SANTA CLARA, USA: By improving all the technologies involved in the manufacture of LEDs, OSRAM development engineers have achieved new records for the brightness and efficiency of white LEDs in the laboratory.

Under standard conditions with an operating current of 350 mA, brightness peaked at a value of 155 lm, and efficiency at 136 lm/W. In generating these results, researchers used white prototype LEDs with 1 mm-square chips. The light produced had a color temperature of 5000K, with color coordinates at 0.349/0.393 (cx/cy).

The key to OSRAM's success was the efficient interplay among all the advances made in materials and technologies. A perfectly matched system of optimized chip technology, a highly advanced and extremely efficient light converter, and a special high-performance package all combined to produce the world record performance results.

Potential applications for this high-performance LED technology include general illumination, the automotive sector, and any application that calls for large, high-power LEDs. These semiconductor light sources are also suitable for high operating currents. At 1.4 A, they can produce up to 500 lm of white light. This means that in the future the LEDs can also be used for projection applications as blue and green chip versions.

Dr. Rüdiger Müller, CEO at OSRAM Opto Semiconductors, said: "It was the successful convergence of OSRAM know-how in different fields that led to these new records in efficiency and brightness. Starting with the light converter, we will be gradually moving these new developments into production."

OSRAM has already applied for patents for the technologies that lie behind these world record performance levels.