Hot Laminated Multilayer Polymer Illumination Structure Based on Embedded LED Chips

The dominant technology for manufacturing backlight illumination structure (BLIS) is typically based on the use of individually packaged surface mount device light emitting diodes (LEDs) and special light guide plate (LGP) and diffuser films. The prevailing BLIS package, however, contains several separate diffuser films, which results in a thick and costly structure. In addition, the light coupling from LED to the LGP is sensitive to alignment errors causing nonuniform and inefficient illumination. We have demonstrated a novel hot laminated packaging structure for backlighting solutions, which is based on inorganic LED chips and multilayer polymer structure. The main advantages of the implemented system compared to the traditional light guiding system are easy optical coupling with high efficiency in an integrated and thin package. The performed designs of 3×3, 5×5, and 5×7 LED chip matrices, verified by test structure implementations and characterizations, showed that the final thickness of the BLIS depends on the required uniformity of illumination, allowed LED device pitch and efficiency of the diffuser. The final BLIS demonstrator size was 50×75 mm
²
consisting of six 25×25 mm
²
modules. Each module consisting 5×5 LED devices resulting in total number of 150 LED devices with 5-mm pitch. The measured key characteristics of the demonstrator were as follows: average brightness 11.600 cd/m
²
(I
_LED
= 2 mA), luminous efficiency 22 lm/W, color temperature 5550 K, commission on illumination values (x = 0.331, y = 0.411), Color Rendering Index ≥ 70, and total power conversion efficiency of 6.3%. The combination of the developed Matlab performance simulation tool and cost-of-ownership cost evaluation tool enables us to estimate the manufacturing cost of a specific BLIS element against the required performance, assisting decision-making in different applications and specific individual customer cases.