Lumileds delivers flexible LED strips in Matrix modular family

Oct. 13, 2015
Intended for linear SSL products such as cove lighting, the flexible Level 2 modular strips output about 112 lumens per meter.

Intended for linear SSL products such as cove lighting, the flexible Level 2 modular strips output about 112 lumens per meter.

Lumileds has announced the Luxeon XF-3014 family of flexible LED strips intended to serve as building-block modular light engines for products such as cove lighting and other linear applications. The new flexible strips are part of the Lumileds Matrix platform of modular light engines that enable solid-state lighting (SSL) manufacturers to accelerate product development and simplify manufacturing efforts. Indeed, the strips need only a 24V constant-voltage power supply to operate.

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The Matrix products are what Lumileds and others refer to as a Level 2 type of product or customer engagement. Such modular light engines are especially important to manufacturers who lack the automated assembly equipment need to manufacture flexible or rigid printed-circuit boards (PCBs) using surface-mount device (SMD) packaged LEDs. The Level 2 customers design products based on modules rather than individual packaged LEDs.

Lumileds first launched the Matrix family a little more than a year ago. There are both rigid and flexible products in the Matrix family.

The new XF-3014 family includes three basic models with each also being available in a choice of 2700K, 3000K, or 4000K CCTs — all at a CRI of 80. Developers can buy long strips that can be cut into 96-mm segments and each segment has 6 LEDs. Alternatively, Lumileds offers 96-mm segments with connectors installed. And the family includes a 480-mm segment with 30 LEDs and connectors.

The 3000K products deliver 112 lm over the 96-mm length. Lumileds said there is less than 2% attenuation over a 10m length of the modules, meaning that a lighting product based on the strips will deliver very uniform illumination. "Our unmatched flux uniformity eliminates the possibility of spottiness or color variation from strip to strip and over long lengths," said Andrew Cohen, product manager of the Matrix Platform family. Efficacy for the 3000K product is 105 lm/W.

The increase in Level 2 products is tied to one of two predominant trends in the packaged LED space. One trend is toward smaller mid-power SMD-based LEDs and the coming move to chip-scale packages (CSP). We recently published a feature article on CSP LEDs.The other trend is chip-on-board (COB) LEDs that can be assembled into lamps or luminaires using manual techniques and are often the simplest path to a finished product. Lumileds just expanded its COB family last week.