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Commonly Used LED Emitter Index

I placed this thread in the LED flashlight section so it is easier to find, and as it’s more geared towards flashlight discussion.

More information will be added as more LEDs and manufacturers emerge, and as more people chime in on details I may have missed.
… still a work in progress!

Let’s start with some popular manufacturers, then we’ll go into further detail on the emitters themselves.

Cree Inc – Founded 1987 in North Carolina
Edison Opto Corporation – Founded 2001 in Taiwan
LedEngin, Inc. – Founded 2004 in California
Nichia Corporation – Founded 1956 in Japan
OSRAM Opto Semiconductors – Founded 1999 in Germany (joint venture between Osram and Infineon Technologies)
Philips LumiLEDs – Founded 1999 in California (joint venture between Philips and Agilent Technologies)
Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd – Founded 1992 in Korea
Luminus Devices – Founded 2002 in Massachusetts

There are many other LED manufacturers, but they are usually either not used in flashlights, not specified by manufacturers (i.e. “no-name” brand flashlights with “generic” LEDs), or only specialize in lower power emitters.

Now, onto the LEDs themselves. LEDs are ordered by date introduced unless otherwise noted

Some quick terms:

Emitter/Package: The entire LED itself, which does not include the star or board it may be mounted to.
Die: The Chip inside the LED — the light producing portion.
Bond Wires: Wires (usually gold) that connect the die to the “-” and “+” contacts.
Phosphor: (usually talking about white LEDs) A coating on top of the die which converts light emitted by the Die to a different color.

Cree Inc-

Cree X-Lamp (entire category of LEDs — not all have been used in flashlights and will be omitted.

XR-E 7090

EZ1000 on the left, newer EZ900 on the right.
Neutral/Warm Tints Available, Common Neutral tints are found in the Q3/Q4 flux bin

The Cree XR-E was the LED that pretty much started it all– it had twice the efficacy of other comparable emitters out on the market at the time, and it also led to the release of the Seoul P4 — a lower cost emitter utilizing the same die, the EZ1000.
The XR-E LED package consists of the chip on a ceramic package, 4 bond wires in total(note: some of the older and lower binned XR-Es had 3 bond wires), and optical grade silicone keeping the glass dome in place. There is a metal ring around the glass dome, but, the dome is still rather easily knocked off. In addition, the metal ring often caused the infamous “Cree Ring”, a darker ring around the hotspot.

XR-C

Nothing much to say here, The XR-C is identical in size to the XR-E, and was developed as a cheaper alternative to the XR-E. The chip inside the package, though, is smaller, and there are only 2 bond wires in total. This results in a higher forward voltage, which equates to less efficacy. Only a few “brick and mortar” lights use this emitter.

MC-E
image courtesy of gopajti!
Neutral/Warm Tints Available.
The Cree MC-E LED is a quad die LED, consisting of 4 EZ1000 LEDs mounted inside one package. It was released as a competitor to the Seoul P7. Whereas the P7 is wired up in parallel, the Cree MC-E’s dies are is individually configurable, though most flashlight manufacturers will wire it up in parallel anyways. The MC-E’s package is roughly the same size as a XR-E, and the dome is the same size. In flashlights, the MC-E offers a very high output solution, though the spacing of the 4 dies often leads to a “donut hole” a drop in output in the center of the beam. Throw based lights will have this effect exaggerated.

MC-E RGBW
image courtesy of gopajti!
The Cree MC-E RGBW is identical to the standard MC-E in package, but the dies have been replaced with differently colored ones. The only flashlight uses this emitter at the moment is the Quark RGB.

XP-E
image courtesy of gopajti!
Neutral/Warm Tints Available, Common Neutral tints are found in the Q3/Q4 flux bin
The Cree XP-E was released after the MC-E as a competitor to the Luxeon Rebel, and to offer roughly the same efficacy of the Cree XR-E in a much smaller package. It also does not have a Ring, thus removing the problem of the “Cree Ring” (a darker ring around the hotspot).
The XP-E has a larger viewing angle than the Cree XR-E, thus cannot effectively replace the XR-E in thrower applications.

XP-C
image courtesy of gopajti!
The Cree XP-C was created for pretty much the same reason as the XR-C, lower cost, with the sacrifice of efficacy.

XP-G
image courtesy of gopajti!
Neutral Tint Available.
The Cree XP-G is a highly efficient single die emitter in a very small package — it’s physically the same size as the Cree XP-E, but has a much larger die size.. 1.4mm^2 as opposed to .98mm^2. As a result, it is harder to focus the light coming from this LED, the viewing angle is 125° compared to the 110 of an XP-E, and 90 of an XR-E.

Edison Opto Corporation-

LedEngin, Inc.-

Nichia Corporation- lot’s of 5mms!
NSPW500GS-K1 – one elongated die in a single T1-3/4 (5mm) package. Most 5mms will look identical, thus, a picture will not be provided.
The Nichia “GS” LED is one of the most commonly used 5mms in higher quality flashlights. Some recent examples include Fenix and Arc flashlights.

OSRAM Opto Semiconductors-

Golden Dragon

Diamond Dragon

Ostar

Ostar SMT

Philips LumiLEDs-

Luxeon I (side emitting and lambertian available)

Luxeon III

Luxeon V

Luxeon K2, 1×1 mm^2 chip

Thin Film Flip Chip (TFFC*), 5.5 °C/W, 1×1 mm^2 chip
Color K2, image courtesy of gopajti!

Luxeon Rebel**

Thin Film Flip Chip (TFFC*),
Color Rebels, image courtesy of gopajti

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