PCB Carolina 2011

Developing a Solid State Lighting product presents many challenges in successfully driving a semiconductor technology into a market with established conventional light sources and an existing ecosystem that supports the lighting industry. The presentation, Anatomy of a Solid State Lighting Design, weaves the human and technical realities that product developers must address and overcome in order to succeed. Topics include a review of typical customer requirements, the major technology components of a SSL Design with special attention to optical and thermal systems, and avoiding product development pitfalls from concept to production. Recognizing the huge business opportunity solid state lighting will generate in the next 10 years, the traditional electronics engineering and manufacturing industries will need to understand and adapt to the SSL market requirements.

Utilizing High Power LED’s in commercial lighting applications has increased dramatically over the past few years. Smaller form factors, increased power densities and lower thermal resistance packages have advanced to the point where the need for good thermal management solutions is absolutely necessary to assure consistent system performance and long-term reliability. (i) Understanding the LED’s thermal performance as it relates to package style, foot print geometry and thermal resistance can help in selecting the most appropriate thermal solution. (ii) MCPCB material stack up selection can be tailored to meet the requirements of a particular application.  (iii) Circuit design can be optimized to maximize heat spreading (iv) Circuit part geometry can be designed to optimize material utilization with lowest total cost in mind. (v) Thermal interface material selection can be made best by understanding the interface surface geometries between the MCPCB and the heat sink to achieve the thermal and mechanical performance required.

I will clarify options available for standard metal base circuits and circuit designs that can maximize thermal performance. I will identify various types of thermal interface materials commonly used in lighting system designs. I will specifically address ways to design with lowest total cost in mind. 

This presentation discusses and demonstrates the three critical elements of desktop data management: 1) project management, 2) change management and 3) ECO management. Project management requires team collaboration and multi-domain support ( PCB, FPGA ). Change management requires design data versioning and version differencing (textual and graphical) across multiple file types. ECO management requires the ability to capture and provide documentation on the complete design change history.