Design win; LED light-engine-maker endorses Nanotherm thermal substrate
Thorough tests by Lumichip revealed Cambridge Nanotherm’s technology to have “extraordinarily” high levels of thermal performance, well beyond that of comparable solutions and approaching the thermal performance of exotic ceramic materials such as AlN (aluminium nitride). Lumichip has therefore selected Nanotherm’s technology as the basis for a series of technology-leading COB LED modules for UVA applications.
Lumichip has outlined its test results in a free-to-download whitepaper (registration required).
The tests involved a chainable 75W module with an array of 63 UVA chips in a 7 x 9 format. With Cambridge Nanotherm’s technology, Lumichip was able to achieve a heat dissipation density of 20 W/cm² with a thermal efficiency of 34% – a level well above the best generally seen in the UV industry.
“Outside of the context of this whitepaper we ran tests on a variety of thermal management solutions,” stated Shane O’Farrell, CEO, Lumichip. “Cambridge Nanotherm’s was categorically the best we encountered. I can’t think of any other material, at this price point, that could perform this well in such a thermally-aggressive environment.
“As a result of the tests we’ve rolled out a full series of high power COB LED modules for UVA wavelengths 365 to 405 nm based on the Nanotherm platform. The whitepaper was written to demonstrate the objective evidence of how much better Nanotherm’s solution, and hence our product, is over the competition.”
Ralph Weir, CEO, Cambridge Nanotherm, comments, “The UV market has some especially demanding thermal environments and our technology is extremely well suited to address them. UV designers are under especially intense pressure to improve the thermal performance of their products. Offsetting the high amount of heat that UV LEDs generate can produce huge benefits in terms of efficiency and lifespan, and using Nanotherm allows designers to lower costs by using aluminium based nanoceramic substrates rather than being forced to move to high cost AlN.”
Cambridge Nanotherm’s substrates for LED applications and high powered electronics claim the industry’s best ratio of thermal performance to price available today.
A patented process creates a super-thin Nanoceramic layer on the surface of aluminium to form a dielectric with extremely high thermal conductivity. This Nanoceramic can be applied as thin as 3 µm – many times thinner than conventional dielectrics. The combination of the thinnest dielectric layer, with the highest thermal conductivity, yields the lowest thermal resistance of any Metal Clad PCB material, the company believes.
Nanotherm LC is used by LED manufacturers to reduce costs, improve lifetime and increase the brightness of their products: it can be a direct replacement for expensive aluminium nitride, achieving similar thermal performance while retaining the robustness and ease of processing of an insulated metal substrate.
Cambridge Nanotherm; www.camnano.com
Lumichip; www.lumichip.com
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