Cambridge Nanotherm, a producer of innovative thermal management technology and winner of “LED Lighting Product of the Year” at the 2015 Elektra Awards, will be presenting at the Strategies in Light show in Santa Clara (which runs from 1st – 3rd March).
Dr Giles Humpston will outline how Nanotherm’s unique thermal management technology can help LED designers square the circle of performance-to-price in his session: ‘Using Nanoceramic to enhance the performance of LED subsystems at reduced cost’. This presentation will take place at the show at 1.45pm on March 3rd.
The LED industry faces an interesting challenge: As LEDs continue to transition into the general lighting market high-power packaged LEDs are becoming ubiquitous. High-power LEDs are typically >1W in a small (10mm2) footprint. At best only 45% of the electrons put into the device will be converted into visible photons – the other 55% will be converted into heat. This is the problem: How to get the heat out of the packaged LED as quickly, and cost effectively, as possible?
Until now electronics grade ceramics, in particular cost effective Alumina (Al2O3), have been used as a substrate in high-power LEDs. Where Al2O3 falls down is in its thermal performance – at around 20 W/mK it’s a pretty poor performer. Its more exotic cousin, aluminium nitride (AIN) steps in at an impressive 160 – 200 W/mK depending on purity; a seriously good thermal performance, but one that comes with a hefty price tag. What’s needed is a solution that offers good-enough thermal performance with a price tag that’s more palatable than AIN.
Giles will be demonstrating how a patented process to convert the surface of standard aluminium into an ultra-thin layer of nanoceramic, finished with a fully inorganic sputtered copper wiring trace, offers the perfect material for the high-power packaged LED industry.
Weighing in right in the thermal sweet-spot of 152 W/mK with a price tag sitting between Al2O3 and AIN, nanoceramics open up a new class of material. Add to this ease of manufacture, filled copper vias and some enviable economies of scale and you have the perfect solution to the high-power LED conundrum.
To find out more about Nanotherm’s nanoceramic solutions please drop by booth 1049 at Strategies in Light.
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