5050 LEDs: Square Package, Serious Punch

“Get the spec right once—skip a year of lumenrelated headaches.”

Problem — Spec sheets lump every 5 mm × 5 mm diode into one box, yet the wrong 5050 can tank brightness or cook a PCB.

Agitate — Misordering means a retail shelf bathed in dull whites or an RGB sign that fades under city glare. Freight for replacements and lost client trust eat your margin before Q4.

Solution — Work through the five checkpoints below: true 5050 definition, brighter alternatives, verified lumen output, beamangle hacks, and an RFQ cheatline that filters fakes on day one.Copy these bullets into your RFQ, and every XGM reel—RGB pixel or singlewhite flood—lands bright, cool, and warrantyproof.

Search “5050 LED” and Google serves two extremes: “King of RGB brightness!” and “Old, inefficient brick.” Both are halftruths because 5050 is just a footprint—5 mm square. Inside, vendors can fit:

Tridie RGB for pixel tape.

Singledie white for flood strips.

Sidebyside CCT dies for tunable retail shelving.

Performance shifts with die count, drive current, and PCB copper weight. Miss that nuance, and the strip that dazzled at a trade show melts in realworld heat.

Below you’ll find four subsections—each starts with a 30word lead, moves into a 200+word snippet, embeds an image placeholder, then dives another 200+ words to equip you with fieldproof numbers. Sprinkle these into your quotes and ask any supplier to match them. If they can’t, you just dodged a surcharge and an RMA.

1 ▸ 5050 Basics: It’s a Box, Not a Performance Stamp

Confirm die map first: one big white chip, three RGB minis, or dual warm/cool? Everything else follows from that answer.TriRGB 5050s run 20 mA per channel, Vf combos around 5 V. Singlewhite swaps in a 1.1 mm die, driven at 60–120 mA; it must sit on MCPCB or 2oz FR4. DualCCT houses two 0.55 mm chips sharing phosphor walls; great for tunable troffers, risky for tight RGB signs because of poorer color blending.PO checklist:

Die count and die size—“3 × 350 µm RGB” or “1 × 1 mm white.”

Thermal resistance (RθJB)—< 15 K/W RGB; < 10 K/W singlewhite.

MSL rating—At least 3 for epoxy domes; 2a for silicone.

Bin width—< 2 nm wavelength or 3step MacAdam.

Use Footprint_AUDIT to log proof photos and Xray shots.

2 ▸ Brighter Than 5050? MidPower 2835 Says Yes

For straightwhite installs, a 0.2 W flipchip 2835 beats 5050 on lm/W and keeps boards 8 °C cooler.Benchmark, 5000 K, 80 CRI, 100 mA:

RGB density still favors 5050 until 3535 addressable pixels fall in price.

Highbay maker in Ohio swapped 5050 whites for XGM 2835: board temps 8 °C, BOM –11 %, lm/W +29 %. Fiveyear TCO model saved $92 k across 42 stores.

3 ▸ Honest Lumen Counts for 5050 Variants

RGB fullblast ≈ 100 lm; singlewhite tops ≈ 50 lm at 0.18 W—measure again at 45 °C board for realworld math.Per 20 mA channel at 25 °C:

Red ≈ 25 lm

Green ≈ 60 lm

Blue ≈ 10 lm

Composite gains ~95–100 lm RGB.White singledie at 60 mA pulls 28 lm; at 100 mA (0.29 W) peaks 50 lm—but board temp spikes.Log flux at two temps: 25 °C (lab) and 45 °C (field). Expect ~8 % drop. Overdrive above 120 mA? Heat penalty exceeds lumen gain; derate or jump to 3030 highpower.

4 ▸ Beam Angle Hacks: From 120° Stock to 30° Punch

Outofbox, 5050 domes beam ~120°. Need narrow punch? Clip a PMMA TIR cup; want wash wall? Frost or sand to hit 150°.RGB blending loves 120°. White task lines need 60° glare cut—use aluminum profile with 60° LED lens. Path lighting demands 30°: install 5050 onto 10 mm “narrowbeam” strip plus TIR optics.Frosted domes lose ~5 % flux but erase color fringes. TIR cups reclaim center candela yet lift zheight ≥ 8 mm—mind slim cabinets. Always rechart FWHM after optics.