Lamina Ceramics Sets Record With Brightest-Ever LED Array

Lamina Ceramics, Inc. has announced it has developed an ultra-high lumen LED white light engine, Aterion™ White, that is 14 times brighter than any previously demonstrated white light LED array. The 28,000 lumen solid-state device is five inches square and is powered by 1,400W. It is more than twice as bright as the record-setting RGB (red-green-blue) light engine the company unveiled just a little more than three months ago.

“Just over three months ago, 10,000 lumen light engines were thought to be impossible to manufacture because of heat build up," stated Taylor Adair, president and CEO of Lamina Ceramics. "Our proprietary technology enabled us to break that barrier. Lamina’s latest LED light engine is approaching the 30,000 lumen mark.”

The new light engine is comprised of 1,120 LEDs with a 5,500°K color-corrected temperature (CCT) and a color rendition index (CRI) of 80. The array radiates no heat in its light beam and features instant-on, instant re-strike, and fully dimmable capabilities.

In October 2004, Lamina’s Aterion RGB shattered the existing lumen-output record by a factor of 10. The 860W Aterion RGB generates a total 13,300 lumens in any of more than 16 million colors, including white.

“Following just on the heels of breaking what many thought was a technology barrier, Lamina has made another significant breakthrough with high lumen output LED sources, noted Robert V. (Bob) Steele, PhD, market researcher in the field of high brightness (HB) LEDs and director of optoelectronics at Strategies Unlimited. “These ultra-bright sources should have a significant impact on development of solid state lighting for many applications, including general illumination.”

Until the company’s October unveiling of the Aterion RGB light engine, development of ultra-high lumen LED arrays had been hindered by the inability of the LED packaging to wick away the heat and keep the LEDs cool, causing them to fail.

Lamina Ceramics’ proprietary multi-layer ceramic-on-metal packaging addresses that issue. Designated as low temperature co-fired ceramic-on-metal (LTCC-M), it provides a combination of thermal performance and interconnectivity between individual light-emitting diodes, resulting in lower mechanical stress, greatly lengthened LED life, and reliability.

“Because of its new thermal management technology, Lamina is able to densely cluster hundreds of LEDs, resulting in a solid state light source that is many times brighter than anything previously reported,” explained Professor Ian Ferguson, PhD, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology. “For solid state lighting to penetrate deeper into the general illumination market--and if designers are to be fully able to exploit its many unique features--LED light sources must be brighter and must retrofit into existing fixtures. Lamina is demonstrating that with proper thermal management, extremely bright, cost effective LED light sources can be manufactured.”