LED hits new record for lumens-per-watt

LED maker Cree, Inc. says it measured an industry-best efficacy record of 231 lumens/watt for a white power LED. This result is a significant advance beyond Cree's previous industry record.

The catch is, this level of performance is not yet available in Cree's production LEDs.

Cree reports the reading came from a single-die component at a correlated color temperature of 4500 K. Standard room temperature 350 mA testing was used to get the results.

"It wasn't long ago when 200 lumens per watt was considered the theoretical maximum efficiency for an LED. We broke that barrier in 2010, and have now achieved 231 lumens per watt," said John Edmond, Cree co-founder and director of advanced optoelectronics. "The innovation from our labs is the foundation for our industry-leading XLamp LED family and an invention that continues our leadership of the LED lighting revolution."

This R&D result features advanced aspects of the same technology used in Cree XLamp white LEDs.

More info: www.cree.com