Correlated color temperature tunable white LED with a dynamic color filter

We proposed a new device structure to dynamically tune the correlated color temperature (CCT) of a white light-emitting-diode (WLED). The key component is a dynamic color filter, consisting of a liquid crystal (LC) cell sandwiched between two cholesteric LC films whose Bragg reflection band covers the blue wavelength of the WLED. When a voltage is applied to the LC cell, the transmittance of blue light is changed, while the longer wavelength part remains unaffected, resulting in a tunable CCT. Validated by experiment, our design exhibits several advantages, such as reasonably wide tuning range (6916K to 3253K), low operation voltage (~3.2 V), simple device configuration, and low cost. It is a strong contender for next generation smart lighting.