Packaged LED news: Lumileds expands 5050, Cuvée, and Seoul

Lumileds has announced the Luxeon 5050 HE addition to its 5×5-mm LED portfolio that increases maximum efficacy to 181 lm/W and that expands options for LEDs in outdoor lighting and horticultural lighting applications. The Luminus solid-state lighting (SSL) marcom division has announced new compact drivers from Cuvée Systems, a company with close ties to Luminus Devices and the company’s packaged LEDs. Seoul Semiconductor has announced an interesting range of partners for SunLike and also excellent quarterly financial results for Seoul Viosys.

Lumileds 5050 HE

The Luxeon 5050 family is a series of packaged LEDs targeting typical high-power applications yet that have adopted packaging technologies originating in the mid-power LED space. The company originally launched the Luxeon 5050 family back in 2018 with the option of models that featured round and square light-emitting surface (LES) areas. Subsequently, the company announced an upgrade to the round LES components back in 2020 that saw a modest 2–3% increase in lumen output. Now the company has an all-new component design in the Luxeon 5050 HE that has delivered an efficacy boost of around 6% to 181 lm/W when characterized in the 4000K–5000K CCT range.

While the efficacy gain is small, Lumileds points out that such gains help deliver return on investment (ROI) for customers sooner. “Driving ever higher efficacy levels supports sustainability objectives and it reduces payback cycles,” said Mei Yi, product line manager at Lumileds. “The new Luxeon 5050 HE delivers 181 lm/W or more and allows for billing of materials cost reduction while maintaining the robustness and longevity expected from an Luxeon LED.”

Initially, the 5050 HE parts are available in 70-CRI versions. We’d expect that to change over time as both the original square and round versions are now sold in 70-, 80-, and 90-CRI options. The new components span 2200K to 6500K in CCT. All of the LEDs in the original and new collections use multiple emitters integrated in a discrete package. The original square LEDs are offered in 6V or 30V versions, while the round models are offered in 6V and 24V models. The new square models come in 6V and 24V models.

Specifically, Lumileds has said the 5050 HE LEDs will target demanding outdoor applications such as street lights and even sports venue lighting. The company will further offer the parts to horticultural applications. Lumileds’ online data set delivers efficacy specifications both in human-visual SSL units and in horticultural units or photosynthetic photon flux (PPF) relative to input power characterized in µmol/J. The components are treated for use in high-sulfur environments and are part of Lumileds’ hot binning program that tests chromaticity at typical operating temperature.

Cuvée and Luminus

Meanwhile, Cuvée and Luminus continue their close relationship with the latter LED manufacturer selling driver ICs made by the former. The new DRW-NLT series of ICs target compact SSL applications including downlights, tracklights, spotlights, and sconces. The 120V drivers offer phase-cut dimming support, and the companies say the performance ensures less than 3% flicker over the entire dimming range.

“This new series of drivers enables a new level of miniaturization in fixture design, while also providing architectural grade performance with superior flicker and phase cut dimming,” said Cuvée CEO Ray Chock. The drivers combined with Luminus chip-on-board (COB) LEDs are backed by a five-year warranty. “Our customers leverage the tiny form factor to build smaller luminaires, and they also enjoy peace of mind knowing that a series of lights on one dimmer will match perfectly, even at low dimming levels,” said Tom Jory, vice president of illumination marketing at Luminus.

Seoul and partners

Now let’s swap focus a bit and consider end products in the SSL application space and a truly broad range of usage. Seoul Semiconductor has targeted a wide range of SSL applications for the SunLike family since the release several years back, and just last week we wrote about new research on lighting for health and wellbeing benefits relative to the family.

Still, we didn’t expect a press release touting the use of SunLike LEDs in a vivarium, even though such a reptile enclosure would surely benefit from a spectrum that mimics sunlight. Nonetheless, Germany-based Oase has launched biOrb vivariums that integrate SunLike LEDs.

“Seoul Semiconductor’s SunLike Series natural spectrum LEDs have two beneficial effects in contrast to conventional LEDs for animals,” said Oliver Schaefer, Europe executive vice president of Seoul. “There is the right amount of cyan 490-nm wavelength to stimulate them during the day, and there is no blue energy in the night to calm and prepare the animals to sleep like the real day/night cycle”.

Back to the human space, Seoul said recently that 19 models of Sun@Home lamps manufactured by LEDvance were based on SunLike LEDs. Those products will presumably deliver circadian benefits to adults and perhaps more importantly children. Moreover, the Seoul Viosys UV-centric spinout of Seoul Semiconductor announced over 8% sales growth in the third quarter of 2021 and KRW 130.6 billion (US$1.1 million) in sales.

LEDs Magazine chief editor MAURY WRIGHT is an electronics engineer turned technology journalist, who has focused specifically on the LED & Lighting industry for the past decade.

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