Color temperature tunable white light LED system

Abstract

Efficient white light LED systems with continuously tunable color temperature (CT) over a range of 3000 K to 6500 K are reviewed. Typically, white light sources have a fixed CT and color rendering index (CRI). White light with user-specified color temperatures is currently generated by solid-state systems with red green blue (R/G/B), red green blue amber (R/G/B/A), and warm white cool white (WW/CW) LED combinations, but their performance is suboptimal for architectural lighting applications. We propose and discuss an LED module with a combination of warm white, green and blue (WW/G/B) LEDs. In this scenario, the white LEDs have fixed intensity, while the blue and green LED intensities are adjusted to shift the LED module chromaticity along the blackbody locus. We also propose and discuss an LED module with a combination of red, green, blue, and cool white (R/G/B/CW) LEDs. The white LEDs still have a fixed intensity, while the intensities of the red, green, and blue LEDs are again adjusted to shift the LED module chromaticity along the blackbody locus. The white LEDs ensure that an improved CRI is maintained in comparison to a simple R/G/B solution.