Really efficient LEDs coming

This is looking good. Very good. They say the package size is larger than the XP-E so it may not be ideal for flashlights but the efficiency will hopefully make it to the other Cree dies. It can be driven at 2A giving 750 lumens from the LED - say 500 out of the front of the light. Should completely replace the MC-E in short order. Less heat to sink, more light out the front. Since there are loads of MC-E drivers out there for running an LED at 2.8A it shouldn't be long till they are making cheap 2A drivers. Or crazy long runtimes and silly brightness from a single AA alkaline. Well over 100 lumens and hours of runtime at the same time should be possible from a single AA light.

Pity they won't be here till the end of the year - the press release says fall, but i read fall as January 1st.

http://www.cree.com/press/press_detail.asp?i=1271079100891

From the press release, "DURHAM, N.C., April 12, 2010 — Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREE), a market leader in LED lighting, announces a breakthrough new lighting-class LED platform, the XLamp® XM LED. This new single chip LED delivers record-breaking efficacy of 160 lumens per watt at 350 mA. The LED also delivers 750 lumens at 2 A, which is equivalent to the light output of a 60 W incandescent light bulb at less than 7 watts."


Now that is some good news...it seems that Cree is taking over the market when it comes to Lighting.

Yes, SSC and Lumileds haven't done much lately. I'd like to see new SSC LEDs - some prefer the P7 to the MC-E because it has a nicer beam but it is based on the MC-E die with different phosphors and lens. Lumileds haven't done anything that I've heard of since the Rebel. Maybe Osram can come up with something new.

Yes, I would place my bets on OSRAM to compete with Cree. These new Crees look great though, I wonder how much a premium we'll have to pay to get one in a budget light?

I suspect they are after the lightbulb replacement market rather than the likes of us.

If the Chinese can get them in decent quantity at a reasonable price they'll churn the lights out fast enough. I'd guess a bit more (guessing a dollar or so) over whatever the top binned XP-E/XR-E/XP-G LEDs are going for. I'd expect them to go for less than an MC-E but I'm not making the economic decisions for Cree.

Since they've not yet put the R2 or the XP-G R5 in everything they could, they're still putting Q5s in a lot of things. The Chinese don't sem to be interested in the neutral/warm white LEDs at all. Maybe the domestic market doesn't see the need though they seem to be the fashion at present. Despite my comments about fashion, I do find my depth perception is better with warmer coloured light. A triple K2 makes the world seem like cardboard cutouts rather than 3D.

I'd guess it'd be a year or more till we see these in mass-market lights. The die size may be too large for practical lights and its output is less than the Luminus Phlatlight LEDs that are on the market now. They are really aimed at the digital projector market though.

But 160 lumens/watt at 350mA is revolutionary. Depends on how the market feels about efficiency. I suspect it doesn't care.

Oh i care especially when it comes to lights......bright and long runtime is what anyone could ask for. I would like to see more from Osram as well.