Design process for a LED based luminaire in exterior lighting application

Light Emitting Diode (LED) or Solid State Lighting (SSL) represents a promising technology for future lighting application; compared with other light sources, the LED lights allow efficiency comparable with those sources actually best performing, longer life and increased flexibility as it can be regarded as an effective "point source". On the other hand, the design of a LED based luminaire has to take into account many specific aspects of this technology such as photometric characteristics variation with the junction temperature, current vs. input voltage forward variation, environmental conditions (ambient temperature, humidity, and wind), and other aspects related to the heat dissipation (heat sink design and integration), control (current driving and power supply) and lighting fixture design for which is of a crucial importance the integration of different parts of a LED luminaire considering existing standard requirements. In order to achieve the final target of developing a LED based luminaire in exterior lighting application, it has been firstly analysed and revised a set of up-to-date and trendy LED-based luminaires today commercially available and their principal characteristics have been listed; the behaviour of the main components of a LED system has been analyzed and their relationships have been taken into account. The first results of design process have been reported and the proposal of some prototypes fully described.