Cree Achieves 161 Lumens per Watt from a High-Power LED

[mds82]

http://www.cree.com/press/press_detail.asp?i=1227101620851

damn, cant wait for this guy to come out!

ha ha, maybe 1 year? j/k!!!

 

[Manzerick]

Nice!!

While reading it i clicked on the home products link and can't wait for the light bulbs to be here!! (no special drop in fixture or anything!!!)

 

[JohnR66]

And at a warmer color temp too! This is the gist of the story:

"Cree's tests confirmed that the 1mm x 1mm LED produced 173 lumens of light output and achieved 161 lumens per watt efficacy at a color temperature of 4689K. The tests were conducted under standard LED test conditions at a drive current of 350mA, at room temperature.":thumbsup:

Guess I have to save for another round of flashlights and cree emitters again...

 

[baterija]

Doing the math from the total lumens to lumens per watt figures it's showing a Vf of about 3.1 volts too. No funky Vf rating surprises that should cause issues with current drivers. It's about a 40% jump in output above the top of the R2 bin.

Looks like I have from now till they figure out how to produce it economically in mass to learn how to solder. :thumbsup:

 

[LED_Thrift]

173 lumens @ 350mA! YEAH !

 

[matrixshaman]

Go Cree!

 

[tebore]

The R2 is over 100lm/watt already at 350mA(IIRC it was around 110-120.) it was only a matter of time.

The amazing thing is it's doing it at less than 5000k. Most of the lab LEDs that are breaking records are over 5000k.

C'mon trickle down effect in to SSC. Where is LumiLED in all of this action even Osram is back in the top efficiency game.

 

[ICUDoc]

I have been very impressed by the way Cree announces things, and we often see products on the shelves a few months later- here's hoping we get the same service this time. High efficiency AND nice colour temp- wow!

 

[2xTrinity]

The R2 is over 100lm/watt already at 350mA(IIRC it was around 110-120.) it was only a matter of time.

The amazing thing is it's doing it at less than 5000k. Most of the lab LEDs that are breaking records are over 5000k.

I have actually expected color temp to go down to the 3500k-4500k range for lumens/watt to increase. Our eyes are much more sensitive to the red/yellow/green wavelengths from the phosphor than the blue generated from the LED. So to get higher lumens/watt, a white with a higher ratio of yellow/green compared to primary blue output will be necessary.

This improved eye sensitivity to lower CCT has been offset by the fact that up to this point, neutral and warm white LEDs have had less efficient phosphors in terms of optical power. But to the extent they can overcome those difficult and make the warmer phosphors as efficient as the cool white phosphors have been, lumens/watt will be higher for lower color temperature.

C'mon trickle down effect in to SSC. Where is LumiLED in all of this action even Osram is back in the top efficiency game.

My guess at this point is that these improvements have as much or more to do with the phosphor as they do the base LED. This means that the improvements wont' automatically "trickle down" to SSC as simply as swapping in a new chip.

My suspicion is that in the past, when SSC was consistently posting higher lumen/watt numbers than Cree was that their phosphor package was more efficient. Now I believe Cree may have caught up up or surpassed them in phosphor efficiency. In reality the improvement is probably a combination of improved dice and improved phosphor, but as an outside observer it's almost impossible to tell how much of which has improved. My post is pure speculation.

 

[Sgt. LED]

CRAP

Now I am outdated again.

 

[jtr1962]

My suspicion is that in the past, when SSC was consistently posting higher lumen/watt numbers than Cree was that their phosphor package was more efficient. Now I believe Cree may have caught up up or surpassed them in phosphor efficiency. In reality the improvement is probably a combination of improved dice and improved phosphor, but as an outside observer it's almost impossible to tell how much of which has improved. My post is pure speculation.

At the wavelengths involved maximum theoretical phosphor efficiency is in the low 80s and practical phosphors are already in the mid-70s. In other words, phosphor improvements will only get us a few percent improvement. Assuming this LED is in the 82% area as far as phosphor efficiency, this implies a blue die with a conversion efficiency of around 60%. If the phosphor conversion is only about 75% efficient, then the blue die would be around 65% efficient. Regardless, a blue die converting between 60% and 65% of the electrical energy to light at 350 mA is a significant development.

I'd love to see the results at lower currents but just looking at the numbers it appears they've solved the issue of efficiency droop somewhat. Remember that my lumens testing of the R2 put the efficiency around 105 lm/W at 350 mA but about 40% more, or 150 lm/W, at 20 mA. This LED probably wouldn't exhibit a similar change or that would imply ~230 lm/W at 20 mA, a figure which would be highly doubtful. In other words, efficiency probably doesn't drop as much with current.

Now for Cree to put these improvements into a practical product....

 

[IsaacHayes]

..........And for me to drive them at 1amp + !! 😀

 

[saabluster]

..........And for me to drive them at 1amp + !! 😀

I can't wait to run them at 3A!:naughty:

 

[Gryloc]

Just to stir the pot, is there any possible relation with the emitter mentioned in this old release?

If you use these efficiency claims to create a lm/I curve similar to current generation emitters, can anyone guess if these two emitters are related, or if you can get 1000lm from this 160lm/W emitter? I do not have time to toy with numbers now (dang exams), but maybe afterward, I will play with the numbers...

This is great news, but can it be vaporware as well (like the single die 1000lm emitter linked above)? Cree sort of hit a wall with efficiency lately, with the Q5 staying nearly at the top for over a year. Cree does not seem to be budging after the release of the R2, and I had my doubts over whether a R3 or R4 would ever see the light of day. If Cree does develop another efficiency jump like what we seen with the first XR-E, then that will be an amazingly painful one-two punch to Lumileds. I still have hope for Lumileds though...

-Tony

EDIT:
Oh, and as an afterthought (after seeing the above post), I cannot imagine how flooded saabluster's house is right now. All that drool. He may drown in it and go to LED heaven. Seriously, this would be good news for OMG Enterprises. 😀

 

[saabluster]

There is probably some of the same technology being used with this new one but they are different dies. The one you linked to was larger than 1mm x 1mm.

Just to stir the pot, is there any possible relation with the emitter mentioned in this old release?

If you use these efficiency claims to create a lm/I curve similar to current generation emitters, can anyone guess if these two emitters are related, or if you can get 1000lm from this 160lm/W emitter? I do not have time to toy with numbers now (dang exams), but maybe afterward, I will play with the numbers...

This is great news, but can it be vaporware as well (like the single die 1000lm emitter linked above)? Cree sort of hit a wall with efficiency lately, with the Q5 staying nearly at the top for over a year. Cree does not seem to be budging after the release of the R2, and I had my doubts over whether a R3 or R4 would ever see the light of day. If Cree does develop another efficiency jump like what we seen with the first XR-E, then that will be an amazingly painful one-two punch to Lumileds. I still have hope for Lumileds though...

-Tony

EDIT:
Oh, and as an afterthought (after seeing the above post), I cannot imagine how flooded saabluster's house is right now. All that drool. He may drown in it and go to LED heaven. Seriously, this would be good news for OMG Enterprises. 😀

 

[Gryloc]

Actually, never mind. I completely misread your post. Please ignore this post...

Thanks for clarifying...

 

[saabluster]

Oh, and as an afterthought (after seeing the above post), I cannot imagine how flooded saabluster's house is right now. All that drool. He may drown in it and go to LED heaven. Seriously, this would be good news for OMG Enterprises. 😀

Glub Glub:green:



Funny, I didn't even see your comment the first time around. If only I had some inside contacts. I think I need to work on that in the coming year.

 

[StarHalo]

Why isn't there somebody from Cree demonstrating these things to us here on the forum? You'd think there'd at least be one guy who'd at least want to show off a prototype.."This Fenix LD01 has a 300 lumen high mode..."

 

[IMSabbel]

Just to curb the enthusiasm a bit, this is not really news, and only a couple of lumens higher than their last record a year or so ago.

If you make a milllion led dies, a few of them will be more outside the 2 sigma range. They got _one_ of those, remember?

 

[saabluster]

Just to curb the enthusiasm a bit, this is not really news, and only a couple of lumens higher than their last record a year or so ago.

If you make a milllion led dies, a few of them will be more outside the 2 sigma range. They got _one_ of those, remember?

I hardly think this is something they just pulled off the production line. These have to be grown in the lab under special conditions to get that much better than the existing dies.