IEEE PHOTONICS TECHNOLOGY LETTERS, VOL. 19, NO.

6, MARCH 15, 2007

399

Phosphor Thermometry in White

Light-Emitting Diodes

Pranciskus Vitta, Paulius Pobedinskas, and Arturas Zukauskas

AbstractA method for the in situ measurement of phosphor

temperature in high-power white light-emitting diodes (LEDs) was
demonstrated. The method is based on the dependence of the fluorescence decay time in inorganic phosphors on temperature. The
decay time was estimated using the frequency-domain technique,
which relies on the measurement of the phase shift of the sinusoidal waveform of fluorescence relative to that of the photoexcitation, obtained by driving the LED at high-frequency current.
LEDs containing a single phosphor (cool-white) and a phosphor
blend (warm-white) were examined. By comparison of the phosphor temperature with that of the LED junction and metal mount,
the character of the spatial profile of temperature within the LED
packages was revealed.
Index TermsFluorescence lifetime, frequency domain
measurements, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), phosphor
thermometry, thermal management, white light.

HOSPHOR-CONVERSION white light-emitting diodes

(LEDs) are already widely used in niche lighting applications, such as decorative, architectural, automotive, and
medical lighting [1], [2]. Further penetration of LEDs into the
general-lighting market is anticipated through the development
of high-power devices. One of the issues of the development
and use of high-power LEDs is thermal management, which is
of crucial importance for maintaining stable output characteristics and optimal aging. To this end, methods for monitoring of
the thermal regime of high-power LEDs are of high interest.
In colored LEDs, which comprise a semiconductor die
mounted on a heat-conductive pad and covered with a translucent cap for protection and light extraction, practical monitoring
of the thermal regime can be provided through measurements of
junction/chip temperature, by investigation of the peak position
and short-wavelength slope of the electroluminescence spectra,
temperature dependence of Raman scattering by phonons,
measurements of the forward voltage, and thermal imaging
[3][5].
White LEDs with a partial or complete conversion in phosphors of the initial blue or near UV radiation, respectively, are
more complex devices, where micrometer-sized phosphor particles can be characterized by a unique thermal regime due to the
thermal contact with the semiconductor chip and encapsulant
as well as due to heat generation in the photon down-conversion process. Besides, the thermal regime is conditioned by the
geometrical arrangement of the phosphor within a white LED

Manuscript received July 13, 2006; revised December 6, 2006. This work
was supported by the European Commission supported SELITEC Center under
Contract G5MA-CT-2002-04047.
The authors are with the Institute of Materials Science and Applied Research,
Vilnius University, LT-10222 Vilnius, Lithuania.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LPT.2007.891595

depending on the device design [1], [6], [7]. An increase in phosphor temperature can invoke thermal quenching, which results
in a reduced output, a shift of the color point, and a change of
the color rendering properties of the white LED. An even more
complex situation occurs when blends of phosphors with different thermal properties are used. In addition, thermal degradation of the encapsulant in white LEDs [8] is probably due
primarily to the contact with the phosphor, which is commonly
deposited over the semiconductor die. Data on phosphor temperature can provide information not only on the thermal condition of the phosphor itself but also on the temperature gradients along the device package. Thermal effects in white-LED
phosphor particles were investigated using numerical simulations [6]. However, experimental methods for measurement of
phosphor temperature within white LEDs have been not developed so far.
Meanwhile for monitoring of the thermal regime of a phosphor, one can exploit the dependence of its fluorescence decay
time on temperature. Such phosphor thermometry is a widely
used technique for remote and contactless temperature measurements [9]. Common activators in white-LED phosphors are
Ce , Eu , and Mn [10], which have fluorescence lifetimes

s,

s, and

s,
in the range of
respectively [11]. Phosphors based on these activators exhibit
thermal quenching [9], [12], accompanied by a decrease in the
fluorescence decay time, which under appropriate calibration
can be used for the evaluation of the phosphor temperature.
A straightforward way for in situ measurement of fluorescence decay time in the phosphor of a white LED is to use
pulsed or harmonically modulated photoexcitation from the native semiconductor chip and to examine the fluorescence response of the phosphor in the time or frequency domain, respectively [13]. The frequency-domain method is more attractive, since the operating regime of an LED under investigation
is close to continuous-wave one. In this case, the driving current of the semiconductor chip is modulated sinusoidally at a
high frequency providing a sinusoidal waveform of the phosphor photoexcitation. However, because of a finite fluorescence
decay time, the resulting sinusoidal waveform of the phosphor
emission is phase-shifted in respect of the excitation one. Correspondingly, the fluorescence decay time can be extracted from
the measured phase shift between the spectral components originating from the semiconductor chip and phosphor, respectively.
Here we report on a method for in situ measurement of
phosphor temperature in commercial high-power white LEDs
using phosphor thermometry. Fluorescence decay time was
estimated using the frequency-domain technique based on
direct high-frequency modulation of the LED driving current
and measuring of the phase shift of the resulting phosphor
emission in respect of that of the semiconductor chip.

1041-1135/$25.00 2007 IEEE

400

IEEE PHOTONICS TECHNOLOGY LETTERS, VOL. 19, NO. 6, MARCH 15, 2007

Two types of Philips Lumileds Lighting high-power

white LEDs were investigated. A high-operation-temperature cool-white LXK2-PW14 LED, which contains single
standard YAG : Ce phosphor, was studied in a wide range of
the mount temperature (up to 480 K). To demonstrate the thermometry in a phosphor blend, a warm-white LXHL-BW03
LED, which contains YAG : Ce and a red phosphor, was examined in the temperature range up to 420 K. The LEDs were
driven by dc and RF power using a bias tee (Picosecond 5547).
To vary the junction temperature, the dc driving current was
varied from 0 to 870 and 475 mA, respectively. The RF modulation in the range from 50 kHz to 20 MHz was provided by a
high-power digital signal generator (Aeroflex IFR 2023A). The
optical signal from an LED under investigation was filtered by
a grating monochromator (JY HD10) with a spectral bandpass
of 8 nm, detected by a subnanosecond-risetime photomultiplier
(Hamamatsu H6780-01) and split into the ac and dc components using another bias tee. The resulting ac electrical signal
was amplified by a wideband amplifier (Hamamatsu C5594).
The ac and dc components of the signal were fed into an RF
lock-in amplifier (Stanford Research Systems SR844) for the
phase and modulation depth measurements of the sinusoidal
waveform [14]. The temperature of the metal mount of the
was measured by a thermocouple gauge with the
LED
accuracy of 1 K, whereas the temperature of the junction was
estimated from the high-energy slope of the electroluminescence spectra. The emission spectra were recorded using a
double monochromator (JY HRD 1) and a photomultiplier
(Hamamatsu R1463 P) operating in the photon-counting mode.
was maintained at about 295 K.
The ambient temperature
For calibration purposes, the LEDs were disassembled and
the silicone film containing phosphor particles was removed
from the chip. The film was mounted on a brass finger and fastened by a brass plate with a pinhole. A resistive heater was used
to heat the finger and the temperature of the finger was measured by means of the thermocouple gauge. A high-power blue
LED (Lumileds LXHL-LR5C) was used for external photoexcitation of the phosphor film. For the modulation of the LED and
measurement of the phase of the fluorescence waveform, the arrangement described above was used, except that to determine
the phase of the photoexcitation waveform, the blue emission
reflected from the film was examined.
Fig. 1 shows the emission spectra of the white LEDs investigated at different driving powers. The cool-white LED exhibits two peaks at about 2.15 and 2.75 eV (577 and 450 nm)
originating from the InGaN chip and YAG : Ce , respectively
[Fig. 1(a)]. The warm-white LED has an additional peak at
about 1.92 eV (645 nm) due to the red phosphor [Fig. 1(b)]. In
both cases, the far short-wavelength slope of the spectra is sensitive to the driving power and reflects the junction temperature
. To extract the value of the junction temperature, the shape
of the slope was approximated by a Boltzmann-like form
(1)
is the photon energy, and
is the correction conwhere
stant, which accounts for the spectral distortions due to inhomogeneous broadening of the spectra caused by uneven indium
distribution and quantum-well width fluctuations in the active
InGaN layers, reabsorption in phosphor, background emission
from the cladding and barrier layers and fluorescence of the

Fig. 1. Emission spectra of high-power (a) cool-white and (b) warm-white

LEDs at different driving powers (indicated). Dashed lines show the exponential
approximation of the high-energy slopes that were used for the estimation of the
junction temperature. The gray bars show the spectral windows that were used
in the fluorescence lifetime measurements.

Fig. 2. Phase shift (open points) and demodulation factor (filled points) as functions of frequency for phosphor films of the (a) cool-white and (b) warmwhite LEDs measured at some temperatures (indicated). The lines show the
least-square fits to the (a) single-exponent and (b) two-exponent fluorescence
response functions with the lifetimes as indicated.

phosphor (assumed to weakly depend on temperature), etc. For

, the accuracy of such
a small correction constant
. In our experiment, the
an approach is about
correction constant was estimated from the zero-current limit,
, and typically had a value in the range of 10 K,
when
i.e., much below .
Fig. 2 shows some phase and modulation depth dependences
versus frequency for cool-white [Fig. 2(a)] and warm-white
[Fig. 2(b)] phosphor films measured at some temperatures in
the calibration experiment. Fluorescence from the cool-white
and warm-white films was sampled at 600 and 635 nm, respectively. In both cases with increasing frequency, the phase
shift between the excitation and fluorescence waveforms increases, whereas the modulation depth decreases. To extract the
fluroescece lifetime, the experimental dependences of phase and
demodulation factor were fit to those calculated for multiexponent fluorescence response functions [15].
The fit of the experimental results shown in Fig. 2 to the calculated ones revealed that emission of the phosphor film of the
cool-white LED exhibits a single-exponent decay [Fig. 2(a)],
whereas the emission of the warm-white phosphor film has a
two-exponent decay [Fig. 2(b)].
Fig. 3 shows the obtained calibration results. In the coolwhite phosphor, the single fluorescence lifetime was measured
with a high accuracy ( 0.4%) and equaled about 63 ns up to
380 K with further decrease to about 53 ns at 485 K [Fig. 3(a)].
The obtained values are typical of YAG : Ce phosphor [12].
This calibration data allows for the estimation of the phosphor
temperature in the range above 380 K within an error of about
5 K.
Of two fluorescence lifetimes in the warm-white phosphor
blend, one is close to that observed in YAG : Ce [not shown

VITTA et al.: PHOSPHOR THERMOMETRY IN WHITE LEDs

Fig. 3. Fluorescence lifetime versus temperature calibration dependences for

the YAG : Ce phosphor of the (a) cool-white LED and the red phosphor of
the (b) warm-white LED. The uncertainty due to the least-square fit of the
phase and demodulation factor frequency dependences (Fig. 2) are shown by
the size of (a) point and (b) error bars.

401

dict that the temperature can have highest values in the phosphor layer [6]. Note that maintaining of the phosphor temperature below that of the chip is favorable in terms of a reduced
thermal quenching of the phosphor and more stable output and
chromaticity.
In conclusion, we employed the dependence of phosphor fluorescence lifetime on temperature for the in situ characterization
of the phosphor thermal condition in high-power white LEDs,
that were directly modulated by high-frequency driving current.
Phosphor temperatures within the typical error of about 5 K
were measured as a function of driving power in LEDs containing a single phosphor and a phosphor blend. The phosphor
temperature turned out to be lower than that of the LED junction,
indicating on a temperature gradient inside the LED packages.
REFERENCES

Fig. 4. Temperatures of the metal mount (squares), junction (circles), and phosphor (triangles) as functions of driving power in (a) cool-white and (b) warmwhite high-power LEDs. The lines are guides for the eye.

in Fig. 3(b)], whereas the second one monotonically decreases

with temperature. The room-temperature value of this lifetime
is 720 ns and it drops to 350 ns at 352 K. Despite a reduced accuracy in the estimation of the red-phosphor fluorescence lifetime
due to an uncertainty of the decomposition of the two-exponent
decay ( 4%8%), the steeper calibration dependence allows for
estimation of the phosphor temperature within the same 5 K
error in the entire range of temperatures (from 290 K to 350 K).
The obtained calibration dependences of fluorescence lifetime on temperature were used for the measurement of phosphor
temperature inside operating white LEDs. Now, the phase of the
phosphor emission was determined relative to the intrinsic blue
component of the LED (at 450 nm). To extract the phosphor
temperature at various LED driving powers, the phase shifts
were collated with the calibration data (Fig. 3). Fig. 4 shows
the cumulative results on the metal mount, junction, and phosphor temperatures as functions of driving power. One can see
in Fig. 4 that the junction temperature of the LEDs, even with
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clearly seen to be lower than that of the junction. In particular in
the warm-white LED, the phosphor temperature is even lower
than that of the mount. This indicates that phosphor particles
are out of thermal equilibrium with the chip and dissipate heat
to the colder encapsulant. Consequently, this means that in the
investigated white phosphor-conversion LEDs the temperature
is peaked at the junction, although some modeling results pre-

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