SSL product developers can learn about the difficulty of working with LED sources and about ray-tracing software in a recent LEDs Magazine Webcast.
On Thursday,June 21,Mark Nicholson,vice president of the Zemax Group at Radiant Zemax,presented a Webcast entitled"Speed product development with innovative illumination design software."The presentation included an excellent description of the obstacles solid-state lighting(SSL)product developers face when working with LED sources.
The Webcast,still available at the above link,also covered modeling software that uses ray-tracing technology that SSL developers can use to accurately predict product performance without building expensive prototypes.Radiant Zemax has an extensive set of precision models for readily-available packaged LEDs.
The early part of the presentation revealed that while LEDs seem like a relatively simple source,they are actually much more complex than legacy sources.Different LEDs provide vastly different light patterns.
Nicholson showed a photo of an LED in the on state,and the source looks like a fairly uniform one.In reality that`s not typically the case and the irregularity can greatly impact end SSL products.
For example,Nicholson showed a close up,magnified image of a widely-used LED in the on state.The brightest areas were at the edges of the package as opposed to the center.
Nicholson also showed a photo of a multi-emitter RGBW(red,green,blue,and white)packaged LED array.The domed lens used in the package resulting in a distortion of the shape of the individual emitters–especially in the center of the array.You can see the distortion when the LED is in the off state,via a close-up photo looking into the dome.The distortion is evident in the projected light when the LED is turned on.
If you missed the Webcast,register and take a quick look at the archive.You will learn about the basics of light-modeling software,and you will learn quite a bit about LED sources.
