2020 trends and thermal challenges in the LED industry

Conducted as a roundtable discussion, the research brings together company founders and senior product directors from brands including Signify, Optimal Thermal Solutions, Thal Technologies and 6SigmaET.

According to these industry experts, the key trends shaping the LED industry in 2020 centre around the need to incorporate LEDs into increasingly compact designs that must be turned around in record time. These trends are driving a number of new thermal design priorities, with the most commonly identified including:

• Greater customisation due to LEDs entering increasingly niche markets
• Improved reliability in a wide variety of climates and environments, thanks to new IoT applications
• The need for faster thermal simulation tools that provide a higher rate of product optimisation - maximising the efficiency and flexibility of LEDs

Commenting on these findings, Chris Aldham, Product Manager at Future Facilities, said: “Working with such small components means today’s thermal simulation platforms must offer an exceptional level of accuracy to prevent overheating and produce reliable end products.

“For LED devices, everything depends on temperature, but temperature depends on everything else. It’s so interlinked that it’s impossible to look at it in isolation; the entire design process matters. As such, thermal management is vital to ensure that every element of a design is optimised.”

Following the roundtable, Future Facilities has released the key findings of the discussion as an e-book that LED engineers can use to compare, enhance and streamline their own design processes.

You can download a copy of Future Facilities ‘Thermal Focus: LEDs’ report at the top of this article.