Lumileds | Featured | 5050 LEDs | SSL | Oct 30, 2024

Conservation, Dark Skies, & Solar Lighting Drive 5050 LED Proliferation

Lumileds’ LUXEON 5050 LED portfolio has expanded with over 185 options across four product families, meeting the growing demand for conservation, dark sky compliance, and solar lighting. New additions like the LUXEON 5050 HE Plus enable lower energy usage, sustainability, and CO2 reductions for high-volume applications such as street lighting and infrastructure.

There has been a rapid sophistication of industrial and outdoor lighting in the 8-years since the LUXEON 5050 Round LED was first introduced. Customer demand for tailored solutions that address community and country level requirements have driven significant expansion of Lumileds’ 5050 portfolio and today there are more than 185 standard LEDs across 4 LUXEON 5050 product families with 3 voltage options: 6V, 24V, & 30V; 10 CCT choices from 1800K to 6500K; 3 CRI choices of 70, 80, or 90. Most recently, dark sky initiatives and outdoor lighting ordinances inspired development of NightScape Technology – with <2% blue content – which is also available in the LUXEON 5050 portfolio.

LUXEON 5050 HE Plus, the most recent addition, reduces application power consumption by 18% or more in critical infrastructure applications common to cities and businesses around the world. For high volume applications such as streetlighting, the cumulative impact of LUXEON 5050 HE Plus is lower energy usage, costs, and a reduction in annual CO₂ emissions. Further, the lower lower-energy consumption supports the transition to low-carbon or no-carbon electricity supply and OEMs can achieve greater sustainability in their manufacturing process by reducing the physical material in both the heatsink and the system’s driver.

LUXEON 5050 Round with the familiar round light emitting surface is original and most often deployed solution. Its combination of output, efficacy, and lumens/$ make it the global leader in the 5050 LED space. It’s supported with an extensive selection of optics and complementary components that have developed over the last 8 years. In fact, optical solution provider LEDiL lists more than 200 lens and reflector choices to address a wide variety of applications and design parameters.

LUXEON 5050 Square offers the portfolio’s highest light output levels while still delivering efficacy greater than 170 lumens/Watt. But perhaps the greatest advances brought to the portfolio was the outstanding corrosion resistance introduced with these parts and since applied to all LUXEON 5050 parts. The Epoxy Molding Compound (EMC package offers corrosion resistance comparable to a ceramic package. It enables significantly lower flux degradation and less color shift when used in harsh environments.

LUXEON 5050 HE, like the other LUXEON 5050 parts, delivers a combination of output, efficacy, lm/$, and robustness that supports OEM efforts to provide a range of options for any of their luminaires and to optimize value for their customers wherever possible.

Most Extended and Comprehensive LM80 Tests

Perhaps the most important data for LEDs used in critical applications with exposure to the elements is in the LM80 report and reliability datasheets that Lumileds provides to customers. While all 5050 LED manufacturers should provide both datasets, distinct and important differences between LEDs can be identified in this data. The LUXEON 5050 LM80 report covers over 17,000 hours of testing, and Lumileds provides customers with a comprehensive and detailed analysis of 16 different test items including: High Temperature Operating Life, Hydrogen Sulfide Test (15ppm H2S, 40C, RH 80%), and Temperature Cycle. Lumileds also reports detailed flux, forward voltage, and color maintenance data. Lumileds extensive testing of the LUXEON 5050 line allows it to confidently claim L70 and L90 above 100,000 hours.

No industrial or outdoor luminaires should be designed without considering the longevity and robustness of the LEDs themselves. In these applications, exposure to everything from sulfur, smog, humidity, and heat, can affect the entire system. Lumileds has specifically engineered its 5050 LEDs to minimize risks of failure or premature degradation.

Continued Development

As global energy costs continue to increase, efficiency gains pay increasing dividends to end-users and communities that need to lower municipal costs, reduce energy consumption, and support sustainability goals. All these objectives can now be achieved while also addressing dark sky initiatives.

“As communities continue to develop outdoor lighting guidelines and as alternative energy models come online, Lumileds will continue to develop and evolve the LUXEON 5050 line so as to provide OEMs with the ability to meet and exceed the increasingly granular requirements put forward by customers,” said Mei Yi, Director of Product Marketing at Lumileds.