http://www.cree.com/news-and-events/cree-news/press-releases/2012/july/170-lpw
When i had first read about the XM-L it was 147 lumens/watt at one watt, this one can apparently do 170 lumens/watt at 7 watts
Any predictions on its release date?
What is even more interesting is that the 170 lumen/watt is delivered at a CRI of 90+ (High CRI does usual reduce the efficiency).
Very interesting indeed! I"ll be keeping an eye on this one. Thanks for sharing this!
I might become a high cri fan after all 
when will they mass produce this? if 1250 lumens are possible with that, I wonder how many more lumens are possible in cool white
I’m not sure that they will even do so. The E-Z White package is designed for custom tailoring of color temp and CRI output, and the trend seems to be headed in the direction of high-CRI and warmer, more incan-like output.
I would guess that our best chance for one would be designed for a remote-phosphor application, since flashlights are pretty far down the priority list for CREE, if at all.
You don’t know what size it is though, could be bigger. Hopefully it’s just a refined xml, but being that they meantioned lightbulb, it could mean they made it a large sized die, because lighting needs to be alot of flood. But the lightbulb can help in that aspect. I’m just spitballing here, I’ve never had an led lightbulb, let alone a cree one.
Multiple emitters is not uncommon in “bulbs”. My 900lm/9W bulbs I use around the house use multiple emitters to get that efficiency at the 3500K color temperature.
I would hazard a guess it uses royal blue emittiers and remother phosphor to achieve this. I actually have no idea how it’s made but the higher efficacy higher CRI bulbs all seem to use a remote phosphor design.
I am impressed by the high CRI and the 170 lumen at 7 watts, since current leds are just over 100 lumens at this power level. I agree that they seem to be interested in CFL replacement, which would do a lot better with the high CRI.
Chicago, why do you say flashlights are low on the priority list?
I know you asked Chicago. But here’s my answer. Cree is probably more focused on lightbulbs instead of flashlights because it’s a WAAAY bigger market. People might only buy one flashlight, but they’ll buy dozens of lightbulbs. So cree will be selling dozens of emitters, compared to one or two emitters. And alot of people don’t even buy flashlights. The bad thing about this is going to be that after a couple years when leds become a big player in the lightbulb market, the market is going to be saturated for many many years. Their lightbulb business will slow way down after saturation. The same thing happened with crocs, you know…those shoes with the holes, but they last many years because they are made so well?
Because it is, by far the #1 priority is residential and commercial/industrial lighting, in all forms those things take. However flashlights aren’t even considered in the design of a new product.
Not necessarily, as prices continue to drop and adoption goes up new uses for lighting will come up. Also, as prices drop and efficacy goes up the payback period for new LED lighting will drop meaning that replacing your lighting with smaller, more energy efficient and possibly better CRI lights will become more feasible.
Sorry, when I meant saturation, I meant saturation with Led. I see what you mean though, I think you thought I meant the market would still be saturated with cfl’s or incandescent. And that it’d be years for those to burn out and people buying the new led lightbulbs.
“(Nasdaq: CREE) delivers a new performance benchmark with the 170 lumens-per-watt (LPW) prototype LED light bulb. ”
In reading this, compared to news briefs on actual LEDs, it seems that the word “bulb” is used repeatedly, where the word “bulb” is not used when discussing actual LEDs, like the XP-G2 and XM-L.
I don’t think this will be of any value to us as far as flashlights and it will most likely be used for high bay commercial lighting use.
I am talking about LED saturation. And even then, LED saturation is likely 15-20+ years off, or more.
Oh, so do you think LED saturation will come when we come to a plateau of lumens per watt increases (maybe like 400), and everyone gets those after a while of purchasing 170-220 lumens per watt leds?
Here it is.
I don’t think thats the bulb, why would you get FCC certification on a prototype, its not ready for sale yet, and from what i understand getting the certification that takes months to years, and they would have to recertify the production model.
Your pic is the 152 lm/w version