Process Development for Yellow Phosphor Coating on Blue Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) for

White Light Illumination

K. H. LEE1 and S. W. Ricky LEE1,2,3
Department of Mechanical Engineering
2
Electronic Packaging Laboratory/Center for Advanced Microsystems Packaging (CAMP)
3
Nano and Advanced Materials Institute (NAMI)
Hong Kong University of Science & Technology
Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong
1

Abstract
There are several methods to produce a white light
emitting diode (LED). The most common commercially
available white LED is made by mixing the blue light from a
GaN chip and the yellow light from the emission of a
Yttrium Aluminum Garnet:Cerium (YAG:Ce) yellow
phosphor coating. The quality of white LED using this
approach heavily depends on the optimization of packing
density, thickness and uniformity of the phosphor layer. The
present study is intended to develop a new methodology for
coating a uniform yellow phosphor layer. This newly
developed coating method is based on the concept of screenprinting. A matrix array of LEDs is firstly mounted on a
silicon substrate with the flip chip configuration. A silicon
mold plate is fabricated with etched cavities that match with
the dimensions and pattern of LED array. The silicon mold
plate is then placed over the substrate that carries the LED
array and serves as a printing mask. The yellow phosphor
powder is pushed into the apertures by a squeegee blade and
bonded to the LED with UV curable epoxy. The silicon
mold plate is released after curing. Compared with other
coating approaches, this yellow phosphor printing method is
relatively simple and can make good quality white LEDs.
1. Introduction
In the past, LEDs are mainly used for signals, decoration
and message display. Due to the improvement of brightness
and efficiency in recent years, LEDs have been used in
various lighting applications such as personal flashlight and
backlighting for flat panel display [1-2]. Compared with the
traditional incandescent light bulb and fluorescent light tube,
LEDs have the following advantages: long life, low power
consumption, compact design and high reliability [3-5].
LEDs are also regarded as enviromental friendly prodcuts as
they contain no mercury and no UV light is generated when
blue LEDs are used for white light illumination. In a recent
study, it has been demonstrated that the a single highbrightness LED (HB-LED) may have the capacity to reach
the same efficacy (~100 lm/w) as, or even higher than, the
conventional fluorescent light tube [6].
The most straightforward method to generate white light
is by combining the lights with three fundermental colors,
namely, red, green and blue (RGB). White LEDs may be
produced in this way as well [7-9]. However, this method
requires a more complicated electrical design for the control
of light intensity and uniformity. A white LED may also be
produced by coating downconverting phosphor layers onto
the surface of a LED. The principle is based on the
absorption and re-emission of light [10]. One example is to

coat the red and green phosphor layers on a blue LED chip
[11-12]. With the excitation of blue light, the phosphor
layers can emit red light and green light, respectively. The
un-absorbed blue light, combined with the excited red and
green lights, can result in white light. Similarly, an UV LED
chip coated with red, green and blue phosphor layers can
also generate white light [13]. These methods require a
precise weighting of each kind of phosphor layer in order to
give desired white light. There is another way to generate
white light using yellow phosphor (YAG:Ce) coating for
downconverting. When a blue LED is coated with a yellow
phosphor layer, the phosphor layer will absorb part of the
blue light and re-emits yellow light (see Figure 1). The reemitted yellow light will then combine with the un-absorbed
blue light, as illustrated in Figures 1 and 2, to give an
illumination of white light [14-18].

Figure 1: Configuration of a blue LED with yellow phosphor

coating for white light generation

Figure 2: Principle of white light generation from the

mixing of blue luminescence and yellow phosphorescence
In the industry, the yellow phosphor layer is usually
fabricated using one of the following three methods, namely,
slurry coating method, powder settling method and electrophoretic deposition (EPD). The mechanism of slurry coating
is based on the photo-development of phosphor suspension
in a photoresist. This requires a precise mixing ratio of the

379
c
1-4244-0665-X/06/$20.00
2006
IEEE

slurry and the yellow phosphor [19]. It also needs a strict

control of coating parameters such as the spinning speed and
the flow rate of the slurry. The settling method is based on
the sedimentation motion of phosphor powder suspended in
an aqueous solution (potassium silicate and barium acetate).
This method also requires an exact mixing ratio of the
aqueous solution and the phosphor powder [20]. The EPD
method is implemented by depositing charged particles
under a designated electric field [21]. Several parameters
such as the mixing ratio of electrolyte/phosphor powder and
the applied voltage need to be considered during the process.
Among the aforementioned methods, EPD is considered the
best in terms of packing density, layer thickness and
uniformity of the yellow phosphor coating.
In this paper, a newly developed printing method for
coating the yellow phosphor layer on a blue LED chip is
introduced. The process of this printing method is simpler
and the control of chromaticity is also more straightforward.
The implementation of this new method will be illustrated
and discussed in subsequent sections.

(a) Silicon wafer with thermal oxide layers

(b) Oxide etching to open window on one side of the wafer

(c) Wafer thinning by dry etching

Figure 3: Flip chip LED assembled on a silicon substrate

(d) Oxide etching for window patterning

(e) Create apertures by through silicon etching

Figure 5: Process flow of silicon mold fabrication
Figure 4: Phosphor coating by screen-printing method
2. Mask Fabrication and Printing Process
The coating method developed in the present study is
based on the screen-printing process. The targeted LED
should be a flip chip assembly as shown in Figure 3, which
is a popular configuration for HB-LEDs. A silicon mold is
made to serve as the printing mask. The yellow phosphor
powder is pushed into the aperture of the mask by a
squeegee blade and bonded to the surface of LED with UV
curable epoxy. A schematic diagram is given in Figure 4 to
illustrate this configuration. The detailed procedure is
described in detail as follows.

380

In the present study, the printing mask was made of a 4inch double-side silicon wafer. The fabrication process of
the silicon mold plate is illustrated in Figure 5. The silicon
wafer was originally coated with 3 m thick thermal oxide
layers on both sides. After creating a ring mask, the wafer
was thinned from 400 m to a range between 120 m and
200 m, depending on the desired thickness of the printing
mask (related to the thickness of the yellow phosphor layer).
The next step was to pattern the thermal oxide on another
side of the wafer. Subsequently, through silicon apertures in
a matrix array pattern were formed by deep reactive ion
etching (DRIE). In the present study, the size of the blue
LED chip was 1.0 mm x 1.0 mm. The size of apertures on
the silicon mold plate was determined as 1.4 mm x 1.4 mm,
allowing sufficient tolerance between the LED chip and the
side walls of the aperture.

2006 Electronics Packaging Technology Conference

and each aperture. The current design made the pin size 10%
smaller than the silicon mold aperture size. For a steady
stamping process, the stamp was clamped on an Instron
machine as shown in Figure 9 and then lowered down. Once
the push pins were put in contact with the top of the printed
yellow phosphor layers, the silicon mold plate was lifted and
removed manually. After the removal of the mold plate, the
epoxy was fully cured by the UV lamp and then the whole
process was completed.

Figure 6: Silicon mold as the printing mask

Figure 8: Pin stamp for the release of silicon mold plate

Figure 7: Close-up view showing flip chip LEDs in the

cavities of silicon mold
For batch mode production, a number of flip chip LEDs
as shown in Figure 3 were assembled on a silicon substrate.
The silicon mold plate was then placed over the substrate
that carried the LEDs and served as a printing mask. The
whole setup was fixed on a plastic platform by three screws
which were 120o apart (see Figure 6). From the close-up
view in Figure 7, it can be seen that the pattern and
dimensions of apertures on the silicon mold plate matched
with the matrix array of LEDs. It should be noted that,
during the process tuning stage, dummy flip chips were
employed for exercise. After the process was optimised, real
blue LED chips were used for the yellow phosphor coating
process.
Right before the printing process, a small volume of UV
curable transparent epoxy was dropped on the top of each
LED chip inside the cavity of the silicon mold plate. The
volume of the dispensed epoxy was controlled by a
micrometer. Afterwards, the yellow phosphor powder was
screen-printed on the top of the silicon mold plate using a
squeegee blade. Subsequently, the epoxy was partially cured
using a UV lamp of 75 mW/cm2 for 1 minute (5 minutes for
full curing) to bind the phosphor power in place. It should be
noted that, if the epoxy was fully cured at this stage, the
silicon mold plate would be very difficult to be released. In
order to release the printing mask without lifting the printed
yellow phosphor layer, a pin stamp as shown in Figure 8
should be used. During this release process, the pins on the
stamp were aligned with the apertures of the silicon mold
plate. These pins would serve for two functions; i.e., to
compact the yellow phosphor powder and to shear the
phosphor layers off the side walls of the apertures. It should
be noted that there must be some tolerance between each pin

Figure 9: Printing mask release process

3. Results and Discussion
By implementing the aforementioned printing method, a
uniform yellow phosphor coating can be achieved. Figures
10 and 11 show the top view and the cross-sectional view,
respectively, of a yellow phosphor coating with a LED chip
underneath. In these two figures, the thickness of the yellow
phosphor layer was around 100 m. From Figure 11, it
could be seen that the four sides and the top surface of the
LED chip were coated with yellow phosphor powder. It was
also found that some of the epoxy leaked into the gap
between the silicon mold and the substrate. Therefore, a
slight amount of phosphor powder residue can be seen on
the substrate surface around the LED chip. In the present
study, this bleeding area occupied very limited space. As
long as the bleeding area does not affect the subsequent wire
bonding process for interconnection, it is not considered a
threat to the performance of the HB-LED assembly.

2006 Electronics Packaging Technology Conference

381

Figure 10: Top view of the screen-printed phosphor powder

Figure 11: Cross-sectional view of the screen-printed

phosphor powder
The main objective of the present study is to make white
light from blue light LEDs with yellow phosphor coating.
An equipment of Ocean Optics Inc. (OOIIrrad2), was
employed to characterize the results of LEDs subject to the
current printing method. The photometric and colorometric
data were measured. A test matrix was determined to study
the effect of the thickness of the yellow phosphor coating on
the chromaticity of LEDs. Five different cases were
investigated as shown in Table 1. Sample 1 was a bare blue
(465 nm) LED chip as a base case for reference. Samples 2,
3, 4 and 5 were coated with various thicknesses of yellow
phosphor powder. It should be noted that the thickness of
phosphor layer was controlled by the thickness of the silicon
mold plate for the printing process.
Table 1: Test matrix for studying the effect of the thickness of
yellow phosphor coating
Thickness of the
Corresponding coating
Sample
silicon mold
thickness

382

N.A.

N.A.

120 m

20 m

130 m

30 m

160 m

60 m

200 m

100 m

During the experiment, the applied voltage to the LEDs

was approximately 3.5V at a steady current of 50 mA. The
photo-luminescence (PL) spectrum for each of the samples
is shown in Figures 12-16. Since sample 1 was a bare,
monochromic blue LED chip, it could be seen that the
dominant wavelength in the spectrum was 465 nm, as shown
in Figure 12. For a pure white light, the colorimetric data
should be x = 0.333, y = 0.333. In this case, sample 1 had a
colorimetric data of x = 0.151, y = 0.041. In Figure 13, it
was found that the dominant wavelength of sample 2 (with
20 m thick of phosphor coating) was still 465 nm, and the
peak corresponding for phosphorecence was rather low. This
reveals that only a very small portion of blue light was
absorbed and re-emitted as yellow. The corresponding
colorimetric data was measured as x = 0.264, y = 0.232 and
the LED appeared as bluish-white. This indicates that more
yellow phosphor coating is needed on the LED chip. Figure
14 shows the spectrum of sample 3 (with 30 m thick of
phosphor coating). The dominant wavelength was 568 nm
and the colorimetric data was x = 0.346, y = 0.366. This
reveals that the amount of yellow phosphor powder was
almost optimized and the combination of blue and yellow
lights is very close to the white light. The result of sample 4
(with 60 m thick of phosphor coating) is shown in Figure
15. It can be seen that the peak corresponding to
phosphorecence became dominant. The colorimetric data
was x = 0.426, y = 0.493, falling between the green and red
region. The light emission of LED appeared as greenishyellow. Lastly, for sample 5 (with 100 m thick of phosphor
coating), the LED light became yellow. There was only one
peak at 574 nm in the PL spectrum shown in Figure 16. The
colorimetric data was x = 0.461, y = 0.516. This indicates
that the yellow phosphor coating was too thick and all blue
light had been turned into yellow. Figures 17 and 18 show
the chromaticity plot and the color, respectively, of all 5
samples. The results of all experimental data are
summarized in Table 2.
It should be noted that the packing density is definded as
the ratio of the volume of the substantial solid part (Vs) to
the total volume of the coated powder (V) [22]. This can be
expressed as
(1)
Packing density = Vs / V = W / Ats
where W is the total weight; A and t are the coating area and
layer thickness, respectively; and s is the phosphor powder
density. By implementing the newly developed printing
method, the packing density can reach around 70%, which is
similar to that of the EPD method.
Table 2: Experimental results of the test samples
Colorimetric
Dom.
Color
wavelength
appearance
Sample data (x, y)
1
(0.151, 0.041)
465 nm
Blue
2

(0.264, 0.232)

465 nm

(0.346, 0.366)

568 nm

White

(0.426, 0.493)

572 nm

Greenish-yellow

(0.461, 0.516)

574 nm

Yellow

2006 Electronics Packaging Technology Conference

Bluish-white

Figure 12: PL spectrum of sample 1, bare blue LED chip

Figure 16: PL spectrum of sample 5 with 100 m thick of

yellow phosphor coating

Figure 13: PL spectrum of sample 2 with 20 m thick of

yellow phosphor coating

Figure 17: Chromaticity plot of the test samples

Figure 14: PL spectrum of sample 3 with 30 m thick of

yellow phosphor coating

Figure 15: PL spectrum of sample 4 with 60 m thick of

yellow phosphor coating

Figure 18: Comparison of LEDs with different thicknesses of

yellow phosphor coating

2006 Electronics Packaging Technology Conference

383

4. Conclusions
The present study was to develop a new yellow phosphor
coating method for generating white light from blue LEDs.
With this printing approach, various thicknesses of uniform
yellow phosphor coating could be deposited on blue LEDs,
resulting in different chromaticity data. The key parameter
of this method is the thickness of the yellow phosphor layer,
which is controlled by the thickness of the silicon mold
plate. The present method does not require the fine-tuning of
the mixing ratio of electrolyte/phosphor powder and the
applied voltage as in the process of EPD. The newly
developed printing technique is considered a more
convenient method for controlling the chromaticity of blue
LEDs coated with downconverting yellow phosphor powder.
Acknowledgments
This study was sponsored by a research grant of
DAG05/06.EG34 offered by the Hong Kong University of
Science and Technology (HKUST). The blue LED chips
used in this study were provided by Advanced Packaging
Technology (APT) Ltd. The measurement of chromaticity
was done at the Photonics Technology Center of HKUST.
The authors would like to acknowledge all these supports.
References
1. Krames, M. R. et al, Introduction to the issue on highefficiency light-emitting diodes, IEEE Journal in
Quantum Electronics, Vol. 8, Mach-April 2002, pp. 185188.
2. Steigerwald, D. A. et al, J Illumination with solid state
lighting technology, IEEE Journal in Quantum
Electronics, Vol. 8, Mach-April 2002, pp. 310-320.
3. Craford, M. G., LEDs challenge the incandescents,
IEEE Circuits and Devices Mag, Vol. 8, Sept. 1992, pp.
24-29.
4. Tsao, J. Y., Solid-state lighting: lamps, chips and
materials for tomorrow, IEEE Circuit and Devices
Magazine, Vol. 20, May-Jun. 2004, pp. 28-37.
5. Shur, M. S. and Zukauskas, R., Solid-state lighting:
toward superior illumination, Proc. of the IEEE, Vol.
93, Oct. 2005, pp. 1691-1703.
6. Chan, Philip C. H., Electronic packaging for solid-state
lighting, Proc. 6th ICEPT, Sept 2005, pp. 13-16
7. Muthu, S., Schuurmans, F.J.P., and Pashley, M. D.,
Red, green and blue LED based white light generation:
issue and control, 37th Industry Application Conference,
Vol. 1, Oct. 2002, pp. 327-333.
8. Muthu, S., Schuurmans, F.J.P., and Pashley, M. D.,
Red, green and blue LEDs for white light illumination,
IEEE Journal in Quantum Electronics, Vol. 8, Mach April 2002, pp. 333-338.
9. Muthu, S. and Gaines, J., Red, green and blue LED
based white light source: implementation challenges and
control design, 38th Industry Application Conference,
Vol. 1, Oct. 2003, pp. 515-522.
10. Mueller-Mach, R. et al, High-power phosphorconverted light-emitting diodes based on III-nitrides,
IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics, Vol. 8, Mar-Apr.
2002, pp. 339-345

384

11. Wu, H. et al, Three-band white light from InGaN-based

blue LED chip precoated with green/red phosphors,
IEEE Photonics Tech. Lett., Vol. 17, June 2005, pp.
1160-1162.
12. Do, Y. R., et al, Luminescence properties of potential
Sr1-xCaxGa2S4:Eu green- and greenish-yellow-emitting
phosphors for white LED, J. Electrochem. Soc., Vol.
153 (2006), pp. H142-H146.
13. Sato, Y., Takahashi, N., Sato, S., Full-color fluorescent
display devices using a near-UV light-emitting diode,
Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 35, July 1996, pp. L838L839.
14. Yum. J. H. et al, Y3Al5O12: Ce0.05 Phosphor coatings on
gallium nitride for white light emitting diodes, J.
Electrochem. Soc., Vol. 150, Feb. 2003, pp. H47-H52.
15. Yum, J. H. et al, Comparison of Y3Al5O12:Ce0.05
phosphor coating methods for white light emitting diode
on Gallium Nitride, Proc. SPIE., Vol. 4445, Dec. 2001,
pp. 60-69.
16. Sasaki, K. Y. and Talbot, J. B. Deposition of powder
phosphors for information displays, Adv. Mater., Vol.
11 (1999), pp. 91-105.
17. Damilano, B. et al, Monolithic white light emitting
diodes based on InGaN/GaN multiple-quantum wells,
Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 40, Sept. 2001, pp. L918L920.
18. Lee, Ricky S. W. et al, Development and prototyping of
a HB-LED array module for indoor solid state lighting,
Proc. HDP06., June 2006, pp. 192-196.
19. Okuno, A. et al, Unique white LED packaging
systems, Proc. 5th ICEPT, Oct. 2003, pp. 225-229.
20. Cheng, J. et al, 36.4: A 5-in CRT for high luminance
and high resolution projection display, SID Symposium
Digest, Vol. 33 (2002), pp. 1084-1087.
21. Yum, J. H. and Sung, Y. E., Full color screen by EPD
combined with photolighography for flat panel displays,
J. Electrochem. Soc., Vol. 151 (2004), pp. H27-H32.
22. Shionoya, S. and Yen, William M., Phosphor Handbook,
CRC Press LLC (Boca Raton, 1999), pp. 756-758.

2006 Electronics Packaging Technology Conference