Compact LED Grow Light with Extended Point Source Array
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing LED grow lights are inefficient in converting electrical energy to light energy, produce excessive heat, and require large sizes and costs due to widely spaced LEDs, which limits their effectiveness and flexibility in plant growth applications.
Innovation Solution
A compact LED grow light apparatus with a densely packed array of multiple LED chips without individual packaging, using a metal circuit board for thermal management and a reflector to direct light, along with an optical lens to enhance light distribution and spectral uniformity, allowing for flexible mounting and customizable spectral content.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If LED chips are widely spaced to dissipate heat, then heat dissipation is improved, but device size and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple LED chips are densely packed and integrated onto a single circuit board substrate, merging what would traditionally be separate, widely-spaced components into a compact array. This consolidation allows heat to be dissipated through the shared substrate while maintaining a small overall device footprint, resolving the contradiction between heat dissipation needs and device size constraints.
Solution Approach 2:
A metal circuit board substrate serves as an intermediary thermal management component, providing a high thermal conductivity pathway that efficiently conducts heat away from the densely packed LED chips. This intermediary structure enables close LED spacing without compromising heat dissipation, as the metal substrate acts as a heat spreader and conductor to the heat sink.
2Reliability
If individual LED chips are separately packaged with individual heat-sinking and optics, then each LED is optimized, but device size and cost increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple LED chips are mounted directly onto a common circuit board substrate without individual packaging housings, heat sinks, or optical components for each chip. Instead, a single integrated heat sink and optical system serves the entire LED array, dramatically reducing device complexity and cost while maintaining reliable LED operation through the shared thermal and optical management infrastructure.
Solution Approach 2:
The circuit board substrate performs multiple functions simultaneously: it provides mechanical support for the LED chips, serves as a thermal conduction pathway to the heat sink, and acts as an electrical connection medium. This multi-functional design eliminates the need for separate packaging components for each LED, reducing overall device complexity while maintaining optimization.
3Illumination intensity
If broadband light sources (MH, HPS) are used to provide bright light, then illumination intensity is improved, but spectral efficiency and heat management worsen
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of using a broadband light source that emits all wavelengths, the invention employs multiple LED chips with specifically selected peak wavelengths (e.g., 450nm blue, 530nm green, 630nm red) that correspond to plant photosynthesis absorption peaks. This local quality approach targets energy delivery precisely where it is most useful for plant growth, improving spectral efficiency while maintaining high illumination intensity in the relevant wavelengths.
Solution Approach 2:
The light source parameters are changed from broadband continuous spectrum (MH, HPS) to narrow-band discrete wavelengths matched to plant physiology. By selecting LED chips with peak emissions at 450nm, 530nm, and 630nm - which correspond to chlorophyll absorption peaks - the system transforms the spectral distribution to maximize photosynthetic efficiency while reducing energy loss in non-useful wavelengths and minimizing harmful infrared radiation.
4Object-affected harmful factors
If MH and HPS lights are mounted at minimum distance to avoid heat damage, then plant safety is improved, but mounting flexibility and usability worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The invention changes the thermal parameters of the light source by using LED technology, which operates at significantly lower temperatures than MH or HPS bulbs. This parameter change in operating temperature allows the light fixture to be positioned much closer to plants without causing heat damage, thereby improving mounting flexibility and expanding the range of usable mounting locations and configurations.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution provides a high-intensity, efficient, and flexible lighting solution that maximizes light output while minimizing heat and cost, offering improved spectral uniformity and mounting options for various plant growth applications, enhancing plant growth and reducing the need for natural sunlight shading.
Implementation Method 1
The conversion of electrical energy to light energy by LEDs is generally efficient
Implementation Method 2
an optical lens adjacent to the light emitting surfaces of the LED chips in said array that collects and directs light emitted by the LED chips of the array towards plants
Implementation Method 3
a reflector surrounding said array reflecting light emitted by the LED chips of the array towards plants
Implementation Method 4
This has largely been achieved via advances in drawing heat away from the active junction of the LED
Data Source
AI summary
The LED grow light fixture uses a densely-packed array of high-brightness LEDs that are not individually packaged where the array behaves similarly to a point source of light. The extended point source LED array, with its lens and associated reflector, result in a concentrated, partially-collimated light source, such that the intensity of the light does not diminish rapidly as distance from the light source increases. The LED array contains a plurality of LED strings that may be separately controlled, thereby allowing the spectral content of the LED grow light to be varied, to facilitate desired plant growth at various stages of plant life. The light emitted at each of the multiple different wavelengths from the array is evenly distributed, when the objects being illuminated by the array are at a distance of less than about 6 feet or even less than 1 foot from the array.