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Frequently Asked Questions


What is phosphor and how does it relate to LEDs?

  • Phosphors are materials that absorb light and convert it into a wide range of other lower energy wavelengths (colors) of light, making them critical to many lighting applications, especially LEDs. Most white LEDs are in fact blue LEDs with phosphor coatings.

What are the benefits of using phosphor?

  • Phosphor enables consistent, high quality light of various color temperatures and CRIs – all at higher efficacy and lower cost. For any given LED, up to 95% of the photons come from the phosphor. While many people think of LEDs giving of bluish light, Intematix’s phosphors give customers choices of any color light they want.

Is phosphor a natural material?

  • Phosphor is a chemically engineered powder that comes from various natural elements. It is not toxic and does not contain mercury. Phosphor does not contain the element phosphorus.

What is remote phosphor (ChromaLit)?

  • Remote phosphor separates phosphor from the source of photons that excite it. Compared to conventional LED designs, where blue chips are coated with a phosphor compound, ChromaLit leverages a phosphor composite separated from a blue LED energy source. This architecture provides unparalleled design freedom, more efficient manufacturing processes, exceptional light quality, and up to 30% high system efficacy.

Do all LEDs use phosphor?

  • Not all LEDs use phosphor, but most conventional white LED systems use phosphor to convert from blue light. The other way to achieve white light with LEDs is to use a red-green-blue (RGB) system. RGB systems require more complicated systems of control as each color LED has different behavior in different environments.

Where do you manufacture your phosphor?

  • Intematix manufactures its phosphor in Fremont and in Suzhou, China. All Intematix facilities are ISO-certified and the company minimizes the generation of pollutants by prohibiting the use of BFR’s or CFR’s in our manufacturing processes. Intematix also recycles the lanthanide materials in its phosphor byproducts, and all products are RoHS compliant and halogen free. Intematix does not use conflict metals.