Soraa Inc of Fremont, CA, USA, which develops solid-state lighting technology built on ‘GaN on GaN’ (gallium nitride on gallium nitride) substrates, has received the ‘red dot award: product design 2013’ for its full-visible-spectrum VIVID LED MR16 lamp.
The red dot is an international prize for design quality, resulting from one of the world’s largest design competitions. The competition’s jury honors products that set themselves apart significantly from comparable products in design innovation, functionality and ecological compatibility. In 2013, the jury received 4662 entries from 54 countries.
Soraa says that many LED lamps based on first-generation, foreign-substrate LEDs must overcome significant thermal management and optical hurdles, because they require multiple light sources that must be kept cool in order to generate enough light and last long. Consequently, the look of these lamps usually reflects transitional design strategies that are less than optimal, such as the ‘shower head’ face and optics, and sometimes a mechanical fan, adds the firm.
“The product was designed from the inside out to maximize the performance of our unique GaN-on-GaN technology,” says CEO Eric Kim. Soraa’s lamp design is organized around a single, small, bright LED light source combined with a single optic and heat-sink.
The design is possible because the GaN-on-GaN LEDs emit up to ten times more light per unit area and tolerate much higher temperatures than first-generation LEDs, it is claimed. The organic fin geometry heat-sink has a tiny core and more fins at the edge, maximizing thermal transfer; the ‘Origami’ driver circuit, designed with electronic components used in automotive and other extreme temperature environments, enables highly efficient thermal dissipation; and the LED light source is directly attached to the heat-sink without intermediate circuit boards, increasing power density and lowering cost, the firm claims. The overall result is an LED MR16 lamp that produces 50W-halogen-equivalent light output and operates reliably at lamp temperatures of up to 120°C (a requirement for reliable operation in the most constrained fixtures).
