Lighting is a Team Sport
We’d be stating the obvious if we said that there are few, if any, one-size fits all solutions in this world. But there you have it. Starbucks proves this in a claim on their website that there are more than 170,000 ways for patrons to customize their beverages. While we’ve not counted all the ways to use an LED with a 3535 footprint, we suspect the number is high.
Since Lumileds introduced its first 3535 package in 2013, the format has become a de-facto standard, widely adopted in a variety of outdoor, industrial, and portable applications and solutions.
Recognizing that OEMs need different optical, power, thermal, and efficiency options in this format, Lumileds has developed three high-power LUXEON options that make it more straightforward for OEMs to offer tiered performance in a single luminaire, offer a range of luminaires with differing value propositions, or replace another 3535 LED with any one of Lumileds’ options as a way to expand an existing line and or ensure leading reliability and performance.
When Lumileds undertakes the development of a new LED, it does so with specific applications in mind. Chip and package design, optical and thermal performance, output and efficacy are all engineered to produce the best in-application results. As a result, the optical performance, quality of light, color over angle, thermal characteristics, ability to withstand the elements, output, efficacy, and more contribute positively to the finished luminaire’s performance.
The LUXEON “3535” Team
When introduced in 2020, the LUXEON HL2X found immediate traction in street and parking lighting. Thanks to its high light output, superior color over angle, and optical efficiency that maximized the lumen output for the application, the LUXEON HL2X immediately offered an efficiency advantage at the luminaire level. With life testing at both mild and severe conditions covering many thousands of hours at its launch, LUXEON HL2X increased the confidence level for long term application color and light output stability.
More recently, Lumileds introduced both the LUXEON HL4X and the LUXEON HL4Z. Both LEDs share the 3535 footprint with LUXEON HL2X and can even use the same optics in some cases thereby making it extremely easy to upgrade a luminaire’s performance or to quickly create multiple performance levels for a luminaire.
LUXEON HL4X, like the LUXEON HL2X is a domed emitter intended for outdoor, industrial, and portable applications. The LUXEON HL4Z is un-domed power LED, so it doesn’t share the optical characteristics of the other two. Instead, it shines in applications that require very high intensity and superior efficacy. Typically, engineers must make a tradeoff between optimizing optical design and achieving high efficacy. LUXEON HL4Z addresses this dilemma. At maximum current and in application conditions, the undomed LED delivers tremendous intensity – over 1400lm – from its surface and can operate at an impressive 189lm/W.
Perhaps the simplest example of how these three LEDs can support a single application is the case of a torch or flashlight. In the example below it is easy to see how the performance of an identical torch and reflector can result in three distinct performance envelopes. Depending on the desired performance, cost and market targets, a single solution design could be supported by this team of LEDs.
Certainly, a powerful case for the use of this trio of LEDs in torch lighting is easy to make. The significant advantages this team offers to OEMs, and ultimately end-use customers, is in the more complicated and nuanced world of high-power lighting in stadiums, on roadways, pathways, and industrial lighting such as high and low-bay environments. In use cases like these, the ability to utilize LEDs with a common footprint and achieve optimal application performance can lower design and manufacturing costs and speed time to market.
Lumileds high-power LEDs that share the 3535 footprint are essentially “starters”, top-notch options that perform individually and that provide OEMs the flexibility to address opportunities that lead to greater success with their clients.
© 2024 Luger Research e.U. – Institute for Innovation & Technology
