The popular OSLON Black Flat S LEDs for automotive forward lighting – now brighter than ever

A new third generation of the industry’s most popular surface-mount LED for forward lighting gets an upgraded chip with 16% higher brightness and the same footprint as Gen 2 devices for easy upgrading of headlamps, daytime running lamps and front fog lights.

The OSLON® Black Flat S family of LEDs has established itself as a favorite light source for forward lighting in both four- and two-wheeled vehicles. That’s because its robust black leadframe QFN package is suited to automated SMT assembly, and offers excellent contrast for use in reflector-based lamps. 
Of course, the automotive forward lighting market is highly competitive, and manufacturers are always looking for ways to reduce cost by producing more light with fewer LEDs. So to sustain the success of this renowned product family, ams OSRAM has introduced a new third generation of the OSLON Black Flat S, offering even better performance and mechanical specifications alongside the familiar benefits of the black leadframe package. 

The new Gen 3 products featuring the latest UX:3 chip lift typical brightness per chip from 395lm at 1A/25°C in Gen 2 to 460lm. This performance is equivalent to that of the OSLON Compact PL Gen 3 products for automotive forward lighting, while the new OSLON Black Flat S family offers superior lumens/€, making it better suited to cost-sensitive forward lighting designs. 
The OSLON Black Flat S Gen 3 is to be available in a range of one-, two-, three-, and four-chip versions.

The products’ package has excellent thermal compatibility with metal-core (aluminum) PCBs, giving excellent mechanical and electrical reliability in forward lighting systems. Thanks to their package’s thermally efficient chip-on-copper structure, the OSLON Black Flat S LEDs help automotive manufacturers to achieve excellent thermal management. 

Compared to Gen 2, the Gen 3 multichip products offer a tighter specification for package height – 0.49mm ±0.6mm. This is in the same range as the height of the 1-chip device, and allows OEMs to reduce the distance between the emitter and the optics for more efficient optical coupling. 
Other features that automotive manufacturers have valued highly in the earlier generations are maintained in the new products: a uniform beam pattern, and consistent color over angle. 

ams OSRAM has kept the mechanical, electrical and optical specifications – apart from the 16% higher brightness – of Gen 3 very similar to those of Gen 2. This means that users of the earlier products can easily replace them with the new Gen 3 to upgrade headlamps, daytime running lamps and front fog lights. 
Samples of the one-, two-, three- and four-chip products are available now, and production release is expected to be in early 2025.