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Optical simulation analysis of high power LED package structure

Yinong Liu
a,b,c
Yiping Wu
a,b


Bing An
a,b,
*
a
Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
b
Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Wuhan 430074, China
c
Shenzhen Research Institute of Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Shenzhen 511816, China
*
corresponding author at: College of materials science & engineering, Huazhong University Science & Technology, Wuhan
430074, China. Tel.: +86 27 87544454; Fax: +86 27 87792402; E-mail address: anbing@mail.hust.edu.cn.

Abstract
The single LED package structure determines
the light intensity distribution and the well-
designed package structure will be conductive to
light emitting and improve its external quantum
efficiency. This paper based on the optical package
structure of high power LED, in order to analyze
the influence of the structure of LED package on
optical performance and the feasibility of the
packaging structure design, the simplified high
power LED optical models were established in
Tracepro software. The light distribution curve of
LED was obtained and the difference between
measured data and simulation result was compared.
By changing the LED optical model parameters in
the experiment, such as: the shape of reflector, lens
design and the position of phosphors to get the light
distribution curves under different parameters of
package structure and then we analyze the effect of
various packaging structures on optical
performance to find the package structure
optimization, so that it could be used in actual
production getting a higher available luminous flux
and the light extraction. Whats more, designing a
package structure which can be achieving the
specific light intensity distribution meets the
requirements of the LED light source in different
areas.
1 Introduction

Since the first red LED(Light Emitting Diode)
that was invented by Holonyak and Bevacqua in
1962[1], LED has a wide application in
illumination markets due to its advantages of high
efficiency, low power consumption, environmental
friendliness, long life, and small size. The market
for high power LEDs is growing rapidly in various
applications such as large size flat panel
backlighting, street lighting, vehicle forward lamp,
museum illumination and residential illumination
[2]. With the rapid development of compound
semiconductor technology, its luminous efficacy far
exceeds the commonly used incandescent light
bulb, fluorescent lamp and HID lamp. It has been
widely accepted that LED solid-state lighting will
be the fourth illumination source to substitute those
lamps.
As a new type of light source, its potential
value is receiving more and more attention. The
main function of LED packaging is to protect the
LED chip, enhance the light extraction and provide
a path for dissipating the generated heat [3].
Through the Secondary Optics Design to optimize
the light distribution of LED, the LED emitted light
is more reasonable to meet the requirements of all
kinds of applications. In the optical design for the
packaging, we should take how to achieve the high
luminous efficacy into consideration. However, in
LEDs, photons travel in random direction and there
are too many photon trajectories to consider making
the quantitative analysis extremely difficult. In this
paper, we used Tracepro software based on Monte
Carlo method to trace the photons, from generation
to coupling out of the lamp, statistically using
random numbers [4].
2 Optical model

The basic composition structure of the high
power LED include: LED chip, pins, gold wire,
reflecting cup, lens, phosphor, and substrate. A
cross-sectional structure of a Luxeon package is
shown in Fig.1.
2011 International Symposium on Advanced Packaging Materials (APM 2011)
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Fig. 1. A cross-sectional structure of a Luxeon package
In this paper, we mainly study the influence
of LED package structure on the light extracting
rate, whether the model structure of LED is in
accordance with the output optical light distribution
requirements. From this aspect, we could use a
simplified model ignoring the base, pins, metal
wire, substrate and focus on the position of
reflecting cup, lens type and size, phosphor. The
schematics of an LED lamp and simplified model
established in Tracepro software is shown in Fig. 2.
a
b
Fig. 2 Schematics of an LED lamp (a) and a simplified model (b)
We plan to define the material property of
epoxy resin (refractive index 1.5), surface source of
LED chip (light emitting surface of Lambertian
type, luminous flux of 1lm) and the surface
property of inner surface of the reflector (80%
reflectivity, 20% absorptivity). Using the Tracepro
software to ray tracing and get the emitted light
intensity distribution curve based on this LED
model.
3 Simulation results and Discussions

3.1 Reflecting Cup
A significant number of the photons coupled
out of the chip would be directed laterally and they
would be mostly reflected from the reflecting cup
[4]. Consequently the shape of the reflecting cup
has a closely relationship with beam angle. The
reflecting cup has the shape of a truncated cone,
then we keep the top surface radius and height in
constant and change the bottom surface radius, that
means changing the cup slanting angles, simulating
the LED light extraction rate and light emitting
space angle. The simulation results are shown in
Fig. 3.
Table The variable radius parameters for simulation
Bottom surface radius
(mm)
Initial luminous flux
(lm)
Emitted luminous flux
(lm)
0.5 1 0.54
0.7 1 0.56
0.9 1 0.61

a
b
c
Fig. 3 Simulation of rectangular candela distribution plot
(a) radius 0.5mm (b) 0.7mm (c) 0.9mm
2011 International Symposium on Advanced Packaging Materials (APM 2011)
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101
It can be seen from the figure that with the
bottom surface radius of LED reflecting cup
decreasing, the cup slanting angle becomes lager
and the LED light extraction rate increases.
Because along with the increase of the cup slanting
angle, the light emitted from the reflecting cup will
meet less reflections and the energy loss is also
substantially reduced, leading to improve the LED
light extraction rate. Meanwhile, the beam angle
increased at first and then decreased with the
reduction of bottom surface radius. The reason is
that with the further increase of the cup slanting,
the light emitting out of the chip reaches to the top
surface of the reflecting cup and total reflection
may occur in the top surface of the reflecting cup
when light propagate to air (optically thinner
medium) from epoxy resin (optically denser
medium), thus the beam angle will be decrease [5].
From the above analysis, we can see that the
reflecting cup slanting angle has an impact on the
light extraction rate and beam angle, selecting the
appropriate one is very important.
3.2 Encapsulating Lens
The encapsulating lens is normally used to
change the light distribution by the refraction of
materials and reflection on the interface; different
size and type of lens have a significant impact on
the candela distribution plot.
3.2.1 Lens Size
The sidewall cylinder radius of reflecting cup
is equal to the lens radius and we change the lens
radius without changing other parameters of LED
during the simulation. The simulation model and
results are shown in Fig.4, Fig. 5, respectively.
a b c

Fig Simplified optical model (a) radius 1mm (b) .4mm (c) 1.8mm

a b c

Fig. 5 Simulation of polar candela distribution plot (a) radius 1mm (b) 1.4mm (c) 1.8mm

The figure shows that with the increasing of
the lens radius, the normal light intensity decreases
and the light intensity is evenly distributed. Whats
more, the beam angle is gradually increased.

3.2.2 Lens Type
Next, we simulated three kinds of lens types,
the luminescence intensity space distribution are
Lambertian, Side Emitting and Batwing,
respectively. The simulation results are shown in
Fig. 6.
2011 International Symposium on Advanced Packaging Materials (APM 2011)
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102
a
b
c
Fig Simulation of rectangular candela distribution plot
(a) Lambertian (b) Side Emitting (c) Batwing
The figure indicates that the emergent light
through different light emitting types of lens have
distinct center intensity and beam angle. Therefore
we should choose the appropriate lens according to
different application requirements.
3.3 phosphors
Nowadays there are three general approaches
to obtaining white light LEDs. One is the mixing
light from monochromatic RGB LEDs. For the
green gap problem and the efficiencies of red,
green, and blue LEDs vary over time at different
rates, the use of RGB LED has been limited.
Another is PC LEDs, which means using a blue
LED to pump visible light-emitting phosphors
integrated into the LED package. It generates the
white light by mixing the blue light from LED chip
with the broadband yellow light excited by
phosphor [6]. The third method is based on UV
LEDs.
The most commercially available white LEDs
are single-chip white LEDs--PC LEDs. In this
package structure, the phosphor is dispersed within
an epoxy resin that surrounds the LED die.
However, a significant portion of the light is
backscattered by the phosphor and lost within the
LED due to absorption and has a negatively
impacts on the overall efficacy of white LED. In
this case, U.S. N. Narendran Professor proposes a
new package method named scattered photon
extraction (SPE). The schematic of SPE is shown in
Fig. 7.

Fig Schematic of the SPE white LED package
In the SPE package, the phosphor is placed at
a remote location from the die. The geometry of the
optic element plays an important role: it efficiently
transfers the light exiting the GaN die to the
phosphor layer and allows most of the
backscattered light from the phosphor layer to
escape the optic [7]. The new SPE method enables
higher luminous efficacy and shows over 60
percent improvement in light output and efficacy
compared to similar commercial white LEDs [8].
Conclusions

In this paper, we built a simplified high power
LED optical models in the Tracepro software. By
changing the LED optical model parameters in the
experiment, such as: the shape of reflector, lens
design and the position of phosphors to get a clear
exposition of the general law about these factors
affecting on the LED light intensity distribution and
light extraction rate. These laws have a practical
guiding value to LED packaging manufacturing
2011 International Symposium on Advanced Packaging Materials (APM 2011)
978-1-4673-0149-7/11/$26.00 2011 IEEE

103
process and production of specific LED intensity
distribution.
Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my professors for their
support and instruction. I also wish to thank
Shenzhen Research Institute of Huazhong
University of Science and Technology for its
experiment condition.
References

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2011 International Symposium on Advanced Packaging Materials (APM 2011)
978-1-4673-0149-7/11/$26.00 2011 IEEE