Thermal resistance of high power LED influenced by ZnO thickness and surface roughness parameter

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this research is to study the effect of thickness and surface properties of ZnO solid thin film for heat dissipation application in LED. Heat dissipation in electronic packaging can be improved by applying a thermally conductive interface material (TIM) and hence the junction temperature will be maintained. ZnO is one of the oxide materials and used as a filler to increase the thermal conductivity of thermal paste. The thickness of these paste-type material cannot be controlled which restricts the heat flow from the LED junction to ambient. The controlled thickness is only possible by using a solid thin-film interface material.

Design/methodology/approach

Radio Frequency (RF)-sputtered ZnO thin film on Cu substrates were used as a heat sink for high-power LED and the thermal performance of various ZnO thin film thickness on changing total thermal resistance (R _th-tot) and rise in junction temperature were tested. Thermal transient analysis was used to study the performance of the given LED. The influence of surface roughness profile was also tested on the LED performance.

Findings

The junction temperature was high (6.35°C) for 200 nm thickness of ZnO thin film boundary condition when compared with bare Cu substrates. Consecutively, low R _th-tot values were noticed with the same boundary condition. The 600 nm thickness of ZnO thin film exhibited high R _th-tot and interface resistance than the other thicknesses. Bond Line Thickness of the interface material was influenced on the interface thermal resistance which was decreased with increased BLT. Surface roughness parameter showed an immense effect on thermal transport, and hence, low R _th (47.6 K/W) value was noticed with low film roughness (7 nm) as compared with bare Cu substrate (50.8 K/W) where the surface roughness was 20.5 nm.

Originality/value

Instead of using thermal paste, solid thin film ZnO is used as TIM and coated Cu substrates were used as a heat sink. The thickness can be controlled, and it is a new approach for reducing the BLT between the metal core printed circuit board and heat sink.

Citation

Subramani, S. and Devarajan, M. (2016), "Thermal resistance of high power LED influenced by ZnO thickness and surface roughness parameter", Microelectronics International, Vol. 33 No. 1, pp. 15-22. https://doi.org/10.1108/MI-10-2014-0045