Looks like Cree didn’t want Philips to have all the fun this week with new LED announcements. Just announced today is the new micro sized XQ-E. Like the Luxeon Q that we reported on earlier, this announcement isn’t so much about output and efficiency, but packaging (size).

The XQ-E is Cree’s latest addition to their small form factor footprint that they introduced last year with the XQ-B and XQ-D LED. The same 1.6mmx1.6mm footprint is there, along with SiC contruction, but the big change here is the increase in maximum drive current, and overall output.

The XQ-B and XQ-D topped out at 300mA and 700mA respectively, with relative output to match. The XQ-E pushes the maximum current up to 1000mA, and puts the output performance on par with the XP-E line of LEDs (not quite to XP-E2 levels though).

The initial lineup of colors for the XQ-E will be cool white (5000-6200K), neutral white (3700-5300K), warm white (2700-3500K), blue (465nm), green (520nm), and red (620nm). Hopefully this will expand to at least include royal blue, which is an odd omission considering it’s usefulness in remote phosphor applications.

What will this LED mean for the DIYer? Probably not a whole lot, as MCPCBs to mount these LEDs aren’t available, and will have to be custom made. These are also ridiculously small to the point of being very difficult to work with by hand. Hopefully some of the DIY supply shops will see some potential in these and start carrying populated boards with multiples of these little guys for some high output pseudo-multichip offerings.

[Cree] [XQ-E]