LED Thermal Management: Passive Solutions for High Heat Flux Applications

摘要

As LED applications continue to expand beyond lighting and sensors, the power levels and heat dissipation requirements will also continue to increase. Thermal management is a major design issue for these high-power LED systems. The size and weight of conventional bulk metal heat sinks cannot satisfy shrinking packaging constraints. Active cooling methods, such as forced air cooling or even pumped liquid, can provide acceptable performance, but do so at the expense of increased energy consumption, reliability and noise. Passive phase change (liquid to vapor) cooling devices, such as heat pipes, are well-established in the electronics industry as a very effective and reliable way of removing excess waste heat at low thermal resistance. Successful application of heat pipes in solid-state lighting (SSL) and other higher intensity lighting products will require adapting heat pipe technology to the form-factor, material and cost requirements unique to SSL.