LED-C Bridges The LED Color Gap (photo: LBI)
One of the drawbacks in using LEDs for broad applications is the limited number of light colors available. But Oregon-based Light Beam Industries has introduced a method for producing a potentially unlimited spectrum of LED lighting with their LED-C technology.
LED-C stands for light emitting diode converter. An LED can be embedded in the LED-C polymer material, which absorbs the light and re-emits it at a different wavelength. Light Beam Industries states that all of the energy from the source LED can be transferred, with shorter wavelengths of light being absorbed and converted to longer wavelengths.
Traditional LEDs can[ch8217]t produce truly white light, but instead rely on multiple LEDs to blend primary colors, or they use phosphors to convert blue or UV light. In contrast, a single LED using the LED-C material can produce white light ranging from 3000-6000 K, with none of the degradation that affects phosphors.
The LED-C material could also prove valuable for creating vivid colors for instrument displays while still using low power LEDs. Precise color matching is also possible, such as for brand logos in advertising applications. And by layering the LED-C material, a single diode can produce three or more unique colors of light.
The LED-C material is designed to be durable as well. The polymer has a projected lifespan of up to 100,000 hours [ch8211] well beyond the life of most LEDs. And embedding the solid-state LED in the material creates what the manufacturer calls a [ch8220]monolithic component[ch8221] that can completely fill any gap in the LED light spectrum.
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