Soraa has received the prestigious “red dot award: product design 2013” for its full-visible-spectrum SORAA VIVID LED MR16 lamp.

The red dot is the international prize for high design quality. The competition’s jury only awards the sought-after seal of excellence to products that set themselves apart significantly from comparable products in design innovation, functionality and ecological compatibility.

“It’s an honor for us that the global design community has recognized the seamless interplay of form and function in the design of our SORAA VIVID LED MR16 lamp,” said Soraa CEO Eric Kim. “The product was designed from the inside out to maximize the performance of our unique GaN on GaN technology, creating a beautiful lamp that delivers extraordinary light.”

Many LED lamps based on first generation, foreign substrate LEDs must overcome significant thermal management and optical hurdles, because they require multiple light sources that must be kept cool in order to generate enough light and last long. Consequently, the look of these lamps usually reflects transitional design strategies that are less than optimal, such as the “shower head” face and optics, and sometimes a mechanical fan.

In contrast, Soraa’s lamp design is organized around a single very small, very bright LED light source combined with a single optic and heatsink. The simple, elegant lamp design is possible because Soraa’s GaN on GaN LEDs emit substantially more light (up to ten times more per unit area) and tolerate much higher temperatures than first generation LEDs. The organic fin geometry heatsink has a tiny core and more fins at the edge, maximizing thermal transfer; the “Origami” driver circuit, designed with electronic components used in automotive and other extreme temperature environments, enables highly efficient thermal dissipation; and the LED light source is directly attached to the heat sink without intermediate circuit boards, increasing power density and lowering cost. The total result of these individual breakthrough design innovations is an LED MR16 lamp that produces 50-watt halogen equivalent light output and operates reliably at lamp temperatures of up to 120oC, a requirement for reliable operation in the most constrained fixtures.

The annual “red dot award: product design” is one of the world’s largest and most distinguished design competitions. In 2013, the red dot jury received 4,662 entries from 54 countries, but only the best were awarded.

“The winners of the ‘red dot award: product design 2013’ are the protagonists of a highly developed design culture and design industry. These days it is becoming more and more difficult to distinguish between well-designed products. It is often only in the details that the special qualities become apparent. However, those product creations that pass the test before the critical eyes of the international red dot jury will not disappear into the crowd and will be able to fend off global competition,” said Dr. Peter Zec, initiator and CEO of red dot.