“5050 LEDs Decoded: The Chunky Chip That Powers Neon Ads and RGB Dreams”

“Understand one package and you’ll stop mixing up brightness charts—and start quoting with confidence.”

Problem — Buyers see “5050 SMD” on strip reels, but the spec sheets vary wildly—some promise daylightwhite floods, others tout discograde RGB.Agitate — That mismatch breeds costly surprises: a cstore retrofit looks dull beside merch, or a DJ’s pixel wall can’t hit the color punch you quoted. Refunds, reorders, and overnight freight devour margin.Solution — Walk through the five facts below. You’ll know exactly what “5050 LED” means, which package outshines it, true lumen output numbers, standard viewing angle, and when to choose an alternative.Lock these specs into your RFQ once and every XGM 5050 order—RGB or white—lands bright, uniform, and complaintfree.

Why “5050” Is a Footprint—Not a Guarantee

Google what is the 5050 LED and you’ll find everything from “world’s brightest RGB” to “obsolete dinosaur.” Truth: 5050 = 5.0 mm × 5.0 mm square package—no more, no less. Performance depends on die count, drive current, and thermal path.

Most U.S. buyers bump into two variants:

Problems start when a vendor slaps a “highlumen” sticker on tridie RGB or claims “RGBready” while shipping a white singledie. Below, four subheadings clear the fog.

1 ▸ What Does “5050 LED” Mean?

It’s simply the footprint—5 mm square—and it can house one big white die or three smaller RGB dies.Tridie RGB 5050s wirebond three ~350 × 350 µm chips onto a shared lead frame. Singledie white versions often hold a 1130 × 1130 µm chip. Same outer shell, wildly different specs:

RGB current — 20 mA per channel typical.

White current — Up to 180 mA pulses, 60–90 mA continuous on MCPCB.

Substrate — RGB is okay on 1oz FR4; white dies need aluminum core or 2oz copper.

Misordering this saves pennies and costs a project.

Ordering checklist:

Die count declaration (“3die RGB” or “single white”).

Thermal resistance spec (Rθ ≤ 10 K/W for white).

Lens material (silicone dome resists UV; epoxy yellows).

CCT or wavelength bins within 3step MacAdam or < 2 nm peaks.

Copy into your PO and watch vendors scramble—to meet you, not fool you.

2 ▸ What’s Brighter than a 5050?

Lead — 28 wordsFor pure white punch, a midpower 2835 at 0.20 W often beats a singledie 5050 in lm/W and board temperature.

At 60 mA, 5000 K, 80 CRI:

5050 singledie white — ≈ 130–145 lm/W on MCPCB.

2835 flipchip white — ≈ 175–185 lm/W on 2oz FR4.

Why? Shorter optical path, better copper slug contact. For RGB, though, 5050 remains king: three dies in one footprint keep pixel pitch tight.

If your job is straightwhite troffer retrofits, 5050 is now overkill heatwise and underperforming in efficacy. Shift to midpower 2835 and you drop BOM cost 12 %. But keep 5050 for gaming towers or digital billboards where density matters more than lm/W.

3 ▸ How Many Lumens Is a 5050 LED?

Rule of thumb: ~55–60 lm per RGB channel at 20 mA, and 28–30 lm @ 80 CRI white per 0.1 W drive.

Tridie RGB math:

Blend all at full drive and you see roughly 95–100 lm composite—but colorfully, not neutral white.

White singledie calc: Vf ~3.0 V, 30 mA (0.09 W) yields 25–30 lm at 5000 K/80 CRI.

Push current to 60 mA (0.18 W) and white 5050s reach 45–50 lm—yet heat skyrockets. DeltaT tests show RGB boards climb only 12 °C; singlewhite climbs 25 °C. Keep that in mind when designing dense wall washers.

4 ▸ Standard Beam Angle of a 5050 LED

Factory dome gives ~120°. Need tighter? Pair with 60° aluminum channel lens; need wider? Sandblast diffuser covers up to 150°.

Unlike 2835 (flat lens) or 3030 (secondary optic ready), the 5050 package ships with a low silicone dome: FWHM ~120°. RGB blends better at that width because subdie spacing is only 0.2 mm.

For edgelit signs, designers often sand the dome to frost it, widening FWHM to > 150° and smoothing color fringes. In street bollards, stick a PMMA collimator cup over each 5050 for 30° punch—just budget extra height.