LED Package With Segmented Substrate For Thermal Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
The brightness of existing LED-based lamps is limited by thermal management issues, as operating LEDs produce heat that must be channeled away to prevent damage, and existing packages restrict heat dissipation, limiting overall brightness and operational current.
Innovation Solution
The development of substrates with separate electrical and thermal paths allows for improved thermal performance, enabling LEDs to operate at higher currents and brightness levels, with ceramic materials and metal traces providing efficient heat dissipation while maintaining electrical conductivity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Illumination intensity
If the operating current of LED is increased to achieve higher brightness, then the brightness is improved, but the heat generated increases and thermal management becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The substrate is divided into multiple electrically insulating base layers with separate electrical and thermal paths. The thermal path is segmented from the electrical path through the layered structure, allowing heat to be conducted away from LEDs through dedicated thermal routes while maintaining electrical isolation. This segmentation enables higher operating currents by improving thermal management.
Solution Approach 2:
The substrate acts as an intermediary between the LED and the heat sink. It provides a controlled thermal pathway that mediates heat transfer from the LED junction to the heat sink while also providing electrical connections. This intermediary structure enables efficient heat dissipation at higher currents without compromising electrical performance.
2Device complexity
If existing packages are used to maintain structural simplicity, then device complexity is reduced, but heat dissipation is limited and brightness is constrained
Solution Approach 1:
The substrate serves multiple functions simultaneously: it provides electrical isolation between LEDs, conducts heat away from the LEDs, and provides mechanical support. By making the substrate multi-functional, the design achieves improved heat dissipation and brightness without adding separate components, thus maintaining structural simplicity.
Solution Approach 2:
The substrate uses composite material structures combining electrically insulating base layers with conductive thermal pathways. This composite approach allows the same component to provide both electrical isolation and thermal conduction, enabling higher brightness operation without increasing device complexity.
3Temperature
If separate electrical and thermal paths are implemented to improve thermal management, then heat dissipation is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The electrical and thermal paths are merged into a single substrate structure rather than being separate components. The multi-layer substrate integrates both functions, providing electrical isolation and thermal conduction within the same component, which reduces overall device complexity while achieving effective heat dissipation.
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
This solution enables LEDs to operate at higher power and brightness, reducing thermal stress and mechanical stress, and allowing for independent control of light output by differentiating current supply to various LEDs, thereby enhancing the control over the light output and extending the operational range of LEDs.
Implementation Method 1
A phosphor is a luminescent material that, when excited by a light of a certain wavelength, produces a light at a different wavelength, thus modifying the output light of the LED
Implementation Method 2
Operating LEDs produce considerable heat as well as light. As the operating current (or power) of an LED increases, more heat is produced. The heat must be channeled away from the LED
Data Source
AI summary
Substrates and packages for LED-based light devices can significantly improve thermal performance and provide separate electrical and thermal paths through the substrate. One substrate includes multiple electrically insulating base layers. On a top one of these layers are disposed top-side electrical contacts, including light device pads to accommodate a plurality of light devices. External electrical contacts are disposed on an exterior surface of the substrate. Electrical paths connect the top-side electrical contacts to the external electrical contacts. At least portions of some of the electrical paths are disposed between the electrically insulating base layers. The electrical paths can be arranged such that different subsets of the light device pads are addressable independently of each other. A heat dissipation plate can be formed on the bottom surface of a bottom one of the base layers.