Luminus Devices Annouces Two-Year Warranty For Phlatlight™ Products

Warranty Represents a First for the TV Industry and Reflects Luminus’ Continued Advancements in Comprehensive Reliability Testing

June 18, 2007

Luminus Devices, Inc. today announced that it is instituting a two-year warranty for its PhlatLight™ LEDs under its standard terms and conditions for qualified TV products. Having demonstrated outstanding reliability and support for median lifetimes greater than 120,000 hours, Luminus is offering the warranty to manufacturers who use PhlatLight chipsets in their products. The warranty represents the first of its kind for the projection TV industry and enables TV manufacturers to warrant the entire television system, including the light source. Currently, rear-projection sets are illuminated by mercury arc-lamps that have a limited lifespan, costing consumers hundreds of dollars each time they are replaced. Through extensive and systematic reliability testing, Luminus has accumulated over one million device-hours of lifetime testing data for PhlatLight LED devices. The results show that median operating lifetimes of its red, green and blue LEDs all exceed 120,000 hours, far surpassing the lifetime of mercury arc-lamps used in projection TVs and even exceeding the lifetimes of plasma displays and CCFL backlights used in LCD TVs. PhlatLight LEDs not only have a very long life statistically, but also demonstrate very low failure rates and no significant brightness loss during typical TV lifetimes. “The lifetime data that we have been able to accumulate through our systematic reliability testing has allowed us to set a new benchmark for the TV industry and introduce a warranty that covers what has historically been the Achilles’ heel for the projection TV category,” said Christian Hoepfner, vice president of products at Luminus Devices, Inc. “Until now, a typical manufacturer warranty on most projection TVs has been one year for parts and labor, but that will often exclude the light source. By backing our PhlatLight light source for two years, we are not only giving manufacturers the confidence to incorporate PhlatLight LEDs into their display products, but we are also helping them market their own products by offering a more comprehensive warranty to the consumer.” Luminus’ PhlatLight LEDs are setting a new standard in HDTV performance by enabling displays with brilliant image quality, a wider color gamut, a longer lifetime, lower power consumption, and outstanding reliability. The Consumer Credit Counseling Service estimates the life expectancy of color TVs to be 12 years. According to ACNielsen, the leading global provider of marketing research information services, current statistics show that the average daily TV viewing for consumers in the US is 8 hours and 43 minutes a day, which roughly translates to 3,300 hours a year. With a medium lifetime that exceeds 100,000 hours, the equivalent of 30 years or more based on average consumer viewing habits, PhlatLight LEDs outlast the lifetime of the TV and deliver a consistent picture without perceptible brightness fading or color shift, saving consumers lamp replacement costs and inconvenience over the life of the set. PhlatLight LED technology is the light source currently featured in Samsung Electronics’ new line of Slim LED DLP® TVs, which are on shelves at national retailers, including Best Buy, Circuit City, Sears, and Tweeter. The new sets all use Luminus' environmentally-friendly PhlatLight illumination products in place of the lamps found in traditional projection TVs. PhlatLight technology is also in commercial use in projection TVs from NuVision, as well as in a compact new pocket projector from LG Electronics. The company also recently demonstrated a 52-inch prototype of its PhlatLight-based backlight unit for LCD TVs, and is currently developing solid-state light sources for other high-brightness applications.

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