Dimming light and doing so smoothly and without flicker is critically important in a number of applications. Perhaps the most significant challenge with dimming is to assure the uniformity of the light within individual fixtures and amongst groups of fixtures when the light is dimmed to a very low level. Thanks to novel engineering to create deep-dimming LEDs, uniformity can now be achieved and manufacturing costs can be significantly reduced.
Deep dimming is most often desired for interior applications in hospitality, healthcare, residential, and entertainment settings. The visual impact of dimming needs to be uniform and consistent within a fixture, between fixtures, and smooth through the entire range without any flicker.
Linear fixtures in many cases pose the greatest challenge for uniform dimming within a fixture and between fixtures. If the LEDs in a single linear fixture don’t dim uniformly, there will be obvious, unattractive dark spots or inconsistent illumination along the fixture. If all the fixtures in an area are not uniform when dimmed deeply, then the esthetics of the entire space will be negatively impacted.
Deep dimming LEDs are the solution. For example, LUXEON 3030 HE Plus Deep Dimming.
Development of this LED began after visiting a lighting manufacturer who told us that after they build fixtures, they group the fixtures together and they run them at full current and then at very low current, about 1%.
And then they group the fixtures by brightness level. Those fixtures that were grouped together would exhibit uniform dimming as a group and could be shipped to a single job site.
This clearly was not an optimal way of working and we resolved to address the problem. We determined that it was something that could be addressed at the LED level and that we could test and specify Lumileds LEDs in such a way that LEDs of the same bin always behave the same even when driven at high current and at low current.
When the customer implemented the new deep dimming LEDs, they stopped their manual sorting. In the process, they discovered that in addition to resolving the deep dimming problems, the new LEDs also enabled better fade-to-dark performance so that when the light turns off, there’s no visible step or drop-off of the light. Instead, the light gradually fades to zero. For customers, the luminaires with better deep dimming and fade-to-dark performance create a greater sense of quality and value.
And for them and their customers, this fade to off creates an extra sense of quality.