Heat dissipation for MID applications in lighting technology

Molded Interconnect Device (MID) Technology features excellent design freedom and great potential for functional integration for applications in indoor lighting. Spatial arrangement of LEDs and intelligent control elements enable highly efficient, situation aware lighting concepts with attractive design. Even more than in PCB based LED lighting technologies, there are significant degrees of freedom for improved thermal management when designing and manufacturing an MID. In this work, measures suitable for thermal management of MID for lighting applications manufactured with LPKF-LDS technology are identified and compared. Focus is on design for thermal management and application of recently developed high thermal conductivity polymers. To compare the effects of the different measures, simulations are performed with a range of combinations of individual measures for thermal management. The simulation results of the individual combinations are evaluated using design of experiments statistical methods. Low cost measures relying on design for thermal management are compared to measures implying higher manufacturing costs and to substrates manufactured from high thermal conductivity polymer compounds.