Take Your Products to the Next Level with Today’s Powerful LED Lights

The world of lighting is undergoing a major evolution. Next-generation lighting arrives with a long list of demands, including more accurate color rendering, high brightness, high reliability, long life, and energy conservation. LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) deliver – and are well suited for many applications that have traditionally used incandescent, halogen, or fluorescent light sources.

With the introduction of technology such as Sharp’s new 15W and 20W Mega Zenigata LEDs, products that previously required 75W or 150W incandescent bulbs (or their fluorescent or halogen equivalents) can finally evolve, as well. It’s a major product segment that you can now update with LEDs to meet customer and governmental demand for “greener” products. Even better, you can do it all while shining a truer, more aesthetically-pleasing light than that provided by most other energy-saving bulbs. As the technology matures, LEDs’ performance specifications continue to evolve to more accurately render the true “color of life.”

So, why not make the switch? Following are details about a few key aspects of LED technology that makes it an excellent choice for your lighting designs. If you are already building products with LEDs, read on to learn about some features unique to Sharp’s LED modules that may help you up the ante on your products’ performance and ease your design process.

High Power LEDs, Lower Power Consumption

Lighting is a big factor in electricity cost and energy budget for most commercial buildings, and is significant in other indoor and outdoor applications, as well. The good news is that substituting LEDs for other light sources can significantly reduce lighting energy use. This is a significant benefit over time that saves precious energy resources, lowers operation cost, and allows for more flexibility in a designer’s, engineer’s, or architect’s power budget.

LED energy and cost savings can extend even further now, with the introduction of Sharp’s new Mega Zenigata LEDs. These offer an LED replacement for traditional, high-wattage 75W or 150W incandescent lamps (or equivalents), operating at just 15W or 25W, respectively.

Of course, brightness is another key factor. While incandescent lamps typically produce 12–15 lumens/W and fluorescent lamps at least 50 lm/W, specifications reach up to 100 lm/W for Sharp’s Mega Zenigata LEDs.

CRI (the Color Rendering Index) is also one of the primary measurements for LED light quality performance, with a scale ranging from 1 – 100. A CRI of 80 or more qualifies as compliant with ENERGY STAR, a governmental program has that included lighting products into its energy efficiency certification in recent years. Some Sharp LEDs have performance of up to 93 CRI; the majority of our LEDs deliver a typical minimum of 80.

LED Light Quality That's Truer to Life

While CRI is an important benchmark, CRI alone is not enough for measuring the quality and aesthetic of light delivered. CRI measurements take into account only the R1 – R8 color rendering measurements on the Color Rendering Index, which are the least saturated colors in the spectrum. However, the full scale includes saturated colors and goes all the way to R15.

While not all of the remaining positions on the color scale significantly affect the light we see and perceive, some are absolutely crucial to rendering a pleasant light that feels true to life. True, vibrant rendering of reds – R9 on the scale – is one of the key factors in reproducing the rich “color of life” from an artificial light source. However, adequate R9 performance is often missing from LED components for lighting applications, even those that advertise a high CRI.

Sharp incorporates a blue LED die with a proprietary mixture of green and red phosphors to ensure that our LEDs deliver the R9 “deep red dazzle.” An accurate rendering of deep reds lends a warm, vibrant visual aesthetic that will help you elevate your lighting products from “efficient” to “unforgettable.”

Color binning (sorting of LEDs at the factory) is an area that historically has had inconsistencies. This can result in slight variations in the color of light produced between the same type of devices from the same manufacturers – or even the same batches. Sharp’s state-of-the-art manufacturing processes allow for smaller color bins that nearly eliminate noticeable color differences when similar luminaires are placed close together. The result is a pleasant, consistent light that lacks the uneven look that visibly occurs in most fluorescent office lighting installations.

Increased Design Flexibility

Say goodbye to the limitations of traditional lighting fixtures. LEDs also offer a new level of design flexibility.

An LED’s small footprint delivers a number of benefits. Traditional lighting sources come in standard lamp sizes: long straight tubes, pear shaped bulbs, and others. Now, the fixture designer has more freedom to explore new shapes and mounting configurations, such as curves and arcs. Also, with new powerful lighting options like Sharp’s Mega Zenigata family (as well as Sharp’s new 10W Mini Zenigata, which is equivalent to a 50W incandescent bulb), it’s easier to use just one LED in a luminaire. This can simplify design, as well as reduce luminaire size.

Sharp LED modules utilize multiple LED die placed in a unique pattern to allow for even light distribution. This can simplify the development of optics needed to direct the light in a luminaire, and provides an overall better “look and feel” from the light produced.

The light from LEDs contains less infrared (heat) than conventional incandescent lamps, so they are adaptable to lighting applications where items may be susceptible to damage from a rise in temperature. They are also an excellent fit where there is a concern of deterioration or discoloration from ultraviolet (UV) rays, because LEDs have limited emissions in the UV spectrum. While thermal management in the luminaire itself is one of the most important aspects of design, Sharp makes this easier by incorporating a unique ceramic substrate that helps efficiently move heat out of the module.

Other LED design and operation benefits include easier dimming, instant full brightness (as opposed to the light “warming up” prior to coming to full brightness), and silent operation (versus the buzz of fluorescent ballasts, for example). Additionally, at the end of their long life cycle, LEDs begin to fade versus instantly “burning out,” which provides ample time to change out bulbs.

The list doesn’t even really stop there. For more information about LED benefits – and specifically, about how Sharp’s LEDs might be the perfect match for your project — visit our Sharp LEDs page.

A Brighter Environmental Outlook

The benefits of LED lights not only brighten your design; they brighten our world. LEDs, unlike most other manufactured lighting sources, are free of hazardous substances such as mercury (Hg). They also convert energy to visible light efficiently.

Operating life also dramatically increases with LEDs. Sharp’s modules typically exceed 50k hours of operation, versus a typical life maximum of 10k hours for a compact fluorescent or 2k hours for a common incandescent bulb. In theory, this means a significantly longer time before LEDs require replacement with new modules.

At Sharp, we’re dedicated to creating innovative technologies that benefit the culture and welfare of people around the world. We promote environmental stewardship through the thoughtful development, creation, manufacturing, and servicing of all our products.