Sarnoff LED spinoff obtains funding

The spin-off, Lightscape Materials Inc., has secured $3 million in Series A funding from Wisepower Co. Ltd. and Foosung HDS Co. Ltd. Wisepower and Foosung HDS join Itochu Corp., who is an early stage investor and distributor in Asia for Lightscape Materials.

Lightscape will develop and market components for a ''breakthrough, green-friendly'' LED light bulb and a variety of other phosphor light products for new lighting applications.

Lightscape will leverage 60 years of expertise from the first color TV phosphors developed under RCA to diverse applications such as EL, PDP, bio-medical, security, and LED applications.

Solid state lighting--light generated by LEDs--has the potential to improve the lighting industry. LED lighting is already used in backlit handheld LCD devices such as cell phones and PDAs. It also has the potential to replace cold cathode fluorescent lamp technology in large LCD displays.

General lighting applications will benefit from LEDs, allowing the lamp to draw much less electricity per lumen than traditional incandescent bulbs.