Two of the leading power LED chipmakers have announced “record breaking” research results for their LEDs, with values as high as 155 lm and 140 lm/W for white LEDs made using 1 mm2 chips and driven at 350 mA.
We’ve said this in the past in LEDs Magazine, but it bears repeating; these are results from superstar devices in the research lab, not from commercially available products. Our advice is this: be careful not to draw the wrong conclusions from these numbers, but recognize they are important. More than the values themselves, the results indicate the continued progress being made by LED manufacturers.
Innovation is also happening in the labs of other companies that haven’t made recent announcements. And, perhaps most importantly, many of the technology enhancements that have resulted in these higher numbers will eventually move across to the next generation of production devices. Direct comparison of the numbers quoted below is not advised; wait until you can purchase production quantities of the devices and then see how they perform in your luminaire.
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This article was published in the September/October 2008 issue of LEDs Magazine.
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