Philips Lumileds upgrades the Rebel family with products that improve performance by 15%, while Osram Opto Semiconductor announces a multi-chip LED for outdoor display applications.
The Osram Opto Semiconductor Displix LEDs combine red, green, and blue (RGB) emitters and are designed for the environmental extremes of outdoor lighting and displays. Philips Lumileds, meanwhile, announced the Luxeon Rebel Plus family that is compatible mechanically and optically with the prior Rebel LEDs, and yields 15% better performance in solid-state lighting (SSL) applications.
Luxeon Rebel Plus
Philips Rebel Plus
"We understand the economic requirements driving LED adoption and Rebel Plus is designed to deliver higher LED efficacy which drives system level efficiency and helps to reduce costs," said Raj Malhotra, Philips Lumileds product line manager." SSL manufacturers should be able to quickly adopt the new single-emitter LEDs because they can fit in existing designs that use Rebel LEDs."
The Rebel Plus is encapsulated in Philips' standard 4530 ceramic-based package with a 2.5-mm dome that is compatible with existing optics. Philips offers the Plus modes over a range of 2700K to 5000K CCTs, and with a CRI of 80.
Philips says that the new LEDs will deliver SSL products with system efficacy as high as 110 lm/W. Moreover, the LEDs are hot tested and binned at 85°C and offered in 3- or 5-step MacAdam ellipse bins. Malhotra added, "With the launch of Rebel Plus, we offer our customers a Freedom from Binning, illumination-grade LED with a significant performance upgrade using the existing Rebel platform."
Philips did not address the Energy Star ramifications of an upgraded product line. In some cases Energy Star reduces the required LM-80 testing period of LED components to 3000 hrs for follow-on products to LEDs that have previously been tested at the 6000-hr level. Philips didn't respond to a question about whether that reduction would apply in the case of the Rebel Plus.
Osram Displix
Moving to the RGB Displix, Osram is offering the LEDs in a Displix Black version with a black package and reflector and a Displix Blackprint version with a white package, black overprinting, and white reflector. The Displix Black LEDs output 1450 mcd at the 6504K white point, referred to as D65, while drawing 30 mA. The Blackprint version ups the output to 2950 mcd.
Osram Displix Black
The new LEDs measure 4.5×4.5×2.1 mm, and are designed to be densely packed in a display application. The multi-chip design means that product designers don't have to closely pack separate red, green and blue LEDs.
Tighter spacing means finer pixels and higher resolutions. "People are more and more used to seeing HD images in their homes and on HD compatible devices so the requirements placed on outdoor displays are changing," said Sven Weber, marketing manager for LED displays at Osram. "The two new Displix versions enable long-life displays with high resolution, high intensity and excellent contrast to be produced for a wide variety of applications."
Osram provided a long list of environmental standards to which the Displix products conform. For example, the products comply with MIL-STD-810F for tolerance to blowing rain and to MIL-810G for tolerance to salt and fog. The LEDs can also withstand corrosive gases and exposure to direct sun light. Osram says that LED life can be in excess of 100,000 hrs depending on temperature.
