Earlier this year new research from Future
Facilities – maker of the 6SigmaET thermal
simulation software – revealed the top
challenges and trends in the LED industry for
2020 in its Thermal Focus project report.
With LED usage becoming more common
the research, which New Electronics reported
on in our last issue, identified a number of key
trends around the need to incorporate LEDs
into increasingly compact designs that must be
turned around in record time.
These trends included greater
customisation, improved reliability in a wider
variety of climates and environments, and the
need for faster thermal simulation tools.
According to Chris Aldham, Product
Manager at Future Facilities, “Today’s thermal
simulation platforms must offer an exceptional
level of accuracy to prevent overheating
and produce reliable end products. For LED
devices, everything depends on temperature,
but temperature depends on everything else.
It’s so interlinked that it’s impossible to look
at it in isolation; the entire design process
matters.”
According to Aldham, the Thermal Focus
project was launched because of a need to
better understand the engineering community
and to be able to support further innovation in
terms of thermal simulation products.
“Our industry research projects are a huge
part of that process. In 2017 we surveyed
over 350 design engineers to understand their
current and future design requirements. In
2018, we spoke to 170 thermal simulation
professionals to find out exactly what they
needed from our platform.
“Then last year, we launched the first of
our ‘Thermal Focus’ groups. The idea was
to bring together thermal experts from some
of the world’s biggest electronics brands,
discussing their current thermal simulation
challenges, and the trends that they believe
will shape the future of electronics and thermal
design.
“The first of these groups focused in on IT,
bringing together engineers from HP, Facebook
and other leading brands. Following the
success of this event, we wanted to explore
more industries and dive even deeper into
how real-life engineers are using our thermal
simulation products.”
The focus on LEDs was due to the fact that
it is a hugely exciting time for the LED space,
Aldham explained.
“In the next few years alone, the global
market for LEDs is forecast to be worth over
$50 billion. LEDs are energy efficient, they’re
NEWS ANALYSIS LED THERMAL DESIGN
Putting the spotlight on
LED thermal design
CHRIS ALDHAM, PRODUCT MANAGER AT 6SIGMAET, TALKS TO NEW ELECTRONICS
ABOUT THE THERMAL FOCUS PROJECT
cost effective, and they’re environmentally
friendly. They really are a hugely versatile bit of
kit, and their uses are only going to grow. They
are also really thermally interesting. They don’t
like getting hot and every aspect of an LEDs
performance (light output, light colour, lifetime,
etc.) is temperature dependent.
Gathering expertise
“At Future Facilities we’re
also lucky enough to
work closely with a lot of
LED and lighting brands,
so getting in touch with
the likes of Signify,
OTS (Optimal Thermal
Solutions) and Thal
Technologies was a great
way to gather expertise.”
The project has
generated a number of
key things engineers
need to consider when
thinking about the
“Suboptimal
designs
can lead
to product
failures and
reliability
issues”
Chris
Aldham
thermal design of LEDs.
According to Aldham, “One of the things
that was most talked about by our industry
panel was the realities of designing LEDs in
2020. Shrinking space is a huge issue in both
consumer and industrial applications.
“To create smaller, lighter and thinner
LED devices, a growing number of engineers
are starting to specify LEDs as ‘chip-scale
packages’ (CSP). Simply put, CSPs can be
grouped very close together, creating clusters
of extremely power-dense modules within
these compact designs. But a consequence
of increased power is increased temperature.
Such close groupings of high-powered LEDs
will inevitably generate a large amount of heat,
so effective thermal management is vital.
“The other big issue that was discussed
was design time. LED manufacturers and
device designers are working to increasingly
condensed timescales, with turnaround
time for an entire design project sometimes
clocking in at as little as two weeks. The
pressure to get to market as quickly as
possible means designers often can’t evaluate
how components work in tandem as carefully
as they’d like. These sub-optimal designs can
lead to product failures, poor light output or
long-term reliability issues. It’s vital that time
is factored into the initial design processes
to adequately account for possible thermal
complications.”
Looking to the future, Aldham said that
participants in the industry panel all had
very different ideas as to what needed to be
prioritised.
“But there were some clear themes that
started to show through across the board,” he
suggested.
“LED customisation is clearly going to
be a big deal. As LEDs enter increasingly
niche markets, they’re going to need to be
customised. As such, it’s vital that we look
at potential specialised applications from a
thermal point of view. Customised designs
will inevitably mean unexpected thermal
challenges.
“The second big theme that everyone
agreed upon was the IoT. With the rise of the
internet of things, smart lighting solutions
and a growing focus on energy efficiency,
LEDs are going to have a major role to play
in future tech. This, however, will mean LEDs
also operating in a whole host of rugged
environments (and varying temperatures) that
they previously wouldn’t have been exposed
to. This is going to mean big changes for
the industry and a significant investment in
thermal simulation and design.”
The Thermal Focus group project is likely to
continue this process, said Aldham.
“Right now, we’re looking at a lot of content
related to the automotive and aerospace
industries, as we’re very keen to better
understand exactly how engineers in these
spaces are managing thermal considerations,
using simulation, and what their plans are for
the future.
“If any readers work in these spaces and
want to be involved, do get in touch with us
via the 6SigmaET website. We’re always on
the lookout for new insights and opinions so
very happy to hear from anyone who can help,”
he added.
www.newelectronics.co.uk 28 April 2020 9
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