Issue link: https://te.mouser.com/i/1410851
I. SCOPE: The lighting industry is now engaged in a metamorphosis similar to that experienced by the electronics industry in the 70s and 80s. At that time, to address this emerging market, AMP Incorporated developed the six Electronic Packaging Levels. These are now well grounded and used throughout Tyco Electronics to categorize interconnects. In this paper, the author establishes a similar hierarchy directly applicable to current and future lighting systems II. INTRODUCTION Since mankind first populated Earth, light was generated by burning a substance, typically wood, that coincidentally also created heat for warmth and cooking. Because it was readily available, plentiful and easily ignited, wood served this purpose for most of those years. Even today, wood continues to be the primary source of light and heat in a number of developing countries. Fig.1 Fire: the most basic source of light Eventually, other carbon-based burnable fuels were discovered that provided light when burned. Refined animal and vegetable oils, waxes and eventually gases provided much more uniform and brighter sources of light. As time progressed, the quality of light was ever so slightly improved as impurities were removed from the substance being burned. Nonetheless, there was still a finite amount of light that could be generated by burning. A. THE BURNING YEARS In the early 1800s, electricity was still being understood, however, early experimentation with electrified carbon filaments showed promise as a potential non-extinguishable source of light. The problem was a very short, finite life as the filament oxidized while being electrically heated. Just before the turn of the last century, Thomas Edison discovered that by placing the filament in an inert gas, the life of the filament is dramatically increased to the point of being a 1