International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 37 (2010) 1266–1272

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer

j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s ev i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / i c h m t

Thermal performance of high brightness LED array package on PCB☆

K.C. Yung ⁎, H. Liem, H.S. Choy, W.K. Lun
Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Keywords: This paper presents a thermal analysis and experimental validation of natural convective air cooling of a high
Light-emitting diode brightness 3 × 3 LED array package on a printed circuit board (PCB) during operation from 0 to 180°
Printed circuit board inclinations. Temperature distribution and heat flow of the LED package are assessed by thermal profile
Thermal modelling measurement using an IR camera and thermocouples. In addition, a design study on the thermal
Heat dissipation performance of the packaging structure is also performed. The analysis results reveal that the effect of
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
position and inclination plays an important role in the heat dissipation of the LED package. The heat transfer
process of the LED PCB package in natural convection is also modelled and simulated using computational
fluid dynamics (CFD) method. The proposed thermal analytical study provides a detailed understanding of
the thermal response of an open or enclosed LED array PCB unit under various operating conditions. The
results provide criteria for setting up a LED array system and for adopting design features that would be
beneficial to effective thermal management.
© 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction density and operation temperature, especially when applications

High power light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are penetrating into a
number of lighting applications due to their excellent color saturation
and long life characteristics, replacing other technologies such as
incandescent and fluorescent bulbs in various lighting solutions
including indoor lighting, street lamps, advertising display, backlights
for LCD TV, traffic lights, and decorative lighting. LEDs that use from
500 mW to as much as 10 W in a single package have become
standard, and researchers expect that even more power will be used
in the future. The luminous efficiency of LEDs has also risen to a
certain level in response to the applications. At first, gains were made
in efficiency so that 20 lm/W was achieved quickly. Efficiency has
slowly risen in the last few years to around 100 lm/W, and trends
indicate 150 lm/W and higher will occur in the next few years.
Both optical extraction and thermal management are critical to
guarantee the reliability of LED packaging of modern high brightness
LEDs [1]. Generally, most of the electronic power ~85% of LEDs will be
converted into heat and this heat will greatly reduce the luminosity of
the device. In addition, the high junction temperature will shift the
peak wavelength of the LED, which will change the color of the light.
Narendran and Gu [2] have experimentally demonstrated that the life
of LEDs decreases in an exponential manner as junction temperature
increases. Therefore, a low-operation temperature is essential for
LEDs. Most practical situations require that LEDs have high power and
dense packaging, but this poses a contradiction between power
☆ Communicated by W.J. Minkowycz.
⁎ Corresponding author. Fax: +852 2362 9787.
E-mail address: mfkcyung@inet.polyu.edu.hk (K.C. Yung).
require LEDs to operate at full power to produce the desired
brightness.
In order to improve the performance of the unit LED package, or
LEDs array system, metal core printed circuit boards (MCPCBs) are
normally used as the common boards for heat dissipation as these
incorporate a base metal material, which acts as a heat spreader, as an
integral part of the circuit board. The metal core is usually made of
aluminium alloy. Furthermore these MCPCBs can take advantage of
incorporating a dielectric polymer layer with high thermal conduc-
tivity for lower thermal resistance. However, due to a lower material
cost, FR4 PCB is still commonly used with high brightness LEDs. The
thermal performance of a combined LED array with FR4 PCB and
MCPCB, under different physical conditions, is a useful combination
which needs further investigation.
In many cases, the casing of the LED array system needs to be
enclosed to keep it dust-proof and water-proof, so a natural
convection cooling scheme might be the only remaining feasible
option. This is particularly true when it is operating in a position with
a varying angle of inclination. For example, it is now possible to orient
the LED panels in any directions by the adjustable bracket system (see
Fig. 1a). This system is designed to illuminate a specified street region
through changing the angle of the panel. However, previous
investigation into the natural heat transfer focuses mainly on the
horizontal and vertical plates. The research so far on natural heat
transfer of inclined plate with heat sources on different angles [3,4] is
still lacking. To design an effective cooling system in a closed LEDs
array system and obtain an optimum cooling performance, the
behaviour of natural convection in such a system requires special
consideration.

0735-1933/$ – see front matter © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2010.07.023
 K.C. Yung et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 37 (2010) 1266–1272
(a) (b)
Fig. 1. LED array package. (a) Application with inclination and enclosure, (b) cross sectional view of a high brightness LED in its package, and (c) schematic of the 3 × 3 LED array
control circuit.
LEDs are recognized as having a long life, being of low power
consumption and non-radiating, being environmentally friendly and
being an energy-saving light source. Due to the development of
advanced LED material [5], most experts predict that LED is a potential
light source for green century lighting. As the single power LED is very
small, the use of lighting in a given region requires a uniform luminous
flux, also known as illuminance. Therefore, it is necessary to adopt the
form of LED array and increase its brightness and light-emitting area,
to improve the uniformity of illumination. However, the light output is
affected by the temperature of the case and by the ambient
temperature of high brightness LED [6]. A study of the LED lighting
performance on the proposed operating environment is thus required.
In this work, an experimental investigation of natural convective
air cooling of a 3 × 3 LED array-PCB in an open or a closed casing was
studied with an inclination of different angles from 0 to 180°. Heat
transfer and temperature field in such a LED array system were
analysed using Solidworks 2009 and CFD code Cosmos/Flow 2009 and
the results were compared with that from an IR camera. The effects of
PCB orientation, enclosure environment, and PCB material on the heat
dissipation of the LED array [7] were discussed and compared. Lastly,
the reliability performance of the LED array-PCB was also studied.
2. Experimental setup
2.1. LED electronic components
In this work, commercial high power white LED samples from
Philips Lumileds were used. The cross section of a LED is shown in
Fig. 1b. The total heat generation during the operation of a LED by a DC
power source was determined using the power law equation and the
control circuit [8] as illustrated in Fig. 1c. The nine LEDs are connected
together in series, and a constant current is supplied to each LED using
the constant current mode of Agilent E3632A DC power supply.
2.2. Printed circuit board (PCB)
In our study, the Solidworks/Cosmos simulation package was
used, which allowed calculation of density, heat capacity and
(a)
Fig. 2. Schematic of the experimental setup for the LED array system. (a) Study cases for LED array-PCB setup with inclination, and (b) LED array-PCB with enclosures.
1267
(c)
thermal conductivity of PCBs based on our layout design including
FR4 PCB or MCPCB stackup geometry, thickness and weight of the
copper layers. The current input for a LED during operation was 1.0
and 0.1 A as the maximum and minimum limits, respectively. Heat
generation from the electronic components was used to simulate the
LED PCB thermal response for the given sets of conditions noted
above. The material used in the study is FR4 (epoxy with glass
fiber from Nelco, 4000-13EP) together with copper plating and
aluminium metal core.
2.3. Experimental setup
The infrared thermography (TH9100, NEC-San-ei Co., Japan) is
used in our experimental setup. In this system, the surface
temperatures of LEDs were determined by infrared radiation (of
8–14 μm wavelength) from the surfaces according to the Stefan–
Boltzmann law. A close-up lens is also fitted to the IR camera (TH91-
386, NEC-San-ei Co., Japan). The minimum detection temperature
was 0.06 °C and the minimum spatial resolution was 95 × 95 μm2.
The emissivity value was set at 0.95. The inclination case and the
enclosure case of LED PCB assembly studied in this work are
depicted in Fig. 2. In Fig. 2a, the inclined angle range is between 0°
and 180°. Three special cases are highlighted: (i) the LED is facing
downwards when the angle is 0°, (ii) the LED is facing laterally while
its PCB lies vertically when the angle is 90°, and (iii), the LED is
facing upwards when the angle is 180°. Five enclosure boxes with
same base area but different heights were constructed using
transparent acrylic plates and a 3 × 3 LED array lighting (heat
source) was used in this experiment (Fig. 2b). The bottom side of the
box is left open so that the LED is cooled by natural air circulation at
room temperature. Temperatures inside each box were measured
from 60 points using sheathed K-type thermocouples having a
0.1 mm wire diameter. The measurement locations in the box were
at a fixed height of 3 mm from the top of LED heat sources to the
ceiling surface of the box, symmetrical with respect to the centre of
the floor. The temperature at the LED central surface was also
measured as calibration.
(b)
1268 K.C. Yung et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 37 (2010) 1266–1272

2.4. LED array illumination measurement 4. Results and discussion

Illuminance (Luminosity) refers to the extent of objects being
illuminated and it can be used to quantify the amount of photometric
radiation that actually reaches a given surface. It is a measure of flux over
a given area and illuminance is measured in lux (where 1 lx = 1 lm/m2).
In measuring illuminance at a particular position based on BS 667:2005
standard, 16 uniformly spaced points on the work plane area,
10 cm× 10 cm at a working distance of 10 cm from the LED array are
selected and the illuminance is measured at each point by a luxmeter.
The average of these measurements is then calculated as the average
illuminance of the LED array at the task position.
3. Thermal modelling
The physical system is simplified by arranging multiple LEDs as heat
sources on a PCB surrounded by air using simulation models. Solid-
Works Flow Simulation solves the Navier–Stokes equations [9], which
are formulations of mass, momentum and energy conservation laws for
fluid flows. The equations [10] are supplemented by fluid state
equations defining the nature of the fluid, and by empirical dependen-
cies of fluid density, viscosity and thermal conductivity on temperature.
For solving thermal and dynamical fields, governing equations [10]
in the Cartesian coordinate system rotating with angular velocity Ω
about an axis passing through the coordinate system's origin can be
written as follows:
∂ρ ∂ temperature difference is the fact that the die is located at the lower
+ ðρui Þ = 0
∂t ∂xi
4.1. The change of case temperature of LEDs
To estimate the internal temperature of an operating LED, its case
temperature is considered. The case temperature has a lower
temperature than the junction temperature of the LED. If the case
temperature is high, the junction temperature will also be high.
Therefore, case temperature could be used as a parameter for
estimating the LED lighting performance. For a LED package facing
upwards mounted on a FR4 substrate (Fig. 3a), the transient and
steady state of the LED case temperature at a constant current of 0.7 A
will be as shown in Fig. 3b and c. When the power is on, the lower part
of the LED case heats up first before the upper part which receives the
heat through conduction. It takes about 5 min for the temperature to
become steady enough for study. When the power is off, the upper
part of the LED and its surrounding regions will cool down first.
As marked in Fig. 3c, there are seven points along the dash line on
the front LED view. The measured temperatures for the points are
shown in Fig. 3d. Point 1 and Point 2 are on the top surrounding of the
LED. Point 3 and Point 4 are at the upper and lower parts of the LED,
respectively. Point 5 is at the interface of the LED and the PCB. Point 6
and Point 7 are on the bottom surrounding of the PCB. In comparison,
Point 6 has a higher temperature than that of Point 2. This is attributed
to the higher thermal conductivity material being at the bottom rather
than at the top. It is also noted that Point 4 also has a higher
temperature than Point 3. It is suggested that the cause of the
ð1Þ
part of the encapsulation casing.

∂ρui ∂
 ∂p ∂
R
 4.2. Effect of the PCB material on the heat dissipation of LED
+ ρui uj + = τij + τij + Si ; i = 1;2;3 ð2Þ
∂t ∂xj ∂xi ∂xj
As illustrated in Fig. 4a, two LEDs with 2 mm spacing are connected
in series on a PCB. A constant current of 0.3 A is supplied. Either a FR4
∂ρH ∂ρui H ∂

R
  ∂p R ∂u
+ = u τ + τij + qi + −τij i + ρε + Si ui + QH circuit board or a metal core circuit board is used. Their steady state
∂t ∂xi ∂xi j ij ∂t ∂xj
temperatures taken by the IR camera are shown in Fig. 4b and c,
ð3Þ
respectively. The average case temperature of the FR4 circuit board is
about 76 °C while the temperature of the metal core board drops to
u2 55 °C. In a comparison between Fig. 4b and c, the two LEDs feature an
H=h+ ð4Þ
2 overlapping of their thermal profiles for the FR4 circuit board while
the metal core circuit board does not have this characteristic. A high
where u is the fluid velocity, ρ is the fluid density, p is the pressure, Si power LED mounted on a standard printed circuit board (FR4)
is a mass-distributed external force per unit mass due to a porous therefore dissipates thermal energy essentially through the PCB
media resistance (Siporous), a buoyancy (Sigravity = −ρgi, where gi is the underneath (as the LED encapsulation material is of lower thermal
gravitational acceleration component along the i-th coordinate conductivity). The simulated thermal profile results for a 3 × 3 LED
direction), and the coordinate system's rotation (Sirotation), i.e., array with section view in Fig. 4d also show that the metal circuit
Si = Siporous + Sigravity + Sirotation, h is the thermal enthalpy, QH is a board (see the difference in colours at the same position) offers a
heat source or sink per unit volume, τij is the viscous shear stress higher thermal conductivity than the FR4 circuit board. This allows
tensor, and qi is the diffusive heat flux. The subscripts are used to heat to dissipate in all directions, as opposed to a single direction as
denote summation over the three coordinate directions. found with the traditional FR4 circuit board.
For Newtonian fluids, the viscous shear stress tensor is defined as:
! 4.3. Effect of enclosure on the ambient temperature of LED
∂ui ∂uj 2 ∂uk
τij = μ + − δ ð5Þ
∂xj ∂xi 3 ij ∂xk The change of average ambient temperature for a 3 × 3 LED array
mounted on an FR4 substrate of with different enclosure sizes is
Following Boussinesq assumption, the Reynolds-stress tensor has shown in Fig. 5a. All enclosures are rectangular in shapes with the
same bottom square face area of 60 mm × 60 mm. However, the
the following form:
enclosures, type A, type B, type C, type D and type E have different
! heights of 30 mm, 40 mm, 50 mm, 80 mm and 100 mm respectively.
R ∂ui ∂uj 2 ∂uk 2
τij = μt + − δ − ρkδij ð6Þ It shows that when a bigger box volume, type E is used, a lower
∂xj ∂xi 3 ij ∂xk 3
ambient temperature in the enclosure is attained. One other aspect is
also significant, when the box volume increases, the voltage across
Here δij is the Kronecker delta function (it is equal to unity when the LED will increase under the constant current mode condition in
i = j, and zero otherwise) and μ is the dynamic viscosity coefficient, μ t Fig. 5b. This indicates that the volume of the enclosure has a
is the turbulent eddy viscosity coefficient and k is the turbulent kinetic significant effect on the voltage drop across the LED. The result agrees
energy. For laminar flows, μt and k are equal to zero. with the previous work that of the dependence of thermal resistance
 K.C. Yung et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 37 (2010) 1266–1272 1269

(b)

(a)

(c)

(d)

Fig. 3. Change of case temperature of LED at a constant current of 0.7 A. (a) Experimental setup, (b) transient case temperature after switching on and off, (c) IR imaging on the case
temperature of LED, and (d) measured average temperatures for seven data points.

[11] on the ambient temperature apart from the junction tempera- important in order to dissipate the heat from the LEDs. Or some
ture of the LED. As the chimney effect [3] simulated in Fig. 5c openings can be cut in the enclosure to provide a path for the hot air
promotes natural convection in an enclosure, a large enclosure is to escape.
1270 K.C. Yung et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 37 (2010) 1266–1272

(a) (b) (c)

(d)

Fig. 4. Effect of the PCB material on the heat dissipation of two LEDs with 2 mm spacing at a constant current of 0.3 A. (a) LEDs held in series on a PCB at room temperature without
current supply initially, (b) LEDs on a FR4 PCB, and (c) LEDs on a metal core PCB, and (d) simulated thermal profile for a 3 × 3 LED array on FR4 or metal core PCB at a current of 0.3 A.

(a) (b)

(c)

Fig. 5. Effect of enclosure size on the heat dissipation of the LED PCB array package at different currents. (a) Plot of average surrounding temperature of the LED array against
enclosure height (H), (b) plot of voltage drop across the LED array against enclosure height (H), and (c) enclosure simulation on the LED's surrounding thermal profile on a PCB with
H = 30 mm (type A), and H = 40 mm (type B) at a current of 0.1 A.
 K.C. Yung et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 37 (2010) 1266–1272 1271

4.4. Effect of PCB inclination on the cooling performance
Fig. 6a shows the case temperature against FR4 board inclination
for a 3 × 3 LED array. A comparison is made of the heat dissipation
when a LED PCB assembly is inclined at different angles from 0° (LED
facing downwards) to 180° (LED facing upwards). The recorded
temperature of the LED facing downwards is lower than the case
temperature of the LED when it is facing upwards. The vertical
inclination of 90° shows the lowest case temperature of the LED.
Similar to the result in Section 4.3, the voltage drop across the LED is
the highest for a lower case temperature at a 90° inclination (shown in
Fig. 6b). The heat transfer phenomenon can be explained using the
following analogy: the heat flow is affected by two mechanisms. The
first one is the transfer of heat through the material by transferring
kinetic energy from particle to particle. The second condition is heat
transfer through the circulatory motion of a liquid or gas in contact
with a hot surface. Air surrounding a hot object removes heat by
conduction and convection, where gas molecules flow past the surface
and remove heat energy. Good circulation is important to good heat
transfer. In the lateral LED mounting case, there is good air circulation
on both board surfaces as shown in Fig. 6c. As for the differences in
case temperature when the LED is facing either upwards (Fig. 6c) or
downwards, this may be attributed to the different thermal
conductivity of the lens, die and the board material. The accumulated
heat in the lens may be still trapped in the LED due to its poor thermal
conductivity compared with that of the board material as depicted in
the simulated thermal profile of a PCB top and bottom (Fig. 6d) at an
inclination of 180°. Also, the PCB has a large surface that may block
convection causing some heat to be trapped in the area as shown in
the direction of the arrow in Fig. 6c.
4.5. Effect of PCB inclination on overall light intensity
Using the measure of illuminance described in Section 2.4, the
lighting efficacy of the 3 × 3 LED array under different inclinations of FR4
PCB can be compared. The illuminance from the LED array is measured
at a distance of 10 cm (illustrated in Fig. 7a). The recorded illuminance of
the LED in Fig. 7b increases gradually from 0° inclination (LED is facing
downwards) to 90° inclination (the PCB surface lies vertical to the
horizontal). It then drops gradually when the angle of inclination is
changed from 90 to 180° (LED is facing upwards). From the result in
Section 4.4, the voltage drop across the LED is the highest for a lower

(a) (b)

(c)

(d)

Fig. 6. Effect of PCB inclination on the heat dissipation from LED to PCB at different currents. (a) Case temperature of LED, (b) voltage drop across the LED, (c) schematic of the
conduction and convection motion of a wire bond LED PCB assembly for upwards or lateral LED mounting, and (d) simulated thermal profile for a LED array PCB from the top and the
bottom at an inclination of 180° and at a current of 0.3 A.
1272 K.C. Yung et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 37 (2010) 1266–1272
(a) (b)
Fig. 7. Reliability performance of LED. (a) Illuminance measurement setup for the LED PCB assembly, and (b) effect of PCB inclination on the illuminance of the LED at different
currents.
case temperature at a 90° inclination (shown in Fig. 6b). As constant
current mode is being used in the test, the change in voltage at different
angles of inclination indicates a simultaneous change of power
consumption. The above results demonstrate that the position and
orientation of the LED array on a PCB will affect the case temperature,
power usage and light output which make up a performance index for
reliability. These design configurations play an important role for
satisfying the required LED utility performance. It is noteworthy that the
best position and orientation for the high brightness LED array package
on PCB is an environment without an enclosure at an inclination angle of
90°. The maximum light output and the minimum case temperature are
achieved by having the minimum electrical energy wastage to be
converted into less heat while maintaining a higher input power for a
given value of constant current. This application helps to set a platform
to benchmark energy saving throughout the LED PCB product life
cycle [12].
5. Conclusion
This paper addresses the issue of thermal management when
designing an inclined LEDs array system in an open or an enclosed
casing, taking into account the different heat transfer mechanisms
inside and outside the LED package. The effect of position and inclination
of the LED PCB assembly on the thermal response of the system to
natural convection has been investigated. Through thermal modelling,
an evaluation of the correlation between the interaction among LEDs
and PCB position is made. The thermal analysis and modelling approach
help to validate that the heat dissipation from LED to PCB could be
improved significantly. The overall results facilitate lighting design,
minimization of electrical energy dissipation into heat in LED PCB
assembly, maintaining a high power light output of LED, and suggest
possible heat transfer interaction between LED array package and PCB.
The proposed approach has been verified and demonstrated by
experiments to be important for LED PCB thermal management.
Acknowledgement
This work was funded by the Hong Kong Innovation Technology
Fund (ITF) under project number ITS/257/09FP.
References
[1] J. Petroski, Spacing of high-brightness LEDs on metal substrate PCB's for proper
thermal performance, Proceedings of the Ninth Intersociety Conference on
Thermal and Thermomechanical Phenomena in Electronic Systems, 2004,
pp. 507–514.
[2] N. Narendran, Y.M. Gu, Life of LED-based white light sources, Journal of Display
Technology 1 (1) (2005) 167–171.
[3] Y. Kitamura, M. Ishizuka, Study on chimney effect on natural air cooling of
electronic equipment under inclination, Proceedings of the Ninth Intersociety
Conference on Thermal and Thermomechanical Phenomena in Electronic
Systems, 2004, pp. 121–127.
[4] F. Mayinger, G. Wang, Experiments on natural convective air cooling of a PCBs
array in a closed casing with inclination, Proceedings of the Sixth International
Symposium on Transport Phenomena (ISTP-6), 1993, pp. 243–248.
[5] R.C. Johnson, New LED materials inspire solid-state lighting advance, EE Times,
2009 [Online]. Available: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?
articleID=212900448.
[6] J. Garcia, M.A. Dalla-costa, J. Cardesin, J.M. Alonso, M. Rico-Secades, Dimming of
high-brightness LEDs by means of luminous flux thermal estimation, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics 24 (4) (2009) 1107–1114.
[7] A.J.W. Whang, Y.Y. Chen, Y.T. Teng, Designing uniform illumination systems by
surface-tailored lens and configurations of LED arrays, Journal of Display
Technology 5 (2009) 94–103.
[8] M. Nishikawa, Y. Ishizuka, H. Matsuo, K. Shigematsu, An LED drive circuit with
constant-output-current control and constant-luminance control, Proceedings of
the Twenty-eighth Annual International Telecommunications Energy Conference,
2006, pp. 1–6.
[9] T.E. Faber, Fluid Dynamics for Physicists, Cambridge University Press, New York,
1995.
[10] Solidworks Flow Simulation Technical Reference, 2009.
[11] L. Jayasinghe, Y. Gu, N. Narendran, Characterization of thermal resistance
coefficient of high-power LEDs, Proceedings of the SPIE—the Sixth International
Conference on Solid State Lighting 6337 (2006) 63370.
[12] C.T. Hendrickson, D.H. Matthews, M. Ashe, P. Jaramillo, F.C. McMichael, Reducing
environmental burdens of solid-state lighting through end-of-life design,
Environmental Research Letters 5 (2010) 1–9.