Cree’s most powerful 5mm LED

Cree has crammed up to 2,250 lm capability into a 5x5mm LED – achieved at 19W.

The LED is called XHP50, the first in a family of XHP lighting LEDs.

“At its maximum current, the XHP50 provides twice the light output of the industry’s brightest single-die LED, the XM-L2 LED, at a similar lumens per watt and without increasing the package footprint.” said Cree.

Cree may be making an error here as Luminus’ single die SST-90, for example, is rated up to 2,700 lm.

From the information available to Electronics Weekly, XHP LEDs are four-die devices, with an innovative footprint that allows the same LED to be used in ‘6V’ and ’12V’ circuits simply by changing the PCB pattern (see diagram).

L90, the lifetime until the output of an LED drops to 90% of its initial output, is 50,000 hours for the XHP family, and operation is allowed up to 105C. Cree has not yet said if 50,000h L90 is predicted at 105C, or at a lower temperature.

The company is pitching the LED against the use of multiple mid-power LEDs, and claims that LED price is no longer dominating the cost of making a luminair or replacement bulb.

It argues:

• High temperature operation (105 rather than 85C) cuts the heatsink cost.
• Long lumen maintenance means fewer LEDs for a given end of life performance.
• Optics can be smaller for a given beam with a small intense source.
• A small powerful LED needs a smaller PCB than many mid-power LED.
• Small heatsinks, PCBs and optics, and fewer LEDs, reduces assembly cost.

For more detail: Cree’s most powerful 5mm LED