BridgeLux LED Array - Overview
Created By: Chip Swieringa - swieringac@gmail.com

Introduction

I recently became a customer of Newark Electronics (aka Farnell) and noticed they exclusively offered an interesting family of LED arrays by BridgeLux. Consequently, I noticed a severe lack of consumer review information. I decided to fix that.

I spent nearly two weeks testing, photographing, exploding drivers, etc.. etc..

PROJECT LIGHT BRIDGE

BridgeLux LED Arrays - Cool White
(Left to Right)

6 die - 440 Lumen @ 600ma 9.8Vf

12 die - 880 Lumen @ 900ma 13.0Vf

16 die - 1320 Lumen @ 1300ma 13.2Vf

25 die - 2200 Lumen @ 1750ma 16.6Vf -- WOW!!

Color Temps

These four LEDs are Cool White with a 5600K color temp.

They are also available in:
Neutral White (4100K)
Warm White (3000K)

Both types cause considerable loss in output efficacy.

The 2200 Lumen array is only available in Cool White.

INITIAL THOUGHTS:

BridgeLux designed these LEDs to be very bright and low cost. Cost is reduced by excluding optics from the package unlike almost all other LEDs. They are clearly the best 'Lumen/per $' package currently available even versus SSC P7 and Cree MC-E. They destroy the 6-die OSRAM OSTAR in that regard!
The lack of an optic and the wide surface area will make these a perfect candidate for wide area flood lighting but a poor candidate for tightly focused beam patterns.
The resin dome is gummy and sticky. It was VERY DIFFICULT to take pictures without dust and fibers clinging to it.

CLOSE-UP:
(NOTE - These pictures were taken after extensive testing, soldering, clamping, etc... and will demonstrate wear characteristics.)

Model #BXRA-C0400 - 440 Lumens

Model #BXRA-C0800 - 880 Lumens

Model #BXRA-C1200 - 1320 Lumens

Model #BXRA-C2000 - 2200 Lumens

LIGHT 'EM UP!

This set of pictures are of the 1320 Lumen array. The camera has difficulty capturing the true apparent brightness
of these LEDs, especially since there are no optics to generate beam shots. Because of this I took very few
photos to demonstrate brightness.

Relative Brightness - This is roughly the apparent brightness.

In this photo the array is being UNDERDRIVEN at 1000ma output rated at 1052 Lumens!

16 Dies w/ Fuzzies

You'll have fuzzies all over it without meticulous and persistent cleaning.

Underexposed

This photo is greatly underexposed to show the very thin power leads going from die to die.

Blinded By The Light

Opps! This picture was accidental. I was making adjustments when the camera timer ran out.
It was too bright to see what I was doing!

I was using a LuxLuthor 15.6v pack for that test.

4000 LUMEN MONSTER

I decided to push the 2200 Lumen array as far is it could go! The following pictures are the result of that experiment.

A 25 Die LED Is Pretty Crazy

Test Setup

Here is the test bed. To safely push this LED to the extreme I chose to use Peltier cooling to keep temps
as low as possible and keep emitter efficiency as high as possible. The Peltier is powered by a separate 15A power supply.

The brown wire held by the alligator clip is the thermocouple that will allow me to track the case temperature.

LED Case Temperature Before Test

The Peltier cooler brings the LED temperature below freezing before the test begins.

Crank It Up!

In Constant Current mode I set the LED current to a steady 4 Amps.
This is 500 mA beyond its maximum rated current!

LED Case Temperature During Test

Even with the Peltier at maximum cooling the case temp still reaches over 200 deg F.

4000+ LUMENS!

At 4000mA the LED output is literally off the chart!
My best interpolation is a Normalized Luminous Flux of 1.9 which calculates to 4180 Lumens!

This photo was taken during the day. The shadow cast on the wall is testament to its ridiculous brightness!

Created and Documented By: Chip Swieringa - swieringac@gmail.com

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Last Updated - September 16, 2009