LED Life Standards In And Out Of Luminaires

Mar 26, 2009 Don Tuite | Electronic Design

The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) notes that LED luminaires and replacement lamps available
today often claim long life, usually 50,000 hours, based solely on the estimated lumen depreciation
of the LED. But the DoE also says that life claims ought to account for the whole system.
The lifetimes of incandescent, fluorescent, and high-intensity discharge lamps are generally
estimated through industry standards. Typically, a large, statistically significant sample of lamps is
operated until 50% have failed. That point, in terms of operating hours, defines the rated life for that
lamp.
LEDs are different. They usually dont fail abruptly. Their light output slowly diminishes over time.
Moreover, they can have such long lives that life testing and acquiring real application data on long-
term reliability becomes problematicnew versions of products are available before current ones
can be fully tested.
Finally, theyre often integrated permanently into the fixture, making their replacement difficult or
impossible. Coupled with that, the light output and useful life of individual LEDs are more influenced
by electrical and thermal conditions determined by the luminaire and system design, rather than by
native properties of the LEDs themselves.
All of that leads to some different ways of looking at reliability along with some new terminology. For
instance, lumen depreciation is the decrease in lumen output that occurs as a lamp is operated.
(Just to confuse things, lumen depreciation is sometimes called lumen maintenance.)
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That leads to some new terms like L70 and B50. L70 refers to lumen depreciation to 70% of initial
lumen output; stated conversely, it indicates 70% lumen maintenance. B specs add a target
statistical confidence interval. Thus, B50 indicates no more than 50% of a sample of LED devices
would be expected to have their light output drop below a target lumen maintenance level. B10
would mean no more than 10% of the sample met that L standard within the given time.
At this time, no approved standard reporting format exists for LED lifetime or lumen depreciation
curves, but there is progress. An Illuminating Engineering Society of North America standard
(designated LM-80, IESNA Approved Method for Measuring Lumen Maintenance of LED Light
Sources) will provide a common procedure for making lumen maintenance measurements at the
LED device, array, or module levels. As of last September, the IES committee that developed LM-80
voted to move the initiative to the IES board of directors for final approval.
Still, the DoE notes, as the lifetime of an LED source is one important indicator of LED luminaire life,
it would be misleading to rate the entire LED luminaire based solely on the LED source. There is
often a huge gap between the warranted life of a product and the expected life of the LED source in
that product. Further, reliability of fixtures that include replaceable LED engines and replaceable
components should be assessed differently than reliability of entirely integrated fixtures.