High CRI LED List

[Darkhorse85]

Hi All,
I'm fairly new here..been lurking for a while reading as much as I can, but im having trouble because the info comes in bits and pieces.
It seems that each manufacturer has their own High-CRI version LED. Threads on individual breakthroughs are scattered through the forum, but I was wondering if we could get them all in one place for friendly reference?

Could we get together a list of current high-CRI leds by manufacturer with maybe some links on performance? I figure it'd be cool to get a big picture idea of current industry ability beyond the typical lumen war.

CRI ~ 90+:
Nichia 083 & 183 Series
Seoul Semi V-Series

Cree?
Lumileds?
Citizen?
Harvatech?

I'm getting into this subject pretty late in the game, and there seems to be a lot of experienced people here. I could edit this original post with info you guys have and we can get a good list to compare manufacturers.
Think this is possible or crazy?
Thanks!

 

[Th232]

From my best knowledge:

Nichia has 083s and 183s in high CRI versions, while they still take a hit in flux compared to the regular versions, they're still highly impressive, in particular the 183s, their top bin is 170-185 lumens at 700 mA, from extrapolating to their maximum rating of 800 mA, that's about 200-210 lumens. Very hard, if not impossible to get for several reasons, including a minimum order of one reel (1400 LEDs). High demand according to the sales rep I've talked to, hopefully we'll see in production items some time. Further info on the 083s and high CRI in general here.

Seoul also has several high CRI options, there's a recent group buy here, a bit of binning information here. For their T1 bin, ~72 lumens at 350 mA, at their max current of 800 mA, they get around 145 lumens. T2s are possible, but are really uncommon, in the group buy thread, Tekno_Cowboy was offered them, but with a lead time of 28-40 weeks. Funny, I haven't seen any high CRI P7s. Haven't been looking for them though.

As far as I've seen, Cree has no specific high CRI versions, the best you'll get from them is their neutral and warm white range. No clue on what CRI those are though.

 

[Curt R]

Mid 2010 the SST-90 will be available in a 92/94 CRI version.

Curt

 

[BillyNoMates]

Lumileds offer their Rebel series in high-CRI bins. These can be bought in small quantities, but are a bit more expensive than the more readily available general purpose Rebels.

I've used some of the LXML-PW71 with a typical CRI=90.

 

[snarfer]

Mid 2010 the SST-90 will be available in a 92/94 CRI version.

Curt

First they told me the release was Q4 2009. A month ago I got an email saying it had been delayed until Q4 2010. Are you talking about engineering samples or production?

 

[Curt R]

Snarfer:

Did not ask the person that talked to the engineer if they were lab samples or production units.

Curt

 

[blasterman]

FYI - Cree gets higher CRI in their dedicated fixtures by mixing LED flavors to get the right phosphor blend.

I wasn't aware Nichia has such a high bin flux with their +90 CRI emitters. I'll have to try and build something with those.

 

[bshanahan14rulz]

Edison Opto makes a high-cri LED, claimed 90 CRI.

 

[JohnR66]

What qualifies for high CRI? Cree's XP-E and MX-6 LEDs in warm white average 80 CRI according to the data sheet. This is above the typical CFL products.

 

[Kgp]

WW RA clicky CRI-93 USING SSC P4

 

[Th232]

What qualifies for high CRI? Cree's XP-E and MX-6 LEDs in warm white average 80 CRI according to the data sheet. This is above the typical CFL products.

Don't know if there's any strict definition, but I personally consider high CRI as being in the 90s.

 

[parnell]

Here is a chart explaining CRI. Here, about halfway down the page is a photo that puts CRI into perspective.

I just learned about CRI today. It opened my eyes as to why so many people prefer incans. Which as per the chart are 99+ CRI.

 

[lolzertank]

I just learned about CRI today. It opened my eyes as to why so many people prefer incans. Which as per the chart are 99+ CRI.

Actually, 100 CRI by definition. Incans are black body radiators.

There's no need to look for anything better! :thumbsup:

 

[Linger]

Lumileds offer their Rebel series in high-CRI bins. These can be bought in small quantities, but are a bit more expensive than the more readily available general purpose Rebels.

Still the cheapest / best option imho.
Rebel 100's are available bin sorted (3000k, 4000k, 5000k, 6000k) and by single unit, so you could make yourself a quad m@g with two 3000k's, a 4000k and a 5000k. My entirely unvalidated claim is that mixing the bins improves total colour rendition of the light.

 

[blasterman]

What qualifies for high CRI?

Lighting industry unofficially markets this as a light source +90 CRI. It's a good benchmark - IMHO, because it sets a fairly high benchmark given that +90 CRI is tough to achieve with a FL or solid state light source.

It opened my eyes as to why so many people prefer incans

You mean people in this forum? Sorry...that's hysterical. When I see that hardly no commercial workspace on the continent uses incan anymore it open my eyes as to why we have a big problem with with perceptions and marketing in the lighting industry catering to the lowest common denominator.

All the preferences I see towards incans here tend to stem towards poor experiences with big box CFLs, which I can't blame people because their phosphor mixes are terribly variable. You have to remember that the CRI spec is very out-dated, and many of the CFLs spec'd as +80 wouldn't make it that high under a more rigid standard. So yeah, crappy warm-white CFLs are annoying compared to a good Incan under casual situations. No arguement. However, commercial grade 2/4 pin CFLs I'm seeing that have worked their way into eating establishments have excellent color.

Another issue is that the experience people have with warm-white LED is with either more nasty color showerhead 5mm LED bulbs, or Cree 'WTHBIT warm white retrofits. 'WTHBIS' stands for 'what the hell bin is that?' I have about half a dozen warm-white Crees at home along with scattered rebels, K2s, and Chinese knockoffs all spec'd as warm-white. Absolutely none of them match, and some of the Crees are the worst offenders with odd green casts mixed in and a desperate lack of megenta. LED fixture makers can avoid this when they buy specific bin tints on large reels, but given the perceptually better looking LEDs tend to have lower lumen values which ones do you think they choose? The Bridgelux that I'm using for big projects however have consistent and to die for warm-white color rendition that makes incan seem intolerable by comparisn. The trade-off is a severe lumen efficiency hit.

All it takes is for a neutral white LEDs to have just a tint of green, yellow or blue in it and the color looks aethestically off and sterile. Really good neutral white commercial fluorescents (about 4100k) will almost always have a bit of warm-magenta in them to fudge them a bit.

Also, incans and halogens don't have 100% CRI. Metals used in filaments and contaminants used in halogen jackets cause spectrum spikes and other shifts. Even Solux aren't truly 100%, but anything is better than cheap CFL.

 

[Lucien]

But how useful is CRI? From parnell's second link:

CRI is determined by comparing the appearance of a colored object under an artificial light source to its appearance under incandescent light.

Emphasis mine.

If some reference incandescent is used for CRI 100 then how accurate are colours under a "CRI 100" lamp? IMHO, wouldn't it be better for daylight to be the reference standard? Or a (ideal?) blackbody source at a specified colour temperature. (Again, what temperature exactly?)

 

[Nil Einne]

Old but seems the best place to post. I'm not interested in high CRI lighting but came across some high CRI Citizens while researching. The site offers no datasheet but I found the catalog myself at the citizen site which is useful.

They have 4W, 6W, 13W and also 3W in a strip CRI min 90. All multidie/array of some sort (quite a few it seems). Those are what they advertise, the 4W is rated at 4.46W, 13W is rated at 13.40W.

The 4W CRI min 90 does 295 lumens if 5000K, 280 lumens if 4000K and 255 lumens if 3000K or 66.1, 62.7 and 57.1 lumens/watt respectively. The 13W does 890 lumens if 5000K, 840 lumens if 4000K, 805 lumens if 3500K, 725 lumens if 3000K, 710 lumens if 2700K or 66.5, 62.7, 60.1, 54.1, and 53.0 lumens/watt respectively. This seems bad but if my quick calculations of the P4 high CRI (although those are higher guaranteed) are anything to go by they are even less so I guess it's the norm for high CRI. The maximum currents aren't much higher then rated so you won't get that much more output.

As said these are multidie and do need high voltages, 9.3 for the 3W, 4W and 6W, 18.6 for the 13W. So no flashlights here except with a good boost driver or 3/6 li-ion. These are fairly big too 13.5 x13.0 for the 4/6W or 23.0x17.5 for the 13W. The datasheets are here but strangely I can't seem to find any info on binning for flux or anything really (other then the existing colour temp & CRI).

You can apparently buy some of them from LedRise e.g. 13W 5000K and 13W 2700K which is where I came across them. They also claim these are high CRI, 6W strip 5000K and 6W strip 2700K but considering the 6W isn't high CRI according to the catalog and site I'm sceptical. Of course they also claim CRI 95 but the Citizen site & stuff just say 90+ and their other specs are suspect (1200 lumen? For the low CRI may be...) Note that I have no experience with that site, their specs at the very least seem wrong not only on those but other stuff I came across. So if anyone is planning to buy them I'd at least e-mail them to make sure you know what you're (supposed to be) getting first.

 

[snarfer]

Sharp Zenigata series has also high CRI versions. Somewhat more convenient in terms of optics than the Citizen units.

Has anyone seen a high CRI daylight balanced LED without remote phosphor?

 

[Anders Hoveland]

Check out the spectrum of the Radion XR30w LED (multiple chip emitter) reef lamp:

http://reefbuilders.com/2011/09/01/radion-xr30w-led-light/


Here is the the actual measured spectrum of the Radion (just ignore the thin blue line in this image, which was comparing it to something else not relevant here).

And Here is the spectrum of the Mitras against the Radion:
(the Radion is now the thin orange line)

What I find ironic is that when LED lighting is being used to illuminate reef tanks, so much more care and thought is put into optimizing the spectrum. But when the lighting is being used to provide illumination for humans, no one seems to care, so long as the overall color is whitish. :shakehead

Apparently even plants get more consideration than humans. If you type in "full spectrum LED" into an internet search, almost the only thing that comes up is grow lights, with eery colored light optimized to the spectral absorbance of chlorophyll.

 

[CuriousOne]

The other question is, where to buy High CRI ones?

For example, non of distributors mentioned on bridgelux site, stock the high CRI leds from them.