The LED you see above is not a 100w LED per se but it is a packaging of 100 x 1w LEDs that combine to form a light source of unspeakable brightness. The elctrical tinkerers over at Tesla Down Under took the .1kw package for a spin to see what it could really do and their results are very impressive. Without measuring the output light intensity directly, the TDU staff compared the light to a candle, streetlights, carlights and even the sun. IN one test they fitted the package with a focusing globe lens and they were able to burn a hole in a CD within minutes. The high power LED is part of a line of packages which range from 50 to 500 watts but so much power in such a small space there is a serious issue of thermal management; these high power density silicon chips require highly capable heat sinks to keep from self destructing. Furthermore, although these packages pack a lot of light output they do so at the expense of efficiency with most of these packages outputing about 50 lumens per watt which is about half the efficiency values for most single light emitting diodes. Take a visit over to Tesla Down Under for the full details of this made LED science experiment and thanks to Shane for pointing out this article.
