Osram Opto debuts cost-effective LED for outdoor SSL applications

Osram Opto Semiconductors has announced a new high-power packaged LED family for outdoor applications that is cost optimized for outdoor luminaires where high flux output and high reliability are required. Osram calls the Osconiq C 2424 chip-scale package (CSP) LEDs, but in fact the devices utilize evolved mid-power package technology and high-power chips. Still, like CSP LEDs, the new Osram products can be densely packed in arrays to deliver uniform beam patterns.

There is no precise definition of a CSP LED. Tenets include a package-lite device in which the package footprint and the size of the LED emitter (the semiconductor chip) are essentially the same. Moreover, CSP technology is intended to enable most of the manufacturing process to take place at the wafer level to minimize costs associated with traditional packages and the back-end manufacturing steps in legacy high-power LEDs.

We have covered CSP devices going back to the middle of the prior decade. Moreover, we published a column questioning the benefits of the concept. Today the penetration rate has yet to meet expectations, although the devices are popular in display backlight units, automotive headlamps, and with select luminaire manufacturers that have advanced manufacturing lines.

What Osram has surely mastered over the past few years is leveraging low-cost, mid-power packaging technology with high-power chips to enable lower system cost. Meanwhile, the company’s advanced packaging technology offers reliability near that of ceramic-based packages used traditionally with high-power chips. Back in the 2016/2017 timeframe, the company launched the Duris P family of devices that looked like legacy high-power LEDs yet used an epoxy-based substrate. The company’s participation in the automotive lighting industry drove the development of such material systems.

The Osconiq C 2424 will again provide cost benefits relative to performance. “The quality of our LEDs is as important to our customers as our ability to create lighting solutions that reduce their overall system costs,” said Mike Martens, senior product manager at Osram Opto Semiconductors in North America. “Within its compact design, the Osconiq C 2424 does both, all the while providing long-lasting performance with a high level of brightness and efficiency.”

As the product model number implies, the packaged LEDs have a footprint of 2.4×2.4 mm. The chip footprint and light-emitting surface is 2.1×2.1 mm. So it’s not a true CSP device. The company said the thin sidewalls do add structural integrity for surface-mount technology assembly on automated lines.

The LEDs are manufactured on Osram’s UX:3 technology process. That platform is a flip-chip technology and the growth substrate is removed in the back end of the process so the light is emitted from the top surface, minimizing the need for light extraction features.

The UX:3 platform also means that since the light is top-surface emitted, the package doesn’t need a reflecting cavity. Instead, Osram integrates an electrostatic-discharge (ESD) device under the emitter in the package. The ESD device is a diode that serves to increase reliability in applications where luminaires are subject to lightning strikes. Osram claims that no other CSP-class LED includes integrated ESD protection.

That brings us back to the CSP moniker. While the new LED is not a true CSP device, Osram is quick to compare it to CSP devices. The company said the Osconiq C 2424 offers better color-over-angle performance than any CSP LED in the market. And the slight difference between package and emitter footprint still delivers the uniformity CSP arrays are known for.

Osram will offer the new LEDs in 70-, 80-, and 90-CRI versions over a broad CCT range. Typical flux at 700 mA of drive current ranges from 218 lm at 90 CRI to 328 lm at 70 CRI. Efficacy over the same range goes from 111 lm/W to 167 lm/W.

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