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17 Feb 2006
LED expert Lumileds brings a high-power device and a tiny, portable emitter on to the market in the space of two weeks.
It's been a busy two weeks for LED specialist Lumileds. At the beginning of the month, the company unveiled the Luxeon K2 which it says offers the best LED white-light output of 140 lumens or more. Hot on the heels of that announcement was the Luxeon Portable PWT1 measuring just 2.0 x 1.6 x 0.7 mm.
Starting with K2, Steve Landau, Lumileds' marketing and communications manager, said that the improved performance was due to a number of factors. "The K2 package has been completely redesigned," he told Optics.org. "It is now a superior thermal package, which reduces the amount of heat sinking required. Compared with previous Luxeon products, we have changed the shape of the package and simplified the manufacturing through the use of surface mount technology."
Landau adds that Lumileds has also carefully engineered the K2 to ensure that the die is always in the same position.
The K2 also boasts a maximum junction temperature of 185°C, which allows engineers to drive the LED at higher currents and deliver more light where necessary. Alternatively, this feature also makes it possible to reduce or even eliminate heat sinks altogether.
"As well as white, the K2 is available in green, cyan, blue, royal blue, red, red-orange and amber versions," said Landau. "Dominant wavelengths for these devices at a junction temperature of 25°C are 530 nm, 505 nm, 470 nm, 455 nm, 627 nm, 617 nm and 590 nm respectively."
The luminous output varies for each of these products. For example, the typical luminous flux for the white device is 45 lumens at 350 mA rising to 120 lumens at 1000 mA. For green, a typical luminous flux of 100 lumens is expected for a current of 1000 mA.
Landau says that the K2 is not being targeted at a specific application. "We expect it to find uses in many high-power applications such as automotive, entertainment and general lighting," he said.
On the other hand, the PWT1 has been specifically designed with portable lighting applications, such as flashlamps, in mind. The device emits 26 lumens at 350 mA and the company quotes a lifetime of 2000 hours.
"The PWT1 has a very small form factor enabling manufacturers to build flashlights with smaller optics and less weight than ever before," said Landau. "The product has no lens and emits uniform white light thanks to a blue-emitting indium-gallium-nitride chip coated with a yellow phosphor."
According to Lumileds, the PWT1 is roughly 75% smaller than other LEDs with similar light output and delivered about 4.5 times the lumens per square millimetre.
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