EEWebPULSE_2012_i0045.pdf

EE Web

PULSE

EE Web.com

Issue 45

May 8, 2012

Anthony

Catalano

TerraLUX Inc.

Electrical Engineering Community

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Anthony Catalano

TERRALUX INC.

Interview with Anthony Catalano - Founder and CTO

Advanced Thermal Control for

Ensuring LED Lifetime

BY ANTHONY CATALANO

Learn the root causes of LED light degradation and what factors assure maximum LED

lifetime.

Featured Products

Illogical Logic - Part 1: Boolean Algebra

BY PAUL CLARKE WITH EBM-PAPST

See how Boolean Algebra allows you to break complex logic to simply the elements that matter.

A System Perspective on Specifying

Electronic Power Supplies: Efficiency

BY BOB STOWE WITH TRUE POWER RESEARCH

How energy conservation, package size and rise in temperature attribute to optimal power

supply efficiency.

RTZ - Return to Zero Comic

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INTERVIEW

Anthony

How did you get into electrical

engineering and when did

you start?

I decided I wanted to be a chemist

in the 6th grade, but got involved

in electronics in high school by

building a mass spectrometer

and other electronic gadgets. I’ve

always had one foot in electronics

and another in chemistry. I got my

undergraduate degree in chemistry

from Rensselaer Polytechnic

Institute and went on to receive

my Ph.D. from Brown University,

and did a post-doctorate in solid-

state chemistry. While I was at

Brown, I made my first LED, which

really jumpstarted my career in

electronics. Until then most of my

solid state work had been done

on passive materials and here

was something that generated

light! However, my career was

quite separate from LEDs initially

in that it dealt mostly with solar

cells. I was on the staff at the

University of Delaware’s Institute

of Energy Conversion for several

years working on Thin Film Solar

Cells. I went from there to RCA

Laboratories in Princeton and

worked with Dave Carlson, the

inventor of the amorphous silicon

solar cell. While there, I developed

the world’s first 10% conversion

efficiency amorphous silicon solar

cell, for which I received an award

and a bunch of job offers in Japan.

RCA decided it really wasn’t too

interested in solar cells, and got

out of the business. A group of

us—including Dave Carlson—left

and started a division of Solarex,

Inc., which was already making

crystalline silicon solar cells. We

started the business with a filing

cabinet a telephone and 30,000

square feet of warehouse space,

Catalano

TerraLUX,

Inc.

Anthony Catalano - Founder and CTO

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INTERVIEW

and that was the beginning of my

entrepreneurial experience. I ended

up turning it into manufacturing

and R&D space, and the business

began to grow.

started—I really wanted (and

needed!) to have products that I

could design and sell in fairly short

order.

people to help us grow.

The business was going well, but

my eye has always been on general

illumination. When I started the

business, my vision—if I can justify

that term—was for LED lighting

to displace all of the then-current

forms of lighting. It was efficient,

potentially immortal in terms of

its longevity, and it had so many

features that were going to make it

difficult for anything to stand it its

way. I still feel that way.

The Company’s first entries into the

LED lighting market were intended

to generate revenue quickly. So

we decided to build retrofits for

flashlights that were then using

incandescent bulbs. There were

very few LED flashlights on the

Solarex was later acquired by

Amoco, which of course—long after

I left—was purchased by British

Petroleum (BP), which now has

gone full circle and is divesting

itself and closing down because of

all of the worldwide competition in

Photovoltaics.

Our general

illumination products

are little bit less than

50 percent, but it’s

rapidly catching up.

We expect it surpass

the flashlight &

upgrade business

pretty quickly.

After leaving what was then

Amoco, I came out to Colorado

to be the Director of the National

Renewable Energy Laboratory’s

(NREL) photovoltaic division. We

were working for The DOE (U.S.

Department of Energy) to reduce

the cost of solar energy to allow

it to compete with other forms of

electrical generation.

What are some technical

challenges for LED lighting to

be more universally adopted?

Part of it is of course the present

state of the economy. There isn’t a

lot of new construction going on, so

one of the technical challenges that

we face regularly is compatibility

with the existing infrastructure.

The existing infrastructure in

buildings—whether residential

or commercial—involves legacy

power supplies and legacy

dimmers. One of the big challenges

associated with that is making LED

lighting work to the same level of

performance that customers are

used to. Flicker-free performance

and dimming is an area where we

have put a very large effort.

In 2003 I realized that the white LED

is really a game-changer. It was

Craig Christensen from Harvard

who coined the term “disruptive

technology,” and if LEDs aren’t

a disruptive technology, I don’t

know what is. So I thought about

exploring this technology, and

said to myself, “You can stand on

the sidelines or you can get wet.”

And I decided to get wet and start

TerraLUX to commercialize LED

lighting technology. I really feel that

LEDs will completely transform

how lighting is produced during the

21st Century. Hence our company

tagline: “Intelligent Lighting for the

21st Century.”

market, and that’s how we got

started. This all started in my

garage in 2003. After it took over

the kitchen, laundry room, garage

and one of my daughter’s rooms we

were asked to leave.

Of course we have an eye to

the future and want to be at the

forefront of the technology. While

the emphasis now is on energy

efficiency, we are looking forward

to how we’re going to deal with

building information systems and

things like that. We’re trying to see

the whole universe of possibilities

for LED lighting backward (in

terms of compatibility) and forward

(as regards building information

Our flashlight upgrades were a

considerable improvement to

incandescent bulbs, and although

they were expensive, there was a

rather large market for them. The

business ended up taking off, and

really provided the revenue to do

things like file patents and hire

I started the jump into LED lighting

as both an inventor and angel

investor in TerraLUX—spending

my own money to get the company

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