Thomas Cheng-Hsin Yuan

An Integrated Solid-State LED Luminaire for General Lighting

A strong systems approach to designing and building practical LED-based replacement lamps is lacking. The general method of taking high-performance LEDs and marrying them to standard printed circuit boards, drivers and a heat sink has fallen short of the promise of LED lighting. In this program, a top-down assessment of requirements and a bottom-up reinvention of LED sources, electronics, optics and mechanics have resulted in the highest performance lamp possible. The team, comprised of Color Kinetics, the leaders in LED lighting and Cree, the leaders in LED devices took an approach to reinvent the package, the driver and the overall form and aesthetic of a replacement source. The challenge was to create a new benchmark in LED lighting - the resultant lamp, a PAR38 equivalent, met the light output, color, color quality and efficacy marks set out in the program as well as being dimmable, which is important for market acceptance. The approach combined the use of multiple source die, a chip-on-board approach, a very efficient driver topology, the use of both direct emission and phosphor conversion, and a unique faceted optic to avoid the losses, artifacts and hotspots of lensed approaches. The integral heat sink provided a mechanical base and airflow using a chimney-effect for use in a wide variety of locations and orientations. These research results led to a much better understanding of the system effects of component level technologies. It was clear that best-of-breed sub-system results do not necessarily result in the best end result for the complete system. In doing this work, we did not neglect the practical aspects of these systems. These were not rarified results and commercially impractical but lent themselves to eventual commercial products in the marketplace. The end result - a high performance replacement lamp - will save significant energy while providing a high-quality light source.