New Luxeons this summer

[PhotonBoy]

http://optics.org/articles/ole/8/5/1/1

'"We have a solid plan to consistently improve the drive current per device over the next couple of years," said Steranka. "Today, our 1 W devices are driven at 350 mA. This summer we will be releasing the same device type, [but] driven at 700 mA. And then maybe within the next year we will go up to 1 A"'

 

[John Frederick]

Re: New Luxeons this sumer

Cool!

 

[obeck]

Re: New Luxeons this sumer

That is pretty good. Still, they are talking about doubling the lumens/watt over the next 5 years. Not a factor of 5 or 10 or anything outrageous. IMHO, it means our current lights will not be "obsolete" anytime soon.

 

[zmoz]

Re: New Luxeons this sumer

I thought the whole point of LEDs was increased battery life... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[paulr]

Re: New Luxeons this sumer

They're talking about doubling the lumens/watt and also doubling the watts, so that's 4x.... if you can find the battery power to run the thing.

 

[obeck]

Re: New Luxeons this sumer

[ QUOTE ]
paulr said:
They're talking about doubling the lumens/watt and also doubling the watts, so that's 4x.... if you can find the battery power to run the thing.

[/ QUOTE ]

That is true, and it is great news for applications that can stand the heat. For small (arc ls sized) handheld flashlights, though, you have to be able to power them and hold them. We already know from other reports here that much more than 500-700 maH into a Luxeon is just too much to run for very long in a small light.

Hopefully, though, the newer Luxeons will mean either the same light output for twice as long, or twice the light output for the same (current) burn time.

 

[highlandsun]

Re: New Luxeons this sumer

I wonder if the price of the current 350mA 1W parts will drop then. Since I just ordered $250 worth of 'em, it would be somewhat of a bummer to think I'd jumped the gun.

So this would be a 2W part with the same lm/watt efficiency as the existing 1W part. Doesn't seem like a drastic change, you could get the same by underdriving a Luxeon V. Also, the 1W stars can be run at its nominal power spec (350mA) without any additional heatsinking; the 5W can't and I'd guess a 2W can't either.

 

[paulr]

Re: New Luxeons this sumer

Luxeons are high tech semiconductor parts just like microprocessors or ram chips. Yes of course the prices will drop and keep dropping. That doesn't mean that you should always wait before buying. If it's useful enough to be worth it to you not to wait, then buy it now.

 

[hotbeam]

Re: New Luxeons this sumer

The more press there is on the matter, the more widespread the acceptance... Let's hope they can meet their timings and improve their QA.

 

[monanza]

Re: New Luxeons this sumer

Doubling the luminous density is considerably better than underdriving the 5W simply because the optics required to focus the 1W can be smaller. This is of course assuming they provide improved thermal conductance. If they manage to double the luminous efficacy at the same time then heat generation will be sufficiently reduced to permit full rating on ArcLS or smaller form factors. I can't wait to get my hands on these higher density dies.

Thanks for hooking us up PhotonBoy.

Cheers.

 

[highlandsun]

Re: New Luxeons this sumer

If I read this right, the double-efficiency dies won't be out for another few years yet. And as the 5W and 1W have the same size domes, I don't see your point about the smaller optics.

Still I agree that it's good news. Especially if they provide the new units in the red and amber colors as well; that's something I really miss in the 5W series.

 

[PhotonBoy]

Re: New Luxeons this sumer

I think the point is that a newer 1W unit will be close to the output of an older, under-driven 5W unit and can be focussed much more sharply, being closer in size to an ideal dimensionless point source of light.

 

[r2]

Re: New Luxeons this sumer

The package size of the 1W and 5W are the same, but the area on the die is different. A 1W with NX05 optics or 30mm optics gives a very different beam profile than a 5W with the same optics. The smaller the area of the 1W makes focusing easier.

- Russ