The LED Lamp

Considerations for Luminaire Design

 A luminaire is the apparatus containing the light source,
and is designed to
 Connect the light source to the electricity supply
 Protect the light source from mechanical damage
 Control the distribution of light
 Be efficient
 Withstand the expected conditions of use
 be safe when used in the recommended manner
Electrical
 Determine operating current to use for the LEDs
 Operating current plays an important role in determining the efficacy
and lifetime of the LED luminaire
 Increasing the operating current will result in more light output from
each LED, thus reducing the number of LEDs needed
 However, increasing operating current also has several drawbacks:
 Reduced efficacy: Higher operating current reduces the efficacy of
current generation power LEDs. In general, the size of the power supply
will increase as operating current increases, since it takes more power
to generate the same number of lumens
 Reduced maximum ambient temperature: Higher current will increase
the temperature difference between the LED junction and the LED’s
thermal path. In practical terms, since the maximum junction
temperature is already decided, this reduces the maximum ambient
temperature for the luminaire

 Decreased lifetime: If instead of lowered maximum

ambient temperature, the maximum junction temperature
is raised, the LED will degrade in light output faster over its
operational life
 Depending on the application, these drawbacks may be
acceptable trade-offs for the higher per-LED lumen
output
 LEDs are operated at constant current for steady
illuminance over time
 Require a constant current LED driver
 2 types of drivers:
 DC drive circuitry
 A typical DC source is a battery (portable)
 Much lower voltages than AC, no EMI to consider, “safe”
voltages and input voltage is generally steady
 An LED’s forward voltage is about 3.2V at 350 mA
 The D cells are 1.5V when new, and about 0.9V when at
end of life, giving a voltage of 3.6V to 6.0V for 4 cells in
series

 Switched-mode power supplies

 There are one or more transistors in the circuit, which
switch on or off to control the operation of an inductor
 Much more efficient than linear mode power supplies

 The transistor is shown as a switch, which is either open

or shorted
 When the switch is shorted (transistor on) the input voltage is
directly applied to the inductor; the inductor current increases
 When the switch is open (transistor off), the input voltage is
disconnect from the rest of the circuitry; the inductor current
decreases
 The inductor current is forced to increase and decrease each cycle
 The inductor current goes to a capacitor, which is alternatively
slightly charged and discharged each cycle
 By controlling how long the inductor current increases versus how
long it decreases, the average current can be set
 The setting is done by a feedback circuit, the pulse-width modulation
controller, which is always an IC
 The controller measures the output voltage, and adjust the amount
of time the switch is on to keep the output voltage constant

LM3405
 Buck converter (source voltage always higher than LED voltage)
 The transistor is inside the IC, between VIN and SW
 The LM3405 switches the transistor on and off at a constant
frequency of about 1.6 MHz
 This connects and disconnects the SW pin to the input voltage
 The current in L1 is smoothed by C2 and is fed to LED
 The current is sensed by R1, which produces a voltage proportional
to the current and is fed back to the FB (feedback) pin
 The IC controls the duty cycle of its internal switch to regulate the
current
Dimming
 Because the optical characteristics of LEDs are
dependent on drive current, it is desirable to operate
them at their rated current
 The way to dim LEDs while holding them at a constant
current is to turn them on and off periodically
 This is called pulse width modulation (PWM), the same
for controlling ICs
 To avoid flickering, the frequency of PWN has to be set
above about 60Hz
 The LM3405 can achieve PWN up to about 5kHz

AC Drive Circuitry
 Running LEDs off the electrical grid
 Rectification converts the sinusoidal AC line to DC with
some ripple, using a bridge rectifier
AC-LEDs
 LEDs which can operate directly from an AC power supply
 Since diodes are used to form a bridge rectifier, and LEDs are in fact
diodes, LEDs can be assembled to act as both the bridge rectifier and the
light emitting device
 The AC LED device is actually made up of two strings of series-connected
die, connected in different directions; one string is illuminated during the
positive half of the AC cycle, the other during the negative half
 The strings are alternately energized and de-energized at the 50/60Hz
frequency of the AC mains power source, and thus the LED always appears
to be energized

Lifetime of Drive Circuit

 LED lifetime depends on device reliability, packaging, temperature
and operating current etc
 In an LED lighting system, the lifetime of the entire system needs to
be considered
 The drive circuit may actually determine the lifetime of the system

# #

 The lifetime of a properly designed circuit is usually very long

 ICs can last decades if not subjected to excessive voltages
 The real limiting factor is the input (electrolytic) capacitor, whose
lifetime depends on the operating voltage and temperature
 For each 10oC drop below rating, the capacitor lifetime
approximately doubles!
Optical systems
 While photons generated at the active regions are emitted in random
directions, the cuboid geometry of the LED chip restricts the
directionality of the extracted photons
 Generally a flat-surfaced uncoated LED semiconductor chip will only
emit light perpendicular to the semiconductor's surface, and a few
degrees to the side, in a cone shape referred to as the escape cone

LED arrays
 Based on the design goals and estimated losses, the designer can
calculate the number of LEDs needed to meet the design goals
 Most LED drive circuits are designed to drive a series string of LEDs
 Since all the LED forward voltages are in series, this sets the output
voltage of the circuit
 If one of the LEDs fail, the entire string is open and there is no light
 An alternative is to put multiple strings in parallel
LED far-field emission patterns
 The planar LED chip emits with a near-Lambertian pattern
 They have a large beam divergence, and a radiation pattern that
approximates a sphere

In optics, Lambert's cosine law says that the radiant intensity

observed from an ideal diffusely reflecting surface (a Lambertian
surface) is directly proportional to the cosine of the angle θ
between the observer's line of sight and the surface normal.

Reflector Cavities
 Reflects light emitted from sidewalls of LED chip into the
upward direction to improve efficiency
Secondary Optics
 Secondary optics are commonly used to shape emission
characteristics
 Broadly speaking, secondary optics fall into two categories:
 Diverging optics which spread the emitted light
 Collimating optics that gather the light into a beam

Diffusers
 Alternatively, diffusion-type LED lenses contain embedded glass
particles that spread the emitted light cone into a larger angle
 This lens style is commonly employed in applications in which the
LED is viewed directly, such as for indicator lamps on equipment
panels
 Improve illumination uniformity and controlling
directionality from emission of multiple sources

 Also for color-mixing of RGB mixed-color LED to

produce homogeneous output
Optical System Efficiency
 Optical system efficacy is estimated by examining light
loss. There are two main sources of light loss to
estimate:
 Secondary Optics
 Secondary optics are any optical system that is not part
of the LED itself, such as a lens or diffuser placed over
the LED
 The losses associated with secondary optics vary
depending on the particular element used
 Typical optical efficiency through each secondary optical
element is between 85% and 90%.

 Light Loss Within the Fixture

 Fixture light loss occurs when light rays from the light
source strike the fixture housing before hitting the target
 Some light is absorbed by the fixture housing, while
some is reflected back into the fixture
 The efficiency of the fixture is dictated by placement of
the light source, the shape of the fixture housing, and
materials used in the fixture housing.
 As figure below shows, the directional nature of LED
light enables much higher fixture efficiencies than is
possible with omni-directional light sources

Temperature effects on LED performance

 CHIP
 Thermal run-away temperature, at which certain part of the
die becomes hotter than other parts (hot spots) and fail
 Thermal shifts, affect ability of the phosphor to absorb the
excitation light

 PHOSPHOR
 Degradation of phosphors with temperature (particularly
red phosphors)
 ENCAPSULATION
 Epoxy (used as encapsulant) turns yellow with age
 Silicone is now used, but it is still a polymer and will turn
yellow with heat and time
 Affects color of emission and reduces efficacy of the LED
(yellowish appearance means that other colors have been
absorbed)
 PACKAGE
 If the package is not perfectly reflective, then it is partially
absorbing light, reducing efficacy
 Over time the reflective coating wears down, increasing
the amount of light absorption

Calculation of Thermal Resistance

 Consider a 3W LED whose packaging has a thermal
resistance of 10oC/W from junction to case
 Case has thermal resistance of 10oC/W to the ambient of
30oC
 What is the temperature of the die?

 Temp at case is 30oC + 3W x 12oC/W = 66oC

 Temp at die is 66oC + 3W x 10oC/W = 96oC
Transient Temperature

 Temp rises from 25oC to 55oC, caused by 3W of power

 Thermal resistance = 30oC/3W = 10oC/W
 Thermal time constant = time for LED to rise from
ambient to 63% of final temp
 LED rises from 25oC to 44oC in 140 s
 Thermal capacitance = time constant / thermal
resistance = 140s / 10oC/W = 14 J/oC

Advanced Packages for LEDs

 Integrate metal heat sink into package for reducing
resistance of thermal conduction path
 Use ceramic for improve thermal conductivity
Retrofit LED Lamps
1. Optical LED components
2. Electrical LED components
3. Mechanical and thermal LED
components

Retrofit T8 LED tubes

 Integrate LEDs, diffuser, heat sink, constant current
driver and power supply into a T8 package as
replacement for fluorescent T8 tubes
Next generation LED flat panel lamps
 Directly integrate LED chips onto high thermal
conductivity ceramic PCB
 Eliminate thermal resistance between LED package and
PCB