device for the Acriche LED that in turn goes into the socket that we as consumers are familiar with. The press release describes the Molex connector as conferring “[the] ability to connect with standard Edison-base, GU 24-base, or custom interface configurations.” The Acriche line of LEDs runs directly off the 110Vac mains.

Seoul Semi, which manufacturers the Acriche line, received UL approval for its A3 LED components (pictured). I think that approving LEDs at the component level is new territory for UL, and will be worth checking into.

And lastly, CreeLLS announced volume production of the LR4, a four-inch architectural recessed LED down light that delivers up to 540 lumens of high-quality light from less than 11 watts of power. That’s wonderfully good lighting efficiency, as you’d expect with HB LEDs. Cree isn’t talking price, but as an order of magnitude, judging by some of their other products, it’s probably at least $100.