Cree, Inc. announced its XT-E White LED, which the company says delivers twice the lumens-per-dollar of other LEDs and boasts the highest performance and efficacy in the industry. The company has chosen the approach of using silicon carbide to gain the performance needed. While silicon carbide is more expensive a material than silicon, Cree contends that its use of silicon carbide along with its XT-E LED technology ultimately reduces the cost per lumen output of LEDs with its extremely high efficacy of 162 lm/W (LPW) of a 6000K LED at 350 mA and 25 degrees C and 148 LPW of a 6000 K LED at 350 mA at 85 degrees C. A 3000K XT-E has an efficacy of 114 LPW at 85 degrees C. The LED comes in 2700K, 3000K, 4000K, 5000K and 6000K versions. The XT-E has a 115 degree viewing angle.

The cool white versions of the XT-E (5000K-10,000K) average about 70 CRI with no minimum CRI. The (3500K-5000K) neutral white XTE typically has a 75 CRI. The neutral white XTE can also come with a minimums of either 70 or 80 CRI. The warm white (2700K to 3500K) XTE has a typical CRI of 80 and can also have a minimum CRI of 70 or 80. The XT-E can be driven at up to 1500mA at 2.85 V if a designer would like to maximize lumen output.

Cree says that the XT-E LED and the recently released XB-D LED represent a dramatic transformation in LED price and performance. Cree asserts that the XT-E addresses the largest obstacle to mass LED lighting adoption, initial cost, and enables LED lighting systems to replace their less efficient ancestors.

In addition to having extremely high brightness, the XT-E uses the relatively small 3.45 mm x 3.45 mm XP footprint. The high performance and small footprint allow light fixtures to use fewer LEDs to produce the same light output. This further reduces the cost per lumen in arrays and LED lamps and fixtures. In fact the company claims that the XT-E reduces the number of required LEDs by two to three times depending upon the layout.