LED Light Emission as a Function of Thermal Conditions

LED diode performance is a function of the device thermal conditions. The forward voltage and light emission of the LED vary with temperature and current. This paper discusses how to choose the desired operating temperature, by examining the effect of varying the thermal boundary conditions on the light emission. The relationships are important to making design decisions about the LED thermal packaging. A generalized calculation process is given for implementation. An example compares different thermal design constraints.