Spectral and luminous efficacy change of high-power LEDs under different dimming methods

Dimming is an important and necessary feature for light sources used in general lighting applications. An experimental study was conducted to quantify the spectral and luminous efficacy change of high-power colored and pc-white LEDs under continuous current reduction (CCR) and pulse-width modulation (PWM) dimming schemes. For InGaN-based blue, green, and pc-white LEDs, the peak wavelength shifts were in opposite directions for the two dimming schemes. The peak wavelength showed a blue shift with increased current, most likely due to band filling and QCSE dominated effects. InGaN LEDs exhibited red shifts with increased duty cycle, which is dominated by junction heat. AlInGaP red LEDs show mainly thermal-induced red shift with increased current or duty cycle. In addition, the luminous efficacy was always higher for the CCR dimming scheme at dimmed levels, irrespective of the LED type.