The brigthest white led existing (in a lab environment, not on the shelves) is a 5 watt led, equivalent to a 10W ligthbulb, yay
Lumileds' 5W Luxeon emitter is commercially available (that is to say it is on the shelves) but sadly the lifetime is indeed very short due to the excessive amount of power they are pumping through that poor little die. I am informed that this problem is being solved.
As for applications...you can expect to start seeing LED front-lighting on high-end vehicles in the 05-06 model years. They will only be fog-lamps but it's a start. It is important to note that light-conversion efficiencies are not the only determining factor in the application of LEDs. The usage of cool, compact LED sources will allow styling options not currently available in the automotive market. Remember...styling is everything!
Efficiency on the other hand is defined as the power of radiated visible light (visible luminous flux) divided by the power of all radiated light (total luminous flux).
Not to nitpick but the term "visible luminous flux" is redundant. Luminous flux is radiative flux which has been normalized by the photopic curve. The photopic curve is the curve of relative intensity vs wavelength which models the spectral reponsivity of our biological photometers (sometimes known as "eyes"). IIRC there are 683 lumens per watt of light at 550 nm.
-Pinkoir
Slashdot Mirror
The brigthest white led existing (in a lab environment, not on the shelves) is a 5 watt led, equivalent to a 10W ligthbulb, yay
Lumileds' 5W Luxeon emitter is commercially available (that is to say it is on the shelves) but sadly the lifetime is indeed very short due to the excessive amount of power they are pumping through that poor little die. I am informed that this problem is being solved.
As for applications...you can expect to start seeing LED front-lighting on high-end vehicles in the 05-06 model years. They will only be fog-lamps but it's a start. It is important to note that light-conversion efficiencies are not the only determining factor in the application of LEDs. The usage of cool, compact LED sources will allow styling options not currently available in the automotive market. Remember...styling is everything!
-Pinkoir
Efficiency on the other hand is defined as the power of radiated visible light (visible luminous flux) divided by the power of all radiated light (total luminous flux). Not to nitpick but the term "visible luminous flux" is redundant. Luminous flux is radiative flux which has been normalized by the photopic curve. The photopic curve is the curve of relative intensity vs wavelength which models the spectral reponsivity of our biological photometers (sometimes known as "eyes"). IIRC there are 683 lumens per watt of light at 550 nm. -Pinkoir