NEW YORK, April 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Lamina Ceramics, Inc. today announced the launch of a new, advanced multi-color line of super bright, high output light engines driven by light emitting diodes (LEDs). Smaller than a U.S. nickel and about as bright as a 20-watt light bulb, each BL-4000 light engine is a disk-like array containing 4-6 individual LEDs, depending upon color. The product was honored for Technical Innovation -- one of the top honors -- and was judged the Best New LED Product at LIGHTFAIR INTERNATIONAL 2005 (LFI), the world's largest architectural and commercial lighting trade show and conference. Judged by a panel of distinguished industry professionals, the awards were presented at the New Product Showcase and Awards Presentation.

BL-4000 arrays can be easily wired and mounted individually or in groups to provide super bright, extremely long-lived lighting for indoor and outdoor architectural applications, desk and other lamps, higher-output flashlights, LCD backlighting, signaling and for use in motor vehicles and airplanes. Another huge emerging market is DLP (digital light processing) and LCD televisions and multimedia projectors, which offer significant advantages over plasma and traditional CRT (cathode ray tube) counterparts.

"Lamina's new BL-4000 line of LED light engines provide lighting engineers, architects and designers with a tremendous amount of new design flexibility," said Taylor Adair, Lamina's president and CEO. "Considering their very high brightness, the huge palette of colors now available and the easy-to-connect capabilities our light engines, lighting manufacturers and designers can now create a staggering number of very exciting new applications that were previously not feasible."

Solid state lighting is the most significant advancement in illumination since the invention of the light bulb more than a century ago. Until recently, LEDs have been used only as simple indicator lights in electronics and toys -- they were meant to be seen, but weren't bright enough to illuminate anything. Although these semiconductors have no filaments to break and emit no heat in the light they produce, progress toward making LEDs as bright as incandescent bulbs was hindered because of heat build-up within their electronic circuits. Heat build-up reduces LED light output, shortens lifespan and eventually causes the devices to fail. Lamina Ceramics has solved this problem with a proprietary packaging technology which allows multiple LEDs to be densely clustered to achieve exceptionally high levels of light in very small footprints.

16,000,000 colors from a single point of light

Lamina Ceramic's BL-4000 light engines shine with models producing pure red, green, blue, amber and white light, but the star performer of the line is a model the same size as the others producing any of 16 million colors through mixing the output of its 6 individual red, green and blue LEDs. This "RGB" light engine can also produce white light at variable color temperatures, mimicking the dawn-to-dusk, warm-to-cool qualities of sunlight.

"LED light sources have advantages over traditional lighting like extremely long life, high durability and low energy usage, but it's their color generating abilities that define them as totally unique," noted Jim Anderson, Lamina Ceramic's vice president of marketing. "In addition to producing 16 million colors and white light in variable color temperatures, RGB light engines are fully dimmable and can be highly controlled by something as simple as a knob or as sophisticated as a computer-controlled light mixing console. Existing technologies simply cannot compete with the huge number of design, control and display possibilities."

Lamina's BL-4000 RGB light engines are available immediately from distributors worldwide. White and Monochromatic colors (red, green, blue and amber) will be available in about 60 days. Other Lamina LED light engines are available from 1 to 100 watts and also in custom packages up to 1000W.

Underscoring its market leading position in the development and manufacture of super-bright LED arrays, Lamina Ceramics set two successive world records for brightness over the last 6 months with its Aterion LED light engines in RGB and white -- the brightest LED arrays ever produced -- at 13,300 and 28,000 lumens, respectively. 28,000 lumens are approximately equal to the brightness of about 28 75-watt tungsten filament light bulbs.

The Technical Innovation Award is given to the company that displays the most revolutionary product design out of the more than 650 exhibitors from the architectural/commercial lighting field. The Best in Category: LEDs Award is given to the best product in the LED category at the exhibition.

"In an industry of innovators, we are honored to have been recognized as the best of the best on an international level," said Taylor Adair, president and CEO of Lamina Ceramics. "We've had a banner year, setting two world records for the brightest LED arrays ever built, and hope to continue to elevate the state of the art in the solid state lighting field."

The New Product Awards Presentation recognizes products that exemplify the best in innovative design and thinking. The 16th Annual LFI is North America's premiere annual lighting industry event for architectural and commercial lighting products and services. Showcasing LIGHT in all its aspects, LFI 2005 offers a complete diverse range of applications, high-end design and modern cutting edge technology.

About Lamina Ceramics, Inc.

Founded in 2001, Lamina Ceramics defines the state of technology in the development and manufacture of super-bright LED arrays. As the market's leader, the company's Aterion LED light engines are the world record-holders for brightness. Lamina's LED packaging technology and design with its proprietary multi-layer ceramic on metal packaging provides unsurpassed thermal management and interconnectivity. Lamina's technology was twelve years in development by Sarnoff Corporation.

Lamina Ceramics is headquartered in Westampton, New Jersey, USA, (between Princeton and Philadelphia) and occupies a 50,000-square-foot state-of-the- art, automated manufacturing facility. The Lamina team consists of industry- seasoned engineering and production personnel dedicated to designing and building long-lasting light engines to exacting specifications. Lamina is supported by an industry leading global sales and distribution network. Its investors include Morgenthaler Venture Partners, Sarnoff Corporation, Kemet Electronics Corporation and SpaceVest.

http://www.laminaceramics.com/

CONTACT: Bill Wolfson of Landau Public Relations, +1-614-851-6748, or
bwolfson@LandauPR.com ; or Jim Anderson of Lamina Ceramics, +1-609-265-6809,
or janderson@LaminaCeramics.com

Web site: http://www.laminaceramics.com/