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July 2016 • The PCB Design Magazine 51 signing for signal integrity, and our EDA tools' algorithms will be honed and improved even more. Five years from now, I bet we'll be turn- ing our noses up at the Intercept Impedance Calculator app of today, in favor of something entirely more sophisticated. If you have any comments on how to better use controlled impedance to reduce noise, hot spots, or any other design flaws, let me know. I'd love to hear from you! PCBDESIGN To download the Google version of the Intercept Impedance Calculator, click here. The iOS version is available by clicking here. Abby Monaco, CID, is with Intercept Technology Inc. and has 15 years of experience in EDA The value of the global LED market has been growing at a crawling pace as demand for back- light LEDs contracts. Automotive LEDs, however, are one of the few sizable ap- plication markets that are developing rapidly. The latest analysis by LEDin- side, a division of TrendForce, finds the replacement of traditional light bulbs with LED light sources con- tinues steadily in the automotive lighting market despite the slowing growth in the regional au- tomobile markets worldwide during the second quarter. LEDinside projects that the value of the ex- terior automotive LED market will reach US$1.57 billion this year and will grow at a CAGR of 6% in the 2016~2020 period. In the case of China's automotive lighting mar- ket, Duff Lu, research manager for LEDinside, said the use of LEDs is still mainly influenced by cost considerations. Hence, the penetration rates of LEDs in China's interior automotive lighting and rear position lamp segments are now over 70%, respectively. Chinese automotive lighting manu- facturers have also made rapid progress in the technological development of daylight running lights (DRLs) in re- cent years and some have begun to use standard LEDs for their DRL products. LEDinside projects that the penetration rate in China's DRL segment will reach 47% in 2016. As for high-power LED packages used for high and low beams, Chinese manufactur- ers still rely on im- ports because most domestic suppliers are not mature enough tech- nologically to produce these components. Hence, LED penetration rate China's high/low beam mar- ket is currently less than 3%. Lu pointed out replacing traditional light bulbs in an automotive luminaire can only be done by opening up the luminaire's back cover and pull the light bulbs out from their sockets. However, LED products tend to be integrated or systematic in design and most LED automotive lighting prod- ucts in the OEM market come as an entire lumi- naire assembly. They thus are not suited for the conventional replacement method. To expand the adoption of LEDs, LED module suppliers are devel- oping replacement or plug-in light bulb products that can substitute traditional light bulbs in an au- tomotive luminaire. Automotive LED Market Has a Bright Future With the Rise of Replacement Products HAVING FUN WITH IMPEDANCE