I just came across this:
http://www.semiconductor-today.com/news_items/2013/OCT/CREE_021013.shtml
It seems there was a “mid-cycle refresh” to increase XP-G2 performance by another 7%
Do you guys know if this only applies to the new S2 bin? Or it applies to all XP-G2 manufactured after October 2013?
I would think the 7% boost would just be for a particular higher bin. Otherwise how would anyone differentiate between original and new 7% boosted? Bin or XP-G3.
Sure sounds like the announcement of a bin. Nothing to see here, move along, etc.
S3 bin became available on market for XP-G2. 2 weeks ago friendly LED circuit designer has seen it on stock of supplier.
I’m more Interested in the lifespan testing they’re doing. In some research lab cree operates somewhere are they running these emitters continously or they use higher current to accelerate aging or what? How do they get that data? An XP-G at 80k hours, only 15% lumen loss after 40k hours on a G2, that’s pretty danm impressive, we’ll never see a fraction of that in a flashlight application.
I think they can only simulate and like most of electronic devices are aging in high temperature chambers (for nominal current I think) . Propably several hundreds of hours working in 150*C (or more) is equal to many more hours in 85*C.
Tests are done at min. 6000 hours then the rest are extrapolated.
But saying only 15% lumen loss at 40K does not show the whole picture, since basically no driving current or temperature is specified.
L90 at 1.5A is far from the general specs manufacturers like to offer. Not even L70 is that huge at 1.5A, still high of course but not things like 100K, 80K etc.
It really seems that XP-G2 with S3 bin is available:
Yeah it's been talked before 2T tint : green