Toshiba Extends High Luminosity White LED Offering With Addition of Bluish Green and Purple LEDs

New Colors Offer Stable Light Source With High Luminosity, and Build Upon Award Winning White LED Technology for Use in Instrument Panels and Other Illumination Applications

IRVINE, Calif., May 14 -- Reinforcing its leadership in LED lamp development, Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. (TAEC)* together with its parent company Toshiba Corporation (Toshiba), today announced that the company has added bluish green and reddish purple LEDs to its line of high luminosity light emitting diodes (LEDs). Like the company's original award-winning white LEDs, these new devices provide a low power, stable light source ideal for use in automotive instrument panels and other lighting applications.

The new LEDs, designated TLBGA1100 for the bluish green device and TLRPA1100 for the reddish purple device, integrate Toshiba's phosphors and packaging with LED chips supported by Toyoda Gosei, Co., Ltd., which emit a short peak wavelength of approximately 390 nanometers (nm).

The technology of the TLBGA1100 / TLRPA1100 devices uses the same approach as Toshiba's TLWA1100 white LED, which was selected to receive the Photonics 2002 Circle of Excellence Award as one of the year's 25 most technically innovative products in the optics industry. The LEDs provide ultra violet emission based on Indium Gallium Nitride (InGaN) and Red, Green, Blue (RGB) phosphors in the transparent resin, and differ from conventional white LEDs which typically provide blue emission with Yttrium, Aluminum, Garnet (YAG) yellow phosphors. The LED emission does not directly determine the color, which is controlled by the RGB balance of the phosphor layer. As a result, Toshiba's LED approach offers variety of color, and advantages of color controllability and wavelength stability.

"These devices are variations of the white LEDs which use Toshiba's unique approach, and the new colors are expected to be in great demand for automotive applications," said Masanobu Sato, business development manager, optoelectronics, for TAEC.

Toshiba has been a leader in indium gallium aluminum phosphide (INGaAIP) LEDs since 1991, with a product line-up widely used in LED information panels and automotive applications, such as high-mounted stop lamps and backlights of instrument panels. Toshiba will continue to build innovative lighting applications upon a diverse LED line-up with technology and products supporting a wide spectrum of brighter colors.

   Technical Specifications for Toshiba's New High Luminosity LEDs

   Part Number             TLBGA1100(T11)               TLRPA1100(T11)
   Color                    Bluish Green                Reddish Purple
   Package                3.2(L) x 2.9 (W)             3.2(L) x 2.9 (W)
                            x 1.9 (H) mm                 x 1.9 (H) mm
                        Surface Mount Device         Surface Mount Device
   Luminosity (typ.)  100 millicandela at 20mA     70 millicandela at 20mA
   Operating
    temperature      -40 to 100 degrees Celsius  -40 to 100 degrees Celsius
   Storage
    temperature      -40 to 100 degrees Celsius  -40 to 100 degrees Celsius

  Pricing and Availability

Samples of the bluish green TLBGA1100 LED and reddish purple TLRPA1100 LED are available now, priced at $1.00. Production quantities are available now, on 8mm tape reels, with 2000 devices per reel.

*About TAEC

Combining quality and flexibility with design engineering expertise, TAEC brings a breadth of advanced, next-generation technologies to its customers. This broad offering includes semiconductors, flash memory-based storage solutions, optical communication devices, displays and rechargeable batteries for the computing, wireless, networking, automotive and digital consumer markets.

TAEC is an independent operating company owned by Toshiba America, Inc., a subsidiary of Toshiba, the third largest semiconductor company worldwide in terms of global sales for the year 2002 according to Gartner/Dataquest's Worldwide Semiconductor Market Share Ranking. Toshiba is a world leader in high-technology products with more than 300 major subsidiaries and affiliates worldwide. For additional company and product information, please visit TAEC's website at chips.toshiba.com . For technical inquiries, please e-mail Tech.Questions@taec.toshiba.com .

Information in this press release, including product pricing and specifications, content of services and contact information, is current on the date of the announcement, but is subject to change without prior notice.

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