23 February 2011

Lumileds introduces ‘Freedom From Binning’

LED maker Philips Lumileds of San Jose, CA, USA has announced a development that it reckons will relieve luminaire manufacturers’ and lighting designers’ concerns over the consistency and uniformity of white light and simplify the design process for LED solutions.

Lumileds’ says that, with its vision for ‘Freedom From Binning’, its white LUXEON emitters will be so uniform and consistent that there will be no color bin selections. Buyers of the new LEDs, initially released at correlated color temperatures (CCTs) of 2700K and 3000K (with others to follow), will receive LUXEON LEDs that are already tested and binned at real-world operating conditions so that their performance for color, light output, and efficacy are already known. Lumileds will proliferate Freedom From Binning through new product introductions this year and into the future.

“At random, I can lay a thousand of these new LUXEONs in a straight line and the consistency and color quality from LED to LED will be as good or better as what you would see with many of the bulbs in use today,” says CEO Michael Holt. “The lighting industry has yearned for quality of light, simplicity of design, and more efficient light sources in mass quantities and reasonable costs that enable solutions that improve on what’s possible with conventional lamps,” he adds. “By combining our unique TFFC and Lumiramic phosphor technologies with new manufacturing capabilities that allow us to ‘hot’ test and color bin, Philips Lumileds’ Freedom From Binning is charting a new course for the LED manufacturing industry to follow and moving us ever closer to the lighting industry.”

Lumileds reckons that the lighting community will want to look at LED performance information in a new way as a result of these advances. Although typical datasheets present data for LEDs at 25°C, it’s well known that the actual operating temperature is closer to 85°C (sometimes higher) and that the performance numbers reported are essentially overstated. LUXEON products that offer Freedom From Binning are tested at 85°C, so the actual color point and performance numbers are known. “We sacrifice the marketing value of higher lumen and efficacy numbers for accuracy and confidence,” comments Holt. “We can calculate performance at lower temperatures, but that would defeat the point and potentially mislead,” he adds. Most datasheets from LED makers include the information required to understand performance at elevated temperatures and the industry is able to make real-world comparisons between products.

Philips Lumileds is launching its first product to feature Freedom From Binning (LUXEON S) at this week’s Strategies in Light conference in Santa Clara, CA, USA (22–24 February). Color selections will consist simply of a CCT designation, centered on the black-body curve at hot (real-world) conditions. As new LUXEON products are introduced for the lighting industry, Lumileds will expand its Freedom From Binning program.

See related items:

Lumileds’ new LUXEON S LED delivers 1300 ‘hot’ lumens and ‘Freedom From Binning’

Tags: Lumileds LEDs

Visit: www.philipslumileds.com

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