Creating multi-port thermal network models of LED luminaires for application in system level multi-domain simulation using spice-like solvers

The multi-domain operation of LEDs characterized by the tight coupling between their electrical, thermal and optical properties manifests not only on chip and package level, but has to be tracked on LED products of higher integration level such as LED modules or LED luminaires. At present the system level numerical analysis of such integrated LED products is typically performed by the different design teams dealing with the electrical, thermal and optical design separately. One reason of this practice is the lack of a unified modeling approach in which the right models are used for the chip, package, module and luminaire (system) level. Spice-like LED models can address this issue. The present paper describes how thermal network models of luminaires can be created in an automated way to allow system level multi-domain simulations of complete LED luminaires.