Frequently Asked Questions:

1. Is the DynamicLux™ Cold Cathode Fluorescent Technology (CCFL) a system, or just the light bulb? If it is a system, what does the system comprise?

Answer: DynamicLux™ CCFL Technology can best be described as a bundle of technical and design innovations and not just the light bulb. Take the case of the Ribbon, it should be broken down into: (a) the compact light source or the lamp unit (which consists of the CCFL tubes and the transformers in one unitary package), and (b) a remote ballast/controller electronic package located at the base of the lamp that controls the dimming and also the color temperature adjustment. While the linear and smooth dimming and the adjustable color temperature are the main features of DynamicLux™ technology, the basic CCFL characteristics of ultra energy efficiency in terms of lumen output and the long-lifetime that are the basic characteristics of CCFL. This means the entire fixture is actually a lighting system and Ribbon is therefore not just the bulb. The overall design is to have not just long lifetime and energy efficiency, but also amenable to personal control of the brightness and the color tone of the lamp sources all in one package. More in the below on how we get there from our first invention!
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2. I know Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lighting has been around for a while, and is often used as a back light for LCD displays. How, specifically, is DynamicLux™ Cold Cathode Fluorescent Technology different (and better) than CCFLs?

Answer: CCFL has been used for some time as backlighting. However, the lighting industry always thought that CCFL lumen output is too low for general lighting purpose, it is being used as backlighting because of its long lifetime (50,000 hrs) and energy efficiency using very low wattage (up to and less than 8 wattage with glass tubing of a diameter of 1mm ~ 2mm) and very reliable in its performances. Higher wattage in CCFL was seen as a technical barrier that could not be broken. For a few decades no one attempted to make any breakthrough. The inventors and founders of TBT were the first to make a lamp (bulb) using CCFL for general lighting purpose and have received patents covering this first generation of CCFL bulbs in the US and China (the first US patent was awarded 9/17/2002) and has since filed over 40 patents extending and covering CCFL innovations that push the envelope of this technology and focusing the improvements for general lighting in many applications. TBT in 2008 decided to brand this whole bundle of innovation “DynamicLux™ Technology”. This bundle of innovation now enables TBT to develop many product lines for the general lighting market so DynamicLux™ technology is far beyond the CCFL backlighting technology and application.

Our first generation CCFL technology had been licensed to two US bulb manufacturers to produce 3W, 5W and 8W CCFL retrofit bulbs and they have been successful in penetrating the sign industry, every year since 2003, millions of units have been used to replace incandescent bulbs- especially in Las Vegas for marquee and decorative lighting in the casino and hotel premises- and for making large video sign boards as pixel lighting, in particular for those lamps that require 24/7 continuous illumination and/or need to be flashed continuously; at this juncture, the annual sales of TBT licensed low wattage CCFL is over 10 mil. units worldwide.

TBT now with their own production facility is producing four CCFL bulbs for the replacement market (Retrofit bulbs or retrofits) for the US market. We have 8 more CCFL retrofits ready to be launched in the spring of 2009, and these retrofits are now no more limited to the sign industry but for commercial and eventually for the domestic market. In summary, TBT is the pioneer in CCFL technology innovations to enable the development and now mass production of CCFL bulbs for use in the commercial and home environment. Therefore it is not a matter of how TBT CCFL is better than conventional CCFL, TBT has gone through technology innovation, product development and now industrialization and commercialization for the mass market.
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3. How do CCFLs and the DynamicLux™ system compare when it comes to energy used, cost, and lifespan?

Answer: the comparison of CCFL for backlighting and DynamicLux™ CCFL is not meaningful because backlighting CCFLs are designed for very low wattage (8W or less) and for instrument lighting and they are for that purpose only. If you mean TBT CCFL bulbs versus CCFL bulbs already in the market, we would like to put on record that they are produced by TBT licensees (TCP and Litetronics). All of their bulbs are below 9W, so there is no comparison as our bulbs are 13W and above. We have 13W and 18W and 20W ( the Ribbon lamp bulb is 20W), and we have in prototype stage CCFL bulbs that are as high as 60W. Low wattage CCFLs performances are basically similar to ours if their qualities are the same, as their products are based on our technology.)
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4. Is DynamicLux™ a type of CCFL, or something else entirely?

Answer: You can say that DynamicLux™ is a bundle of CCFL technical attributes and that some of the attributes can be enabled by specific technical innovations that TBT has developed. To illustrate further, we would like to introduce you to the development process of the Ribbon Lamp:

Stage 1: From the backlighting technology, first TBT has to create a basic CCFL bulb; a bulb with a ballast inside the bulb housing or what we call a self-ballasted (SF) bulb with only 5W and with only 15,000 hrs lifetime, based on our first generation proprietary technology; (this is the first commercial product for the video or large scale outdoor signs or hotel and casino industry)

Stage 2: We then make it dimmable, an optional feature, but to add this feature the electronics (ballast) will have a different circuitry; (dimmable CCFL is now a product line by itself)

Stage 3: We further make a 20W bulb, this actually means a much more complicated lamp as the wattage jumps from 5W to 20W as the circuitry will need to be developed to match to the much higher wattage. This is another quantum leap in all aspects of the bulbs: tube design, the coating, the electronics and heat management, etc.; (this becomes another product line in the form of a reflector lamp like our GP18W for recessed downlight retrofitting.)

Stage 4: we then invent the modularization of the CCFL bulb with the ballast removed from the body of the lamp and make this a Remote Ballast Module Lamp, this will create a bulb that can last 30,000 hrs lifetime; (this line has not been released but will be launched soon in the form of a lighting system that has CCFL bulbs with no ballast and controlled by a remotely located central ballast for chandelier and cluster lighting, etc)

Stage 5: further, we make the lamp source with two CCFL tubes (one with warm 2700K and one with 10000 K) so that the lamp can adjust the color temperature in the range of 2700-6500K, but then the ballast circuitry again has to be in another version. (This becomes our Ribbon Lamp). This process illustrates, in a scalable manner, that TBT has to go through five stages in order for us to take the backlighting CCFL technology to the Ribbon lamp and in fact, in each stage we have created a distinct product line.
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5. How, specifically, is DynamicLux™ Cold Cathode Fluorescent Technology different (and better) than LEDs?

Answer: This is a very large subject and it involves reviewing the performance and progress of LED as well as TBT CCFL. In general how an LED task lamp or for that matter how LED in general performs in different applications of general lighting, we would like to refer you to the Dept. of Energy (DOE) report attached as this is a very large subject to which the DOE has devoted a lot of resources to assess. In our case, we would like to let the consumers draw their own conclusion: we feel that our products compare favorably- if not better- in every aspect, even when compared with all the existing LED task lamp products.

Take the case of the Ribbon, its competitive attributes are as follows:

• Efficiency: Ribbon 50L/W, the best LED task lamp has not reached that level, and is probably 50-60% of that.
• Adjustable Color Temperature: No LED task lamp in the match can come even close to what Ribbon can offer!
• Smooth Dimming: Down to 12%.
• Long Lifetime: 15,000 hrs, we feel this is already. A pretty long lifetime, if according to Energy Star requirement, daily usage of 4 hr/day, this lamp; will last over 10 yrs. Yes, we are less in lifetime than LED task lamps which claims 50,000 hrs lifetime (again according to DOE report, many of the LED claims cannot be verified, the claims are various and all over the place!)
• Pricing: CCFL is highly affordable and economical compared to LED.

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6. How do LEDs and the DynamicLux™ system compare when it comes to energy used, cost, and lifespan?

Answer: DynamicLux™ CCFL shares a great deal of wonderful attributes such as high efficiency, long-lifetime, linear dimming (just as the LED), and it surpassed LED in the two most important areas which are very essential for general lighting. The first one is affordability. Presently, CCFL is <1/10 cost of LED. The second one is no need for an expensive and bulky heat sink, which will prevent LED from lowering its cost and also prevent LED from being used for lots of general lighting applications. For more details, you need to refer to the lighting technology comparison chart.

Click here to read the Department of Energy’s Report on LED Lighting
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7. I am a lighting designer/engineer and I would like to know how I can incorporate DynamicLux™ into a lighting project. How can I go about doing this?

Answer: NuLite Technologies works closely with TBT to seek out professionals in the lighting and design industry who have an idea for a lighting fixture which would incorporate DynamicLux™ technology. If you have an interest in developing a specific application for DynamicLux™, please e-mail NuLite Technologies at info@nulitetechnologies.com and someone will contact you to discuss the feasibility of your idea.
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