New LED Technology Cuts Power In Half

Omron has started selling a new, proprietary LED called DR-LED – for Double Reflection Light Emitting Diode. The company claims that this new, high-brightness LED will more than double the light output of a standard LED.

DR-LED achieves its light increase through a semi-circular mirror, the shape of a satellite dish, placed around the LED itself, which focuses the LED light outwards. A flat, round mirror with a hole in the center sits on top of the dish, and projects light in. Light escapes only through the hole in the flat mirror, which concentrates the signal in a single direction, and achieves the 2x improvement.

Omron began selling the DR-LED on December 15th, and expects to release a high-powered version in January called 2MDR DR-LED. Because it uses ½ the power for the same amount of light, the company expects it to be adopted in battery-based applications, including traffic lights, road signs and mobile computers. In the future, Omron predicts its DR-LED products will be used in low-energy vehicles, indoor lighting and other areas.

The standard version is available in red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise and blue, while the high-powered version in just blue, yellow and turquoise.

For more details, check out the DR-LED datasheet.

Copyright © 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in ExtremeTech.