THERMAL CHALLANGES IN THE FUTURE GENERATION SOLID STATE

LIGHTING APPLICATIONS: LIGHT EMITTING DIODES

Mehmet Arik, James PetroskF, Stanton Weavery
General Electric Company
Corporate Research and Development
Energy and Propulsion Technology Laboratories
Thermal Systems Laboratory
One Research Circle ES-102
Niskayuna, NY 12309
[email protected]

General Electric Company

GELcore
6180 Halle Dr
Valley View, OH 44125
Jim.Petroski@ gelcore.com

yGeneral Electric Company

Corporate Research and Development
Micro and Nan0 Structures Technology Lab
Electronic Structures and Materials Program
One Research Circle Bldg. KW, Room 81432
Niskayuna, NY 12309
output. Although in the early days of development,
researchers dealt with low levels of lumens, today it is a lot
easier to get 10-20 based LED devices bringing new
opportunities. The introduction of high brightness LEDs
with white light and monochromatic colors has led to a
movement towards specialty and general illumination
applications. This has brought the thermal challenges to the
designers attentions.
High brightness solid state lighting products, LEDs,
have about 5000 times higher surface heat fluxes than the
ultimate light and heat source, the sun. Technological
advances in the microelectronics industry have led to a
rapid increase in the transistor density and speed of
conventional electronic chips, and hence an increase in the
dissipated heat fluxes. Based on the 1997 SIA Packaging
Technology Roadmap, it may be anticipated that a single
microprocessor chip may reach heat fluxes in excess of 31
W/cm2 by 2006 [SIA, 19971. A typical LED powerpackage has a lmm2 surface area with a total heat
generation of 1 W. This corresponds to a heat flux of 100
W/cmz. This is approximately three times higher than
SIAs 2006 packaging roadmap. Therefore, thermal
engineers should focus on designing smart, efficient, and
low thermal enveloped structures. A personnel computer
has a chassis that in reality provides enough space to cool a
microprocessor, while an LED application does not have
that luxury. Therefore, while the package level design will
present enough challenges,. system level design parameters
should also be selected carefully.

ABSTRACT
Light emitting diodes, LEDs, historically have been
used for indicators and produced low amounts of heat.
The introduction of high brightness LEDs with white light
and monochromatic colors have led to a movement
towards specialty and general illumination applications.
The increased electrical currents used to drive the LEDs
have focused more attention on the thermal paths in the
level-1 packages and developments in LED power
packaging. The luminous efficiency of LEDs is expected
to reach over 80 Lumens/Watt that is approximately 6
times more than one tungsten bulb. The thermal
challenges of these products in many applications will
open new research areas for engineers from chip level to
system level thermal management.

INTRODUCTION
Seventeen percent of the primary energy
consumption in homes is lighting applications. The move
towards more conservative, energy saving, plans have
attracted very intense attention to LEDs over the last
decade. General Electric sold the first LEDs in 1962.
Performance of LEDs has been greatly improved since
then. Over the years, LEDs have been used for indicator
lights and produced a low amount of heat. Fig. 1 presents
the application opportunities for LEDs based on light

0-7803-7152-6/02/$10.00 0 2002 IEEE

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In this paper, the history, present status and future

potential of solid-state lighting with high brightness LEDs
are discussed. Potential applications of LEDs are
presented and discussed along with the thermal
challenges. The need for the innovative cooling
techniques will be brought to the attention of the scientific
community.

Various types and colors LEDs have manufactured as

illustrated in Fig. 2.
Today, the LED market consists of two sectors, low
power indicators and specialty/general illiimination
systems. The commodity-priced, inexpensive indicator
LEDs are used to replace small indicator bulbs in various
devices. A typical 5mm indicator construction is shown in
Fig. 3.The LEDs inherent advantages of low power
consumption, shock resistance and temperature tolerant
design led to-wide acceptance in this field. Developments
in the 1980s and 1990s led to the introduction of high
brightness LEDs, where the devices produced enough light
to provide illumination, although initially at very low
levels. This occurred through the use of AlInGaP
semiconductors for red and yellow wavelengths, and
InGaN .for blue and green applications, along with the
development of the MOCVD growth processes. Since
1995, the brightness levels of LBDs has been growing at an
exponential rate due to waferldie, packaging, and optical
improvements. This has resulted in the opening (of general
and specialty illumination markets, with products such as
outdoor displays, signage, portable/ fmed lighting,
automotive, and backlighting.

LED PACKAGING DEVELOPMENT

Historical DeveloPment
Light emitting diodes are found today in more
applications than ever before due to new developments.
However, the LED itself is not a new device, as it was
first noticed at the beginning of the 20th century. In
1907, H. J. Round, an engineer working with Marconi,
first noted the illumination of a crystal while working on a
point contact crystal detector. It was later observed by the
Russian scientist O.V. Losov in 1922 and published in a
series of four patents from 1927 to 1942. None of this
created enough interest to develop the device [Craford,
20001.
It was not until 1951 that the LED resurfaced again
as science became interested in solid-state devices.
Research during the 1950s led to the refinement of the
device and the first commercialized LEDs were marketed
in the late 1960s.
The first practical visible spectrum emitting LED was
invented in 1962 by Nick Holonyak Jr. of General
Electric [Craford, 20001. He discovered that the
wavelength of a Gallium Arsenide diode could be shifted
from the infrared to the visible specr merely by
changing the chemical composition of the crystal to
Gallium Arsenide Phosphate. This allowed the
development of the first solid-state lamps. These devices
had distinct advantages in terms of vibration, shock
resistance, lifetime and power consumption over filament
bulbs. These early solid-state lamps found uses in
indicator type applications. Advances continued with the
development of improved 111-V and 11-VI compounds.
The 111-V and III-VI materials are GaN, AlGaN, InGaN,
and InAlGaN, known as wide band gap
semiconductors. New processes for expitaxial growth,
such as liquid phase and more recently MOCVD, were
developed. Devices of varying colors such as red, orange,
yellow, and green soon appeared. Additionally continual
improvement in quantum efficiency was demonstrated.

Manufacturers and Market Expectations

The majority of all the LED lamps and displiays in the
world are supplied from or manufactured in Japim and the
surrounding Pacific Rim. This is due to the fact that
European and US based manufacturers source the
assembly of their LED complonents in Asia. The major
manufacturers can be broken down into four world
geographic regions such as Japan, United States, Europe
and the Asia-Pacific. The bulk of the Asia-Pacific suppliers
are located in Taiwan with a few others .in Korea.
Mainland China is fast becoming a site for manufacturing
operations for Taiwanese suppliers.
The major manufactures in Japan consist of Stanley,
Matsushita, Nichia, Sanyo, arid Kodenshi etc accounting
for approximately 50 percent of the world miirket. The
second largest supplier is the Asia-Pacific regions
including Lite-On, Everlight, Ledtech etc. The Asia-Pacific
region accounts for approximately 23 percent of all world
sales. North America is the third largest suppliix of LED
components. The major manufacturers include CREE,
Hewlett-Packard, Fairchild Optoelectronics and Uniroyal
Optoelectronics. The North American world market share
is estimated at 15 percent, .while Europe is the fourth
largest supplier.

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General illumination is the ultimate vision for LEDs.

Since the introduction of the white LED manufactures have
been investing in products that will someday replace the
traditional light bulb. White LEDs can be built in three
different ways. The newest way is to utilize a GaN device
emitting in the 380-470 nm range combined with a
phosphor. Another method uses the combined light of a
red, green, and blue LED in a single lamp. A cheaper and
less popular method uses a two chip design where an
amber and blue LED are combined. LEDs in lighting have
the advantages of precise wavelengtbkolor output, directed
light output, long lifetime, vibration resistance, energy
savings and a small flat package. Current applications for
white LED lighting include architectural lighting,
decorative lighting, flashlights, backlighting of large
displays etc. The limiting factor for LED use in general
illumination is the high cost per lumen. In order to be
viable the LED lumen cost today of about $0.35 must be
reduced to $ 0.01. For example; a typical incandescent
bulb produces approximately 600 lumens and retails for
less than $1. A similar amount of light output from LEDs
would cost about $60 based on current LED lamp pricing.
Large increases in efficiency and reduction in cost will be
necessary to make the LED successful in the general
illumination market. In 2000 the worldwide market for
LED lamps reached $ 1 billion. LED systems sold more
than $3.5 billion, and the market is expected to climb to $
10 billion and beyond during the next decade as numerous
applications are found for these robust devices. LED based
systems market expectations are shown in Fig. 4 presenting
an expectation of approximately 1iX1o9USD.

The use of the LED components can be broken down

into five major markets, automotive, indicator,
communications, signs and illumination. The automotive
market includes automobiles, truck, buses, and all terrain
vehicles etc. The automobile use includes center high
mounted stop lamps, instrument cluster lighting, side
markers stop/tail/tum signals, switch illumination, and
interior lighting. An LEDs long lifetime and reliability
offers an advantage over incandescent bulbs in places that
are difficult or time consuming to replace. LEDs have
seen an increase in use in truck and bus exterior lighting.
The major factor for their popularity in this use is low
maintenance, high vibration resistance, and low power
consumption. The majority of the LEDs are used for
marker and clearance lighting. The indicator market
includes the consumer, computer, office equipment,
industrial and instruments. The communication sector
entails residential and business phones, cellular
telephones and switching equipment. Residential and
business phones use LEDs for indicator and backlighting
purposes. The area that has seen dramatic growth is
cellular phone LCD and keypad backlighting. An average
cell phone uses up to 3 LEDs, and an estimated 450
million cellular phones will be sold in 2001.
The sign market has become a popular one for LEDs.
This market consists of moving message panels, dot
matrix tiles, highway, traffic signal, channel letter, and
full motion video LED signs. Moving message, dot matrix
and exit type signs are the most prevalent LED signs. The
major uses include visual communication and advertising.
Highway signs or variable message signs consist of two
types, fmed and portable generator operated signs.
Maintenance and excellent visibility are the main drivers
for using LEDs in this application. Traffic signals are an
emerging use for potential high volumes of LEDs. The
main reason for their use is energy and maintenance
savings. Typical payback in energy savings alone is 3
years. The number of 5mm lamps used a typical 12
assembly exceeds 100, however recent power LED light
engines may use as little as 18 large LEDs. North
America is the major market for traffic signals at this
time, however slow growth is expected in Europe and
Asia. Channel letters, those large exterior letters depicting
store names, are a huge potential market. Current channel
letters are constructed using custom-built neon tubes.
LEDs in on wire form are now shipping for channel
letters. LEDs in this application offer a large savings in
initial installation, energy and maintenance costs.

LED Packaaina Roadmap

LEDs used for indicator lamps during early
technology adoption were packaged in two-lead devices
similar in shape to small bulbs. These lamp packages
came in 3mm and 5mm diameter sizes, also called T1 and
Tl-%I respectively, although some lamps were made in
sizes up to 10 mm in diameter.
As high brightness LEDs were developed, these lamp
package styles were used but the thermal limitations of the
packages became readily apparent. As the LED currents
exceeded 50 mA, the generated heat resulted in
unacceptable high die junction temperatures, which
degraded device performance and life. As a result, new
LED packages were developed to cope with higher power
devices. One of the first of these was the Piranha first
developed by HP and this package type is commonly used

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LEDs have design issues in thermal management due

to their small size and general lack of a sound thermal path.
Since LED usage began with indicator lights anti display
segments, the primary packaging of die has been to create
indicators rather than illuminators, and this requires small
currents and generates little heat. Because the LEDs are
more sensitive to temperature than standard silicon chips
(LED junction temperatures need to be below 125"C),
more attention must be paid to thermal design issues even
for low power illumination applications.
With
the
invention of high brightness LE:Ds, interest in higher drive
currents and greater power dissipation beg"
First
generation brighter dies wen: packaged in the 5mm
systems and rated for apprommately 4VDC anld 20mA
(80mW power). These 5mm packages can be over-driven
to higher currents but the thermal path out the caihde leg
of the lead frame quickly becomes too K i t i n g to remove
heat. With a thermal resistance of 240-275 W W , better
thermal paths were needed to remove the heat from the
LEDs to the system application.
Current high brightness LED designs have begun to
migrate away from the 5mm laimp style of packaging and
into custom packages better designed for heat removal.
With the release of the Piranha and Barracuda-style
packages, heat dissipation of 0.5-1 Wlpackage is now
possible. Larger die would result in this number increasing
more. This trend combined with applications that use
multiple LEDs now cause system designers to look at
system level dissipations of 5-110 W for small applications
and 20W or more for larger systems. This combined with
the relatively low maximum junction temperature of the
LED means the overall system must be very thermally
efficient. For example, a 10 W system in a worst-case 50C
ambient environment and a design goal of 100C LED
junction requires a 5 WW system resistance. This
resistance normally has to be achieved in 21 manner
consistent with lighting product design - a low cost
system, lack of any active cooling method, and re liable in a
variety of environmental conditions. Incandescenthalogen
lighting technology uses both radiation and natural
convection to achieve this, primarily via radiation from the
hot filament. But the low ]LED junction temperature
requirement forces a passively cooled design to rely mostly
on natural convection, and this is a paradigm shift in
lighting.
Therefore a typical thermal design problem for a LED
system revolves around efficient LED packaging for low
junction to case thermal resistance, attention to a
conductive thermal path to minimize resistance, and finally
an efficient natural convection system to remove the heat
to the ambient. Some systems may be able to rely on active
cooling or a large conductive sink, but this is not the usual
case for lighting applications.
Illustrative example: A typical Led application
consists of a GaN on sapphire LED attached GaN side

in automotive taillights and is also the basis of the GE

TetraTMChannel Letter product. Recently another higher
power device, known as the Barracuda, is the foundation
of the Lumileds Luxeonm LED package that supports
currents as high as 350 mA and a power of approximately
1W. The historical development of the packaging of
LEDs is shown in Fig. 5.
Other illumination LEDs are made for small
applications and are made as surface mount devices.
These are frequently used for backlighting applications in
cell phones, displays, etc., and use a modest amount of
power.
Fig. 2 presents various Led packages. Conventional
through hole 3, 5 and 10 mm round and various oval
styles are shown in several colors. The square and
rectangular shapes are most widely used and are known as
the present Chip LED. The SMD Chip LED comes in
domed and flattop configurations, typically with no
reflector. The Piranha package is of the power throughhole variety and is used in the automotive and signage
markets. . The TopLED (Osram) is also given in the
figure. They are produced in flattop and domed P K C 2
and PLCC4 designs. Typical applications are found in
automotive interiors. There are thousands of packagdchip
combinations that account for the mostly low
illuminatiodbrightness applications.

THERMAL MANAGEMENT OF LEDs

The efficiency of the solid-state lighting products
strictly depend on the junction temperature as presented in
Fig. 6. In addition, the available life of LEDs are also
dependent on the device junction temperature. Currently,
the most efficient LED package has a thermal resistance
of 20 WW. If one considers running the system at 3 V
with 350 mA, it will cause a 25-degree temperature
gradient between the junction and the substrate. If a single
LED is placed on a 0.5 cm2 Aluminum substrate, this will
lead to a heat flux of 2 W/cm2. System level design
requires a heat sink in the passive cooling regime.
Although it's a fairly new market, LEDs as an
alternative to conventional lighting products, brings some
demanding challenges. A typical LED lighting system is
faced with the issues of decreasing the thermal resistance
from junction to the substrate, and the availability of the
orientation independent cost-effective thermal solutions.
In the close future researchers will be faced with the
additional issues of local hot spots resulting in high
temperature gradients on the epitaxial layer.

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down (flip chip) to a silicon sub-mount. This assembly is

then attached to a skeletonlmetal cup. The cup has a
conical housing in which to place the chip and the submount. The conical angle at the walls is vital to obtain the
most effective light extraction from the chip package.
Later this open space is filled with a phosphor/epoxy or
phosphor/silicone mixture and then an epoxy encapsulate
is molded to form a lens which protects and guides the
light from the device. This structure is usually attached to
a metallic board that will later be connected to the heat
sinking system, usually a conventional heat sink.
A simple LED system is modeled by Finite Element
Method by utilizing ANSYS5.7. The geometry of the
system is close to a typical system. A 1 W heat generation
is applied at the epitaxial layer that is connected to the Si
Sub-mount. The length of the chip is approximately 1
mm, while the thickness is around 200 pm. A thin layer is
connecting the chip to sub-mount. This might be a solder
layer or a thin silver-filled epoxy or any alternative layer
with acceptable electrical and mechanical requirements.
The sub mount is connected to the cup; by another layer
of silver filled epoxy. A natural convection heat transfer is
applied to the backside of the lcm radius substratdcup.
The fictitious temperature is 30 OC, while the heat transfer
coefficient is 10 W/m*-K [Incropera and DeWitt, 19951.
Figs. 7 through 9 present the results of the FEM
analysis. Even though very high end of natural convection
cooling is applied the junction temperature is found to be
approximately 351 OC. This is almost three times higher
than what a typical LED package can handle. To solve
this simple problem a designer will need either more
aggressive cooling, forced convection, or increased
surface area through a heat sink. This example with the
best thermal interface performances created about 8 K N
thermal resistances from junction to the board. However,
in most of the practical applications, manufacturing
problems, material imperfections doubles or triples this
number. Cost is also a driving factor in interface material
selection. The main focus should be on decreasing the
thermal resistance path in the package. Secondly the
system level design should maximize utilization of the
enclosure structure to aid in dissipating heat.
Thermal measurements are also a challenge for the
experimentalists since very small surface areas must be
dealt with [Acharya and Vyavahare, 19991. With a system
length of 1-1.5 mm, a macro-conventional device such as
a thermocouple would lend itself to measurement errors.
Typical infrared cameras lack in resolution, and even the
best infrared cameras don't have the resolution to identify

hot spots on the chip surface. Current low cost approaches

rely on generating a forward voltage (V,) vs. temperature
correlation. This is done by heating the device and making
pulsed Vf measurements at low current over a temperature
range. Although effective for average junction temperature,
this method does not allow for identification of hot spots
on the chip surface. It is also time consuming and device
dependent. Perhaps special measurements techniques
should be developed to measure the temperatures at the
desired locations. This may lend itself to "test LEDs" with
on chip sensors. Some of the techniques utilized in MEMS
technology such as thin film thermocouples, diodes; or
perhaps sutured resistor layers will be handy to solve the
thermal measurement issues.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

A brief overview of the solid-state lighting history and
markets is presented. The energy saving advantages and
robustness of LEDs are discussed briefly. These solid-state
lighting devices have become of interest over the last
decade leading to the development of efficient, high
brightness and cost-effective packaging. Thermal problems
due to higher and higher heat dissipation for every
generation of LEDs will be a challenge for thermaI
engineers. A typical LED system is demonstrated through
E M . It showed a heat flux of 100s of times higher than
the sun.

REFERENCES
A.D. Kraus and A. Bar-Cohen, "Thermal Analysis and
Control of Electronic Equipment". University of
Minnesota, 1996.
Acharya, Y.B., and Vyavahare, " Temperature
characteristics of the device constant (n) of a light
emitting diode", Solid State Electronics, Vol: 43,
1999.
Craford, M.G., "Visible Light-Emitting Diodes: Past,
Present, and Very Bright Future", MRS Bulletin,
October 2000.
Incropera, F. and DeWitt, D., Fundamentals of Heat
Transfer, 1995.
SIA, 1997, "The national technology roadmap for
1997,
semiconductors: Technology
needs
Semiconductor Industry Association, Washington DC.

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Figure 1. Application opportunities for LEDs based on light output

Figure 2. Various LED Packages.

Figure 3. Schematic view of a 5 mm LED and cathode lead.

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$10,000 -

$11,134

$12,000

$8,000

$6.000

$4,000

$2,000

$0

I
2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

Figure 4. General market trends for the LED based lighting

1992

systems

1996

1998

1999 & Beyond

Figure 5. LED Power Packaging History.

140

- 120
&
U

-9 100

.Fp

80

50

50

100

150

Junckn Tem perabre E 1

Figure 6. Variation of the light output with the junction temperature.

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Figure 7. Temperature distribution of a typical LED system.

Figure 8. Temperature distribution of a LED layers front and back views.

Figure 9. Heat Flux distribution of the LED system.

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