Research on lumen depreciation related to LED packages by in-situ measurement method

•Lumen depreciation of LED in reliability experiment was monitored by in-situ measurement method.•The partial LED flux was captured, and it was proportional to the total luminous flux of LED.•The silicone as LED encapsulant induced flaws, the material properties should be considered in the package design stage.•The degradation of phosphor-silicone composites led to a fast light energy loss in the high temperature aging test.

In this paper, lumen depreciation of LED in reliability experiment was monitored by in-situ measurement method. The partial LED flux on the receiving surface of fiber cable was captured, and it was proportional to the total luminous flux of LED light source when we provided an exact distance. The high temperature operating life test was used to find the weakness elements of LED packages with a limiting maximum temperature stress of 125 °C. Four kinds of packaged samples were constituted with difference components, and the lumen depreciations were presented. Combined with the lumen depreciation data and sampling inspection, the results could be summed up as follows: (i) the luminous flux of LED chip had a steady and slow depreciation, however, that of the samples coated with the phosphor–silicone composites had an initial sharp decline and then reach the stable state. (ii) The samples of only chip encapsulated by silicone and those of commercial white LEDs were carbonized on the center surface between chip and materials of encapsulant. As a conclusion, the silicone as an LED encapsulant could induce flaws, the material properties in larger coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) and stronger adhesion should be considered in the package design stage, and the degradation of phosphor–silicone composites led to a fast light energy loss during the initial high temperature aging test, and then reached up to steady.