High power 480 mW/sr Infrared LED's?

[coasternuts]

Anyone know of a source for these types of LEDs? 

Every search I do for high power yields anywhere from 1.2 - 240 mW/sr leds but nothing higher. 
Is there some fundamental reason why these are difficult to find?

I wish to drive an array of these if I can find them. 
Thanks.

[justDIY]

high power infrared:

http://www.roithner-laser.com/LED_HP_multi_chip.html

810nm at 900mW
890nm at 805mW
870nm at 1600mW, peak pulsed 9500mW

these are total radiated power levels, not mw/sr ... the mw/sr ratings are much lower, but around the neighborhood you are looking for.  keep in mind these devices take 8 to 10+ watts of power and will need plentiful active cooling - IE huge fan powered heatsink or water cooling.

[SurJector]

Is there some fundamental reason why these are difficult to find?

Maybe because of the power. Are you looking for 5mm LEDs ?

I wish to drive an array of these if I can find them. 
Thanks.

Think of a good cooling solution.

[coasternuts]

The project I am trying to work on has some missing details but this is the description:

"This sheet is edge-lit by high-power infrared LEDs, which
are placed directly against the polished edges so as maximize
coupling into total internal refl ection (total optical power:
460mW @ 880nm), while a digital video camera equipped
with a matching band-pass fi lter is mounted orthogonally.
TIR keeps the light trapped within the sheet, except at points
where it is frustrated by some object (e.g. finger) in optical
contact, causing light to scatter out through the sheet towards
the camera (see Figure 3)"

Thus the reason I'm looking for high power IR leds.  But from the description, it could mean an array of 20 at 25mW bulbs.  But I experimented with 10 25mW bulbs and the intensity wasn't nearly enough( ie. 10 more I didn't think would make much of a difference.)

Considering the LEDS are to align an approx 2' x 2' plexiglass, I was thinking along the lines of 5 per side.  But now we're talking some serious juice if using the roithner leds.   I would have to come up with a different power supply than a wall-wart.   

Any thoughts? 
Thanks for the quick replies.

[justDIY]

"oh my gosh"

you need to use regular IR diodes man, you don't need a 14 watt 60 chip infrared emitter... let alone an array of them.

those roithner LEDs are used for special applications, like heat curing epoxies and nightvision equipment.   500mW of radiated power is enough to do serious damage to your retinas, and you could probably even feel the radiation from something that powerful if exposed to sensitve skin.

[coasternuts]

I knew that sounded strange.   But based on the quoted documentation are you assuming "the total optical power of 460 mW" is an array of say ~19 25 mW IR leds?


Thanks

[justDIY]

did you remove the IR filter from the ccd chip of your video camera?

most of them have a wide band filter that drops the IR, so the camera doesn't get glare from the auto focus beam

sony nightshot cameras have a slightly different filter (IIRC), which blocks the auto focus IR but allows their IR floodlight to pass.

in cameras I have dissected, the IR filter is mounted directly to the ccd heatsink, and is usually just a little piece of glass (with a special coating of course)

perhaps you want to try different frequencies, to see if your camera responds better to something different.

[coasternuts]

It might be the filter.  I have a Logitech Quickcam 4000 which seems to not completely filter out IR, but it might filter out some.

But even so,  I can see IR light coming from my 25 mW LED's, but it appears very difficult to pick up the light in-plane very far from the source. 

I need to look into hacking a cam to remove the IR filter completely.  Maybe that will help, but I still think 25 mW is still not very good power/distance.  I may yet need to go higher.