Osram Licht (WKN: LED400)

Automobile  manufacturers will have more options in using color lighting for both  function and style with the MultiLED RGB (red, green, blue) LED from  Osram Opto Semiconductors. The company says that the multi-emitter LED  is useful in lighting instrument clusters, backlighting graphics  displays, and in implementing accent, ambient, and trim lighting.

The packaged LED includes three individually controllable emitters.  Osram said the differentiator in the new RGB LED is the blue emitter  both because of the broad color spectrum and the flux output of the blue  emitter.

the blue emitter produces energy over the range of 447–476 nm.  Moreover, Osram said the blue output of 370 mcd is much brighter than  the blue output in other RGB LEDs on the market. Brighter blue is  important because the color falls at the edge of the human visual  sensitivity range and humans perceive blue light as darker than the  measured flux level would indicate.

"The new LED can offset this darker perception so that customer  brightness requirements can be met for all color ranges," said David  Rousseau, LED product marketing manager at Osram Opto Semiconductors.  "What's more, a short-wave blue color has a pleasant saturated  appearance. We have now succeeded in implementing this color range in an  RGB LED version."

The new MultiLED packages have the same 3.3×3.0×1.8-mm footprint as  Osram's prior-generation products. The LEDs produce a 120° beam pattern.  The red and green emitters are rated to produce 750 and 1630 mcd,  respectively.

Osram developed the LED specifically for automotive applications and  it carries the appropriate certifications for such usage. The design  also includes a protective diode for electrostatic discharge, offers  improved corrosion resistance, and will be guaranteed for the longer  market availability required in automotive applications.