News

20 November 2008

 

Cree claims record 161lm/W from white LED

LED maker Cree Inc of Durham, NC, USA says that it has achieved what it claims are industry-best reported R&D results for luminous efficiency of 161 lumens per watt for a white power LED.

Cree’s tests confirmed that the LED (which has an area of 1mm x 1mm) produced 173 lumens of light output and achieved 161 lumens per watt efficacy at a color temperature of 4689K. The tests were conducted under standard LED test conditions at a drive current of 350mA, at room temperature.

In July, rival LED maker Osram Opto Semiconductors GmbH of Regensburg, Germany claimed a record 136lm/W luminous efficiency and 155lm output from a 1mm x 1mm white LED (with a color temperature of 5000K) driven at 350mA. Previously, in September 2007, Cree reported record efficacy of 129lm/W and output of 135.7lm for a cool-white LED (with a color temperature of 5813K) driven at 350mA. Before that, in January 2007, Philips Lumileds of San Jose, CA, USA reported 115lm/W for a device driven at 350mA. Japan’s Nichia has reported white LEDs with higher efficiency, but only at a drive current of 20mA.

“Cree is inventing, commercializing and delivering LED lighting innovations that aim to obsolete the energy-inefficient light bulb,” says John Edmond, Cree co-founder and director of advanced optoelectronics. “Our advances in brightness and efficacy come from a focus on end-to-end innovation that can enable LED lighting to address growing numbers of lighting applications while saving energy, saving money and helping to protect the environment,” he adds.

While the latest level of performance is not yet available in production LEDs, Cree says that it continues to ship millions of lighting-class XLamp LEDs with light output of more than 100 lumens.

See related item:

HB-LED lighting market to grow to $1.65bn in 2012

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