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greenpowerZONE Products for the week of April 28, 2008
Avago Technologies Says…
Moonstone High-Power LED Light Strip, Ring and Round Modules Target Architectural, Backlighting and General Lighting Applications
Low-profile high power LED modules feature robust package design, high flux output and plug-and-play installation
Avago Technologies, a leading supplier of analog interface components for communications, industrial and consumer applications, today announced a new series of thin plug-and-play high power cool white and warm white LED modules for use in architectural, backlighting, decorative, garden, and reading light applications. Avago’s ADJD-WMxx/YMxx Moonstone LED series features a light strip, ring and round modules to meet the diverse needs of lighting application designers. Available in one of the industry’s thinnest packages these modules provide customers with many design options and ease of assembly.
The input power for Avago’s ADJD-WMxx/YMxx high power modules range from 1W to 15W and are capable of delivering up to 1140 lumens to provide exceptional lumens per Watt efficiency. This new series of high power LED modules from Avago targets designers of lighting fixtures such as architectural facade lighting, task and reading lights, accent lighting and billboard backlighting. Other applications include safety, exit and emergency sign lighting, illumination in vending machines, refrigeration lighting, retail lighting and illumination for machine vision equipment.
LEDs are increasingly being used for solid state lighting applications. As a result, lighting equipment manufacturers are constantly in need of LED packages that are brighter, more robust and reliable. Lighting designers, especially those who are converting from conventional light sources to LED-based solutions are always looking for high power LEDs that are competitively priced and easy to use – preferably with plug-and-play features.
Avago’s ADJD-WMxx/YMxx high power Moonstone LED modules also provide better lifetime robustness and reliability compared to conventional light sources. They are mounted on a metal-core printed circuit board (PCB) to make thermal management easy. Moreover, the wide radiation patterns provided by these LED modules are ideal for illuminating a wide area.
The LEDs used in Avago’s ADJD-WMxx/YMxx high power modules are encapsulated in a heat and UV resistant silicone compound for high reliability and long life. These competitively priced cool white and warm white high power LED modules provide designers of solid-state lighting applications with a wide viewing angle and superior heat dissipation. The number of LEDs that can be mounted on to the metal core PCB of the ADJD-WMxx/YMxx modules range from 1 to 12 LEDs to meet the different lighting output requirement of designers.
Avago’s ADJD-WMxx/YMxx high power LED modules series come with two options of white – cool white (color temperature of 4,000K to 10,000K) and warm white (color temperatures of 2,600K to 4,000K).
Features
- Plug-and-play assembly for ease of installation
- High light output up to 1140lm with cool white
- Low profile height
- Smooth wide radiation pattern
- Integrated metal heat sink to simplify thermal management design for efficient heat dissipation
- Long operating life
- High reliability package due to enhanced silicone resin material
- Low thermal resistance
- Pb-Free and RoHS compliant
EN-Genius Says…
Since Avago has done all the optical engineering to ensure you get a radiation pattern that’s as clean and evenly-distributed as a comparable fluorescent, it’s no wonder that I was itching to put them to work in a half-dozen projects around my home and office. Their clean spectral characteristics, built-in heatsinks and convenient form factors take most of the fuss out of shoehorning a multi-element HBLED array into a lamp, ceiling fixture, or anywhere else you need a compact, energy-efficient light source. Thanks to the samples furnished by the kind folks at Avago’s applications support center, I got some hands-on experience that has made me very pleased with the products and very optimistic with the future of solid-state lighting.
 Selecting a few samples from the wide assortment of form factors and options was difficult. Avago offers a family of light strips containing three, four, six, nine, or twelve 1 W LEDs, with each emitter delivering a nominal 45 - 60 lumens. They also offer two circular arrays containing seven or eight LEDs whose 100 mm diameter makes them a good candidate for dropping into many existing lamp designs. While most of the strips require a constant current source (usually 350 mA), the three and six element strips can be ordered with integrated resistors so they can be driven off a simple 12 V supply.
The one thing I knew I wanted were examples of their so-called warm white technology that puts out light in the yellow/red-rich 2500 – 4000ºK range to see if it was more pleasant for everyday tasks than the sexy, but somewhat sterile blue-white (4000 - 10,000ºK) spectrum that their standard units (and most other white HBLEDs) throw off. If the warm white LEDs really threw a spectrum that comes anywhere near the warm range of incandescent bulbs, it would be worth the 10% - 20% lower illumination efficiency that the warm white devices deliver.
 I also wanted a sample of one of their resistor-equipped arrays so I could get at least one module running without the hassle of building up a constant current power supply. After a bit of wrangling, Avago sent me an ADJD-WM01 three LED cool white array with integrated resistors and two large (nine and twelve LED) warm white strips.
I was not disappointed when the UPS truck arrived with my samples. The module LEDs are mounted on a sturdy aluminum substrate, leaving one with little to do other than to bolt it down at the pre-cut attach points and hook up a Tyco 173977-2 female connector with the appropriate power supply behind it. Since I did not have a constant current source built up yet, I pulled a recycled 12 V supply from my junk bin and fired up the 3-LED strip. It rewarded me with a pleasant, even glow that was surprisingly bright considering the 4 W that it was drawing (3 W in the LEDs, plus about a watt in the current-limiting resistors). Burning off the extra watt in the current limiting resistors does not produce an optimally green solution, but it got something up and running quickly for this review and it’s still a pretty good lumen/watt proposition compared to a regular lamp.
After a few minutes the module seemed to reach thermal equilibrium at something around 140 – 150ºF, making it a tad warm to the touch. Although the application notes made no mention of any additional heatsinking requirements, I checked with one of Avago’s apps engineers who told me that they are designed to run as-is in most conditions. Given the rugged nature of the modules, I suspect that this is fine in spaces where the modules will have even a small bit of convective cooling and are not running in high ambient temperatures. Nevertheless, attaching them to your chassis or other convenient chunk of metal if it’s available would probably a good idea if the option is available.
Once assured that the array would not fry itself, I wasted no time routing a few wires and rigging a simple mount on the alcove above my desk. Now in place, it provides some much-needed light to the area of my desk I use for sorting papers, writing checks, and other non-computer tasks. The cool white light it casts is very similar to a fluorescent lamp and is fine for doing paperwork but I am still curious about what the warm white light looks like.
If time permits, I’m hoping to drive the big LED strips with one of the more energy-efficient switch-mode linear current mode supplies described in Avago’s Application Note #5310. If it’s too time-consuming to build or I can’t find the parts, the same app note also has several less-efficient but much simpler linear supplies I can build up. Things are a bit too busy for the next couple of weeks to get much lab time for either design but when I do get a supply cobbled together, I’ll post a follow-up piece if there’s anything interesting to note.
Even my limited hands-on experience with the Moonstone strips indicates that it’s a mature, very practical family of products that will help move energy-efficient solid-state lighting towards acceptance in mainstream applications. At around $30 - 40 for a nine LED strip that provides the rough equivalent of a 60 W incandescent, the price is still significantly higher than a 15 W compact fluorescent bulb with roughly equivalent efficiency but Moonstone 50,000+ hour nominal life evens up the total cost considerably. When you add in the fact that LEDs contain none of the mercury compounds used in CFLs, products like Moonstone begin to look like a veritable bargain.
Production quantities of all Moonstone modules are available now. ADJD-WMxx/YMxx LEDs are priced from $3.50 to $60 each for low quantities depending on the number of LEDs mounted onto the module.
Volume pricing for the ADJD-YM40-NJJZ012-LED light strip is $57.81 in 100-999 piece quantities. Volume pricing for Moonstone ring and round modules ranges from $3.50 to $60 each depending on the customer’s specific needs.
Data Sheet (includes information for all three module styles)
Moonstone Twelve LED Light Strip Product Page
Moonstone Light Ring Product Page
Moonstone Light Round Product Page
Application Note (AN-5310)
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