Waveguide Technology

Our revolutionary Waveguide lighting technology is unique. We shine the light sideways into a solid, cast acrylic rod and reflect it out. There is no secondary optic, eliminating one of the biggest causes of dissatisfaction with current LED products – our simple approach delivers significant benefits.

Human-Centric Benefits

Superior colour definition and CRI
Zero colour distortion regardless of beam angle
Precise placement of light eliminating unwanted spill
Significantly reduced UGR
Very low flicker (3%)

Efficiency and Reliability

This design also allows the LED to be driven at significantly lower drive currents than traditional LED fixtures, some of the benefits of which are:

Extremely effective lumen output and efficacy
Reduced heat
Significantly increased longevity and reliability

The result of under-running the LED’s capacity (<10%) and running the driver at optimal performance (96%), flicker in Waveguide Lighting is just 3% compared with >20% on most current LED fixtures.

Proven Advantages of Waveguide

Colour, Colour Shift and CRI

See below macadam ellipse chart. This shows “True” colour of the LED in CCT – the macadam ellipses show acceptable deviation from true colour, dependent upon what has been specified:

The below shows this translated into a CIE chart. If you extended the lines all the way across the chart, the colour would still be classed in the same colour temperature scale (measure in Kelvin) at any point on the line, whilst obviously varying significantly in true colour.

See below representations of CIE charts of various LED fixtures. Optimal measurements should be close together on the curve, which means the optics are not changing the colour from the LED and colour shift with angle is minimal. The greater the distance, the more the colour is being changed and the further the points apart, the more the colour and CRI changes by angle.

Clara Bay Colour CIE Colour Chart Measured

Typical LED 1

Typical LED 2

Waveguide

Colour shift with beam angle is a particular problem for LED tehnology using a secondary optic to scatter the light from the LED. It is not a problem with Waveguide as we mix the light within the rod before reflecting it out.

Click here for independent information illustrating this (page 22)

The reflector technology in our lighting system is as vital as the LED itself. The varying reflector widths and angles allow directions to be incremented in as little as 6° steps. The light in the rod is internally refracted until being directed at precise beam angles by the reflector, achieving the highest levels of uniformity with ultra-low glare.

Flicker

Since the commercialisation of the fluorescent tube, flicker has been a major cause of discomfort in people, particularly those working under them for long periods, during winter months. Fluorescent lighting has been documented to induce tiredness, fatigue and migraines.

LED technology has reduced flicker from fluorescent typically by a half. This is insufficient to improve crucial human-centric elements. Good quality lighting with low flicker improves mood, motivation and productivity in staff regardless of their surroundings, for example in office or industrial environments, or in leisure and retail centres.

Under-driving the LED (at 10%) and optimising the performance of the driver (96%) results in Waveguides fixtures delivering extremely low flicker of just 3%. The feedback from Waveguide clients of this has proven the impact that such low flicker does have. The images below, taken from a basic mobile phone, show the evidence of flicker from a fluorescent, an LED panel and a Waveguide WaveStar fitting. Whilst we can stare at a fluorescent or LED panel and not witness this by eye, the retina is picking up the flicker and this is indeed the cause of the human-centric impacts.

Efficacy, Product Lifetime and Reliability

We drive the LED very benignly. Using a High Power CREE CXA1816 LED at drive currents between 190mA & 317mA (more typically driven at 500mA to 1A by other manufacturers). This generates very little heat, delivers very high efficacies, extremely long life and high reliability.

As the table on the right shows, increasing drive current increases lumen output but at a higher cost in Lm/W efficacy and lifetime.

At these drive currents we achieve:

The highest efficacies (measured in absolute photometry)
Vastly extended lifetimes (133,000 hours to L70 / 130,600 to L70B-10)
Extremely high fixture reliability.

Beam angle is determined by reflector specification

The light emitted from the LED into the acrylic rod is internally refracted until reflected out.

Every one millimetre of reflector equates to 6º of beam angle. We use a standard range of reflectors but can easily tailor the reflector to meet a specific requirement.

This contributes to the luminaire efficacy (“precise distribution / no over-spill”) and achieves very low UGR and zero colour shift.