LED-advantages of pilot traffic light system evident after one year of operation: replacing light bulbs with LEDs

Aachen, May 25, 2000. The substantial advantages of the new traffic light system on the Roermonder/Kackertstrasse, implemented in May 1999 thanks to the joint efforts and financial backing of AIXTRON AG, Siemens AG and the City of Aachen, are evident after one year in operation:

• Dramatic reduction in maintenance and service costs: the light source in the traffic light comprises numerous small semiconductor light-emitting diodes (LEDs), instead of light bulbs which have been used up to now. LEDs do not heat up and last for over ten years. As a result, not a single LED in the new traffic light system had to be replaced in the pilot project over the past twelve months.

• Enormous savings on electricity costs: LEDs only require around a tenth of electricity compared to light bulbs of the same brightness. In the long-term, this brings significant economic and ecological advantages, which are already being exploited in other countries (USA, Japan, Taiwan, as well as England, Sweden, France,Switzerland and Belgium) due to widespread use of LED traffic lights there.

An important additional benefit of LED technology is enhanced safety: traffic lights are clearly visible even in bright sunlight due to the brightness of the LEDs. Specular reflections and phantom lights have also been eliminated.

The initiators of this pilot project now also hope that the use of LED traffic lights will spread rapidly, putting an end to the unnecessarily high electricity consumption of the previous technology. Experts have calculated that the initial higher investment costs are offset after just one year by the savings on electricity and maintenance. Action is now required from the Federal Government, the federal states and local authorities.  

The pilot traffic light system in Aachen is in the immediate vicinity of the AIXTRON Group's headquarters, which supplies the technology for LED production. At the heart of the LEDs are compound semiconductors, which are produced using AIXTRON's MOCVD (metal organic chemical vapor deposition) equipment. "This is an excellent example of how technology originally based on academic research in Aachen over 20 years ago is now being put into operation in the field of traffic signalling with such global benefits. Along with the City of Aachen and the Aachen University of Technology, we are all the more delighted that this pilot project for Germany was implemented in Aachen," commented Dr. Holger Juergensen, of the AIXTRON Executive Board. "Future technologies based on semiconductors are the result of close cooperation between industry and research. Their continued promotion and widespread acceptance by the public are important factors in enhancing our quality of life and securing jobs not only in this region," added Kim Schindelhauer, also an AIXTRON Executive Board member.

As a result of their technological superiority, AIXTRON systems offer users significant advantages – higher productivity and therefore lower operating costs, a high level of reliability and optimum product quality. AIXTRON's leading position in the world market provides impressive proof of this: according to preliminary figures, its world market share has risen to 53%. In the last five years, AIXTRON has on average increased its revenues by over 50% p.a. and annual net income by over 90% p.a.

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