LED Flashlights and Infrared (IR), What you need to make it work

Recently the question has come up several times, why won't my NVG work with my LED flashlight?

The user generally has a good handle on their equipment and how it works and they are disappointed with their new LED flashlight when it will not put out IR light. Since the question/problem has arisen several times, it's time we address the issue.

Our old ICAN lights produced light by passing an electrical current through a filament between two electrodes. The result was the filament glowed brightly producing useable light. Since the primary reaction of the device was actually heat and fire, the useable light was actually a secondary product from which we sought benefit. The light that was being produced was in the entire frequency bandwidth from IR to UV. Obviously the portion we are usually concerned with is what we can see. To use the IR or UV bands, we would simply filter out what we didn't want, leaving the required band available for our use.

When LED flashlights hit the main stream, soldiers, law enforcement officers, helicopter pilots and hunters alike immediately complained about the lack of useable light with their much brighter LED flashlights. Followed closely by "Even without a filter, I can hardly see with an LED flashlight or it is really, really dim,there must be something wring with the LED flashlight.

To diagnose the problem, users were trying all sorts of remedies before calling for an explaination. Turning the white light on without a filter, provided only marginal results. Generally in the presence of a bright white light, NVG can be damaged quite quickly because they gather useable light. With an unrestricted ICAN light, the wearer of NVGs can have sudden pain and even eye damage if a white light is shone at NVGs. Not to mention the shear lunacy of having to perform a "low-light" / "no light" operation by using a flashlight. Kinda makes NVGs pointless, yes?

So what is the problem and how can it be fixed?

Well, LEDs are actually really small computers. They are designed to produce light at only a certain frequency that we can see. I'll not go into the human eye and the frequencies here; a quick internet search will give you tons of information. Unlike ICAN bulbs that produce light across all frequencies, LED only produces light in the visible band. This makes LEDs much more efficient since they do not waste power on light that can't been seen anyway. In the case of IR, we specifically want IR light and no visible light.

SInce LEDs can be designed to produce light at a certain bandwidth, it becomes immediately apparent, we need an LED designed to produce light in the IR bandwidth if we intend to use it with NVGs.

There are several solutions available to meet your needs. There are helmet mounted IR emitters that produce a very small amount of IR light for navigation with NVGs or instrument reading in aircraft. There are dedicated IR emitters, generally intended to be mounted on a weapon that will produce sufficient IR light to acquire a target. And there are flashlights that are equipped with White LEDs and IR LEDs so the light can be used for multiple purposes.

Like the incandescent bulbs replaced by white LEDs, LED infrared emitters are very efficient, last for thousands of hours and provide IR in the required bandwidth to be used by NV equipment.

If you are searching for a light for an IR application, please call our custom service team at (888) 308-9661 and we will be glad to help you out.