All-round improvements lead to brighter whites

Osram development engineers are claiming new records for the brightness and efficiency of white LEDs in the laboratory.

By improving all the technologies involved in the manufacture of LEDs, Osram development engineers are claiming new records for the brightness and efficiency of white LEDs in the laboratory.

Under standard conditions with an operating current of 350mA, brightness peaked at a value of 155 lumen, and efficiency at 136 lumen/W.

In generating these results, researchers used white prototype LEDs with 1mm-square chips.

The light produced had a colour temperature of 5000K, with colour co-ordinates at 0.349/0.393 (cx/cy).

The key to Osram's success was the efficient interplay among all the advances made in materials and technologies.

A perfectly matched system of optimised chip technology, a highly advanced and extremely efficient light convertor, and a special high-performance package all combined to produce the world record performance results.

Potential applications for this high-performance LED technology include general illumination, the automotive sector and any application that calls for large high-power LEDs.

These semiconductor light sources are also suitable for high operating currents.

At 1.4A, they can produce up to 500 lumen of white light.

This means that in the future the LEDs can also be used for projection applications as blue and green chip versions.

Dr Rudiger Muller, CEO at Osram Opto Semiconductors, commented: "It was the successful convergence of Osram knowhow in different fields that led to these new records in efficiency and brightness".

"Starting with the light convertor, we will be gradually moving these new developments into production".

Osram has already applied for patents for the technologies that lie behind these world record performance levels.

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