Bright idea: Tech could improve LED lighting

By HEATHER MCLAUGHLIN – The Daily Gleaner

Fredericton-based Lamda Guard Canada Inc. is a finalist in a New Brunswick Innovation Foundation competition that will give cash to two winning companies for research and development.

Lamda Guard Canada is one of five New Brunswick companies in the foundation’s first R3 Innovation Challenge.

The two companies with the most innovative and commercially viable ideas will each receive $50,000 in research and development funding from the foundation. They’ll also be eligible for $5,000 in services from a local law firm and an accounting firm, for a total financial package worth $60,000 apiece.

Paul McLaughlin, vice-president and director of finance for Lamda Guard Canada Inc., said the business is being moved to Canada from the United Kingdom.

“We have researchers out of the U.K., and we have joint research going on with the University of New Brunswick and the Universite de Moncton,” he said.

Through a friendship struck up between their two wives, McLaughlin and CEO George Palikaras decided to work together in Canada.

Their Canadian research partners are Pandurang Ashrit of the Universite de Moncton and Felipe Chibante of UNB.

Serge Gauvin from the Universite de Moncton will be the specialist assisting with testing of their unique concept.

The company has come up with a concept to create a nano-structured, meta-material technology in order to create a thin film that can be applied to LED lights to increase their brightness.

“It’s a thin film technology and, under the R3 program, we have on paper developed a new product which will give greater illumination to the LED lights. The issue with LED lights currently is that they’re expensive and the illumination on a commercial basis is not great enough,” McLaughlin said.

“Under our research and again, we’ve proven it on paper, we can increase the illumination by tenfold.”

LED lights use less energy than conventional incandescent lighting systems, but they’re often unsuitable for lighting up large spaces — a big shopping mall parking lot, for instance.

“It would also give you greater illumination per watt, so it will actually render the light even more energy efficient,” McLaughlin said.

“What we would be using our $50,000 for, if we win, is to prove our theories.”

That would include making a prototype of the material.

McLaughlin said the company feels there are a variety of possible applications to different industries.

Lamda Guard Canada Inc. is also working on a product for the aviation industry and has received funding from the National Research Council and the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council.

The company continues to be in conversation with other potential funding groups and governments to further develop its concepts.

“If in fact we develop this LED, it will revolutionize the LED lighting industry,” McLaughlin said. “It’s pretty exciting.”

New Brunswick Innovation Foundation president and CEO Calvin Milbury said 25 submissions were made to the R3 Innovation Challenge.

“It’s the first time we’ve done the R3 Innovation Challenge and we’ve been overwhelmed by everyone’s encouraging response to it, across all sectors, telling us that there is a need for companies to better integrate with the province’s research talent,” he said.

Submissions came from all over New Brunswick, he said.

“We had to pick five, but there were other submissions that over time could develop into something really valuable if the companies dedicate some resources towards research and development,” Milbury said.

The two winning companies will be announced at the foundation’s R3 gala March 21 at the Fredericton Convention Centre.

Three of New Brunswick’s top applied researchers will also be honoured with the R3 Innovation Award for Excellence in Applied Research.

Apart from Lamda Guard, the other nominees include:

• Dizolve Group Corp., based in Moncton, which is working on a washing detergent sheet for use in automatic dishwashers;

• Breviro Caviar Inc. of Pennfield, which is working to speed up the growth patterns of the shortnose sturgeon, which provides a highly sought after caviar;

• Gagnon Ornamentals of Grand Falls, which is working on a methane gas recapture system for farmers;

• and Soricimed Biopharma of Moncton, which is developing cancer-fighting drugs.

Author Hal Gregersen from Paris, France, will present a keynote address based on his book The Innovator’s DNA — Mastering the Five Skills of the Disruptive Innovators.

Tickets for the R3 gala are available on the foundation’s website at www.nbif.ca/eng/r3gala.