Citizen Electronics Co Ltd developed a white LED whose maximum brightness is 17,675lm.

This is the first time in the world that the brightness of a white LED has far exceeded 10,000lm, the company said.

When the brightness of the white LED, "CLL-050 Series," is at its maximum, the input power and luminous efficiency are 183.9W and 96lm/W, respectively (when light is continuously emitted from the LED and the case temperature is 25°C). The new LED can replace a 300W mercury lamp, Citizen said.

The LED has a general color rendering index (Ra) of 65 and a color temperature of 5,000K. The maximum brightness of Citizen's existing white LEDs that are designed to emit a large amount of light is 4,390lm. So, the company improved brightness by four times.

Also, Citizen will provide white LEDs whose Ra is 80 and color temperature ranges from 2,700 to 5,000K. Though they have lower brightnesses than the white LED with an Ra of 65, even the LED with a color temperature of 3,000K has a brightness of 14,290lm.

The dimensions and thickness of the CLL-050 Series are 38 x 38mm and 1.4mm, respectively. Its input power ranges from 24.6 to 183.9W. When the input power is 24.6W, the luminous efficiency of the LED with an Ra of 65 is about 117lm.

The CLL-050 Series has a circular light-emitting layer at the center of its quadrangular package. It has a structure in which multiple blue LED chips are mounted on an aluminum substrate and the entire device is covered with resin mixed with a fluorescent material.

For the former product, Citizen arranged blue LED chips in a quadrangular shape on the circular light-emitting layer. But, this time, the company arranged them in a circular shape so that light emission does not become spotty when the white LED is mounted on an apparatus.

In addition to the CLL-050 Series, Citizen announced four series of white LEDs that have different packages. Their maximum brightnesses are 590, 1,970, 5,780 and 12,915lm, respectively. Because the five series cover brightnesses from 95 to 17,675lm, it is possible to replace a wide variety of lamps from a 10W incandescent light bulb to 300W mercury lamp, the company said.