Phosphors for LED-based light sources: Thermal properties and reliability issues

The aim of this work is to investigate the thermal stability of remote phosphor plates to be used in solidstate lighting systems, for the conversion of the blue light emitted by GaN-based LEDs into white light. A preliminary thermal characterization revealed that in normal conditions of blue light irradiance the phosphor plates can reach temperature levels higher than 60 C, which can affect both performance and reliability. The results of accelerated thermal stress tests indicate that high temperature levels can trigger a relevant degradation mechanism (estimated activation energy is 1.2 eV), that drastically reduces the phosphor conversion efficiency and modifies the photometric and colorimetric characteristics of the emitted white light.