High-Power 365-980nm Collimated LED Sources | SIMTRUM Photonics Store

An LED collimator consists of a collimating lens and an LED emitter.  The LED emitter is placed at the focal plane of the collimating lens. The collimating lens thus images the LED emitter into infinity. Mightex LED collimators employ a high-NA aspherical collimating lens for precision collimation and high light throughput.

LED collimators can be used as the light source in an illumination system. For example LED collimators can replace the standard lamp assembly in a microscope to provide stable, intense, and fast-modulated illumination. Typically the rest of the illumination optics will image the LED emitter onto the pupil of the imaging optics whereas the lens aperture on the collimator where intensity is uniform will be projected onto the object. In other illumination applications similar arrangement should be made to produce uniform and efficient illumination.

The LED emitters are mounted directly onto the metal base of the collimator which also features an integrated heat sink. This configuration minimizes thermal resistance between the LED emitter and the heat sink resulting in better heat dissipation. The collimating lens can be adjusted if needed for precise collimation. A locking ring fixes the lens position after adjustment. The collimators have been pre-adjusted in the factory.

Multi-chip LED emitters have been added to the product portfolio (Type-B). Some of these 7W to 15W LEDs have total optical power exceeding 1W, quadrupling the power of a single-chip LED. Models with higher powers (7W and higher) feature a cooling fan, and have a different formfactor compared to other models. Please examine the installation drawings carefully. Power supply for the cooling fan is included in the price of the LED collimator sources.

The LED collimators include a 1.5-meter cable with two bare-wire terminals at the end. The light sources can be driven by Mightex LED controllers or other LED controllers and current sources. An optional focusing module can be mounted on the front of the LED collimator to focus light into a tight spot which is an image of the LED emitter. One of the applications with the focusing module is coupling LED light into a fiber or a light guide.

An optional light guide adaptor is also available to couple the LED light into a lightguide, as shown in the photo below.

Additional interchangeable collimating lenses are available to produce different beam sizes with the same light source.

IMPORTANT : 

(1) LED’s can ONLY be driven by a constant-current source, and NOT a voltage source (e.g. a battery, or a AC/DC power supply etc.); 

(2) Please always verify LED’s current rating first before applying current to the LED, and please always make sure NOT to apply current that is above the LED's current rating.

Multi-Wavelength Beam Combiners

Mightex Multi-Wavelength beam combiners combine two LED collimators of different wavelengths into a single collimated beam. Multiple combiners can be cascaded to combine more than two LED collimator sources. At the heart of the beam combiner is a high-performance dichroic beam splitter that combines two wavelengths with >95% efficiency. A neutral beam splitter is also available as a lower-cost solution for applications where maximum light throughput is not required. Beam combiners are characterized by the edge wavelengths of their dichroic beam splitters. Please use the following diagram and check the Specification table to select the correct beam combiner for intended LED collimator source.

The beam combiner includes multiple mounting holes and threads so that it can be easily integrated into a system. Each input port features a fine 2-axis tilt adjustment to allow precise alignment of the LED collimator sources relative to system optical axis. A robust locking mechanism is also provided to maintain alignment over time. Additionally, adapters are also available for coupling to major brands of microscopes.

Adding optical filters to the input ports

A filter well (see diagram below) is integrated into each input port so that a φ1” or φ25mm optical filter can be inserted in between the LED source and the beam splitter. Narrow band filters and polarizers may be used to clean up LED spectrum or change the polarization state of the output beam. Here are the dimension requirement for the dichroic/beamsplitters to be fit into the beam combiner cubes:
○ Length: 34~36mm
○ Width: 25~26.5mm
○ Thickness: 1mm recommended, 1.5mm max.

Connecting 11-mm aperture collimated LED sources

Currently, Mightex’s multi-wavelength beam combiners can only be used to DIRECTLY combine 22mm-diameter Collimated LED Sources. For 11mm-diameter collimated LED sources, (as shown below) a mechanical adapter (P/N: ACC-BC25-011) can be used to attach the LED sources to the beam combiners, before the 11-mm diameter collimated LED sources can be combined. We don’t yet have beam combiners for 38mm- and 48mm-diameter collimated LED sources.