An investigation into the optothermal behavior of a high power red light emitting diode: impact of an optical path

Abstract

Monochromatic light emitting diodes (LEDs) are getting more attention day by day for a very wide range of applications such as general lighting, signage, automotive lighting, display, water purification, and skin imaging. While they are taking place in a large number of applications, thermal challenges associated with the operation of LEDs have become a significant issue to address since their performance is greatly affected by thermal conditions. Thus, this study focuses on identifying thermal, optical, and electrical characteristics of an AlGaInP-based red LED considering the impact of the LED dome on the chip performance. The junction temperature measurement results obtained with forward voltage change method were validated with thermal imaging method (TIM) and computational models. It was observed that the LED dome may critically affect the thermal, optical, and electrical behaviors of the LED chip. In fact, a 3.7% increase in junction temperature and a 6.1% drop in optical conversion efficiency were found at the normal operation of the red LED after the LED dome was removed. The results were also compared with a blue LED, and lower junction temperatures were measured for the red LED at each driving current. The difference in junction temperature became even more noticeable at higher driving currents. Results have shown a good agreement between three different methods with a maximum variation of 6.9%.