Heat Sink Technology in Modern LED Fixtures
Time:
2018-07-20
Designed to conduct 90% heat to the fixture surface, then dissipated into the surrounding air.
Heat transfer from an LED fixture occurs through both conduction and convection.
Excess heat is conducted away from the LED junction and into a heat sink that is attached to the LED. That excess heat is then dissipated into the surrounding air through convection as air flows past and around the heat sink.
This convective cooling improves when the heat sink has greater surface area, as more surface area correlates with a greater volume of air flow to remove excess heat. Improving the heat sink is therefore a matter of improving the attachment of the sink to the LED to improve conductive cooling, and increasing the surface area of the sink for better convective cooling.
Unless and until LED lighting engineers have determined how to convert 100% of all electrical input energy into usable light, thermal management of LED fixtures will be mandatory to reduce thermal stress on an LED fixture’s components and to extend the useful life of the fixtures.
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