Effect of potting materials on LED bulb's driver temperature

• Published in: Microelectronics and reliability Vol. 86; pp. 77 - 81
• Main Authors: Nguyen, Nam, Dinh, Van-Quyen, Nguyen-Duc, Tung, Ta, Quoc-Tuan, Dao, Xuan-Viet, Pham, Thanh-Huy, Nguyen-Duc, Trung-Kien
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.07.2018
• Subjects: Driver board of LED bulb; LED heat transfer; Thermal management; LED heat transfer; Driver board of LED bulb; Thermal management
• ISSN: 0026-2714; 1872-941X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.microrel.2018.05.012

This work presents a simple and effective technique to decrease the driver temperature by filling the potting materials into space between driver and the interior wall of a LED bulb's heatsink. The thermal exchange between the LED bulb, including LED chips, driver, heatsink, potting materials and the ambient were studied using the finite element method. The effects of potting materials on LED chips' temperature were investigated by thermal simulation and experiment. We found that the driver's temperature depends strongly on the thermal conductivity of potting materials. We also conducted simulation to find the suitable thermal conductivity value of potting materials for LED bulb. •Potting materials surrounding a LED's bulb driver can help to decrease effectively the driver temperature.•Thermal conductivity of potting materials >1 W/mK is recommended for effective heat dissipation.•Uniform thermal distribution of driver board can be achieved.•Too high thermal conductivity (>2 W/mK) of potting materials is not necessary.