Durham, NC, USA –based Cree, a LED chip, lamp and lighting fixture maker, has announced new technology centers inShenzhen and Shanghai, China to further expand its Cree TEMPO (Thermal, Electrical, Mechanical, Photometric, Optical) Services in these key markets. The technology centers support demand for Cree products and services throughout China and accelerate broader market adoption of LED lighting. TEMPO Services provide LED lighting manufacturers with a comprehensive suite of evaluation services for LED luminaires, ensuring that customers have the information needed to design and market quality LED products, says Cree.

The new technology centers will offer a range of TEMPO Services to meet the unique needs of lighting manufacturers in China, including the TEMPO 21 and TEMPO Thermal Simulation Services. Cree says that its experience indicates that many of the common quality issues and failure modes seen in solid-state lighting products are not detected by currently available standardized tests. TEMPO 21 examines critical aspects of quality that commonly go unchecked, such as chemical compatibility, driver spikes, dimmer compatibility and electrolytic capacitor analysis.

“Cree delivers our customers end-to-end development support,” says Tang Guoqing, senior adviser, Cree Hong Kong Ltd. “TEMPO Services can give manufacturers competitive advantages by helping them avoid costly design mistakes and by providing access to a broad range of test environments that are, in many cases, cost-prohibitive for them to build and operate,” he reckons.

Effective LED luminaire thermal design is essential to ensure reliability and optimum performance, says Cree. TEMPO Thermal Simulation predicts the thermal behavior of LED-based fixtures, including junction temperature, heat-sink temperature, temperature profile and airflow profile. TEMPO SPOT gives customers access to complex, costly equipment to measure the photometric performance of luminaires and replacement lamps. Cree adds that every TEMPO Service delivers an accurate, easy-to-understand TEMPO report that includes all testing results and relevant performance data.