News Article
Lumileds Leads LED Lighting to “Freedom From Binning”
New advances promising an unsurpassed quality of light, will dramatically simplify the design process for LED solutions and mark the beginning of the end of colour bin charts for white LEDs.
Philips Lumileds have announced an industry breakthrough that will relieve luminaire manufacturers’ and lighting designers’ concerns over white light consistency and uniformity.
With Philips Lumileds vision for Freedom From Binning, white LUXEON emitters will be so uniform and consistent that there will be no colour bin selections. Buyers of the new LEDs, initially released at CCTs of 2700K and 3000K with others to follow, will receive LUXEON LEDs that are already tested and binned at real-world operating conditions so that their performance for colour, light output, and efficacy are already known. Lumileds will proliferate Freedom From Binning through new product introductions this year and into the future.
“At random, I can lay a thousand of these new LUXEONs in a straight line and the consistency and colour quality from LED to LED will be as good or better as what you would see with many of the bulbs in use today, said Michael Holt, CEO of Philips Lumileds. “The lighting industry has yearned for quality of light, simplicity of design, and more efficient light sources in mass quantities and reasonable costs that enable solutions that improve on what’s possible with conventional lamps. By combining our unique TFFC and Lumiramic phosphor technologies with new manufacturing capabilities that allow us to ‘hot’ test and colour bin, Philips Lumileds’ Freedom From Binning is charting a new course for the LED manufacturing industry to follow and moving us ever closer to the lighting industry.”
The lighting community will want to look at LED performance information in a new way as a result of these advancements. Although typical datasheets present data for LEDs at 25°C, it’s well know that the actual operating temperature is closer to 85°C (sometimes higher) and that the performance numbers reported are essentially overstated. LUXEON products that offer Freedom From Binning are tested at 85°C so that the actual colour point and performance numbers are known.
“We sacrifice the marketing value of higher lumen and efficacy numbers for accuracy and confidence,” said Holt. “We can calculate performance at lower temperatures but that would defeat the point and potentially mislead.” Most datasheets from LED manufacturers include the information required to understand performance at elevated temperatures and the industry is able to make real-world comparisons between products.
Philips Lumileds will release its first product to feature Freedom From Binning this week at Strategies in Light. Colour selections will consist simply of a CCT designation, centred on the black body curve at hot (real-world) conditions. As new LUXEON products are introduced for the lighting industry, Philips Lumileds will expand its Freedom From Binning program.
