Multi-Chip Integrated High-Power White LED Device on the Multi-Layer Ceramic Substrate

Luqiao Yin1,2,3, Weiqiao Yang3, Yansheng Guo3, Kejun Ma3,Shuzhi Li3 Mingfa Chen4, Jia Li5, Jianhua Zhang1,2 School of Mechatronics and Automation, Shanghai University, 2Key Laboratory of Advanced Display and System Applications (Shanghai University), Ministry of Education, 3Shanghai Research Center of Engineering and Technology for Semiconductor Lighting, 4Rainbow Optoelectronics Material Shanghai Co., Ltd, 5 Microelectronics Technology Institute of East China P.O.B 143, 149 Yanchang Rd., Shanghai University, Shanghai 200072, P.R.China jhzhang@staff.shu.edu.cn, Fax:+86-21-56331977
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Abstract In order to solve the thermal issue and improve the thermal resistance of LED, a device with multi-chip packaged on multi-layer composite ceramic substrate is successfully packaged. The top layer of the substrate is low temperature co-fire ceramic (LTCC), while the base layer is aluminum nitride (AlNx) ceramic. 18 chips(one watt) are used in the device, and all of them are simultaneously packaged on a composite ceramic substrate which is 55 mm in length and 20 mm in width. The 18 chips are designed into two rows, and three chips in series for six parallels. At the same time the same chips are packaged on aluminum (Al) substrate and alumina (AlOx) substrate. After wire bonding photoelectric parameters of the three package modules are tested, the results show that the properties of the AlNx -based package has the best performances, the thermal resistance of the device is far smaller than the other devices packed on the Al substrate and the AlOx substrate. After phosphor coatings the AlNx-based multi-layer ceramic substrate package has 896.1 lm (43.4 lm/W) loading 350milliampere (mA) to each chip, and has 1081.3 lm (35.4 lm/W) loading 500 mA. The multi-chip module has little light degradation adding 500mA to each chip after working in the room temperature for one afternoon. At last the module is simulated by ANSYS software, the highest junction temperature of the chips in the module is about 70.8C when 1.8 watts electric power is loaded to each chip, this temperature is far lower than 125C which will damage the chip, and he highest simulation temperature of the aluminum heat slug is about 39.3C. The temperature of the aluminum heat slug is about 41.0C which is tested by thermocouple in the experiments, and it is closely to the simulation temperature 39.3C. At last the relationship between pn-junction temperature and thermal conductivity coefficient of the silver (Ag) paste , the relationship between pn-junction temperatures and convection coefficient have been researched, the results show that the pn-junction temperature can be decreased a lot while increase the thermal conductivity coefficient of the adhesive layer or increase the convection coefficient a little. Introduction With the need in electric energy saving, solid state lighting (SSL) systems is an ideal choice in general illumination application. The thermal issue, optical efficiency and cost [1], however, must be solved before the SSL is widely used in general illumination. The luminous area of light emitting diode (LED) chip is becoming larger and larger. But now the biggest commercial realization of single LED chip is only about 22 mm2 [2] for

the current epitaxial-growth techniques. Such single chip can not generate enough luminous flux for general illumination. So high brightness LED of multi-chip package is a feasible mode to be used in general illumination. Thermal resistance and optical efficiency are the bottleneck to the development of the high power LED. Many researches have been done to improve the thermal resistance of the high power LED, such as investigation of the siliconbase LED package of multi-chip LED [1], and developments of the LTCC base package [3]. However, the silicon base always breaks easily for its friability, and the thermal resistance of the LTCC is too big even with via slug. Aluminum base package is widely used because its low cost and high thermal conductivity. However, the thermal expansion coefficient (CTE) is a problem, as it is times of that of LED chip, and its thermal resistance will increase when the dielectric layer is fabricated. The thermal expansion coefficient of AlNx matches well with the LED chip CTE, which will induce smaller thermal stress than the Al-based substrate. The thermal conductivity of AlNx-based ceramic substrate is as high as 180C/mK, and there is no need to fabricate the dielectric layer as it is nonconductive. In combination of the feasible modeling of the LTCC, the multi-layer composite ceramic substrate is a good choice for high power LED package. In order to investigate the performances of the AlNxbased composite ceramic package, a multi-chip module with 18 chips was packaged and tested. The detailed experiments and simulation results have been studied in the paper. Design and Package The structure of the substrate was designed according to the following considerations: firstly, the 18 chips are packaged in two rows in order to make the chips in the center have the close junction temperature with the others as much as possible; secondly, three chips are in series and then in parallels for electric current or voltage is not too high; thirdly, the AlNx ceramic layer is used for its conductivity is as high as180C/kW and its thermal expansion coefficient matches well with CTE of the LED chips. In addition, the LTCC layer is used for its feasible modeling, and the conducting layer can be fabricated inside of the LTCC layers. The schematic structure of multi-chip integrated high power whiting LED is shown in Fig. 1. The dimension of the AlNx layer is 50 mm20 mm1 mm. High power blue light LED chips with vertical structure are mounted on the multilayer composite ceramic substrate. For die attaching, the adhesive layer used in the experiments is silver paste, after solidification in vacuum

978-1-4244-2231-9/08/$25.00 2008 IEEE

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drying oven is wire bonding. At the same time, the 18 chips are packaged both on the Al-based substrate and AlOx-based ceramic substrate. A 80 mm40 mm30 mm Al heat slug with a fan connected to the heat slug is used to dissipate the heat generated by the multi-chip module.

Fig.1. Structure of the AlNx-based composite ceramic substrate 1. AlNx ceramic layer 2. LTCC layer 3. Conducting layer 4. Ag-Pd pad 5. LED chips 6. Bonding wire Experimental The thermal resistance is tested by thermal resistance measurement equipment and the photoelectric parameters are tested by integrating sphere. Each thermal resistance of the three substrate modules with one blue light LED chip packaged is tested, the results are shown as follows: Table 1 Thermal resistance of three substrate package Type of substrates Thermal resistance C/W Al substrate AlNx substrate AlOx substrate 29.16 9.98 17.10

It has been observed clearly from the results that the thermal resistance of Al-based package is higher than the AlNx-based package (table 1). Aluminum is conductive, many layers such as dielectric layer, nickel layer, copper layer and gold layer will be fabricated before Al substrate can be used in the package, so many layers especially the dielectric layer will induce the increasing of the thermal resistance of the Al-based package. Each luminous flux of the three substrate packages is also measured. In order to reduce the influences of other elements such as the nonuniformity of phosphor coating layer and silica gel layer, the measurements are taken just after the end of the wire bonding process. Figure 3 shows the relationship between luminous flux and electric current packaged on the three different substrates (blue light). It is obviously observed that the AlNx-based composite ceramic multi-chip module has more luminous flux than the other two packages when the electric current is increasing.

Fig.3. The luminous flux as a function of electric current for three types of substrates The light released by the LED chips is mainly due to the electron-hole recombination, the recombination will be degraded as the junction temperature increases [4]. It can be deduced from Fig. 3 that the heat dissipation performance of AlNx-based package is the best of the three, as it is clearly that the multi-chip packaged on AlNx-based substrate module has more luminous flux than the other two packages. The thermal conductivity of AlOx ceramic is only about 30C /mK which is only one third of that of the AlNx. The thermal conductivity of aluminum material is about 203C /mK, but it may be lower than 180C /mK of AlNx after the dielectric layer and other layers being fabricated for Al-base substrate. Accordingly, the thermal dissipation performances of both Al-based substrate and AlOx-based ceramic substrate are worse than that of the AlNx-based multi-layer composite ceramic substrate. At last, the multi-chip module packaged on AlNx-based composite ceramic substrate is coated by phosphor layer in

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(c) Fig.2. Blue emitting images of three substrate packages, which are Al-based package (a), AlNx-based composite multi-layer ceramic package(b), and AlOx-based ceramic package(c).

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order to generate white light. The module packaged on AlNx multi-layer composite ceramic substrate is as followed:

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Fig.4. Emitting photograph of AlNx-based packaged module The photoelectric parameters are tested by integrating sphere after the module is phosphor-coated and attached to the Al heat slug. Table 2 Photoelectric parameters of the multi-chip module Current (A) 2.1 3.0 Voltage (V) Electric power (18 chips/W) Luminous flux (lm) Optical efficiency (lm/W) Optical power (mW) Color temperature (K) 9.823 20.62 896.1 43.44 2.414 5191 10.19 30.57 1081.3 35.37 2.945 5236 (c) Fig.5. PN-junction temperature simulated results of the three substrates, Al (a), AlOx (b), and AlNx (c) Based on the simulation results, it is obviously found that heat dissipation properties of the 18 chips is basically homogeneous; therefore, such design will avoid premature failure as the pn-junction temperature of some high-power LED chip is too high. According table 4, the multi-chip package on AlNx-based substrate has the lowest junction temperature 70.8C when simulated at the same conditions by ANSYS, and the simulation thermal resistance is only about 2.66C/W of the AlNx-based package, and the simulated and calculated thermal resistance is smaller than the other two packages. (b)

According to Table 2, it can has 96.1 lm (43.44 lm/W) when each chip of the multi-chip module is loaded 350 mA. Simulation and Discussion The three substrates pn-junction temperatures of Al, AlOx and AlNx are all simulated by ANSYS. The results are as shown in Figure 5.: Based on the simulation, the highest pn-junction temperature of the chips in the module is about 70.8C when 1.8 watts electric power is loaded to each chip. The temperature is far lower than 125C which will damage the chip, and the highest simulation temperature of the Al heat slug is about 39.3C. In the experiments the highest temperature of the Al heat slug is about 41.0C tested by thermocouple, and it is approximately the same with the simulation temperature.

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Table 3 Simulation parameters Component Heat slug Substrate Circuit print Adhesive layer Heat sources Material Al AlNx Ag-pd Ag past Die attach 1000 40 30 100 Thickness (m) Density (kg/m3) 2699 3260 11256 3055 8960 Specific heat coefficient (J/kgK) 900 700 260 1601 385 Thermal conductivity (W/m K) 190 170 210 2.5 385

Table 4 Simulated and calculated thermal resistance of the three substrates Al AlOx AlNx substrate substrate substrate Thermal conductivity 150 25 170 W/mK pn-junction temperature 71.1 81.2 70.8 C Reference temperature 23 23 23 C Electric 18 18 18 power, W Thermal resistance 2.67 3.24 2.66 C/W Figure 6 indicates that the thermal dissipation is mainly in the vertical direction. The thermal conductivity coefficient of Ag paste is always the smallest in the package materials. so thermal conductivity coefficient of each boning material especially the adhesive layer should be improved, and the CTE should be matches well among the bonding materials. The pn-junction temperature will decrease greatly if the adhesive is replaced by Au-Sn eutectic adhesive layer as its thermal conductivity coefficient is times higher than Ag paste. The pn-junction temperature is significantly related to the thermal conductivity coefficient of adhesive layer and the convection coefficient. The relationship between pn-junction temperatures and thermal conductivity coefficient of the Ag paste and the relationship between pn-junction temperatures with convection coefficient have been investigated. It is obviously found from Fig. 7 that the pn-junction is significantly decrease from 85.4C to 64.4C while the thermal conductivity coefficient of Ag paste increases from 1.5 W/mK to 3.0 W/mK. Thus, it can significantly decrease the pn-junction temperature by improving the thermal conductivity coefficient of the adhesive layer. The thermal conductivity of Au-Sn adhesive layer is more than 10 times higher than that of the Ag paste adhesive layer. Therefore, we concluded that Au-Sn eutectic layer is a good choice for high power LED package.

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(b)

(c) Fig.6. Simulated results of the module representing schematic structure (a), horizontal direction thermal dissipation (b), and vertical direction thermal dissipation (c).

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Fig.7. Evolution of pn-junction temperature with thermal conductivity coefficient of the silver paste

when 350 mA electric current is loaded on each of the 18 chips, and 1081.3 lm (35.4 lm/W) is generated when 500 mA is loaded. The highest pn-junction temperature of the multichip module is only about 70.8C, which is lower than the other two substrate packages. The highest temperature of the Al heat slug is about 39.3C by ANSYS simulation, while the measured temperature in the experiments is about 41.0C when each chip is loaded 500mA, approximately same as the simulated value. The light degradation has been tested, however, there is little light degradation when loading 500 mA to each chip after 5 hrs. The relationships between pn-junction temperature and thermal conductivity coefficient of the Ag paste, and between pn-junction temperature and convection coefficient, have been analyzed. The results showed that the pn-junction temperature can reduce clearly while increasing the thermal conductivity coefficient of the adhesive layer a little. We have demonstrated that the air convection coefficient is also an important factor to improve the pn-junction temperature. Acknowledgments This work was supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (NSFC) under the grant number 50575229, Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET) under the grant number NCET-07-0535, and the Science and Technology Committee of Shanghai under the grant number 06 DZ 11403. The corresponding author, J.H Zhang, would also thank the financial support provided by the Shanghai Shuguang Programme under the grant number 05SG042 and Shanghai Leading Academic Discipline Project under the grant number Y0102. References 1. Won Kyu Jeung; Sang Hyun Shin; Suk Youn Hong; Seog Moon Choi; Sung Yi; Young Bok Yoon; Hyun Jun Kim; Sung Jun Lee; Ki Yeol Park; Silicon-Based, Multi-Chip LED Package, Electronic Components and Technology Conference, May 29 2007-June 1 2007, Page(s):722 727. 2. Kim, Lan; Shin, Moo Whan; Implementation of side effects in thermal characterization of RGB full-color LEDs, IEEE Electron Device Letters, v 28, n 7 (2007), p 578-580. 3. Chingfu Tsou; Yu-Sheng Huang; Advanced Packaging, Silicon-Based Packaging Platform for Light-Emitting Diode, IEEE Transactions on, Volume 29, Issue 3, Aug. 2006, Page(s):607 614. 4. Lan Kim; Woong Joon Hwang; Moo Whan Shin; Thermal Resistance Analysis of High Power LEDs with Multi-chip Package, Electronic Components and Technology Conference, 2006. Proceedings. 56th 30 May-2 June 2006 Page(s):1076 1081.

Fig. 8 Relationship between pn-junction temperatures and convection coefficient The relationship between pn-junction temperatures with convection coefficient is also simulated by ANSYS software. The simulated results, as shown in Fig. 8, demonstrated that the pn-junction temperature will decrease greatly when the convection coefficient increases. The bigger volume of the aluminum heat slug is, the lower pn-junction temperature of the multi-chip module is. However, the volume of the Al heat slug is limited for some application cases. In this condition the convection coefficient can be used to lower the pn-junction temperature. Conclusions In this paper, the performance of the AlNx-based ceramic packaging has been investigated by experimental and simulation. The modules are packaged on AlNx-based ceramic composite substrate, Al-based substrate and alumina base substrate, respectively. Experimental results reveal that the thermal dissipation properties of AlNx-based packaging are better than those of the other two packages before phosphor-coating. The 896.1 lm (43.4 lm/W) is generated

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