Most people know that light can be decomposed into a series of monochromatic light by dispersion. The spectrum is a band of light in which complex light is dispersed by a dispersive system (e.g., prisms, gratings) and then decomposed into a series of monochromatic light, which is arranged in order of wavelength.

However, different light in the spectrum has a different energy distribution, various wavelengths of the composition of the proportion will be different. Sunlight has an extremely broad continuous spectrum, 99.9% of the energy is concentrated in the infrared, visible and ultraviolet regions.

Lighting fixtures in the “full spectrum”, refers to the light emitted by the lamps and lanterns, the spectrum is close to the solar spectrum, especially in the visible part of the various wavelengths in the proportion of components similar to the sunlight, the light of the color rendering index is close to the color rendering index of sunlight.

In fact, full-spectrum lamps have not been new for a long time; there have been full-spectrum level light sources for a long time. That’s right, the first generation of electrical light sources – incandescent lamps. The principle of incandescent light is through the voltage current to the tungsten filament “burning” hot, so that it burns to incandescent to light. Because the incandescent light spectrum is continuous and covers the visible region, so incandescent lamps have a high color rendering index, can be illuminated to reflect the true color.

However, due to the low luminous efficiency of incandescent lamps and short life of the two major fatal shortcomings of incandescent lamps lead to incandescent lamps, “expensive”, even if the light color is very good incandescent lamps have been replaced by a new generation of green light sources.

In recent years, the development of LED breakthroughs, breaking the key technology barrier, people will be blue LED excitation phosphor of the traditional LED technology up to the use of violet LED excitation phosphor to get red, green and blue color light, after the color light mixing superimposed to produce and the sun’s spectrum of similar light.

This technology combined with the LED’s own technical characteristics and product advantages, making the full-spectrum LED more in line with the needs and trends of the lighting market, so the full-spectrum LED is also highly favored.

After understanding the meaning and generation of full-spectrum, I think we all have an impression of full-spectrum. But the full spectrum of this technology for the user and what kind of benefits, whether it is worth consumers a buy? 

Healthy Light

Impact on human health

Before man-made light sources existed, sunlight was the only source of light, and our ancestors depended on the sun for their livelihood. Not only does sunlight provide the earth with a source of illumination and energy, but the sun’s light also regulates human physiological rhythms and has an impact on human biology, psychology, and the human body.

However, modern urbanites, especially office workers, spend long hours indoors and rarely come into contact with the sunlight, and are unable to get the health benefits from the sun. The significance of full spectrum is to reproduce the sunlight and bring back to us the physiological, psychological, and human body benefits of nature’s light acting on human beings. 

Natural color

We all know that an object will show its color when exposed to light, but when an object is exposed to a light source with a discontinuous and incomplete spectrum, the color will be distorted to varying degrees. The International Commission on Illumination CIE on the light source on the object of the true color of the degree of presentation of the definition of the light source of the color rendering. In order to more easily describe the color rendering of the light source, but also introduced the concept of color rendering index, based on the standard light source, the color rendering index Ra is set at 100.

Can be most of the current LED products have been able to do the color rendering index Ra>80, but for some applications in the studio, studio, etc. need to be true reproduction of the skin color occasions, as well as fruits and vegetables, fresh meat color highly reproducible scenarios, the general color rendering index Ra has been unable to satisfy the evaluation of the light source’s ability to restore the true color.

So to evaluate the ability of a light source to restore the color of good or bad can not be based only on the general color rendering index to judge, for special scenes, we may also need to consider the light source of the special color rendering index R9, color saturation Rg, and color fidelity Rf value. The light of full-spectrum lamps has the color light of each wavelength band in the visible region of the human eye, which can provide a rich sense of color and restore the most natural and true colors of the illuminated objects.

Besides, working for a long time in a working environment with lack of color and single tone, people are prone to visual fatigue and psychological pressure. The rich spectrum of full-spectrum light can reproduce the real color of the object, provide vivid light, relieve visual fatigue of the human eye, reduce eye discomfort, and thus improve the comfort of the user’s light environment.

Taking care of your eyes

Since most of the traditional LEDs use blue light to excite the yellow phosphor and mix the color light to get white light. If the blue light component is too high, in the case of prolonged use, blue light can penetrate the lens of the human eye to the retina, accelerate the oxidation of macular cells, causing optical damage.

For the human eye, human beings after a long time of evolution, the human eye has adapted to the sunlight, the closer the light is to natural light, the more comfortable the human eye feels. Full Spectrum LED adopts violet LED excitation, which reduces the blue light component from the root of the light source to minimize the damage to the eyes.

At the same time, the spectral curve of full-spectrum is close to the sunlight spectral curve, which can effectively improve the comfort of the user’s eyes. In addition, full-spectrum can also reduce the retinal microcirculation short-term obstacles, as well as slow down the blood supply obstacles caused by eye dryness and fatigue, so as to achieve real eye protection.

Adjust your work routine

According to the law of human biological clock, human brain usually starts to secrete melatonin at 9 or 10 p.m. As more melatonin is secreted by the pineal gland of human brain, our body gradually realizes that it needs to rest and sleep. Melatonin is a substance that helps to shorten the time of awakening before bedtime and the time of falling asleep, which can improve the quality of sleep. And this substance has a close relationship with the light that people are exposed to, especially sensitive to blue light, blue light will have an inhibitory effect on the melatonin produced by the pineal gland of the human brain, long-term in a high blue light light environment, and even produce sleep disorders.

And the emergence of full spectrum can provide better quality light and improve the light environment of people’s life. Fewer components of blue light can make people’s nighttime working light environment more reasonable, and a reasonable light environment can help people promote sleep, increase productivity and improve mood.

If the full-spectrum lighting system can be combined with the simulation of the sun’s color temperature changes throughout the year and at different times of the day and night, to provide more like the real natural light. The mutual combination of the two will really move the sunshine to the indoor, so that “not see the sun” workers can also feel the comfort of the natural sunshine without leaving home.

At present, the full spectrum is still in the emerging stage, because of its cost is relatively high compared to ordinary LED, by the price constraints, so the full spectrum of LED market share in the lighting market accounted for a very small proportion. But with the enhancement of technology and lighting awareness of the popularity, I believe there will be more users recognize the importance of full-spectrum quality and choose to use full-spectrum lamps and lanterns products, lighting companies will be based on the needs of the market to make a more excellent full-spectrum products.