When the luminous efficacy of LED light sources reaches 303 lm/W, what can we do?

　　Recently, U.S.-based Cree (Nasdaq: CREE) announced that its white power LED laboratory luminous efficacy has reached 303 lm/W. This is another landmark R&D achievement following last year's release of 276 lm/W, once again dazzling the industry.

　　What kind of impact will breaking the 300 lm/W efficacy barrier bring to the LED lighting industry? 303 lm/W elevates the performance ceiling of LEDs and will further drive improvements in various aspects of LED lighting performance, including luminous efficacy, light output, and light quality. It will not only bring about a new generation of LED lighting solutions with smaller sizes, higher lighting performance, better lighting quality, lower system costs, and better thermal performance. Most importantly, let's talk about the improvement in thermal performance. Under the current backdrop of pursuing higher heat dissipation effects, if two LED light sources with 100 LM/W and 300 LM/W are used to achieve the same light output, then the heat sink of the LED light source with 300 LM/W efficacy can be reduced even more. At that time, the total weight of the entire luminaire will be much lighter. Imagine that this result will give designers more form design space and a lighter experience, and will bring the lighting industry an influence beyond all previous lighting industries.

　　As an innovative emerging technology, LED lighting technology, driven by technological innovation, will redefine the lighting industry and people's lives. High-luminous-efficacy LED packaging devices can clearly bring more significant energy savings, thereby having a very positive effect on environmental protection. At the same time, based on high-luminous-efficacy LED packaging devices, high light quality can be achieved, bringing people a better lighting experience while being more energy-efficient than previous generations of technology.

　　This new light efficacy record was measured under standard room temperature, 5150K color temperature, and 350mA drive current conditions. It has been praised by internationally renowned LED industry expert Professor Steven DenBaars, Director of the Solid State Lighting and Energy Center at UC Santa Barbara: "303 lm/W is a remarkable achievement! Achieving this level of LED efficacy will expand the potential of the solid-state lighting industry, deliver smaller-size and lower-cost lighting solutions, and even achieve energy savings more significant than expected."

　　Cree refreshes LED efficacy records every year, and with the release of the latest 303 lm/W data, there are some different voices in the industry. Among them, some industry participants speculate: "At Cree's pace of releasing new efficacy levels, will they release 333 lm/W by 2015?" However, scientific research is rigorous, continuous, and accumulative work that progresses from quantitative to qualitative changes. It is precisely because Cree invests nearly 12% of its global annual revenue in R&D each year, and because hundreds or thousands of high-quality R&D personnel have dedicated decades of diligent exploration and innovation, that Cree has achieved continuous and comprehensive improvements in LED performance, including efficacy.

　　Persistence lies in further improving LED performance through relentless innovation, providing higher-level LED packaging devices for lighting manufacturers, delivering LED lighting solutions with higher cost-effectiveness for the industry, and committing to achieving 100% LED applications.

　　The new generation of LED packaging products can simultaneously meet the high light efficacy and high light quality required for different lighting applications, without compromising performance.

　　"The effective combination of high light efficacy and light quality can bring people a more comfortable lighting experience and more noticeable energy-saving effects. At the same time, high light efficacy can lead to smaller-sized lighting product solutions, thereby giving LED lighting design more flexibility than traditional lighting, helping lighting designers break through existing thinking limitations, opening up design ideas, and thus bringing more new applications. This is also the foundation for LED to further survive and develop after completing the replacement market."