High-brightness LEDs for instrumentation

High-brightness chip-on-board LEDs and photodetector modules offer new alternatives to instrument manufacturers who want to reduce costs, increase throughput and sense a wider range of wavelengths.

High-brightness chip-on-board LEDs and photodetector modules offer new alternatives to instrument manufacturers who want to reduce costs, increase throughput and sense a wider range of wavelengths for fluorescence detection.

Until recently, manufacturers choices have been limited to costly short life lamps that require reflectors, fibre optics and expensive bandpass filters to achieve wavelengths from 400 to 700nm for fluorescence detection.

LED chip-on-board technology now offers the ability to incorporate wavelengths ranging from 395 to 940nm in high-brightness compact packages, often eliminating the need for expensive filters and fibre-optic bundles.

Photodetectors and high brightness LEDs can be integrated into a chip-on-board array designed to excite fluorophores and sense emissions for applications such as DNA analysis, nucleic acid quantitation, proteomic and genomic research.

Opto Technology, a US-based manufacturer of optical assemblies specialises in designing, manufacturing and integrating standard and custom chip-on-board arrays that incorporate LEDs, photodetectors, optics, coatings and thermal management and can provide supporting electronics.

LEDs are quickly making advances in other illumination applications, such as dental curing devices, photodynamic therapy devices, bilirubin lights and exam lighting.

One of the most often overlooked benefits of solid-state LED lighting is the cost savings associated with the avoidance of downtime due to lamp failure.

LEDs will continue to supplant halogen lamps by offering features such as a 50kh-plus lifespan, sources that emit no heat in the beam of light and the elimination of harmful UV and IR wavelengths.

More than a decade ago the aerospace and automotive industries began switching from traditional lamps to LEDs as sources of high-brightness, durable illumination that operated on low DC voltage source, offering the benefit of both safety and efficiency.

Until now, one of the biggest challenges LEDs faced in penetrating the illumination market has been fitting into existing footprints.

Opto Technology, represented in the UK by Rhopoint Components, has resolved this issue by introducing its Endura Bright LED based MR-16 lamp that is pin-for-pin compatible to the current tungsten halogen footprint.

As LEDs operate on low-voltage DC sources, an electronic convertor module has been developed that mates directly with the Endura Bright MR-16 allowing it to be used in low-voltage AC applications.

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