AB103
AB103
LUXEON M
Assembly and handling information
Introduction
This application brief addresses the recommended assembly and handling
procedures for LUXEON M emitters. LUXEON M emitters are designed to deliver high
luminous flux and efficacy from a compact optical source in order to enable a wide
range of outdoor and industrial lighting applications. Proper assembly, handling, and
thermal management, as outlined in this application brief, ensure high optical output
and long lumen maintenance for LUXEON M emitters.
Scope
The assembly and handling guidelines in this application brief apply to the following
products with the part number designation as described below:
LXRA-BCDE-FGHJ
Where
a– designates minimum CRI (7 = 70, 8 = 80, 9 = 90, 0 = Royal Blue)
b– Four LED chips electrical configuration (S = all four chips are electrically connected
in series, resulting in less than 12V, R = two by two chips in series-parallel with less
than 6V, Q = all four chips in parallel with voltage less than 3V )
c– designates color designation (W = White, R = Royal Blue)
de – designates nominal CCT (27 = 2700K, 30 = 3000K, etc and 00 = Royal Blue)
fghj – minimum flux (optional)
In the remainder of this document the term LUXEON emitter refers to any product
in the two LUXEON product series listed above. Any handling requirements that are
specific to a subset of LUXEON emitters will be clearly marked.
AB103 LUXEON M Application Brief ©2015 Lumileds Holding B.V. All rights reserved.
Table of Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1. Component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1 Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 Optical Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 Handling Precautions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.4 Cleaning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.5 Electrical Isolation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.6 Mechanical Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.7 Soldering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2. LUXEON M Printed Circuit Board Design Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.1 LUXEON Z Footprint and Land Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2 Surface Finishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.3 Minimum Spacing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3. Thermal Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.1 PCB designs for LUXEON M . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.2 Thermal Resistance Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.3 Other Thermal Assembly and Design Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4. Thermal Measurement Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.1 Stencil Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
5. Assembly Process Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
5.1 Stencil Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
5.2 Solder Paste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
5.3 Pick-and-Place . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
5.4 Solder Reflow Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
5.5 Placement and Reflow Accuracy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
5.6 JEDEC Moisture Sensitivity Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
6. LUXEON Emitter Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
6.2 Active Control LED Current Driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
7. Packaging Considerations — Chemical Compatibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
About Lumileds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
AB103 LUXEON M Application Brief 20150330 ©2015 Lumileds Holding B.V. All rights reserved. 2
1. Component
1.1 Description
The LUXEON M emitter consists of a 2x2 LED chip array mounted onto a ceramic substrate. This substrate provides
mechanical support and thermally connects the LED chips to a thermal pad on the bottom of the substrate. An electrical
interconnect layer connects the LED chips to a cathode and anode on the bottom of the ceramic substrate. The ceramic
substrate is surrounded by a larger ceramic frame and is overmolded with a silicone dome to enhance light extraction and
to shield the chip array from the environment. Each LUXEON M emitter includes a transient voltage suppressor (TVS) chip
under the silicone dome to protect the emitter against electrostatic discharges (ESD).
The bottom of the LUXEON M emitter (Figure 1) contains four metallization pads, a large thermal pad in the center,
an anode, a cathode, and a small pad with a laser engraved LED serial number. The pad with the serial number is not
designed to be soldered onto a PCB.
Each LUXEON M emitter contains three staircase-style fiducials on the ceramic frame outside the dome (see the top view
of LUXEON M in Figure 1). In order to identify the anode and cathode, rotate the LUXEON M emitter so that the three
fiducials are on the top left, bottom left, and top right corner of the ceramic substrate when viewed from above as shown
in Figure 1. The left side, marked by the two fiducials in the top and bottom corner, then corresponds to the cathode side
of the LUXEON M emitter. The anode side only contains one fiducial in the top corner, when viewed from above.
1. Topside fiducials — The fiducial marks on the ceramic frame of the LUXEON M emitter provide the most accurate
methodology to locate the theoretical optical center. The theoretical optical center is located 3.14mm from the
vertical and horizontal edges of each fiducial mark.
2. Backside metallization — The optical center can be located using the edges of the thermal pad on the bottom of the
ceramic substrate. The theoretical optical center is 1.08mm and 1.75mm from the long and short edge, respectively,
of the thermal pad.
3. LED outline — The theoretical optical center is located 3.50mm from the edge of the LUXEON M emitter.
Figure 1. Top view (left) and bottom view (right) of LUXEON M emitter.
The pad with the laser marking should not be soldered onto a PCB.
AB103 LUXEON M Application Brief 20150330 ©2015 Lumileds Holding B.V. All rights reserved. 3
Figure 2. Fiducial marks on the top of the LUXEON M emitter provide
the most accurate method to locate the theoretical optical center.
AB103 LUXEON M Application Brief 20150330 ©2015 Lumileds Holding B.V. All rights reserved. 4
Figure 3. Incorrect handling (left and middle) and correct handling (right) of LUXEON M emitters.
1.4 Cleaning
LUXEON M should not be exposed to dust and debris. Excessive dust and debris may cause a drastic decrease in optical
output. In the event that a LUXEON M emitter requires cleaning, first try a gentle swabbing using a lint-free swab. If needed,
a lint-free swab and isopropyl alcohol (IPA) can be used to gently remove dirt from the lens. Do not use other solvents as
they may adversely react with the LED assembly. For more information regarding chemical compatibility, see Section 6.
In order to avoid any electrical shocks and/or damage to the LUXEON M emitter, each design needs to comply with the
appropriate standards of safety and isolation distances, known as clearance and creepage distances, respectively (e.g.
IEC60950, clause 2.10.4).
1.7 Soldering
LUXEON M emitters are designed to be soldered onto a Printed Circuit Board (PCB). For detailed assembly instructions,
see Section 2.
The recommended footprint design includes special fiducials near the corners of the LUXEON M to facilitate visual
inspection of the placement accuracy of the LUXEON M emitter on the PCB board.
AB103 LUXEON M Application Brief 20150330 ©2015 Lumileds Holding B.V. All rights reserved. 5
Figure 4. Recommended LUXEON M footprint design for Metal Core PCB. All dimensions in mm.
3. Thermal Management
The overall thermal resistance between the LUXEON M emitter and the heat sink is strongly affected by the design and
material of the PCB on which the LUXEON M emitter is soldered. Metal Core PCBs have been historically used in the
LED industry for their low thermal resistance and rigidity. However, MCPCBs may not always offer the most economical
solution.
Multi-layer epoxy FR4 PCBs are commonly used in the electronics industry and can in certain LED applications yield a lower
cost solution. Given the poor thermal conductivity of the epoxy in FR4 PCBs, it is important to include special thermal vias
in the PCB design to aid the transport of heat from the LED to the heat sink on which the PCB is mounted. A thermal via is
a plated through hole that can be open, plugged, filled or filled and capped. Open vias are typically placed outside the pads
on which the LEDs are soldered to prevent any solder from reaching the other side during reflow. A filled-and-capped via,
in contrast, can be placed directly underneath the thermal pad of the LED, improving the thermal performance of the PCB.
Lumileds conducted a simulation study to determine the typical thermal resistance for various LUXEON M PCB designs.
In addition, several PCB designs were manufactured and the thermal resistance was experimentally determined. The
remainder of this section discusses the different PCB designs which were considered and compares the merits of each
PCB design in terms of its overall thermal resistance between the LUXEON M emitter and the heat sink.
AB103 LUXEON M Application Brief 20150330 ©2015 Lumileds Holding B.V. All rights reserved. 6
Aluminum Core MCPCB
Figure 5. Several LUXEON M PCB designs were simulated and/or experimentally measured
to determine the typical thermal resistance between the thermal pad and the heat sink.
The thermal simulation study focused on an MCPCB design with a 100μm dielectric layer and a 70μm (2oz) copper foil.
The thermal conductivity of the dielectric material in the simulation study is assumed to be 1Wm-1K-1. In addition, several
MCPBCs were manufactured. Each MCPCB contained an 80μm thick dielectric layer with a thermal conductivity of
2.7Wm-1K-1 and a copper foil thickness of 35μm (1oz) or 70μm (2oz). In order to assess the impact of the metal substrate
on the overall thermal resistance, both aluminum core and copper core MCPCB designs were evaluated.
The thermal simulation study included two FR4 PCB designs with filled-and-capped vias. The FR4 epoxy board in each
design is assumed to be 0.8mm thick and has a glass fiber content of 25%. Copper foils with a thickness of 70μm (2oz)
copper foils are attached to both sides. The metallization patterns on top and bottom of the PCBs are assumed to be
identical. The filled-and-capped vias have a diameter of 0.5mm, are plated with 25μm copper, and are filled with epoxy
afterwards. The pitch between the filled-and-capped vias is 0.75mm. The first design in this category contains filled-and-
capped vias in the thermal pad only. The second design has additional filled-and-capped vias on the electrodes as well.
AB103 LUXEON M Application Brief 20150330 ©2015 Lumileds Holding B.V. All rights reserved. 7
Table 1. Rθ values between LUXEON M thermal pad and heat sink for various PCB designs.
Rθ PAD-HEAT SINK
PCB TECHNOLOGY DETAILS CU-FOIL
[K/W]
FR4 (filled-and-capped vias) Vias on thermal pad only 70μm (2oz) 5.3
FR4 (filled-and-capped vias) Vias on thermal pad and electrodes 70μm (2oz) 3.7
The filled-and-capped vias in these FR4 designs create an electrical path between the top and bottom metallization layers
of the PCB. Therefore, an additional Thermal Interface Material (TIM) is required between the FR4 PCB and heat sink
to ensure sufficient electrical shielding between the traces on the FR4 PCB and the heat sink. In order to provide a fair
comparison between the different board designs in this study, a 0.1mm TIM layer with a thermal conductivity 1Wm-1K-1 is
included in all thermal simulations of the filled-and-capped FR4 designs.
For completeness, several FR4 PCB designs with open vias were also considered in this study. However, both experimental
and simulation results indicate that the typical thermal resistance for these designs is above 6.5K/W.
Simulation and experimental results indicate that the thermal resistance of an MCPCB can be reduced to well below 2K/W
if the dielectric material between the LUXEON M thermal pad and the core of the MCPCB is eliminated. This approach can
be particularly useful in certain high-density applications where multiple LUXEON M LEDs are placed in close proximity to
each other.
Once the suitable PCB board material and design has been made, the choice of TIM material selection should be made
with the following considerations:
• Pump out. Some TIMs will move out of the thermal path during extreme temperature excursions and create voids in the
thermal path. These materials should not be used.
• TIM thickness. Excessive thickness of some TIMs will present an unacceptable thermal resistance even though the
thermal conductivity of the material may be high.
• Surface roughness. In order to fill the air gaps between adjacent surfaces, choose the appropriate TIM that minimizes
the interfacial contact resistance.
• Operating temperature. Some TIMs perform poorly at elevated temperatures. Care should be exercised to select a TIM
that will perform well under the anticipated operating conditions.
• Out-gassing. Out-gassing of some TIMs at design temperatures may produce undesirable optical or appearance qualities
(e.g. fogging) in a sealed system. Special consideration must be given to limit this effect.
• Clamping force. TIMs such as thermal tape or pads perform better when the right pressure is applied.
AB103 LUXEON M Application Brief 20150330 ©2015 Lumileds Holding B.V. All rights reserved. 8
LED Component Spacing (Density)
As more LEDs are packed closely together, thermal crowding effect becomes more important and will affect the ability of
the PCB to dissipate heat.
PCB electrical (copper) trace width and length (routing) can affect thermal performance. If the copper trace is too narrow
and long, there is more voltage drop across the copper trace (power dissipation = current x voltage) and more heat is
generated. In LED array configuration, the PCB area where the trace is generating more heat will lead to increase operating
junction temperature of the neighboring LEDs. This will cause poor light output uniformity.
As a general rule of thumb, layout the copper trace first such that the most optimum thermal performance can be
achieved and then figure out how to route the electrical traces. In some network topology, it may be necessary to make the
LUXEON M thermal pad electrically active. Figure 6 and Figure 7 illustrate the impact of copper trace length and width on
overall system thermal performance.
Figure 6. Top left shows long copper trace length (red lines) with narrower trace width. Top right shows the same layout as the
left drawing but with wider trace width. The latter minimizes heat generated in the copper trace. Bottom left and right shows
optimize trace route (shortest). Depending on the operating drive current of the LED system and the electrical layout of the
LEDs (parallel-series), the copper trace width may need to be adjusted depending on the amount of current flowing through
each section of the trace. See Figure 7 for this example.
AB103 LUXEON M Application Brief 20150330 ©2015 Lumileds Holding B.V. All rights reserved. 9
Figure 7. Top and bottom drawing each show four LEDs connected in parallel. Each LED is assumed to have the same forward
voltage and same current flowing. T1 to T8 sections represent copper trace width. Thicker line means wider copper trace width.
Top drawing has poor electrical layout since more heat is generated in T1 than T2, etc due to higher current flowing in T1 than
T2, etc. Temperature in T1 > T2 > T3 > T4. Bottom drawing represents good electrical layout. Since more current flows in T5 than
T6, the trace width in T5 is made correspondingly larger than T6 and so on. Much easier will be to make the trace width the
same (larger) for all of T5 to T8. Note that as the copper trace area is increased, this may lead to increase PCB board
capacitance and may interact with other transient tests such as electrical surge immunity test.
Figure 8. A real life example of an application design concept as described in Figure 11. Left and right pictures are thermal
images of the same board. The narrow PCB copper trace as indicated in the left picture carries very high current to feed
several LEDs connected in parallel. Right picture with green arrows shows a modified electrical trace routing (in this case,
soldering the right wire size to each node of the LEDs). Notice that the right picture shows more uniform temperature
distribution than the left picture after adjusting the electrical power distribution to each LED.
In this equation Tthermal pad is the temperature at the bottom of the LUXEON M thermal pad and Pelectrical is the electrical
power going into the LUXEON M emitter.
AB103 LUXEON M Application Brief 20150330 ©2015 Lumileds Holding B.V. All rights reserved. 10
In typical applications it may be difficult, though, to measure the thermal pad temperature Tthermal pad directly. Therefore, a
practical way to determine the LUXEON M junction temperature is by measuring the temperature Ts of a predetermined
sensor pad on the PCB right next to the LUXEON M emitter with a thermocouple (see Figure 9). The recommended
location of the sensor pad is 0.5mm from the edge of the LUXEON M emitter, on the center line between anode and
cathode. The thermocouple must make direct contact with the copper of the PCB onto which the LUXEON M thermal pad
is soldered, i.e. any solder mask must be first removed before mounting the thermocouple onto the PCB.
The thermal resistance Rθj-s between the sensor pad and the LUXEON M junction was experimentally determined to be
approximately 3.0K/W on a MCPCB. The junction temperature can then be calculated as follows:
Tj = Ts + 3.0 • Pelectrical
AB103 LUXEON M Application Brief 20150330 ©2015 Lumileds Holding B.V. All rights reserved. 11
5. Assembly Process Guidelines
5.1 Stencil Design
Figure 10 shows the recommended stencil design for LUXEON M. The recommended stencil thickness is 125μm.
5.3 Pick-and-Place
Automated pick and place equipment provides the best placement accuracy for LUXEON M emitters. Figure 11 – Figure 14
show various pick and place nozzle designs and corresponding machine settings which were successfully used for
LUXEON M emitters with pick and place equipment from Panasonic, Yamaha, Juki and Samsung. Each nozzle is designed
to pick the LUXEON M emitter up from the flat area around the dome without making any contact with the silicone dome.
Note that pick and place nozzles are customer specific and are typically machined to fit specific pick and place tools.
Figure 10. Recommended stencil design for LUXEON M. All dimensions in mm.
AB103 LUXEON M Application Brief 20150330 ©2015 Lumileds Holding B.V. All rights reserved. 12
PICK AND MOUNT INFORMATION VISION INFORMATION
Figure 11. Pick and place nozzle design and machine settings for Yamaha YV100X. All dimensions in mm.
Nozzle drawing courtesy of Ching Yi Technology Pte Ltd (part #: YMH-0078/12).
AB103 LUXEON M Application Brief 20150330 ©2015 Lumileds Holding B.V. All rights reserved. 13
PICK AND MOUNT INFORMATION VISION INFORMATION
Figure 12. Pick and place nozzle design and machine settings for Samsung SM421. All dimensions in mm.
Nozzle drawing courtesy of Ching Yi Technology Pte Ltd. (part #: SAM-1313/11).
AB103 LUXEON M Application Brief 20150330 ©2015 Lumileds Holding B.V. All rights reserved. 14
PICK AND MOUNT INFORMATION VISION INFORMATION
Figure 13. Pick and place nozzle design and machine settings for Panasonic BM221. All dimensions in mm.
Nozzle drawing courtesy of Micro-Mechanics Pte Ltd (drawing #: 19-MT-10053-01).
AB103 LUXEON M Application Brief 20150330 ©2015 Lumileds Holding B.V. All rights reserved. 15
PICK AND MOUNT INFORMATION
Figure 14. Pick and place nozzle design and machine settings for Juki KE750. All dimensions in mm.
Nozzle drawing courtesy of Micro-Mechanics Pte Ltd (drawing #: 19-MT-10043-01). A production pick and place machine will
typically include a vision camera system to recognize the bottom pads of the package. However, the Juki KE750 pick and
place machine used in this study is a dedicated test machine and did not include any vision camera system. Consequently, no
detailed vision information is available for this machine.
AB103 LUXEON M Application Brief 20150330 ©2015 Lumileds Holding B.V. All rights reserved. 16
5.4 Solder Reflow Profile
The LUXEON M emitter is compatible with standard surface-mount and lead-free reflow technologies. This greatly
simplifies the manufacturing process by eliminating the need for adhesives and epoxies. The reflow step itself is the most
critical step in the reflow soldering process and occurs when the boards move through the oven and the solder paste
melts, forming the solder joints. To form good solder joints, the time and temperature profile throughout the reflow
process must be well maintained.
1. Preheat: the board enters the reflow oven and is warmed up to a temperature lower than the melting point of the
solder alloy.
2. Reflow: the board is heated to a peak temperature above the melting point of the solder, but below the temperature
that would damage the components or the board.
3. Cool down: the board is cooled down, allowing the solder to freeze, before the board exits the oven.
As a point of reference, the melting temperature for SAC 305 is 217°C, and the minimum peak reflow temperature is
235°C. For detailed information on the recommended reflow profile, refer to the IPC/JEDEC J-STD-020C reflow profile in the
LUXEON M datasheet.
Global fiducials on a PCB panel can be used to calculate the reflow accuracy of the LUXEON M emitter with respect to its
theoretical board position. Lumileds has determined that the typical placement accuracy of a LUXEON M emitter after
reflow is well within 100μm in the x- and y-direction for the footprint in Figure 4.
Figure 15. Alignment crosses on the PCB (a) help estimate the placement accuracy of the LUXEON M emitter on
the PCB before and/or after reflow. The outer corner of the staircase style fiducials on the LUXEON M ceramic
substrate align with the inner corner of the alignment crosses on the PCB for a properly placed LUXEON M emitter (b).
Placement errors in x- and y-direction (c). Rotation errors in additions to placement errors in x- and y-direction (d).
AB103 LUXEON M Application Brief 20150330 ©2015 Lumileds Holding B.V. All rights reserved. 17
The PCB design in Figure 4 contains three alignment crosses, which correspond to the location of the three staircase
style fiducials on the ceramic substrate of the LUXEON M emitter (see Figure 1). These alignment features enable visual
verification of the proper orientation of the LUXEON M on the PCB. In addition, these features help approximate the
placement accuracy of the LUXEON M before and/or after reflow, see Figure 15.
Figure 16. Typical transistor operation regions. Ohmic or linear region is shaded in yellow
while the saturation or switching region is shaded green.
AB103 LUXEON M Application Brief 20150330 ©2015 Lumileds Holding B.V. All rights reserved. 18
6.2 Active Control LED Current Driver
There are two types of active control LED current drivers:
The main difference is how the power supply is being regulated. In linear regulated power supply, the transistor connected
to a load is used to control the output voltage or current. In order to do this, the transistor must operate in the ohmic or
linear region as shown in Figure 16. Since there is current flowing through the transistor (operating in ohmic region), the
transistor behaves like a variable resistor and generates heat.
In a switched mode power supply, as the name implies, the transistor is used as a switch to either switch in or out
electrical storage elements such as inductor (current source) or capacitor (voltage source) to a load. In order to achieve
this, the transistor must be operating in the saturation region as shown in Figure 16. In the “ON” or close switch, there is
hardly any resistance through the transistor and hence does not generate any heat when a current flows through it. In
“OFF” or open switch, no current is flowing through the transistor. This type of power supply has high power efficiency than
the linear regulated power supply. However due to the switching of the circuit, it generates electromagnetic interference
(EMI) which must be taken into account and minimized during the design stage. There are several switch mode power
supply configurations such as buck, boost and buck-boost convertor.
A summary of the major differences between these two active control LED current drivers is given in Table 2 below.
Table 2. Comparison of a typical linear regulated versus switch mode power supply.
*: if magnetics are used to step down the voltage before the regulator.
A typical example of an AC-DC LED system block circuit may consist of a bridge rectifier, transient circuit protection
(e.g. varistor), dimming circuit (triac) and a control circuit (either passive or active control) with flicker-free, over-voltage
protection, filters and/or feedback loop circuits. Figure 17 shows an example of a system block diagram of a typical LED
driver circuit. Lumileds maintains a list of various linear IC driver manufacturers.Examples of various driver circuit designs
are provided by each manufacturer. To access this information, go to Lumileds website at lumileds.com. Go to the
“Support” tab and select “Design Tools.” Click on the “Eco-system” and then the “Drivers” tab. Registration is required to
access this list.
AB103 LUXEON M Application Brief 20150330 ©2015 Lumileds Holding B.V. All rights reserved. 19
Figure 17. A typical system block diagram of one example of a LED driver circuit.
The silicone overcoat in LUXEON M is gas permeable. Consequently, oxygen and volatile organic compound (VOC) gas
molecules can diffuse into the silicone overcoat. VOCs may originate from adhesives, solder fluxes, conformal coating
materials, potting materials and even some of the inks that are used to print the PCBs.
Some VOCs and chemicals react with silicone and produce discoloration and surface damage. Other VOCs do not
chemically react with the silicone material directly but diffuse into the silicone and oxidize during the presence of heat or
light. Regardless of the physical mechanism, both cases may affect the total LED light output. Since silicone permeability
increases with temperature, more VOCs may diffuse into and/or evaporate out from the silicone.
Careful consideration must be given to whether LUXEON M emitters are enclosed in an “air tight” environment or not. In
an “air tight” environment, some VOCs that were introduced during assembly may permeate and remain in the silicone
dome. Under heat and “blue” light, the VOCs inside the dome may partially oxidize and create a silicone discoloration,
particularly on the surface of the LED where the flux energy is the highest. In an air rich or “open” air environment, VOCs
have a chance to leave the area (driven by the normal air flow). Transferring the devices which were discolored in the
enclosed environment back to “open” air may allow the oxidized VOCs to diffuse out of the silicone dome and may restore
the original optical properties of the LED.
Determining suitable threshold limits for the presence of VOCs is very difficult since these limits depend on the type of
enclosure used to house the LEDs and the operating temperatures. Also, some VOCs can photo-degrade over time.
Table 3 provides a list of commonly used chemicals that should be avoided as they may react with the silicone material.
Note that Lumileds does not warrant that this list is exhaustive since it is impossible to determine all chemicals that may
affect LED performance.
AB103 LUXEON M Application Brief 20150330 ©2015 Lumileds Holding B.V. All rights reserved. 20
The chemicals in Table 3 are typically not directly used in the final products that are built around LUXEON M LEDs.
However, some of these chemicals may be used in intermediate manufacturing steps (e.g. cleaning agents). Consequently,
trace amounts of these chemicals may remain on (sub)components, such heat sinks. Lumileds, therefore, recommends
the following precautions when designing your application:
• When designing secondary lenses to be used over an LED, provide a sufficiently large air-pocket and allow for
“ventilation” of this air away from the immediate vicinity of the LED.
• Use mechanical means of attaching lenses and circuit boards as much as possible. When using adhesives, potting
compounds and coatings, carefully analyze its material composition and do thorough testing of the entire fixture under
High Temperature over Life (HTOL) conditions.
Table 3. List of commonly used chemicals that will damage the silicone overcoat of LUXEON M.
Avoid using any of these chemicals in the housing that contains the LED package.
RoHS
COMPLIANT
AB103 LUXEON M Application Brief 20150330 ©2015 Lumileds Holding B.V. All rights reserved. 21
About Lumileds
Lumileds is the light engine leader, delivering innovation,
quality, and reliability.
©2015 Lumileds Holding B.V. All rights reserved. Neither Lumileds Holding B.V. nor its affiliates shall be liable for any kind of loss of data or any
LUXEON is a registered trademark of the Lumileds Holding B.V. other damages, direct, indirect or consequential, resulting from the use of the provided
in the United States and other countries. information and data. Although Lumileds Holding B.V. and/or its affiliates have attempted to
provide the most accurate information and data, the materials and services information and data
lumileds.com are provided “as is,” and neither Lumileds Holding B.V. nor its affiliates warrants or guarantees
the contents and correctness of the provided information and data. Lumileds Holding B.V. and its
affiliates reserve the right to make changes without notice. You as user agree to this disclaimer
and user agreement with the download or use of the provided materials, information and data.
AB103 LUXEON M Application Brief 20150330