1. XLamp XR-E Lighting-Class LED Lumen Maintenance July 2009

2. Copyright © 2009, Cree, Inc. pg. 2 Semiconductor Reliability Testing Reliability test methods and acceptance criteria for semiconductor components have been standardized (JEDEC, EIAJ, others…) and practiced for decades –Think: processors, regulators, microcontrollers, etc..

3. Copyright © 2009, Cree, Inc. pg. 3 LED Reliability Testing LEDs are semiconductor components that happen to emit light Cree conducts all the traditional standardized semiconductor component reliability testing on all of our LED lamps (http://www.cree.com/products/pdf/XLamp_Reliability.pdf)http://www.cree.com/products/pdf/XLamp_Reliability.pdf Cree has been active in leading the industry standardization of an additional test series – IES LM-80-2008 – to characterize the Lumen Maintenance aspect of LED semiconductor components

4. Copyright © 2009, Cree, Inc. pg. 4 Lumen Maintenance Definition L 70 = 10,000 hours Definition: change in light output of a light source over operational life, relative to initially measured light output L xx = time to xx% of original light output L 70 = time to 70% of original light output L 50 = time to 50% of original light output Lumen Maintenance: 400W metal halide lamp Traditional light sources gradually dim then fail catastrophically (“burn out”)

5. Copyright © 2009, Cree, Inc. pg. 5 LED Lumen Maintenance History <1990 LEDs were used as indicators. Lifetime did not matter too much. 2001 Lumileds (Philips) introduces first High Power LED. Lifetime testing gets more serious. 2004 LRC/ASSIST publishes first work on the topic. Basic science understood. 2006 LRC/ASSIST publishes ASSIST recommends test procedure for lifetime testing of High Power LEDs, which becomes the basis for IESNA LM-80-2008 standard. 2007 Philips Lumileds publishes white paper, extending the knowledge of the industry on the topic (I F ). 2008 IES LM-80-2008 is published. 2009 Cree publishes reliability white paper (T AIR ). 1990’s LEDs used for traffic signals and exit signs. First basic studies on LED lifetime performed.

6. Copyright © 2009, Cree, Inc. pg. 6 LED Lumen Maintenance Critical Parameters 1. T AIR Ambient Air Temperature 2. T J Junction Temperature 3. T SP / T C / T S Solder-Point Temperature / Case Temperature 4. I F Forward Current / Drive Current

7. Copyright © 2009, Cree, Inc. pg. 7 T J & T SP Linked by Thermal Resistance 1. T AIR Ambient Air Temperature 2. T J Junction Temperature 3. T SP / T C / T S Solder-Point Temperature / Case Temperature 4. I F Forward Current / Drive Current T J = T SP + ( [R th j-sp ] x [V F ] x [I F ] ) Thermal Resistance Forward Voltage

8. Copyright © 2009, Cree, Inc. pg. 8 Cree’s Test Configuration Per IES LM-80-2008 Temperature of solder pad of lamps is independently actively controlled by fluid flowing through heat sink. Temperature of ambient around lamps is actively controlled by air flowing through chamber Lamps are mounted to MCPCB’s. During test, the temperature of the solder pad of the lamps and the air around the lamps is the same Per LM-80, −For 55ºC testing, the T SP of the lamps and air are both at 55ºC −For 85ºC testing, the T SP of the lamps and air are both at 85ºC

9. Copyright © 2009, Cree, Inc. pg. 9 Low temp (25ºC) testing is a good surrogate for the LED chip depreciation – 1-2% @ T J = 65ºC 40,000 Hour / 4.5 Year XLamp Long-Term Data At lower ambient air temperature, LEDs hardly depreciate at all. Low ambient air temperature (25ºC) is a good surrogate for LED chip depreciation – 2% @ T J = 65ºC

10. Copyright © 2009, Cree, Inc. pg. 10 High Air Temperature Degrades Encapsulant Cree now understands that the silicone-based encapsulants used in the industry degrade when exposed to high temperatures. As they degrade over time, less light is transmitted through the encapsulant. The higher the air temperature, the more the encapsulant will degrade.

11. Copyright © 2009, Cree, Inc. pg. 11 Cree Lumen Maintenance Model Degradation in first 5,000 hours is mostly due to degradation in the silicone encapsulant. After 5,000 hours, this mechanism drops out and the slower chip degradation dominates. Good quality LEDs in well-designed fixtures will last for decades under normal use and operating conditions.

12. Copyright © 2009, Cree, Inc. pg. 12 Cree Lumen Maintenance Model Cree has accumulated millions of XLamp XR-E LED lamp device hours of long-term data under both LM-80-compliant conditions and other test configurations The effects of T AIR, T J, T SP and I F on long-term lumen maintenance have been closely studied and are well understood Cree has observed that the lumen maintenance characteristics of the XLamp XR-E white LED lamps are different in the first 5,000 hours (called Period A) than in the time period following 5,000 hours (called Period B) A “best fit” algorithm was developed to accurately model this lumen maintenance behavior, based on the critical parameters T AIR, T J, T SP and I F Mean L 70 lifetime predictions are shown grouped by T AIR or by I F

13. Copyright © 2009, Cree, Inc. pg. 13 L 70 Lifetime Prediction – T AIR = 35ºC

14. Copyright © 2009, Cree, Inc. pg. 14 L 70 Lifetime Prediction – T AIR = 45ºC

15. Copyright © 2009, Cree, Inc. pg. 15 L 70 Lifetime Prediction – T AIR = 55ºC

16. Copyright © 2009, Cree, Inc. pg. 16 L 70 Lifetime Prediction – T AIR = 65ºC

17. Copyright © 2009, Cree, Inc. pg. 17 L 70 Lifetime Prediction – T AIR = 75ºC

18. Copyright © 2009, Cree, Inc. pg. 18 L 70 Lifetime Prediction – T AIR = 85ºC

19. Copyright © 2009, Cree, Inc. pg. 19 L 70 Lifetime Prediction – I F = 350 mA

20. Copyright © 2009, Cree, Inc. pg. 20 L 70 Lifetime Prediction – I F = 700 mA

21. Copyright © 2009, Cree, Inc. pg. 21 L 70 Lifetime Prediction – I F = 1000 mA

22. Copyright © 2009, Cree, Inc. pg. 22 Summary Testing and characterizing LED lumen maintenance is an evolving science based on decades of work from the component semiconductor industry We have fully characterized the XLamp XR-E LED lamp and have developed an accurate predictive model for its lumen maintenance Key inputs to long-term lumen maintenance are: –LED junction temperature (T J ) – calculated from T SP –Forward drive current (I F ) –Air temperature around the lamp (T AIR ) From these, L 70 for the LED lamp can be predicted with confidence