Cree Inc. has rolled out what it calls a new class of light emitting diode (LED) for lighting based on SC5 technology that the company claims can reduce system costs up to 40 percent in most applications.
The Extreme High Power (XHP) LEDs is built on Cree’s SC5 silicon carbide technology featuring significant advancements in epitaxial structure, chip architecture and advanced light conversion for best optical and thermal performance, Cree said. The XHP LEDs provides a longer lifetime at higher operating temperatures than previous LED technology--reducing thermal, mechanical and optical costs in the system, Cree said.
Chuck Swoboda, chairman and CEO of Cree, said in a statement the SC5 technology doubles the lumens out of a single LED, giving lighting OEMs the ability to significantly lower cost systems. He added that the XHP LEDs set a new benchmark for LED lumens per wafer. “This also validates our belief that high-power LED technology enables the best lighting system designs and a better lighting experience for end customers,” Swoboda said.
The first available family of XHP LEDs is the XLamp XHP50 LED with up to 2250 lumens at 19 watts. At its maximum current, the LED will deliver twice the light output of the industry’s brightest single-die LED at a similar lumens per watt, Cree said. The LED is designed to last 50,000 hours.
Dave Emerson, VP and GM of Cree LEDs, said in the same statement that LEDs are “no longer the most expensive portion of an LED lighting system” and that now they can “fundamentally determine the overall system performance and cost.”
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