Advantages of white LED lamps and new detector technology in photometry
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Bench metrology experiment; Level 5 by design analogy, not clinical CEBM.
OpenAlex W2211127823 · doi:10.1038/lsa.2015.105
What was done
Researchers evaluated a novel method for realizing photometric units using white LED lamps and a predictable quantum efficient detector (PQED) based on an induced junction photodiode trap. Rather than using conventional physical photometric filters, the method performs photometric weighting numerically using the measured relative spectrum of the light source. The authors compared this PQED-based realization directly against the traditional filter-based photometric method and assessed calibration uncertainties when using white LEDs versus traditional incandescent lamps as reference sources.
What was found
The illuminance of a white LED measured via the new PQED method deviated by 0.03% from the traditional filter-based method. The PQED method achieved an expanded measurement uncertainty of 0.26% (k = 2), compared to 0.42% (k = 2) for the traditional method. Additionally, using an LED lamp instead of an incandescent lamp as a calibration source for filtered photometers measuring LED lighting decreased the maximum spectral mismatch error by an average factor of 3.
Why it matters
This approach simplifies the traceability chain in optical metrology by eliminating optical photometric filters and provides a more accurate, lower-uncertainty primary standard tailored to modern LED lighting.
Limits
The abstract is a physical laboratory metrology report and does not state the number or variety of LED lamp models tested. Long-term temporal stability across diverse real-world operating environments and broader optical conditions are not quantified in the abstract.
Cited by
- supports Standard commercial LED lighting emits light that drops off at around 700 nanometers and contains virtually no near-infrared or far-infrared radiation.