LED Holder Provides Solderless LED Connection

With the ever-growing energy efficiency requirements, designers have been seeking ways to ease and hasten the implementation of LED technology. This pursuit for easy and fast ways of implementation has often been made difficult by Chip-On-Board LEDs. To circumvent this challenge, connector manufacturers came up with solderless LED holder designs and systems. These holders focus on easing assembly while ensuring that they are secure and less costly. TE Connectivity is leading the pack in this direction. It has developed Zhaga-compliant LED holder that has solderless and snap-in features which ease and hasten manufacturing and installations of LED-lighting applications.

LUMAWISE Type Z50

This is TE Connectivity hallmark. It is the latest member of the LUMAWISE family. The LUMAWISE Z50 conforms to the Zhaga consortium specifications. These specifications have been developed by companies working together to ensure interchangeability of LED-light sources so as to simplify general LED-lighting applications. The LUMAWISE LED holders are available in various varieties;

Bridgelux
Cree
Citizen
Everlight
Nichicon
OSRAM
Seoul Semiconductor
Sharp

Assembly of the LUMAWISE Z50

The LUMAWISE Z50 is assembled using 5 simple steps.

Step 1

Snap Chip-On-Board into the Z50 base

Step 2

Apply the thermal interface material

Step 3

Shove the wires into the LUMAWISE Z50 base

Step 4

Fasten the assembly to the heat sink by screwing

Step 5

Connect the secondary optics

LUMAWISE 50 holders are available with low profiles (with or without optic attachments). This solderless connection supports 18 AWG to 22 AWG (both fused and stranded). The holders operate between -40°C to 105°C. They have a UL 300V fire and testing standard and UL9V-0 flammability rating.

Molex PSI

Following in TE’s footsteps, MOLEX has also come up with plastic-substrate interconnect (PSI) for LED COB arrays. This is also design to deliver fast and secure connection. This customizable interconnector address space constraints that are often witnessed in lighting designs through low-profile harness interface. This interface delivers power to the array through simple connections and holders or plastic substrate. PSI systems are designed for high-density and high-light output applications like downlighting and area lighting. Molex PSI systems come in various shapes;

Circular
Rectangular
Customizable

There are a variety of low-profile header and receptacles that can be integrated into the custom PSI.

Molex PSI assembly

The solderless Pico-EZmate harness is attached to the LED array holder without the need for any special tools or process. The systems embody a snap-to-mate connection which has positive-lock latching and gold-plated contacts. These features ensure a reliable connection. The harness is available in a variety of configurations and lengths.

VCC solderless panel-mount LED holders

VCC has developed solderless panel-mount LED holders designed to speed up and simplify assembly. They are the CNX 440 and the CNX 460 series. These holders do not require any special tool or process of connection. They offer fast and easy assembly of panel lenses. They provide additional stability for LED leads as well as standard lead lengths and header for connecting LED to sources of power.

Summary

LED holders are often overlooked by designers. However, if well considered, they can go a long way in lowering the overall system cost and space. They could also speed up assembly. Therefore, designers need to start paying attention to these emerging trends of LED connection.