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Endicott Research Group (Endicott, N.Y.) is changing right along with the directive. The company, which has been producing inverters for CCFLs for more than 25 years, has 25 different CCFL products on the market, but early last year began providing LED solutions.

"We're starting to see LED solutions in some panels," says Bill Abbott, Director of Sales and Marketing for Endicott Research Group. "It's not widespread yet. It provides power savings, more nits per watt, takes the high voltage out and even goes through UL (Underwriters Laboratories) better. A lot of it is plug and play; just swap out the CCFL and put in the LED."

The company has begun taking orders for and shipping LED backlights for LCDs in the 5.7-inch to 15-inch diagonal ranges to companies in the industrial/medical arenas, including aircraft, military, marine, automobiles, kiosks and more.

David DeAgazio, Director of Sales Worldwide for Global Lighting Technologies (Brecksville, Ohio), agrees that the future for LEDs is very bright. His company does a great deal of LCD backlighting for mobile phones, MP3 players, PDAs, digital cameras, DVDs and automotive applications. "In a short time, it will be all LED," he says. "LEDs lessen the power required on a laptop, which will give you longer battery life, better color and a thinner PC."

In the past LEDs didn't make a lot of sense for displays of 5.5 inches and more because of the amount of heat generated. With technology, that is changing.