In commercial high-brightness phosphor-coated white LED packages the phosphor is put down on the die at the center of the hemispherical encapsulation, representing a quasi point source that provides convenient optical control in luminaire design. However, specific applications may benefit from other package geometries and beam shapes regarding efficiency, color uniformity and thermal management. In order to examine optical arrangements, a solid model of an InGaN LED die and the optical system including the phosphor were simulated using a Monte Carlo forward ray tracing technique. Photoluminescence was implemented as two separate processes: short-wavelength LED emission and phosphor absorption was traced first, followed by reemission of the down converted radiation by the phosphor layer; optical properties of existing phosphors were used. Output parameters of the two ray traces were combined and evaluated for the geometries examined.
KEYWORDS: Light emitting diodes, Monte Carlo methods, Ray tracing, Geometrical optics, Indium gallium nitride, LED lighting, Beam shaping, Solids, Optical properties, Refractive index
In commercial high brightness phosphor coated (PC) LED packages the phosphor is put down on the die in the center of the hemispherical encapsulation, representing a quasi-point source that provides convenient optical control in lighting fixture design. However, specific applications may benefit from other package geometries and beam shapes regarding efficiency, color uniformity and thermal management. In order to examine optical arrangements the solid model of an InGaN LED die and the optical system including the phosphor were simulated using Monte-Carlo forward ray tracing technique.
Photoluminescence was implemented as two separate processes: short wavelength LED emission and phosphor absorbtion was traced first, followed by re-emission of the down-converted radiation by the phosphor layer, optical properties of existing phosphors were used. Output parameters of the two ray traces were combined and evaluated for the geometries examined.
The advantage of enhancing the light extraction of LED dies is twofold: it increases the overall efficiency of the device, reducing internal absorption and subsequently the temperature of the device. We have developed the solid model of a commercially available blue LED in a ray tracing simulation software according to the physical structure of the GaN die grown on SiC substrate. Optical parameters of the various device layers were adjusted within a plausible range to achieve the best match between the measured and the simulated spatial luminous intensity profile. Two approaches for improving the light extraction efficiency were examined using the model: change of refractive index of the encapsulating medium and chip shaping. Simulation results were verified by a series of luminous intensity and total flux measurements in a mini-goniophotometer. We found that the physical experiment confirmed the predicted results.
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