Effectiveness of Polymer Composite-Induced Passive Radiation Cooling in Thermal Management of LED Emitters and Modules: Impact on Hotspot Elimination

Effectiveness of polymer composite-induced passive radiation cooling in thermal management of LED emitters and modules is elucidated by numerical simulations coupled with key experimental observations. Specifically, various polymer-filler composites coated on the board of LED emitters and modules are investigated for their effectiveness in reducing the board as well as junction temperature. It is demonstrated that a maximum temperature drop of 11 °C can be achieved for the single chip-on-board LED emitter with 10-W input power. Moreover, for the linear LED module, a reduction of 14.53 °C is observed in the peak junction temperature of LED emitters with 1-W input power in the light bar. The polymer composite coating is also demonstrated to significantly boost the uniformity of temperature distribution and to reduce the risk of hotspot. Some of the key simulation results are further examined to be consistent with analytical modeling. Significant implications of the present polymer composite-induced passive radiation cooling results to the challenging thermal design of electronic devices with limited space are also discussed.