Thermal improvement of plastic laminate based LED modules with embedded chips

In this work we present how to enhance the thermal performance of plastic laminate LED substrates by heat spreading and thermal vias. We introduced LEDs with a horizontal current flow in order to achieve the enhancement of thermal performance. We designed a thermally enhanced demonstrator, performed thermal simulations and compared it to previous simulation results. We built this thermally improved demonstrator and characterized it optically and thermally. On the one hand, we achieved a considerable improvement of the thermal resistance of the plastic laminate substrate. On the other hand we had to introduce new process steps that provide a reflective coating.