Design & Testing of LED Light Products

Aveo is the ONLY company in the industry which has a state-of-the-art LED array testing and measuring laboratory within its company. There is no newer or advanced technology than the equipment utilized by Aveo in its design and testing protocols. In fact, this laboratory also performs testing for a wide variety of non-aviation led lighting products across many industries. Coupling this equipment with our advanced optics software and trained engineers results in truly world-leading products.

WHEN YOU SELECT AN LED LIGHTING PRODUCT FOR YOUR AIRPLANE, BOAT, OR OBSTRUCTION OR SAFETY LIGHTING, YOU SHOULD DEMAND THAT IT COMES FROM A COMPANY THAT IS EQUIPPED FOR THE TASK AND A LEADER IN ITS FIELD.

We have purchased the lights produced by ALL of our competitors and are soon to post ALL the results on our webpages, so stay tuned. Enough of the wild and baseless claims, the data does not lie and there is no recourse for the self-appointed experts on the aviation forums with their own agendas and their ridiculous hand-held photo meters and their garage science. We have decided it is time to separate facts from fiction. We trust you will enjoy seeing the inner construction, the engineering, the performance and the components used by our competition, we surely did.

We will also be uploading to our new website ALL of our extensive DO-160E environmental testing results and compliance reports from the relevant testing laboratories. WE CHALLENGE OUR COMPETITORS TO DO THE SAME, as most of their product designs and construction will preclude them from passing these critical requirements for certification. Anyone that is interested in reading the requirements will also find the entire DO-160E protocols posted. ( Please note, that version E is the latest, and many existing actually TSO certified lights out there presently are only tested to version B. )

Near-Field Goniophotometer

One of the most advanced pieces of equipment we utlilize, and it is specifically engineered for measuring LED arrays output including angular measurements, is our PM-NFMS Near-Field Goniophotometer coupled with a ProMetric PM-1200 imaging colorimeter. Highly advanced computer software performs all the necessary analysis and outputs required for performance validation and certification purposes. LEDs are not isotropic light sources, meaning that their intensity varies with direction of view. View angle is the simplified metric that defines the angular extent of emission. Generally, the view angle of an LED is taken to mean the angular range over which the LED's emission falls to 50% of that at its peak. The instrument used for measuring the angular variation from a light source or display is called a goniophotometer. For individual LEDs and solid state light luminaires, the measurement made is of luminous intensity versus angle in the far-field. For an LED video display, the measurement made is of luminance versus angle in the near-field.

For far-field measurements of a luminaire and the generation of standard "photometric" data, Strojkov is equipped with the world-class Radiant Imaging PM-NFMS goniophotometer. Rather than using an illuminance meter in the photometric far-field to record illuminance as a function of angle, the PM-NFMS employs a ProMetric CCD imaging photometer to record spatially-resolved images of the near-field luminance emitted from the light source. Spatially-resolved images of the source luminance are recorded in Radiant Imaging's proprietary ProSource (.rs8) format for one angle of azimuth and elevation at a time. The associated, motorised goniometer stage scans the device under test over ± 88º in all directions. Radiant Imaging's ProSource software then performs a ray-tracing operation to scale the near-field luminance readings to equivalent far-field illuminance values at the click of a mouse. Standard photometric files in the IESNA (.ies) and EULUMDAT (.ltd) format are then generated. The photometric data reported also includes the light output ratio (LOR) as well as the integrated luminous flux. Luminous intensity is the luminous flux emitted per unit solid angle, measured in candelas (cd). Intensity is what you measure when the lamp is a point emitter, in other words when you are in the photometric "far-field". Conversely, when you move up close to the light source (the "near-field"), you transition to measuring luminance in candelas per sq. meter (cd/m2). Consider an array of 100 by 100 individual LEDs used in a video display panel. You would measure the luminous intensity of each LED but when you view the display as a whole, you would measure the luminance (or brightness). However, if you were to move sufficiently far away from the LED panel that it becomes a point source, you would then measure the luminous intensity of the panel.

Intensity should be measured in a defined direction; unless the lamp is isotropic, intensity will vary with direction of view. Intensity measurements can be performed with an illuminance photometer (or for improved accuracy a spectrometer configured for spectral irradiance measurements) placed approximately 10 to 20 times the source size away. This records the illuminance (in lux), and the conversion from lux to candelas is performed by multiplying the illuminance by the square of the distance between the lamp and the detector.

The problem with LEDs is that they don't conform to the ideal of a point source which meant in the past that measurements of far-field intensity were highly instrument-specific. CIE's publication number 127 addresses this by defining standard measurement geometries. The CIE geometry defines - in effect - a near-field, or average intensity. A photometer (or spectroradiometer) with a collection area of 100mm2 views the LED at a distance of either 100mm (condition B) or 316mm (condition A), equivalent to view angles of 0.01 or 0.001 steradians respectively. CIE 127 applies to the measurement of individual LED emitters only.