Estimation of the average junction temperature of two phosphors-converted white LED array based on (B + Y + R)/B ratio

•The emission of white LEDs is separated into the emission of LED chip and phosphor.•The (B + Y + R)/B ratio is used to estimate the Tj for white LEDs with two phosphors.•This method can be applicable for two kinds of white LEDs in this research.

The method of non-contact measurement of the junction temperature (Tj) for phosphor-converted white LEDs based on W/B ratio, the ratio of the total radiant energy (W) to the radiant energy of blue emission (B), is verified firstly. It is shown that for two phosphors (Y3Al5O12:Ce and CaAlSiN3:Eu)-converted white LEDs, an significant uncertainty is introduced into the linearity between Tj and W/B ratio. Then a new approach is proposed which uses (B + Y + R)/B ratio, the ratio of the sum of radiant energies of blue emission (B), yellow emission (Y) and red emission (R) to the radiant energy of blue emission, to establish the correlation with Tj. Result shows that the proposed approach is of a satisfactory linearity between Tj and (B + Y + R)/B ratio, with R-square equal to 0.9906 and RMSE equal to 2.27 °C. It is also demonstrated that the proposed method is applicable to actual LED lighting system composed of large number of LEDs.