S201-201808122311
Fabrication and optical properties of white LED based on laminated remote phosphor film
Ning-ze ZHUO, Na ZHANG, Yong-hao CHEN, Peng JIANG, Shao-wen CHENG, Yue-hua ZHU, Hai-bo WANG
Institute of Optoelectronic Materials, Nanjing Tech University
Institute of Optoelectronic Materials of Industry
5 Jinchuanmenwai Road, Nanjing 210015, China
zhuoningze89@163.com, +86-025-58592286
Abstract
Based on laminated and remote phosphor packaging
technology, double layer phosphor film were prepared by hot
pressing method, the films then were packaged into white
LED. Fluorescence spectrophotometer and the visible
spectrum analysis system were used to study the influence of
the layer order of green and red phosphor films and emission
wavelength on the optical properties of white LED. Results
show that the luminescent efficiency of radiation of
blue-green-red type was improved by 31.69% compared to the
blue-red-green type, the color fidelity and color gamut index
increased with the increasing of wavelength of red phosphor
film, the color fidelity and color gamut index reached the
highest value 91 and104 at 660nm respectively, in contrast,
luminescent efficiency of radiation was inversely proportional
to the wavelength; color fidelity decreased with the increasing
of wavelength of green phosphor film, and color gamut index
raised first, then decreased, the luminescent efficiency of
radiation reach the highest value 300.7lm/W when emission
wavelength of green phosphor film was 530nm.
1 Introduction
White Light Emitting Diode (WLED) has been widely used in
the field of lighting because of its high efficiency, adjustable
spectrum, safety and so on. With the improvement of living
standard, the requirement of light is gradually changed from
brightness to quality. At present, the main way to realize
white light is to excite YAG:Ce3+ yellow phosphor by InGaN
blue chip. The color fidelity of WLED such as color
fidelity(Rf) and color gamut index(Rg) are in low level
because of the absence of red band in spectrum. which can not
really show the color of the object being illuminated. Now the
color performance of WLED can be improved by adding red
band in the spectrum. By using two kinds of red phosphor
K2SiF6:Mn4+ and (Sr,Ca)AlSiN3:Eu2+ to supplement the red
band of WLED, Rf of WLED can reach 96.9. When only one
red phosphor is selected, Rf of WLED is only 83.7[1]. But at
present, many kinds of phosphors are only used in direct
mixing method. Because of the different systems of
phosphors, this method will lead to the re-absorption between
the emission light of different phosphors, resulting in the loss
of energy[2], and the reduction of the luminous efficiency.
The energy loss caused by re-absorption can be alleviated by
laminated structure. LEE[3] uses CaAlSiN3:Eu2+ and
Lu3Al5O12:Ce3+ as raw materials to fabricate phosphor glasses
with different bands. The luminous efficiency of WLED is
higher than that of directly mixed glasses because of the
reduction of re-absorption effect. YING[4] prepared a
ring-shaped partitioned film, and then packaged with SPE
structure to prepare WLEDs. At different concentrations of
green phosphor and red phosphor, ring-shaped WLEDs have
higher luminous flux than WLEDs prepared by direct mixed
method because of the reduction re-absorption of red-green
phosphor.
1
In this paper, double layer phosphor films and WLEDs were
prepared by combining the laminated and remote phosphor
packaging technology. The effects of different layered order
of green and red phosphor films and wavelengths on the
optical properties of packaged WLEDs were studied. It is
found that the blue-green-red (B-G-R) type can significantly
improve the luminous efficiency of radiation (LER) compared
with the blue-red-green (B-R-G). Rf reached 91 and Rg
reached 104 respectively while red phosphor film with 660nm
due to the increasing the spectral integrity and continuity,
green phosphor film with 530 nm can achieved the highest
value of LER 300.7lm/W compared with 525 nm and 535 nm.
2 Materials and Methods
Remote phosphor films were prepared by hot pressing and
then packaged into WLEDs. The raw materials used were
silica gel (Dow Corning, USA), YAGG:Ce3+ green phosphor
and CaAlSiN3:Eu2+ red phosphor (Shield, China), COB
(Triplet, China). Green phosphor and silica gel were
weighed according to the pre-designed ratio. The mixture was
mixed evenly in the mixer and then further placed in the
cavity of the mold. 10 MPa pressure was applied to the flat
vulcanizer, and the temperature was kept at 150℃ for 0.5h.
The mold was cooled and opened. Red phosphor and silica gel
were continued to be weighed according to the pre-designed
ratio. mix evenly in the mixer and then put in the upper layer
of green phosphor film in the mold cavity, continue to apply
10 MPa pressure at 150℃for 1 h, cool and open the mold, that
is, prepare a laminated phosphor film, thickness of films are
0.2 mm. Finally, the laminated phosphor film is fixed on the
upper layer of the COB, away from the chip, the structure of
WLEDs are shown in Fig.1.
Blue Chip Red Phosphor Green Phosphor Blue Chip Green Phosphor Red Phosphor
(a) Blue-Red-Green type (b) Blue-Green-Red type
Fig.1 Package structure of WLED
(a) B-R-G type, (b)B-G-R type
3 Results and Discussion
3.1 Package structure type
In this part, we mainly study the influence of the layer order
of phosphor films on the photo-chromic performance of
WLED. Two structure are adopted: B-G-R and B-R-G. The
emission peaks of green and red phosphor films are 525 nm
and 640 nm respectively. The WLED package structure is
shown in Fig.1. The results are shown in Table 1 and Fig.2.
Table 1 Photo-chromic property of two package structure
Type Color coordinate Rf Rg LER lm/W
B-R-G 0.3646, 0.2871 86 111 215.2 phosphor film on the photo-chromic performance of WLED
B-G-R 0.3402, 0.3436 89 98 283.4 under the same green phosphor film. A~C, D~F and G~I
represents the color coordinate of Rf and Rg of WLEDs
corresponding to 525 nm - (640 nm, 650 nm and 660 nm), 530
nm - (640 nm, 650 nm and 660 nm) and 535 nm - (640 nm,
650 nm and 660 nm). It can be seen from Fig.3(b) that the Rf
and Rg values increase with the increasing of red wavelength
in the same green phosphor flim. The maximum Rf and Rg
values appear at 660 nm wavelength of red phosphor film.
Which mainly because the addition of red band improves the
completeness and continuity of spectrum, and the longer the
wavelength band, the better the spectral integrity. Larger and
wider gamut.
Fig.2 Spectral distribution curve of WLED based on two
package structure （B-G-R and B-R-G type） a
Fig.2 shows the spectral distribution curves of two structures b
of WLEDs. Fig.2(a) is CIE1931 color coordinates. As can be
seen from the graph, the spectrum of B-R-G is obviously
lower in green band and higher in red band than that of
B-G-R. This is because the blue light of the chip in the former
excites the red phosphor film firstly, resulting in a decrease in
the intensity of blue light used to excite the green film. In the
latter, blue light excites the green phosphor film firstly and
then transmits the green light to the red phosphor film. Some
green light and blue light jointly excite the red phosphor film
and emit the red light, while the other part emits outside, so Fig.3 Color coordinate of Rf and Rg of B-G-R type WLED
the red light intensity in the latter spectrum is lower than the Fig.4 is color gamut area of WLED based on B-G-R type in
former. At the same time, as can be seen in Fig.3(a), the each chromaticity angle region, which is used to measure the
spectral energy of red light in B-R-G is too high, resulting in area of the surrounding gamut. It can be seen that with the
spectral distortion, color coordinates have deviated from the increasing of the wavelength of the red phosphor film, the
Planck black body curve, bias to the red light region, while the corresponding gamut area increases gradually. At 660 nm the
B-G-R spectrum just falls on the curve, located in the white normalized area reaches 100. The law shown in the figure is
light region. From the LER value in Table 1, we can see that consistent with the law in Fig.3.
the WLED of B-R-G is only 215.2 lm/W, which is much
lower than that of B-G-R with 283.4 lm/W. This is mainly due
to the fact that the LER is calculated according to Formula
1[5]. It can be seen that the LER is closely and positively
related to the visual efficiency curve. The result of integral
calculation is low because the value of 555 nm. The quantum
efficiency of phosphor in red film is lower than that in green
film. Therefore, the energy of converted light emitted from
red phosphor film is lower than that of green light under the
same excitation energy[6]. It shows that B-G-R type has
advantages over B-R-G in LER and spectral integrity.

LER  Km  
V ( )S ( )d Fig.4 Color gamut area of WLED based on B-G-R type(red
lm  W 1 (1) phosphor films with different wavelength)
 S (  ) d Fig.5 shows the LER curve of the prepared WLEDs. It can be
V ( ) visual efficiency curve, S ( ) spectral power density, seen from the graph that the corresponding LER value
Km=683lm/W decreases gradually with the increasing of the wavelength of
3.2 Remote phosphor films with different wavelengths red phosphor film. Fig.6 is the spectral distribution curves of
Based on the superiority of B-G-R in the optical performance WLED packaged with 530nm, 640nm, 650nm, 660nm
of WLED, in this part B-G-R is chosen to continue the respectively. It can be seen that the order of spectral energy
research on the influence of green and red phosphor films on within the scope of visual efficiency curve is 640 nm > 650
the optical performance of WLED. The wavelength of green nm > 660 nm, which show the same change rule of LER based
phosphor films are 525 nm, 530 nm, 535 nm and wavelength on formula 1.
of red phosphor films are 640 nm, 650 nm and 660 nm
respectively.
3.2.1 Red phosphor film with different wavelengths
Fig.3 shows the Rf and Rg distributions of WLEDs fabricated
by green and red phosphor films at different wavelengths,
Fig.3(a) is the global coordinate diagram and Fig.3(b) is the
corresponding local magnification diagram. In this part, we
mainly study the influence of different wavelengths of red

2
 the deconvolution overlap region of the spectrum. The
deconvolution of the green-red spectral region of the WLED
spectrum can be performed, such as the overlap region
(marked A) in Fig.8(a). For example, 660 nm is combined
with 525 nm, 530 nm and 535 nm green phosphor films. The
area ratio of each spectral overlap region is 15.7%, 14.8% and
16.8% respectively, which is consistent with the change rule
of Rg. The spectral overlap region is beneficial to the
increasing of the corresponding spectral band and the gamut
range[7].

Fig.5 LER of WLED based on B-G-R type

Fig.8 B-G-R type WLED spectrum deconvolution

overlap region
Fig.6 Spectral distribution curve of WLED based on B-G-R Fig.9 is a color gamut area formed by the average color
type(red phosphor films with different wavelength) coordinates of the prepared WLEDs in each chromaticity
According to the above rules, although the R f and Rg values angle region. It is used to measure the gamut area of the
increase with the increasing of red wavelength, however the surrounded polygons. It can be seen that the corresponding
increasing also leads to the decrease of the LER value of the gamut area decreases first and then increases with the
WLED. Therefore, as two parameters of mutual restriction, increasing of green light wavelength. The normalized area
we should measure them comprehensively and choose the reaches 100 at 535 nm, which can be used to explain the rules
corresponding one. shown in Fig.7.
3.2.2 Green phosphor film with different wavelengths
Fig.7shows the Rf and Rg coordinate distributions of WLEDs
prepared by green and red phosphor films in different
wavelengths, where Fig.7(a) is the global coordinate map and
Fig.7(b) is the corresponding local magnification map. In this
part, we mainly study the influence of different wavelengths
of green phosphor film on the photo-chromic performance of
WLED under the same wavelength of red phosphor film.
A~C, D~F and G~I represents the color coordinate of Rf and
Rg of WLEDs corresponding to 640 nm - (525 nm, 530 nm,
535 nm), 650 nm - (525 nm, 530 nm, 535 nm) and 660 nm -
(525 nm, 530 nm, 535 nm). Fig.9 Color gamut area of WLED based on B-G-R (green
phosphor films with different wavelength)
a Fig.10 shows the LER curves of the prepared WLEDs. With
the increasing wavelength of green phosphor film, the
b corresponding LER values increase first and then decrease.
Fig.11 shows the spectral distribution curves of WLEDs with
red phosphor film at 660 nm and green phosphor film at 525
nm, 530 nm and 535 nm. Explanations show that the spectral
energy is 535 nm > 530 nm > 525 nm in the spectral range of
the visual efficiency curve of human eyes. However, because
the blue and red energy of WLEDs with low visual efficiency
in 535 nm, the LER value of WLEDs with 535 nm green film
is lower than that of WLEDs packaged with 530 nm green
Fig.7 Coordinate drawing of Rf and Rg of B-G-R type phosphor film. Therefore, the WLEDs prepared by 530 nm
WLED green phosphor film have the highest LER value.
It can be seen that the Rf decreases gradually with the
increasing wavelength of green phosphor film, and the Rg
value decreases first and then increases. As the peak distances
between green and red phosphor films increase gradually, the
spectral integrity of WLED decreases with the increasing of
green phosphor film wavelength. The corresponding Rf
decreases. The variation of Rg can be explained according to
3

Fig.10 LER of WLED based on B-G-R type
4. Ying S P., et al. “Effect of Reassembled Remote Phosphor
Geometry on the Luminous Efficiency and Spectra of White
Light-Emitting Diodes With Excellent Color Rendering
Property”. IEEE T. Electron. Dev., Vol.63, (2016), pp.
1117-1121.
5. Erdem T., et al. “Computational study of power conversion
and luminous efficiency performance for semiconductor
quantum dot nanophosphors on light-emitting diodes”. Opt.
Express, Vol.20, (2012), pp.3275-3295.
6. Zhu Y T., et al. “Investigation of remote-phosphor white
LED with multi-phosphor layers”. Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., Vol.49,
(2010), pp. 100203-1-100203-3.
7. Chiang C H., et al. “Effects of phosphor distribution and
step-index remote configuration on the performance of
white light-emitting diodes”. Opt. Lett., Vol.40, (2015),
pp.2830-2833.

Fig11 Spectral distribution curve of WLED based on B-G-R

type(Green phosphor films with different wavelength)

4 Conclusions
In this paper, laminated remote phosphor films were prepared
by hot-pressing method, and WLEDs were packaged then.
The effects of different layering order of green and red
phosphor films and emission wavelengths on the optical
properties of WLEDs were studied. It was found that the LER
value of the blue-green-red (B-G-R) type was significantly
higher than that of the blue-red-green (B-R-G) type. The
increasing emission wavelength of the red phosphor film was
conducive to improving the integrity, continuity and color
gamut range of WLEDs. Rf and Rg increased with the
increasing of the wavelength of red phosphor film. The Rf and
Rg values of WLEDs reach 91 and 104 respectively at 660nm,
the LERs of WLEDs are inversely proportional to the
wavelength of red phosphor film because of deviates from the
visual efficiency curve of human eyes. Compared with the
WLEDs prepared at 525 nm and 535 nm, the LER of WLED
packaged with 530 nm show the highest value , reaching
300.7 lm/W. The conclusions obtained in this study have
certain reference value for practical application.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support
in part from the National Key R&D Program of China（Grant
Nos. 2016YFB0400600, 2016YFB0400605）and the Natural
Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (Grant No.
BK20171128).
References
1. Luo D., et al. “Realizing superior white LEDs with both
high R9 and luminous efficacy by using dual red phosphors”,
RSC Adv., Vol. 7, (2017), pp. 25964-25968.
2. Peng Y., et al. “Luminous efficacy enhancement of
ultraviolet-excited white light-emitting diodes through
multilayered phosphor-in-glass”, Appl. Optics, Vol.55, (2016),
pp.4933-4938.
3. Lee J S., et al. “Smart design to resolve spectral
overlapping of phosphor-in-glass for high-powered
remote-type white light-emitting devices”. Opt. Lett., Vol.39,
(2014), pp. 762-765.
4
S201-201808150942

Design of High Condensing Searchlight based on Ultra High Bright LEDs

Zhiliang Jin, Peipei Wang, Weimin Li, Daxi Xiong

Research Center of Light for Health，Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology
No.88, Keling Road, Suzhou New District, Jiangsu Province, 215163
Email: jinzl@sibet.ac.cn， xiongdx@sibet.ac.cn

Abstract modules. As the most important part of the whole LED

A novel searchlight based on Ultra High Bright LEDs will be cooling system, the packaging substrate not only carries the
proposed. Special packaging technology with excellent heat chip, but also transmits the heat generated by the chip to the
dissipation technology makes the LED modules have highest cooling device. AlN ceramic is a new kind of LED packaging
power density and ultra-short focal length with large substrate material with high thermal conductivity [3]. It has
numerical aperture optical system is presented to realize high strength, low coefficient of thermal expansion, low
collimating illumination with low Fresnel loss. The distance dielectric loss, high temperature resistance, chemical
between the light source and the point where the illuminance corrosion resistance and non-toxic environmental protection.
is 1 lux has been calculated to be over 3km and the beam In this paper, AlN ceramic substrate and copper substrate are
angle is 2.6°. It was confirmed in a site experiment that the used as composite substrate, and the thermal conductive
light ray from searchlight proceeds forward without any interface material is superior to silver Nano-silver material.
diffusion because of the narrow beam angle. The chip adopts OSRAM vertical structure chip, excitation
I. Introduction wavelength is 452 nm, main wavelength is 560 nm, and light
Light emitting diode (LED) has been regarded as a light emitting area of single chip is. Using screen printing
source with a higher efficiency and longer lifetime than the technology, the circuit pattern is made by positive and
conventional incandescent and discharge lamps such as negative ink mask. An eight-in-series and four-in-series
fluorescent lamps and metal halide lamps. Widespread printed circuit for ceramic substrate is completed. The vertical
applications have been found for LEDs in the lighting industry structure chip is super-tightly attached to the ceramic substrate
within a short period of time [1, 2]. The light efficacy of an circuit to complete the packaging of the ultra-high power chip
LED is over 80%, while that of an incandescent lamp and a module. As shown in Fig. 1 (a), the light source consists of 52
fluorescent lamp are 5% and 40%, respectively. A xenon lamp chips. Driven by a constant current source of 500 W, the chip
of between 1 kW and 3 kW is currently used as a high-power has a super electric power density, and the color temperature
searchlight on land or on ships in the sea. However, its of the light source is 7500K, which can emit light exceeding
inherent purpose is difficult to meet because its light source 27000lm. The spectral curve is shown in Fig. 1 (b).
life is quite short - 350 hours, and it takes about ten minutes
for full-lighting and restart. LED has the advantages of no
warm-up period and excellent color rendering. Among those
advantages, the small volume makes LED the first practical
point light source. The illumination optical design has more
flexibility, and it has received major progress due to this
advantage.
In this paper, the design method of a high condensing
searchlight based on Ultra High Bright LEDs is proposed as a
basic study for replacing the xenon searchlights used in
Fig. 1（a）LED light source module
coastguard stations and ships.
II. Optical Design of Searchlight
The optical system of the searchlight is mainly composed of
high power and high optical density LED light source,
aspherical lens and Fresnel lens. The light emitted from the
LED is collected and collimated by the optical system with
large numerical aperture and short focal length formed by the
combination of short focal length lenses and large aperture
and long focal length Fresnel lenses.
1). Light Source
High power LED chip is a kind of high heat flux device. Its
work produces a lot of heat which needs different heat Fig. 1（b）spectral curve of the LED source
channels to transfer to the atmosphere to realize heat exchange
2). Design of the Fresnel lens
with the outside world. The choice of substrate materials and
Fresnel lens is designed by dividing the lens into several rings
high thermal conductivity solidification materials, the
with different curvature [4, 5], so that the rays passing through
thickness control of solidification layer, the control of baking
each ring band converge approximately in the same focus. In
temperature and time, and the design of packaging substrate
large aperture optical systems, the use of Fresnel lens as an
all play an important role in the packaging of high power
agent for single lens or quadric lens can reduce the mass and
5
thickness of the lens, and to a certain extent, reduce the
spherical aberration. The main parameters of the Fresnel lens
are the diameter of the through light, the thickness of the base
plane, the refractive index of the material and the focal length
of the lens.
In non-imaging design and illumination optics, when there is
no absorption, scattering, gain or Fresnel reflection in the
process of optical transmission, the optical spread Etendue can
be considered conservative[6]. Optical Etendue is defined as:

ξ  n2 cos dAs d  （1）
The upper part is integrated into the pupil, and n is the
refractive index of the light source. If the normal direction of
the planar light source is directly opposite to the pupil, the
area of the planar light source can be changed significantly by
the corresponding three-dimensional angle of the pupil. The
solid angle is calculated from the receiving angle of the field
of view. The field-of-view receiving angle indicates that light
received through the entrance pupil at this angle will be
emitted from the exit pupil without loss. Therefore, the optical
expansion of the system can be expressed as follows:
  n 2 As 
2 a
0 
0
cos sin d d   n 2 As sin 2  a
The area of high-power LED light source used in this paper is
about 60 mm2, and the collection angle is set to 120 degrees.
Suppose that the beam angle of searchlight is 2.0 degrees, and
then the passing aperture of Fresnel lens can be calculated at
least 432 mm.
Considering the harsh environment of the searchlight, the size
of the lamps should not be too large. In this paper, it is
reasonable to consider that the length of the lamp is equivalent
to the diameter of the lamp, so the focal length of the Fresnel
lens is 235 mm after removing the heat sink thickness of the
LED light source and the thickness of the lamp cover
protection structure. Ring height H is determined by the
through aperture of Fresnel lens and the number of band
splitting. Setting the focal length of Fresnel lens as L, the
structural parameters of Fresnel lens can be solved by
combining vector and refraction law [7].
Fig.2 The ring diagram of Fresnel lens
The vector form formula of refraction law can be expressed
as:
1 group
1  n 2  2n Out In   2  N  n In  Out
As can be seen from Figure 2, the
 N  Considering the production cycle and processing cost of the
α  arctan  0 x  of the first ring can be obtained by
 N
 0y  fourth order even aspheric surface, and the convex surface of
calculating the normal vector of the ring N 0 . According to the
height H1 of the belt L , we can get N 3 :
normalization
L H 
N 3   L,-H1   N 3   ， 1  （4）
S S 
Among the formula, S  L2  H12
According to the law of refraction, we can get N 2 :
SL H  （5）
N2  
， 
 S n S n 
As N 1 is paralleled to the optical axis, it can be
expressed as:
N 1  1, 0 
（6）
At this time, the emitted light and the incident light vector are
known. According to the formula (3), we can find out:
N N （7）
N0  n 2  1
N 2 N1
By analogy, all chamfering parameters except the center can
be obtained.
When the annulus number is relatively large, the radius R of
the central ring can be approximately equal to L
（2） 2.
3). Design of the Primary lens
Non-imaging optics mainly studies the control of optical
system on light energy transmission. Therefore, the
searchlight light distribution system mainly needs to complete
two tasks: one is to project light from the light source into the
target area to form a set intensity distribution; the other is to
achieve the highest efficiency as possible on the premise of
completing the first task. In this paper, a set of lens with short
focal length and large field of view is designed to realize the
light receiving task of high-power LED light source.
In this paper, ZEMAX software is used to design and optimize
a lens assembly. According to the arrangement shape of LED
chips, the diameter of the outer circle of the chip integrated
with light source is calculated to be about 12 mm. The size of
the Fresnel lens is derived from the previous section. The
diameter and focal length of the lens are 450mm and 300 mm,
respectively. Light is emitted through a surface light source,
and then refracted into a near-parallel beam after passing
through two glass lenses and a Fresnel lens, and is received by
the image plane.
a) Set the initial parameters of Plano convex lens group.
The general settings of the system are as follows: the flat
convex lens group adopts the non-focal setting and the object
distance setting; the first collimating lens is 50mm in diameter
and the second is 80mm in diameter; the light source is
simplified into a circular light-emitting surface with a
diameter of 12mm and the light-emitting angle is set to 120
degrees at all angles; the object height field of view is
adopted, and the object points are selected to be 0mm, 3mm
and 6mm respectively.
b) Optimization parameter settings for Plano convex lens
（3）
Use RMS-Angular Radius-Centroid and Thickness Boundary
chamfer Values settings in ZEMAX's merit function.
searchlight, the convex surface of the first lens is set to the
the second lens is set to the spherical lens. After optimization,
ray tracing can be obtained as shown in Figure 3. It can be
seen that the output angle of the LED light source can be
reduced to 2.0 degrees after collimating with the lens group
6
and Fresnel lens, which can meet the requirements of the
vertical angle of the beam.
Fig.3 Optical path tracing
4). Software simulation
TracePro software is used to simulate and analyze the optical
system designed by Monte Carlo tracing method. The Fresnel
lenses and cylindrical Fresnel lenses involved in the system
are all made of PMMA material with refractive index n=1.49.
The LED light source is arranged according to the physical
size in Fig. 1 (a). The light source is set to emit light with a
total luminous flux of 27000 lm and a ray tracing of 3.2
million.
Fig.4 Simulation result of the illumination distribution
A detection target is set at a distance of 3 km from the
luminaire. The simulated illuminance distribution shows that
the spot diameter on the receiving surface is about 140
meters. It can be calculated that the divergence angle of the
beam is 2.6 degrees. Here the setting angle of the software
LED is 180 degrees, so the collimated beam's luminous angle
is larger than the theoretical design value. The maximum
illuminance of the target center is 1.6lux, which can meet the
actual demand.
III. Experimental Results
According to the simulation results of software design, the
processing and assembly of optical elements are completed.
The searchlight is 479 mm in diameter, 450 mm in length and
27 kg in weight. The object is shown in Fig. 5. The luminous
flux of the throwing light is 22000lm, and the energy
utilization rate exceeds 80%. The measured spot size at 50
meters is 2.4 meters, and the calculated luminous angle is
about 2.67 degrees, which is consistent with the simulation
results. In addition the maximum central illumination at 50
meters is more than 5200 lux. According to experience, the
maximum central illumination at 3 km is 1 lux. As shown in
Fig. 6, the collimating effect of the searchlight can be clearly
seen outside of 500m.
Fig.5 The searchlight photo
7
Fig.6 Outdoor lighting effect
Conclusions
This study shows a novel searchlight based on Ultra High
Bright LEDs. The optical system of the searchlight is mainly
composed of high power and high optical density LED light
source, glass lens and Fresnel lens. Simulation was done to
prove the accuracy of the calculated value of the critical angle,
and the effect of extended source is also discussed. The
maximum central illumination at 50 meters is more than 5200
lux. So the distance between the light source and the point
where the illumination intensity was 1 lux was calculated to
be over 3 km. This design can be applied to other LED lamps
of high brightness and distant spot.
Acknowledgments
In this paper, the research was sponsored by the National
Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51376191),
the Key projects of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant
No. KZCC-EW-109).
References
1. Florian R, William J, Jannick P. Designing freeform
reflectors for extended sources [J]. Proceedings of SPIE - The
International Society for Optical Engineering, 2009, 7423.
2. Wang H, Wang H, Du N, et al. Study on optical design
method for LED extended sources [J]. Proceedings of
SPIE-The International Society for Optical Engineering, 2010,
7655(2): 163-170.
3. Chen B. Study on ceramic copper cladding based on high
power LED[D].Hangzhou: Zhejiang University, 2017: 52-56.
4. Chen Z M. Study on concentration performance of
Fresnel lens[D]. Hangzhou: China Jiliang University, 2013:
12-15.
5. Yang M H, Tian Z S, Yin T T, et al. Design of Fresnel
lens with high efficiency short focal length and large size [J].
Journal of Harbin Institute of Technology, 2015, 47(11):
98-101.
6. R.John Koshel. Illumination engineering: Design with
nonimaging optics [M]. Ge P, Zhao M, Liu X B, Transl.
Wuhan: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Press, 2015: 30-35.
7. Luo Y, Feng Z X, Han Y J, et al. Optics in solid state
lighting[J]. Acta Optica Sinica, 2011, 31(9): 147-157.
S201-201808151641
Silicone Rubber for LED Encapsulant
Lingyu Wang, Pengli Liu, Laixing Li, Wang Chen, Shihai Yang, Haiting Zheng
Guangzhou Human Chemicals Co., Ltd.
No.62, Xinye Road, Huangpu, Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, China
Abstract
Silicone rubber has attracted considerable attention from Light
Emitting Diode (LED) manufacturers, because of its superior
insulation, excellent weather and UV resistance, outstanding
thermal shock resistance. This article starts with the technical
principle used in silicone encapsulants synthesis, which shows
how each raw material works. Then some product design
experiences are illustrated with an example of designing a
silicone encapsulant with excellent sulfur corrosion resistance.
The future development trend of silicone encapsulants is also
proposed, expecting that more researchers can draw their
inspiration from this article.
1. Introduction
Silicones, also known as polysiloxanes, are polymers that
made up of repeating units of siloxane, which consist of an
inorganic silicon-oxygen backbone chain with organic side
groups, like phenyl and methyl, attached to the silicon atoms.
They are typically used in adhesives, lubricants, sealants and
thermal and electrical insulation. [1] The common forms of
silicones include silicone rubber, silicone resin, silicone oil,
etc.
Silicone materials for LED devices are usually a heat-curable
and addition-type liquid silicone rubber with many
advantages, including:
 High conversion rate, no by-products, homogeneous
vulcanization
 Low catalyst dosage
 Small linear shrinkage, between 0%～0.2%
 Excellent resistance to extreme temperatures from -60℃
to 300℃, while still maintaining its useful properties.
 Excellent electrical insulation properties between
-60℃and 200℃, and very slight variation of the
permittivity and the dielectric dissipation factor with
both temperature and frequency.
Based on the above advantages, silicone rubber has become
an indispensable part for LED devices. By now, the greatest
demand of silicone encapsulants is from the medium-power
and low-power products (≤ 1W) in lighting market, like
PCT/PPA 2835 and EMC 3030 products. One of the most
common problems of LED devices during use is the
luminance decay and black appearance caused by sulfur
corrosion or high temperature, which can greatly shorten the
service life of LED lamps. In order to improve this situation,
more time and effort should be put in the research and
development of a silicone encapsulant with excellent heat
resistance and sulfur corrosion resistance.
In this article, we focus on sharing some experiences about
how to design a super sulfur-resistant product. Then we
outline some development trends of the silicone encapsulants
in the future, hoping that more and more products with
excellent performance will come out to meet the requirements
of consumers.
2. Synthesis principle of silicone encapsulants
According to the refractive index, silicone encapsulants can be
basically divided into two types: methyl silicone rubber with
8
normal refractive index and phenyl silicone rubber with high
refractive index. The refractive index of methyl silicone
rubber is usually less than 1.43, while the refractive index of
phenyl silicone rubber is usually more than 1.50.
Methyl silicone rubber is generally resistant to extreme
environments and temperatures, and has good stress-buffering
property. Due to these properties, methyl silicone rubber can
be found in a wide variety of products, such as encapsulants
for LED devices, sealant for modules and binders in solar
cells, etc. The formula of synthesizing methyl silicone rubber
contains several raw materials, including vinyl-containing MQ
silicone resin, methylvinyl silicone oil, hydrogen-containing
methyl silicone oil, catalyst, inhibitor agent, adhesion agent
and sometimes other additives. [2] The process of
synthesizing methyl silicone rubber is an addition reaction
between vinyl-containing MQ silicone resin (M and Q
respectively represent R3SiO1/2 and SiO4/2) and
hydrogen-containing methyl silicone oil with Platinum-based
catalyst. The vinyl-containing MQ silicone resin can improve
the tensile strength of silicone rubber, while the methylvinyl
silicone oil can adjust viscosity and tenacity. The
hydrogen-containing methyl silicone oil, as a cross-linking
agent, has a significant impact on the mechanical properties of
silicone rubber by controlling the density of cross-linking
points. The most commonly used catalyst in conventional
silicone rubber compositions is the Platinum-vinylsiloxane
complexes, which is effective for promoting addition reaction
between silicon-attached vinyl groups of the vinyl-containing
MQ silicone resin and silicon-attached hydrogen atoms of the
organohydrogenpolysiloxane. To ensure proper operation time
of the silicone rubber compositions, an inhibitor is needed to
reduce the effectiveness of the Platinum-based catalyst. The
active site of the catalyst can be occupied by the inhibitor
molecule at room temperature and be released to promote the
reaction at high temperature. The adhesion agent can increase
the adhesion between the silicone rubber and the substrate,
making it difficult for the silicone rubber to fall off from the
substrate when temperature changes.
Phenyl silicone rubber between the chip and the air can
effectively improve the luminous efficiency of LED devices
by reducing the reflection loss of photons at the interface.
Besides, the phenyl silicone rubber also shows excellent
resistance of the water, oxygen and sulfurous gas. All the
above advantages make the phenyl silicone rubber towards
dominance in SMD LED encapsulant market. The formula of
synthesizing phenyl silicone rubber is composed of
phenylvinyl silicone resin, phenylvinyl silicone oil,
hydrogen-containing phenyl cross-linking agent, catalyst,
inhibitor agent and adhesion agent. The phenylvinyl silicone
resin, as the main part of the phenyl silicone rubber, has direct
impact on mechanical, thermal and dielectric properties. The
chief role of phenylvinyl silicone oil is adjusting viscosity and
the mechanical property. There are two structures for
hydrogen-containing phenyl cross-linking agent, one is called
hydrogen-containing silicone oil with Si-H groups in a linear
polysiloxane chain, and the other one is called In order to design a silicone encapsulant with excellent sulfur
hydrogen-containing silicone resin with Si-H groups on a corrosion resistance, we should first find out how the
network polysiloxane chain. The catalyst, inhibitor and hazardous elements get inside the lamp. As we can see in Fig.
adhesion agent used in phenyl silicone rubber is similar to that 4, there are three main invasion paths, one is the molecular
in methyl silicone rubber, so we don’t talk about them in gap of the silicone encapsulant, the second one is the interface
detail here. between the encapsulant and the holder, and the third one is
3. Product design thought for improving the sulfur the gap of the holder on the backside.
corrosion resistance property
Whatever the types of the LED lamps, the luminance decay
and black appearance caused by sulfur corrosion or halogen
corrosion is unavoidable, as shown in Fig. 1. Sulfur and
halogen from the lamp components and the environment (Fig.
2 and Fig. 3) can react chemically with silver on the reflector
and the bond wires, the generated silver sulfide or silver
halide will lead to the black appearance and serious luminance
decay of LED lamps.

Fig. 4 The main invasion paths of hazardous elements into the

lamp

Aiming at these three invasion paths, we put forward

corresponding solutions.
Firstly, increase the density of molecular chain network after
curing. The common way and also the most effective and
straightforward way to do that is to increase the crosslinking
degree. But the silicone rubber we get in this way will have
Fig.1 Nigrescent LED lamps caused by sulfur corrosion or high modulus and relatively poor thermal shock resistance
halogen corrosion property under the same conditions. However, we can design
some special organosilicon intermediates to solve the
problem. These organosilicon intermediates can generate
spherical particles with different sizes, which can be
connected to each other through the network and then greatly
increase the stacking density of molecular chains. Meanwhile,
because of the controllable sliding between spherical particles
with different sizes, the influence on thermal shock resistance
property can be almost ignored.
Secondly, improve the adhesion of silicone rubber to the
substrate surface. Some conventional adhesion agents are
small molecules that can improve adhesion, but when exposed
to humidity or high temperatures, the migration of the small
molecules will cause a decrease in adhesion. If
macromolecular adhesion agent is selected, the problem of
compatibility with organosilicon needs to be solved, for that
poor compatibility will lead to serious differences between
different batches of products. The best effect can be achieved
only when the formula is basically finalized and the structure
Fig. 2 Materials that may contain hazardous elements in the of the adhesion agent is designed to be similar to the main
lamp components organosilicon intermediates.
Thirdly, improve the fillability of the silicone rubber to the
holder gap during the curing process. When filling with small
molecules or polymers with short chains, some other
characteristics of the product can be significantly affected,
such as increased volatility and local brittleness. If the
hyperbranched organosilicon intermediates with a specific
structure are added to the formula, the fillability and
mechanical properties can be both well considered.
From the perspective of silicone encapsulants, we put forward
the above three aspects to improve the sulfur corrosion
resistance property of LED lamps. The design thought for
improving the sulfur corrosion resistance property is also
Fig. 3 Sources of hazardous elements in environment appropriate for other performance improvements, such as
thermal shock resistant properties and mechanical properties.
9
4. Future development trends of silicone encapsulants
The mainstream products of LED encapsulants will continue
to be improved in sulfur-resistant, heat-resistant and thermal
shock resistant properties, according to the patents published
by Dow Corning, Shin Etsu, and Humanchem in 2017.
Besides, there are some more specific application
requirements in the terminal market.
As everyone knows, 250℃ might even be a conservative
estimated local temperature for COB products with high
power density after long-term use. Therefore, silicone
encapsulant with excellent heat-resistant properties is needed
to adapt the working temperature of COB products with high
power density. At present, the best heat-resistant products are
still imported products. Due to the high cost brought by the
purification process and the limit of the market price, there is
no homemade silicone encapsulant with comparative
performance. We need more research on super heat-resistant
silicone encapsulant.
UV-curable silicone encapsulant can be cured by UV light
instead of heat curing. The advantages of UV-curable silicone
encapsulant are fast curing, simple process and high
concentration of color temperature. The disadvantages are that
additional equipment is required and what’s more important,
the addition of UV-photoinitiate will make the yellow
resistance of silicone encapsulant worse. This kind of product
is far from widespread use and still faces many challenges.
A large number of literatures have proved that the higher the
refractive index of silicone encapsulant, the higher the light
out-coupling efficiency. Therefore, it’s a common solution to
increase the output efficiency of light with increasing the
refractive index of silicone encapsulant. As early as 2013, a
Taiwanese silicone encapsulant manufacturer launched a
product with the refractive rate of 1.67, but it has not been
promoted on a large scale in the market. It is speculated that
the stability and the yellow resistant property of the product is
not so good after adding metal elements into the system. At
present, it is very attractive for assembly house to achieve 1%
brightness enhancement from the perspective of encapsulants,
and this will be a significant research topic in the future.
5. Conclusions
Silicone rubber, as an important part of LED lamps, is
generally insulating, resistant to hazardous elements and
resistant to extreme environments and temperatures. In recent
years, manufacturers of silicone encapsulants have invested a
lot of time and effort to improve the key characteristics of
silicone rubber, including sulfur-resistant property,
heat-resistant properties and thermal shock resistant
properties. If we want to break the limitation of performance
improvement further, we have to start thinking about the
structural design of raw materials, like molecular weights and
functional group numbers, improving the performance of
products from the source. For the time being, there is hardly
any domestic high-performance product on sale. This is
definitely a challenge for us to develop a high-performance
product, and more product research work should be initiated
by silicone encapsulant manufacturers to survive in the fierce
market competition.
References
1. Sergio P, Advanced Silicon Materials for Photovoltaic
Applications, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. (New Jersey, 2012),
pp. 9-15.
2. Chenchao Z, et al, Silicone rubber and its application,
Chemical Industry Press (Beijing, 2015), pp. 170-201.

10
S201-201808222057
Study on Phosphor Schemes in Full Spectrum WLED

Chao Liang, Junfeng Xu, Yibing Fu, Xiaoming Teng, Kai Liu, Bin Wu
Jiangsu Bree Optronics Co., LTD.
118#, Liquan Road Jiangning District, Nanjing, China
15427099@qq.com, 025-52706566,

Abstract
The white light full spectrum scheme of WLED can be Table 1 Phosphor list for blue chip based full spectrum
defined as: Ra is higher than 95, R1~R15 is greater than 90, CCT A1 B1 C1
and close to the solar spectrum in the emission spectrum. In
this paper, the LED chip is used as the excitation source to 2700~ 490nm 525nm 655nm
excite the phosphors to achieve the full spectrum WLED. Two 6500K BASON YGG CASN
kinds of phosphor converted full spectrum schemes are
studied. Results indicated that blue chip based full-spectrum Table 2 phosphor for violet chip based full spectrum
WLED scheme present higher brightness than that of violet CCT A2 B2 C2
chip based full-spectrum WLED. However, violet chip
based full spectrum show much high advantage in spectrum 2700~6 460nm 530nm 655nm
structure and more similar to sunlight. 500K SPC BOSE CASN
Key Words: WLED, Full spectrum, violet chip, blue chip.

1. Introduction
In recent years, the development of light-emitting diodes The WLEDs were packaged on a SMD bracket with the type
(LEDs) has received a lot of attention [1]. Because of its high of 2835. The light source test current is 150mA. The test
efficiency, environmental friendly property, small size and instrument adopts the LED photoelectric test system of
long life, it is known as the fourth generation of illumination Hangzhou Everfine Optoelectronics, the model is
light device after incandescent lamps, fluorescent lamps and HAAS-2000.
gas discharge lamps[2]. Especially with the gradual The performance comparison of the three white LED
improvement of white LED’s luminous efficiency, service life phosphor schemes is mainly compared from the three aspects
and color rendering performance, white LED has gradually of color rendering index, solar spectral similarity and
replaced energy-saving lamps into the field of indoor lighting. packaged luminous flux.
Currently, the manufacturing method of WLED with high
color rendering is mainly realized by combining blue LED 3.Results and discussion
chip with aluminate phosphor and nitride phosphor (ie, 3.1 Comparison of color rendering index of two full spectrum
phosphor converted method) [3]. However, such a method of schemes
realizing white light has a defect that the color rendering 3.1.1 Spectrum and color rendering index of blue chip based full
index is only 80-85. The similarity between the spectrum of spectrum WLED
WLED and the solar spectrum is relatively low.
In order to solve this problem, we have studied the phosphor
combination schemes of WLED with full spectrum. The well
selected phosphor combination schemes can increase the color
rendering index Ra of WLED to above 95, and the special
color rending index R1 to R15 to above 90. The full spectrum
schemes involved both violet and blue LED chips, and the
spectrum of WLEDs has greater similarity to sunlight.

2. Experimental
Tow full spectrum white LED phosphor solutions were
selected for comparative analysis. The blue LED
full-spectrum white light scheme uses a size of 20*30mil blue
chip with a dominant wavelength of 450nm, and a brightness
of 100-105mw. The matching phosphor A1 is a blue-green
phosphor with a peak wavelength of 490nm, and B1 is a
yellow-green phosphor with a peak wavelength of 525nm,and Fig.1. Spectra of blue chip based full spectrum WLEDs
phosphor C1 is a red phosphors having a peak wavelength of
655nm. The violet LED full-spectrum white light scheme uses
a size of 22*30mil chip with a dominant wavelength of
413~415nm and a brightness of 105-110mw. The matching
phosphor A2 is a blue phosphor with a peak wavelength of
460nm, and B2 is a yellow-green phosphor with a peak
wavelength of 530nm. The phosphor C2 is a red phosphors
having a peak wavelength of 655nm.
11
 It can be seen from the data in figure 1-4 that the color
rendering index Ra of the blue chip based and the violet chip
based full-spectrum phosphor schemes reaches 97+, and the
special color rendering indices R1~R15 can all be greater than
92. Especially, the special color rendering indices R1~R15 of
the of violet chip based full spectrum scheme can all reach
more than 93. The full spectrum WLED schemes can be used
in high-end lighting environment.

3.2 Comparison of the spectra of full spectrum WLEDs

Fig.2. The color rending indices of blue chip based full spectrum
WLED
Figure 1 and figure 2 show the spectra and the color rendering
indices of the A1+B1+C1 phosphor scheme for 2700-6500K
blue chip based full spectrum WLEDs. The color rendering
index Ra is 97.8, 97.6, 97.6 and 97.7 for 2700K, 4000K,
5000K and 6500K respectively. For all WLEDs, the special
color rending indices R1~R15 can all be greater than 90,
which meets the requirements of full spectrum definition.
3.1.2 Spectrum and color rendering index of violet chip based
full spectrum WLED
Figure 5-6 show the spectra comparison between the two
phosphor schemes for full spectrum WLEDs and and solar
spectra. For 2700K, There are little spectrum differences
between blue chip based full spectrum WLED and violet chip
based full spectrum WLED. The spectra of both of them have
good spectrum similarity to the solar spectrum.
For 6500K, the spectrum of A1+B1+C1 phosphor scheme for
blue-chip full-spectrum WLED is supplemented in the red and
green fractions, so there is still a large spectrum gap compared
with the solar spectrum. The spectrum of A2+B2+C2
phosphor scheme for the violet chip full-spectrum WLED
complements the purple, blue, and red spectral portions and is
more close to the solar spectrum.

Fig.5. The spectra of 2700K WLEDs

Fig.3. Spectra of blue chip based full spectrum WLEDs

Fig.6. The spectra of 6500K WLEDs

3.3 Comparison of the brightness of full spectrum WLEDs
Fig.4. The color rending indices of violet chip based full spectrum Table 3. The brightness comparison of three phosphor schemes
WLED
CCT Luminous Relative
WLED
The violet full-spectrum WLEDs uses the A2+B2+C2 (K) flux（lm） brightness
phosphor scheme. The spectrum and color rendering indices 1 Blue chip 2710 39.2 100%
of the WLEDS are shown in figure 3 and figure 4. The color 2 based 6422 46.1 100%
rendering index Ra is 98, 98.2, 98.2 and 98.1 for 2700K, 3 Violet chip 2700 37.2 94.9%
4000K, 5000K and 6500K respectively, and R1~R15 can all
4 based 6451 41.3 89.6%
be greater than 90, also meets the requirements of full
spectrum definition.

12
Table 3 lists the comparison of the brightness of the two
phosphor schemes around 2700K and 6500K. The brightness References
of A1+B1+C1 phosphor scheme for the blue chip based 1. Pimputkar S，Speck J S，DenBaars S P，et al．“Prospects
full-spectrum WLED has better performance, with the for LED lighting” ， Nature Photonics ， Vol. 3 ． (2009),
luminous flux of 39.2lm for 2700K and 46.1lm for 6500K. pp.180-182.
While the luminous flux of the A2+B2+C2 phosphor scheme 2. Schubert E F and Kim J K，“Solid-state light sources
for violet chip based full-spectrum WLED are 37.2lm and
getting smart”，Science，Vol. 308. (2005), pp.1274-1278．
41.3lm for 2700K and 6500k respectively, The brightness of
violet chip based full-spectrum WLED is 5% and 10% lower 3. Zhao X X，Wang X J，Chen B J，et al．“Preparation
than the that of the blue chip based full spectrum WLED in ofα-Gd2(MoO4)3 red emitting phosphor for white light
2700K and 6500K cases respectively. emitting diodes and its luminescence
3.4 Comparison of the thermal properties of full spectrum study”,Spectro．Spectra．Anal. ，Vol. 27，No. 3，（2007）
WLEDs pp.629-6339．

Table4 The thermal properties of WLED schemes

Brightness
Phosphor CCT Color shift
maintenance
scheme (K） △UV
(at 105℃)
Blue chip
6500 80.1% 0.0112
full
A1+B1+C1
spectrum
2700 82.9% 0.0064
WLED
Violet chip
6500 82.3% 0.0069
full
A+B2+C2
spectrum
2700 80.0% 0.0110
WLED

Since the GaN chip and the phosphor are at a certain ambient
temperature during operation of the WLED, the greater the
power of the white LED, the higher the ambient temperature
of the chip and the phosphor. In some cases, the ambient
temperature of the chip and phosphors may be over 100 ℃.
We put the packaged WLEDs in 105℃ environment, then test
the luminous flux and color coordinate of the WLED after 1
minute heat balance . The results are shown in Table 4. It can
be seen from table 4 , for 2700K, the blue chip based full
spectrum WLEDs have a brightness maintenance rate
slightly higher than that of the violet chip based full spectrum
WLED scheme at 105 ℃ ambient temperature, and the color
coordinate drift is slightly lower than that of the violet chip
based full spectrum WLED solution, indicating that the blue
chip based full spectrum WLED have better thermal
performance than the violet chip based full spectrum WLED
in 2700K case. But for 6500K, the violet chip based full
spectrum WLED have superior thermal performance to the
blue chip based full spectrum WLED.

4.Conclusions

In this paper, the LED chip is used as the excitation source to

excite different phosphor schemes to realize the white light
full spectrum LED. The first full-spectrum scheme uses a
blue LED chip as an excitation source, and selects a peak
wavelength of 490nm blue-green phosphor, a 525nm
yellow-green powder, and a 655nm red powder as the excited
phosphors; the second full-spectrum scheme uses a violet chip
as the excitation light source, and a peak wavelength of a
460nm blue phosphor, a 530nm yellow green phosphor and a
655nm red phosphor are used as the excited phosphors.
The experimental results show that the full-spectrum
schemes have better performance in color rending than the
traditional high CRI LED scheme. And although the blue chip
based full-spectrum WLED scheme has high brightness, the
spectrum of the violet chip based full-spectrum WLED is
more similar to sunlight.
13
S201-201809092305

Matrix-Addressable Micro-Size Light-Emitting Diode Array using Two-Step Etching Method

Huamao Huang,1, 2, 3, * Haocheng Wu,2 Cheng Huang,1 Zhuobo Yang,2 Chao Wang,1 Hong Wang1, #
1Engineering Research Center for Optoelectronics of Guangdong Province, School of Physics and Optoelectronics, South
China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China
2School of Electronics and Information Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China
3Guangzhou Institute of Modern Industrial Technology, Guangzhou 511458, China
*schhm@scut.edu.cn, #phhwang@scut.edu.cn

Abstract 20, 30, 40, …, 90 μm, respectively. As shown in Fig. 1 (a),

Micro-size light-emitting diode (LED) array is an important
source for high-speed and large-capacity visible light
communication (VLC) system. In order to realize largescale
integration of micro-size LED arrays, two-step etching
method is used to reduce the difficulty of etching technique
for deep groove and improve the yield of electrode
interconnection. The electrical and optical properties of the
matrix-addressable 8 × 8 array are reported, and the effects of
the two-step etching technique on the electrical and optical
properties are explored.
each row or column forms the common anode or cathode,
respectively. In order to light a pixel in the array, one should
probe the proper sets of row and column. As shown in Fig. 1
(b), four pixels are lightened by probering the common p-pads
and n-pads, which demonstrates the matrix-addressable
capability of the device.

1 Introduction
Micro-size light-emitting diode (LED) array is an important
source for high-speed and large-capacity visible light
communication (VLC) system [1-5]. To realize largescale
integration of N × N micro-size LED arrays, the
individual-addressable architecture needs N × N pads [3-5]
and requires narrow electrodes or large trenches between
adjacent pixels. The method to avoiding the interconnection
electrodes in the LED chip is using CMOS substrate in which
the interconnection electrodes are fabricated [2]. An alternated
method is the matrix-addressable architecture, in which a
common anode or cathode for each row or column of pixels
are adopted to reduce the number of pads to be 2 N [1].
Compared with the individual-addressable architecture [3-5],
there are three difficult points in the fabrication process of the
matrix-addressable arrays. First, the electrical insulation
between adjacent pixels requires deep etching of about 6 μm.
Second, the common anode or cathode needs to stride cross
the deep groove to realize electrical interconnection. Third,
the passivation layer between the N-electrode and the
Pelectrode should good enough to prevent electric leakage.
The simplest method to fabricate metal interconnections
between adjacent pixels is the inclined sidewall. However, the
production yield is not good and the parasitic resistance may
be high. Li et al proposed the SU-8 to planarize the isolation
trenches and increase the production yield from 35 % to 88%
[6]. Zou et al fill the thermal curable photoresist for
planarization to realize a very thin metal layer (~ 330 nm) for
interconnection [7]. However, the planarization technique is
not mature for wafer-scale. In this paper, the
matrix-addressable 8 × 8 micro-size LED array is fabricated
using two-step etching method, which can form two steps at
the edge of the pixel for isolation between two adjacent pixels.
The small steps can reduce the difficulty of etching for deep
grooves and improve the yield of electrode interconnection.
2 Experiment
Figure 1 shows the fabricated matrix-addressable 8 × 8
micro-size LED array. The size of the whole chip is 1.94 ×
1.94 mm2, and the sizes of the pixels are the same within a
chip. For different types of the chip, the radii of the pixels are
14
(a) (b)
Fig. 1. The 8 × 8 micro-size LED chip. Photographs taken
using (a) microscope and (b) prober station.
The normal fabrication process may lead to steep sidewall and
thin metal layer on the sidewall, thus the p-electrode could be
easily burned, as shown in Fig. 2 (a), if the large current
density is injected to the pixel for realization of the high
modulation bandwidth [5]. In the other hand, if the twostep
eching method is introduced, the large step in the normal
fabrication process could be deduced to be two small steps, as
shown in the Fig. 2 (b).
(a) (b)
Fig. 2. (a) The damaged p-electrode in a pixel fabricated by
the normal fabrication process, and (b) the enlarged view of
two adjacent pixels fabricated by two-step etching method.
The fabrication process is as follows. First, the 100 nmthick
indium-tin-oxide (ITO) is electron-beam evaporated,
thermally annealed, and wet-etched to form transparent
conductive layer. Second, the 1.25 μm-deep mesa is etched by
inductively coupled plasma (ICP) to expose the n-GaN layer.
Third, two 2 μm-deep circular tables are etched by ICP to
remove the epitaxy layer for isolation, and the radius
difference of the two circular tables are 5 μm. Forth, the
Cr/Al/Ti/Au (50/800//200/200 nm) N-electrodes are fabricated
by electron beam evaporation and lift-off technology. Fifth,
the 1 μm-thick SiO2 layer is deposited by plasma-enhanced
chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) for passivation then
etched by ICP to expose the area for pelectrodes and
n-electrodes. Sixth, the Cr/Al/Ti/Au (50/800//200/200 nm)
P-electrodes are also fabricated by electron beam evaporation
and lift-off technology.

3 Results and Discussion

The electrical and optical characteristics of matrix addressable
8 × 8 micro-size LED arrays with various size of the mesas
are studied. In the experiments, the radii of the mesas are 20,
30, 40, …, 90 μm, respectively. For the sake of comparison,
only the results of the pixel in the first row and first column of
the arrays are discussed. In order to compare the results of the
pixels with different sizes, the current density other than the
current is used in the figures. Figure 3 shows the forward
voltages and the dynamic resistances of the fabricated
matrix-addressable pixels. With the increasing of the current
density, the forward voltage increases, but the various trend of
the forward voltage, i. e. the dynamic resistance, which is
defined as Rd = dV / dI, decreases. At the same current
density, the forward voltage and the dynamic resistance
decrease as the mesa radius increases. The variation trends are
similar with those of individual-addressable counterparts in
Ref. [5]. But, the forward voltages and the dynamic
resistances in the matrixaddressable pixels are larger than
those in the individualaddressable counterparts. For
example, under the current density of 1000 A/cm2, the
forward voltage and the dynamic resistance in the
matrix-addressable pixels with the mesa radius of 30 μm are
4.55 V and 27.1 Ω, respectively, while those in the
individual-addressable counterparts are 3.92 V and 16.2 Ω,
respectively. The reason can be ascribed to the additional Fig. 3. (a) The forward voltages and (b) the dynamic
resistance induced by the interconnection metal in the two resistances of the fabricated pixels.
steps of the sidewalls. Figure 4 shows the light output power
(LOP) density and the electro-optic conversion efficiency As tabulated in Table 1, the pixel that has smaller mesa radius
(EOC) of the fabricated matrix-addressable pixels. With the can withstand the higher current density. This is a
increasing of the current density, the LOP (not shown in the demonstrated conclusion by the study of the individual
paper) and its density firstly increases to the saturation peak addressable arrays [5]. It is also shown that the saturated
then decreases, but the EOC, which is defined as EOC = LOP current densities of the matrix-addressable pixels are lower
/ (V × I), decreases monotonously. The current density that than those of the individual-addressable pixels. For example,
corresponds to the saturation peak is called the saturated when the mesa radius of the pixel is 80 μm, the saturated
current density [5]. Since the decreased LOP is current density for the matrix-addressable is 577 A/cm2,
disadvantageous for both illumination and communication, for which is lower than 830 A/cm2 for the individual-addressable
all the figures in this paper, the range of the current density is case; furthermore, when the mesa radius of the pixel is 30 μm,
from 0 to the saturated current density. At the saturated the saturated current density for the matrix-addressable is
current density, the LOP density decrease as the mesa radius 3714 A/cm2, which is lower than 4952 A/cm2 for the
increases, except the pixel with the radius of 20 μm. The individual-addressable case. The reason can be explained as
abnormal performance of the pixel with the radius of 20 μm is follows. First, the interconnection metal in the sidewalls of the
mainly due to the large fabrication errors. For example, after matrix-addressable pixels may be thinner than that in the
the ITO disk was wetetched, the diameter of the ITO disk may individual-addressable pixels. Second, the SiO2 passivation
be smaller than that of the photoresist mask. The difference of material, which is the material in the trenches between
the two diameters is called the over-corrosion length. The adjacent pixels in the matrix-addressable arrays, has lower
over-corrosion length in the smaller pixel is larger than that in thermal conduction coefficient than GaN material, which is
the larger pixel. Thus, the excess of reduced ITO leads to the material between adjacent pixels in the individual
large resistance and low LOP. addressable arrays.

15
 The characteristic parameters related to the communication
performance of the pixel is the dynamic resistance, which is
shown in Fig. 3 (b), and the device capacitance, which is
given in Fig. 6, as well as the differential carrier lifetime,
which is mainly determined by the injected current density
[8]. As shown in Fig. 6, the device capacitance decreases as
the absolute value of the reverse voltage increases. Generally,
the device capacitance composes of the junction capacitance
and the diffusion capacitance under the measuring frequency
of 1 MHz [9]. Under the reverse-biased voltage, the number
of the nonequilibrium minority is few thus the diffusion
capacitance could be ignored. And, if the absolute value of the
Fig. 4. (a) The LOP densities and (b) the EOCs of the backward voltage increases, the width of the depletion region
fabricated pixels. increases then the junction capacitances would be lower,
thereby the device capacitances decreases. It is also shown
Table 1. The saturated current density for various size of the that the device capacitances of the matrix-addressable pixels
pixels. are larger than those of the individual-addressable pixels. For
Radius Saturated current density (A/cm2) example, when the mesa radius of the pixel is 80 μm, the
of pixels device capacitance for the matrix-addressable pixel under the
(μm) reverse voltage of -10 V is 24.4 pF, which is much higher than
Individual-addressabl Matrix-addressable 8 8.99 pF for the individual-addressable case.
e 4 × 4 array [5] × 8 array
90 - 483
80 830 577
70 1052 786
60 1370 1035
50 1973 1388
40 3044 2169
30 4952 3714
20 - 6128
Another important factor demonstrating the thermal
conduction performance is the red-shifts of the peak
wavelength (WLP) [5]. Figure 5 illustrates the WLP of the
fabricated matrix-addressable pixels. With the increasing of
the current density, the WLP appears blue-shift at first then
shows red-shift. At the same current density, the variation The RC-limited modulation bandwidth can be calculated by
range of the WLP is larger for the smaller pixels. The fRC = 1 / (2πRC), where R is the dynamic resistance and C is
variation trends are similar with those of individual the device capacitance. Thus, using the data in Fig. 3 (b) and
addressable counterparts in Ref. [5]. But, the effects of the Fig. 6, the estimated RC-limited modulation bandwidth can be
current density on the WLP in the matrix-addressable pixels given in Fig. 7. With the increasing of the current density, the
are larger than those in the individual-addressable RC-limited modulation bandwidth increases. This is due to the
counterparts. For example, if the injected current density decreased dynamic resistance but the constant device
increases by 1000 A/cm2 from the saturated current density, capacitance in the calculation. Consequently, the smaller pixel
the red-shifts of the WLP for the pixel with the mesa radius of has higher RC-limited modulation bandwidth as compared
30 μm in the matrix-addressable arrays and the individual with the larger pixel.
addressable arrays are 2.2 nm and 1.6 nm, respectively. The
reason can be ascribed to the worse thermal performance for
the matrix-addressable pixel as compared with the individual
addressable counterparts.
16

Since the saturated current densities in the matrix addressable
pixels are lower than those in the individual addressable
pixels, the carrier-limited modulation bandwidth for the
matrix-addressable pixels would be lower than those for the
individual-addressable pixels; since the dynamic resistances
and the device capacitances in the matrix addressable pixels
are larger than those in the individual addressable pixels, the
RC-limited modulation bandwidth for the matrix-addressable
pixels would also be lower than those for the
individual-addressable pixels. As a result, the modulation
bandwidths for the matrix-addressable pixels
would be lower than those for the individual-addressable
pixels.
Conclusions
Two-step etching method was used to fabricate the matrix
addressable 8 × 8 array. The electrical and optical properties
of the matrix-addressable pixels are reported, and their
comparison between the matrix-addressable pixels and the
individual-addressable counterparts are given.
Acknowledgments
This work is supported by the R&D Program of Guangdong
Province under Grant number 2014B010119002, number
2016A010103011, and number 2017A050501006; the Natural
Science Foundation of Guangdong Province under Grant
17
number 2018A030310373; the R&D Programs of Guangzhou
City under Grant number 201504291502518 and number
201610010038; and the Fundamental Research Funds for the
Central Universities.
References
1. Gong, Z. et al, “Efficient flip-chip InGaN micropixellated
light-emitting diode arrays: promising candidates for
micro-displays and colour conversion,” Journal of Physics D:
Applied Physics, Vol. 41, No. 9, (2008), pp. 094002.
2. Zhang, S. et al, “1.5 Gbit/s multi-channel visible light
communications using CMOS-controlled GaN-based LEDs,”
Journal of Lightwave Technology, Vol. 31, No. 8, (2013), pp.
1211-1216.
3. Tian, P. et al, “Characteristics and applications of
micropixelated GaN-based light emitting diodes on Si
substrates,” Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 115, No. 3,
(2014), pp. 033112.
4. Xie, E. et al, "Design, fabrication, and application of
GaN-based micro-LED arrays with individual addressing by
n-electrodes,” IEEE Photonics Journal, Vol. 9, No. 6, (2017),
pp. 7907811.
5. Huang, H. et al, “Characteristics of micro-size lightemitting
diode for illumination and visible light communication,”
Physica Status Solidi A: Applications and Materials Science,
(Revised).
6. Li, S. et al, “GaN-based high-voltage light-emitting diodes
with SU-8 passivation,” Journal of Display Technology, Vol.
11, No. 4, (2015), pp. 374-377.
7. Zou, X. et al, “Fabrication and characterization of
highvoltage LEDs using photoresist-filled-trench technique,”.
Journal of Display Technology, Vol. 12, No. 4, (2016), pp.
397-401.
8. Rashidi, A. et al, “Differential carrier lifetime and transport
effects in electrically injected III-nitride lightemitting diodes,”
Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 122, No. 3, (2017), pp. 1533.
9. Yang, W. et al, “Size-dependent capacitance study on
InGaN-based micro-light-emitting diodes,” Journal of Applied
Physics, Vol. 116, No. 4, (2014), pp. 044512.
 S202-201807181650
LED tunnel lighting control based on ZigBee
Shujun Sun, Bo Li , Nianyu Zou
School of Information Science and Engineering, Dalian Polytechnic University, Dalian, 116034, China
No. 1st Qinggongyuan, Ganjingzi, Dalian, Liaoning, China
libo_219vip@163.com, 15309818790
Abstract
In order to solve the problem of tunnel lighting safety and
energy waste, a tunnel lighting optimization system based on
wireless communication is established. According to different
light intensity changes and traffic flow outside the tunnel, and
the related factors affecting the illumination in the tunnel, the
system gives the dimming command through the algorithm to
optimize the illuminance of the lamps and lanterns. The
simulation results show that the system can optimize the
illumination of lamps and lanterns, realize intelligent dimming
controlled by single lamp in tunnels, and effectively save
energy.
Introduction
With the rapid development of the transportation industry,
the important part of the tunnel is not to be ignored. The
quality of the tunnel lighting has a direct impact on the traffic
safety and the development of the city. The main problem of
tunnel lighting is that when drivers drive in or leave the
tunnel, the driver's field of vision will have different sharp
changes in the light and shade. It takes a while to adapt,
during this period, the human eye's sharp drop in observation
of external things will cause great safety hidden in driving.
At present, the lighting system of highway tunnel still
exists in China: the design of tunnel lighting is too
conservative, the degree of intelligent control is not high, and
the application of high performance energy-saving lamps and
lanterns is less. Energy saving lighting is to reduce energy
consumption and load when meeting the needs of safe and
comfortable lighting in tunnel operation. Therefore, how to
find the illumination of the tunnel entrance section and
determine the best illumination distribution in each section of
the tunnel according to the illuminance of the entrance section
to minimize the actual illumination and the evaluation error in
each region. Solving this problem plays an important role in
saving energy and ensuring driving safety in tunnels.
Principle of system work
In this paper, genetic algorithm is used to optimize neural
network to build data model, and a tunnel lighting
optimization system based on wireless communication is
designed. ZigBee technology has the characteristics of low
complexity, low power consumption and low speed rate.
Although the transmission distance is within the range of
10-75m, it can continue to increase, but the luminaire interval
in the tunnel is very small and the luminaire is not obstructed.
At the same time, the ZigBee self-organizing network can
support 65535 nodes at most, with the characteristics of large
network capacity and working frequency paragraph. 2.4GHZ
global free frequency band, reduce design cost. Therefore, the
use of wireless communication technology for the control of
tunnel lighting is particularly applicable, making the light
adjusting to every LED lamp, realizing the intelligent
18
adjustment of tunnel lighting, effectively reducing the
consumption of energy.
In the whole control system, the illumination of the
entrance section is obtained by obtaining the parameters such
as illumination, vehicle flow, speed and so on. The accurate
acquisition of these parameters is a prerequisite for the system
operation. By determining the illuminance of the entry section
to determine the illuminance of the lamps at each paragraph,
the dimming instructions are again calculated through the
calculation of the factors affecting the illuminance of the
tunnel. The system sends the end dimming instruction to the
ZigBee base station, which is forwarded by the base station to
the ZigBee terminal installed on each LED by wireless
communication, and completes the intelligent active control of
the brightness of all the LED in the tunnel, so as to achieve
the purpose of real-time monitoring and accurate dimming.
Realize single control and unified management. The overall
design of the system is shown in Figure 1.
Information
Illumination collection system
acquisition
monitoring
center
ZigBee base Displacement
Singlechip
station sensor
Current sensor
Receiver Terminal 1
...
Terminal 2 Terminal n
Singlechip modulation
LED1 LED2 ... LEDn
Power supply
Figure.1 System principle block diagram
In the whole control system, the information acquisition
system is one of the most important steps in the whole control
system. Only the accurate collection of these information will
make the relevant work in the rear have the meaning of
implementation. In the process of data transmission of the
system, the fact data information outside the tunnel is
collected through the light sensor, current sensor and counter
which is deployed outside the tunnel. According to the control
model which is combined with the neural network and genetic
algorithm established in this paper, the corresponding
operation is carried out to get the demand for illumination in GA (genetic algorithm) improves the BP neural network
the entrance section of the tunnel. According to the tunnel algorithm steps as follows:
lighting requirement curve, as shown in Figure 2, the 1. Initialization of population P, and initialization of any
appropriate light adjustment instruction is given. link weight coefficient; in encoding, binary encoding is used,
Illuminance demand curve and the initial population is 10.
Human eye
Lth adaptation curve 2. Each individual evaluation function is calculated and
sorted, and the probability reference formula of network
individuals is selected (1)

（1）
f(i)s the fitness value of individual i, and the fitness value
is measured by E (error squared sum). Among them, i =1,... n
Lin
is the number of chromosomes; K =1,... 4 is the number of
nodes in the output layer; P = 1,... 5 is the number of learning
samples, Tk is a teacher's signal,

0 Entry section A Transition section B Middle section C （2）

Figure.2 Highway tunnel lighting illumination demand curve 1
f (i ) 
E(i )
Setting up a dimming model
In this paper, the relevant data of the illumination and E(i )  p k (V K  TK )2
traffic volume of the Dalian hairy ditch tunnel from 6 to 18 in
sunny days are collected, and the curves of data changes are fi
PS  n

shown in figures 3 and 4 respectively. The obtained data can
fi
be used to calculate the illuminance curve needed for i 1
dimming in the tunnel.
（3）
3. Using probabilistic Pc to generate crossover between
individuals Gi and Gi+1, new individuals Gi (1) and Gi+1 (1)
are generated, and individuals without cross operation are
directly duplicated;
4. New individual Gj (1) for producing Gj by probability
Pm mutation;
5. Insert new individuals into population P and calculate
the evaluation function of new individuals;
6. The sum of squares of errors is calculated. If the
Figure.3 Outside illuminance curve of tunnel constraint condition reaches a predetermined value of GA,
then step 7 is performed. Otherwise, step 3), and continue the
genetic operation;
7. The weights calculated by genetic algorithm are used as
the initial weights, and the BP neural network algorithm is
used to train the network. Finally, to reach the specified
precision εBP. (ε BP <ε GA).
The illuminance curve of the entrance section is
preliminarily obtained from the calculation of external
lighting and vehicle flow as shown in Figure 5.

Figure.4 Traffic flow curve

The illumination control in tunnel belongs to adaptive

control. The BP neural network can be used for preliminary
calculation of light intensity in the tunnel. The algorithm flow
has five layers of neural network. The input layer accepts
input of variables such as speed, vehicle flow and external
brightness. Ii indicates the output of the I node in the input
layer; The generation layer implements fuzzy operation, and
Gi is the output of the I node in the generation layer; The
Figure.5 Light modulation curve
fitness matching layer completes the matching of fuzzy
reasoning conditions, and Mi represents the output of the I
In practical applications, when the objective function is
node in the appropriate matching layer; The fuzzy logic
measured, the following constraints should also be taken into
reasoning layer unifies the conditions with the same
account:
conclusion, Ti represents the output of the I node in the layer,
and Oi is the output of the I node of the output layer.
19
 1) The illumination constraint of the detection point. The Start
actual illumination of each checkpoint should not be lower
than the illuminance value of the illuminant spot in each area. System initialization
If E (i) is used to represent the actual illuminance of the ‘i’
detection point, the predicted luminance value (1x) calculated
Collecting data and sending
by the model is expressed by E (i), as follows:
E BP (i )  eGA(i ) Whether the lighting N
module is normal or not

(4) Y Start alarm module

N Whether the network
2) The illumination constraints of each lamp. Each
module is running is normal
luminaire has its own dimming upper and lower limits. If the Call undetermined
adjustment luminance (1x) of the ‘i’ luminaire is expressed by Y state program
Calling local Call a remote monitor
E (i), the minimum adjusted illuminance (1x) is expressed by control module program
Emin (i) and the maximum regulated illuminance (1x) is End
expressed by Emax (i). The following constraints should be Emit dimming control
met: command
E min i  E i  E max i
Send information to a remote
terminal
(5)
Combined with the first pass factor of illuminance in the
tunnel, the final illumination demand curve of the tunnel is End
obtained by optimizing the algorithm. Figure.6 System program flow chart
By the light modulation curve of the entrance section,
according to the demand curve of the tunnel lighting, Simulation study
according to the different demand of each section of the By simulating the relevant data in a tunnel, a section of the
illuminance, the wireless communication technology is used tunnel from the entrance is taken as a simulation object. The
to control the street light to realize the graded light tunnel has a long 700m, a wide 12M, 3 m high, and a bilateral
adjustment. symmetrical light cloth, which sets up a total of 10 lamps, and
System workflow the distance between two adjacent lamps on each side is 12 m.
Each module of the system is initialized, and each sensor As shown in Figure 7, the 4 detection points are set up to
module outside the tunnel starts to start. After the model is ensure the same angle of incident light of the lamps and
optimized, the information is sent to the lighting control lanterns around each detection point, and the location of the
module through the ZigBee wireless communication node to detection point is the central position of the set area. In order
detect the normal operation of the lighting in the tunnel, with to facilitate the experiment, the initial light intensity of the 10
according to the related conditions of the tunnel lighting, lamps set up is a certain value.
various parameters, such as the outside illumination, the
vehicle flow and the speed of the tunnel, are needed to collect
the relevant conditions of the tunnel lighting. If the system is A1 A2 A3 A4 A5
in abnormal condition, it calls the undetermined state program A B
...

...
C D
and starts the alarm device; In normal operation, it continues B1 B2 B3 B4 B5
to monitor the running status of the network module, and can
communicate with the computer under the normal operation
of the network module and master the dynamic information in Figure.7 Tunnel lighting distribution
the tunnel. Otherwise, the local controller is called to adjust
the dimming control. When the network is restored to normal, In this experiment, the simulation luminaire is 10, so the
the system will feed the information of the tunnel to the individual population of the algorithm is 10, the encoding
remote monitoring computer to facilitate the understanding method uses 8 bit binary encoding, and corresponding to 4
and understanding of the tunnel environment. points illuminance of 190, 170, 150 and 120lx respectively,
and the variation of population optimal solution with genetic
algebra is shown in Figure 8.

20
 Fig.8 Graph of population optimal solution
with genetic algebra

It can be seen from the optimal genetic algebraic curve 8

of population: The objective function can gradually converge,
and as the genetic evolution process, the objective function
becomes smaller, when the 65 generation evolves, the
objective function tends to be smooth, almost approaching the
optimal solution. At that time, the corresponding areas were
50.1,50.1,50.3,49.9,41.2,38.9,23.2, 23.2, 21.9 and 22.1lx
respectively.
The data of power consumption before and after dimming
of the tunnel are compared with the data obtained by
simulation experiments, It is found that the power saving
efficiency of the optimized system is generally over 20%
during the operation period, and the average power saving
efficiency is above 15%. The system runs stably, and the
intelligent optimization control of each lamp is realized under
the premise of ensuring safe lighting.
Conclusions
Based on the consideration of the problem of energy waste
and hidden dangers caused by blind dimming in tunnel
lighting, an optimal control system for tunnel lighting is
designed. Using ZigBee to control every lamp in the cave, the
system has superior performance and strong expansibility.
The mathematical model combining the genetic algorithm
with the BP neural network is built to make the light
adjustment accurate to every light in the interior of the tunnel.
It can save energy effectively under the condition of safe
driving. It has certain application value.
Acknowledgments
This research was financially supported by the province
Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning, Research on
Multi-objective. Dynamic Optimization Operation Model and
Algorithm of Micro grid（20170520389）
References
1. Ran C. Lighting control strategy for highway tunnels [J].
building materials and decoration.2016, (10):258-259.
2. Xiaoling L. Highway tunnel lighting control scheme analysis
[J]. building materials development oriented.2016, (9):215-216.

21
S202-201808132346
Study on Matching Value of Illumination in Night Lighting Environments

CHEN Ailin1, LI Zaizhou1, HE Qipeng2, HE Xiaoyang1, WANG Zhisheng1, ZOU Nianyu1*

(1. Research Institute of Photonics, Dalian Polytechnic University, Dalian 116034, China;
2. Innovation and Service Center for Lighting Technology of Guizhou, Bijie 551700, China)
*
corresponding author: n_y_zou@dlpu.edu.cn

focused on identifying the degree of deviation of faces and

Abstract
determining the shortest distance of safety. However, the
Night lighting plays an important role in the field of crime
optimal matching relationship between horizontal illumination
prevention. The horizontal illumination and the vertical
and vertical illumination has not been studied in detail.
illumination are important indicators to measure the
Therefore, this paper obtains the safety hazard of night
proportion of crimes. In order to study the optimal match
illumination in the residential area by constructing the
between the illumination of the exit plane and the illumination
experimental light environment, and conducts an experimental
of the vertical plane in anti-crime lighting, 12 sets of LED
study on the relationship between the horizontal illumination
light environment were set up in the residential area. Weber
and the vertical illumination at 4m.
Fischer law is used to analyze the experiment, and the best
matching relationship between horizontal illumination and
vertical illuminance in the field of crime prevention at 4m is Experimental method
concluded. The experiment was analyzed with Weber-Faxler's A reasonable light environment design can reduce the
law, and the best illumination matching relationship probability of crime and reduce the sense of uneasiness of
corresponding to the face clarity of 4m distance was obtained. residents. In the light environment at night, when the danger is
The results are referential for crime prevention by means of ahead, the shortest distance that a person can make a defense
night lighting. response is 4m [9]. Therefore, this paper selects the experiment
from 4m long distance, and uses the method of constructing
Introduction
experimental light environment to analyze the optimal
As the demand for night light environment in residential areas
illuminance matching relationship at 4m.
increases, safety of residents is significantly involved in the
process of designing nighttime lights. In the experimental light environment, a subject is selected

There is certain relationship between darkness and the as the observer, and the face clearness of object is examined

occurrence of crime [1-2]

. Night crime prevention can improve in a distance of 4m from the subject. The experimental scene

the safety of residential areas through lighting design and is simulated in Figure.1. To ensure the relative continuity and

reduce the probability of crime. The anti-crime lighting is comparability of the test data, the experiments were conducted

designed to reduce the uneasiness of residents and prevent every night from 19:00 to 21:00.
[3-4]
crime through a reasonable light environment design .
Application of anti-crime lighting in residential areas make
pedestrians easy to distinguish the facial expressions and
actions of people around, providing a safe and comfortable
[5-6]
environment for residents . At present, there are still
deficiencies in residential lighting design, which indicates that
the prevention of crime is far from ideal. In view of the
problem of crime prevention, researchers have conducted
extensive experiments. The studies found that the sense of Figure.1 Experimental scenario simulation
security is significantly correlated with the degree of road The experiment used a green LED light source and a
surface brightness, road surface clarity, recognition of dimmable LED bulb. And different arrangements are made to
pedestrian difficulty and facial expression deviation, as well build 12 groups of light environments. The 12 sets of light
as the relationship between vertical and semi-column environments built are shown in Table.1.
illumination and other indicators. These studies are mainly Horizontal illuminance，Vertical illuminance

22
 （3，0.3） （3，0.6） （3，0.9）
（5，0.5） （5，1.0） （5，1.5）
（10，1.0） （10，1.5） （10，2.0）
（15，1.0） （15，1.5） 10，,2.0）
（15，2.0）
10，,2.0
Table.1 Twelve groups of light environment
The four values of the lower level of the horizontal
illuminance were 3lx, 5lx, 10lx and 15lx. 3 vertical
illuminance values are selected for each level of horizontal
illuminance. The vertical illumination is 0.3lx, 0.6lx and
0.9lx when the horizontal illumination is 3lx, the vertical
illumination is 0.5lx, 1.0lx and 1.5lx when the horizontal
illumination is 5lx, the vertical illumination is 1.0lx, 1.5lx and
2.0lx when the horizontal illumination is 10lx, and the vertical
illumination is 1.0lx, 1.5lx and 2.0lx when the horizontal
illumination is 15lx. .5lx, 2.0lx. Horizontal illumination is
selected according to CIE No. 92 publication "Urban Lighting
Guide", and the corresponding vertical illumination is based
on "Urban Road Lighting Design Standards". Make sure you
can see the face clearly and make appropriate judgments. The
selected vertical illumination is at face height, about 1.5
meters from the ground.
The subjects selected 13 young men with an age range of
20-25, 7 men and 6 women. In the LED light environment
experience, let the subjects score the clarity of the face. The
face sharpness scoring standard is shown in Figure 2. In order
to avoid the effect of dark vision affecting the data, the
subjects were asked to be outdoors for 30 minutes before the
experiment began. After replacing the light environment, each
subject acclimated the environment for 5 minutes, and the test
was filled according to his or her experience. After
completing the test, the subjects should rest for 5 minutes,
replace the experimental light environment, and proceed in the
same way.
Figure.2 Evaluate standard for face clearness
The scores were scored using a four-level score on the
semantic score scale, -2, -1, 0, 1, with -2 indicating the worst
and 1 indicating the best.
Analytical method
In the experiment, since the vertical illuminance did not
have continuity, the data of the unexperienced light
environment could not be obtained, so the experiment quoted
Weber-Fairsler's law. The law shows the relationship between
23
psychological and physical quantities. In the experiment, the
psychological quantity is the anti-offensive evaluation of the
light environment (the anti-offensive evaluation of the light
environment is the relationship between the physical security
feelings of the human and the physical parameters of the light
environment). Through the vertical illuminance of the
measured points, the vertical illuminance of the unmeasured
points is analyzed, and the defensive index is quantitatively
analyzed to obtain the best vertical illuminance corresponding
to the horizontal illuminance of each gear.
The general form of Weber's law is broadly expressed as:
Z  a0  a1 ln R  a2  ln R    an  ln R 
2 n
(1)
In equation (1), the an coefficient is the undetermined
coefficient, determined by experimental data, Z is the
psychological quantity parameter, and R is the physical
quantity parameter. The more accurate the result of n is, the
more accurate it is, and the power is usually 2 to 5 [8].
The broad-based Weber-Firschler law has been proven to
be useful in light environment research. Because the
horizontal illuminance of each level in the experiment
corresponds to the vertical illuminance of three gradients, the
generalized Weber Fechner's law is applied to the
mathematical model of visual comfort research (1), and the
anti-offense is the environmental variable pair. The quadratic
function of the number (n takes 2). The basic expression of
the offense of this experiment is as follows:
Z  a0  a1 ln E  a2  ln E 
2
(2)
Where E is the vertical illuminance; a0, a1, a2 are the
undetermined coefficients. Z is the anti-offensive evaluation
of the light environment (face resolution). To better analyze
the environment when analyzing data, Convert the score to a
percentage, and the percentages corresponding to -2, -1, 0, and
1 are 90%, 70%, 50%, and 30%, respectively.
Experimental results and discussion
In the LED light environment experience, the subjects
were scored for the clarity of the face at a distance of 4 m. In
this paper, Weber-Feissler's law is used to explore the
evaluation function of vertical illuminance and face clarity in
[7]
light environment . After calculation, the optimal vertical
illuminance value corresponding to the water illuminance
value at 4m is obtained. In the experiment, the vertical
illuminance value corresponding to each horizontal
illuminance and the corresponding defensive value Z are
substituted into equation (2), respectively, and the
corresponding a0, a1, a2 can be obtained, and the
corresponding evaluation function is obtained, and the curve
is drawn. The higher the value of Z, the stronger the offense.
The maximum point of Z is the optimum vertical illuminance
corresponding to the horizontal illuminance of each gear,
which is the highest point of defense evaluation.
evaluation values are 0.25, 0.71, and 0.69, respectively; the
known quantities are respectively brought into the formula
(2), and the undetermined coefficients a0=0.300, a1=1.800,
and a2=1.639 are obtained; Bring back the formula (2) as
follows:

Z 4  0.300  1.800 ln E - 1.639 ln E 

For the horizontal illuminance of each gear position, 2
(6)
observe the relationship between the clarity of the target's face
and the vertical illuminance at 4m, as follows: When the vertical plane illumination E = 1.7 lx, Z gets the
1. When the illumination in the horizontal plane is 3lx, the maximum value.
corresponding three vertical plane illuminations are 0.30lx, The relationship between the degree of clarity of the face
0.60lx, and 0.90lx, respectively. In this light environment, the and the illuminance of the vertical plane is plotted as a curve,
value of the crime prevention evaluation is 0.12, 0.61, and and Figure 3 is obtained.
0.43, respectively. The known quantity is brought into the
formula (2), and the undetermined coefficients a0=0.493,
a1=0.567, a2=0.552. Bring the calculation result back to the
formula (2) as follows:

Z 1  0.493- 0.567ln E - 0.552  ln E 

2
(3)

When the vertical surface illumination E = 0.6 lx, Z takes

the maximum value.
2. When the illumination in the horizontal plane is 5lx, the
illuminance corresponding to the three vertical planes is Figure.3 The relation between clearness of
0.50lx, 1.00lx, 1.50lx respectively. In this light environment, face and vertical illuminance
the defense value is 0.48, 0.69, and 0.57, respectively. The It can be seen that each curve is first increased and then
known quantities are respectively taken into the formula (2), decreased, and has a maximum value. When the Z1 curve is
and the undetermined coefficients a0=0.685, a1=0.034, above E vertical = 3lx, the face sharpness effect is gradually
a2=0.272 are obtained; the calculation result is brought back to weakened. The Z2 curve is negatively linear in E vertical = 1.5
the formula (2) as follows: lx or more, and the curve is the smoothest. The Z3 and Z4
curves are steep. The four matching gears optimally matched
Z 2  0.685  0.034ln E - 0.272  ln E 
2
(4)
illuminance value points are connected into a curve to obtain
When the vertical plane illumination E = 1.1 lx, Z takes the best illuminance matching relationship of the face clarity
the maximum value. at 4 m. As shown in Figure 4.
3. When the illumination in the horizontal plane is 10lx, the
illuminance corresponding to the three vertical planes is
1.00lx, 1.50lx, 2.00lx respectively. In this light environment,
the defense evaluation values are 0.58, 0.79, and 0.55,
respectively; the known quantities are respectively brought
into the formula (2), and the undetermined coefficients
a0=0.607, a1=0.952, and a2=1.307 are obtained; Bring back the
formula (2) as follows:

Z 3  0.607  0.952ln E - 01.307 ln E 

2
(5) Figure.4 The best matched value of horizontal plane
When the vertical plane illumination E = 1.4 lx, Z gets the illumination and vertical plane illumination at 4m
maximum value. The curve reflects the best illuminance matching
4. When the water surface illumination is 15lx, the relationship for 4m to distinguish face from offense at a
illuminance corresponding to the three vertical planes is distance. When the illumination in the horizontal plane is 3lx,
1.00lx, 1.50lx, 2.00lx. In this light environment, the defense 5lx, 10lx and 15lx, the corresponding best vertical
24
illuminances are 0.6lx, 1.1lx, 1.4lx and 1.7lx. According to Lighting Forum - Proceedings of LED Lighting Product Design,
the curve, the optimal vertical illuminance value Application and Innovation Forum. Hangzhou: China Lighting
corresponding to the remaining horizontal illuminance values Society.
can be approximated. The results obtained can provide 7. Chen Qigao, Ma Guanzhong, Ding Xiaozhong, Chen
recommended values for pedestrian road lighting in residential Yongcheng. The generalized Weber-Ferchler law. Journal of
areas, and provide reference standards for reducing crime Chongqing Institute of Civil Engineering and Architecture. 1991,
rates. 14(4): 25-26.

Conclusion 8. Liu Wei, Zhang Chengfeng, Liu Qieng. Theoretical Model of

The experiment carried out subjective tests by establishing Green Illumination and Its Quantitative Design. Journal of

an experimental light environment, using Weber-Fairsler's law Lighting Engineering. 2010, 21(3): 13-16.

for analysis. It can be concluded that the horizontal 9. Ma Yulin, research on anti-invasion lighting in urban

illumination at 4 meters can correspond to a vertical pedestrian street [D]. Chongqing: Chongqing University, May

illumination with the best definition of the human face and the 2008, 1-2.

best defense match at that distance. The result can provide

recommended value for pedestrian road lighting in residential
areas, which is of great significance for improving the safety
of residential areas, reducing crime rate and ensuring people's
property safety. The next step is to get the best matching value
between horizontal illumination and vertical illumination at
any distance. It provides a reference standard for further
planning, designing and upgrading nighttime light
environment in residential areas.

Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Social Science Foun
dation, Liaoning, China [grant number 2017lslktqn-029]; t
he Social Science Joint Association Foundation, Dalian P
olytechnic University, China [grant number GDSKLEL201
602].

References
1. KNIGHT C. Field surveys of the effect of lamp spectrum on the
perception of safety and comfort at night[J]. Lighting Research
and Technology，2010，42(3): 313-329.
2. Li Youran, Wang Jinpeng, Zou Nianyu, et al. Investigation and
analysis of the current situation of light environment in
residential areas based on the goal of prevention of crimes[J].
Journal of Dalian Polytechnic University, 2017, 36(1): 58-60.
3. MIRZAEI M J. DASHTI R, KAZEMI A, et al. An
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of public-lighting systems[J]Utilities Policy, 2015, 32：19-28.
4. TARRICONE P. Crime scene illumination[J]. Lighting Design
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research on residential crime prevention [C]//2014 China
25
S202-201808151715

Underwater Wireless Optical Communication and Underwater Solid-State Lighting based on RGB
Laser Diodes Mixed White-Light
Xiaoyan Liu1, Suyu Yi1, Yuxin Huang1, Honglan Chen1, Zeyuan Qian1, Runze Lin1, Xiaojie Zhou1, Gufan Zhou1, Xiaolin
Zhou1, Shuailong Zhang2, Xugao Cui1, Lirong Zheng1, Ran Liu1 and Pengfei Tian1*
1
Institute for Electric Light Sources, School of Information Science and Technology, Engineering Research Center of
Advanced Lighting Technology, and Academy of Engineering and Technology, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China
2
Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, 80 Saint George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H6, Canada
*Email: pftian@fudan.edu.cn

Abstract
This study proposed and experimentally demonstrated
white-light source by mixing red, green and blue laser diodes
(RGB-LDs) for wavelength-division multiplexing
(WDM)-based high-speed underwater wireless optical
communication (UWOC) and large-area underwater
solid-state lighting (SSL) simultaneously. The communication
performance and underwater white-light SSL quality were
investigated experimentally at an underwater transmission
distance of 2.3 m. For each LD, an on-off keying (OOK)
scheme was employed. To achieve both high-speed UWOC
and large-area underwater SSL, optical filters and optical
diffuser were employed. Aggregate data rate of 6.6 Gbps and
the Commission Internationale de L’Eclairage (CIE)
coordinates of (0.3298, 0.3390) were obtained. In addition,
owning to the water attenuation, the underwater white-light
SSL characteristics under various distances were studied in
theory.
1. Introduction
Underwater wireless optical communication (UWOC) has
been researched extensively in academic community and
industrial community over recent years [1-5], because it plays
an increasingly important role in the underwater human
activities and ocean resources exploration. Moreover, some
underwater activities also require high-quality illumination,
e.g. oceanography study, sea floor monitoring, so we expect
that the UWOC and underwater illumination can be combined
together. The underwater environment is very complicated
and changeable, and the attenuation of the propagated light
constraints the underwater communication performance owing
to the water absorption and scattering. Therefore, previous
researches are mostly devoted to improve the underwater
(SSL) at a 2.3 m underwater transmission distance and
evaluated their communication and illumination
performances. Third, the underwater white-light SSL
performances at different underwater transmission distances
were studied in theory to analyze the influences of the path
loss of RGB LDs at different propagation distances on the
achievable white-light quality.
2. Experiments
Fig. 2.1 shows the schematic diagram of the experiment
setup of the RGB LDs-based wavelength-division
multiplexing (WDM) UWOC and underwater SSL. In Fig.
2.1, the working principle of the WDM UWOC was depicted.
It can be seen that the pseudo-random binary sequences
(PRBS) and direct current (DC) were combined to modulate
RGB LDs. The emitting lights from the RGB LDs were mixed
into white-light. The transmitted white-light focused by the
transmitter lens (Tx lens) propagated through a 2.3 m
underwater transmission distance and was focused onto the
photodetectors (PDs) by the receiver lens (Rx lens). And then
the optical signals were converted into the electrical signals,
which were further processed to evaluate the UWOC and
underwater SSL performances. In our study, due to the
limitation of the equipment of only one pulse pattern
generator (PPG) generating PRBS, RGB LDs were modulated
one by one, and the data transmission rates of the RGB LDs
were measured separately and then aggregated. In order to
generate high-quality white-light meanwhile providing
high-speed UWOC, neutral density (ND) filters were used to
attenuate the light-output power of the green and blue LDs.
And to construct large-area underwater white-light SSL, the
optical diffuser was employed to diverge the collimated
white-light beam.
Red
PRBS

communication speed and underwater transmission distance DC LD

[6-10]. In 2017, our group achieved a record underwater PPG
transmission distance of 34.5 m meanwhile maintaining
DC Green White-
PRBS

LD White light
UWOC data rate of 2.7 Gbps [6]. However, there are few -light
reports on studying the underwater illumination [11-12], and PPG
Rx PD
Blue Tx lens
implementing the UWOC and underwater illumination DC
PRBS

LD lens
simultaneously. PPG
In this paper, UWOC and underwater SSL based on RGB
Fig. 2.1. Schematic diagram of the RGB LDs-based WDM UWOC and
laser diodes (LDs) mixed white-light were proposed and underwater SSL.
demonstrated. First, the proposed white-light system was
realized by RGB LDs. Second, we demonstrated
experimentally the UWOC and underwater solid-state lighting

26
3. Results and Discussions BER 3.4 × 10-3 3.4 × 10-3 3.3 × 10-3 N/Aa
CIE coordinates N/A N/A N/A (0.3298, 0.3390)
The essential properties of RGB LDs were investigated CCT (K) N/A N/A N/A 5617
including the light-output power versus current (L-I) and the N/Aa represents not applicable
electroluminescence (EL) spectra characteristics of the RGB It can be observed that the allowable real-time data
LDs used in our study. The L-I curves of RGB LDs were transmission rates of 2.4 Gbps, 2.5 Gbps, and 1.7 Gbps for
shown in Fig. 3.1(a). In order to optimize the UWOC RGB LDs with corresponding BERs of 3.4 × 10-3, 3.4 × 10-3
performances, the optimal DC biases of 83 mA, 69 mA, and and 3.3 × 10-3 were obtained, respectively. And the
37 mA were considered to drive the RGB LDs, respectively. corresponding UWOC aggregate data rate of 6.6 Gbps,
The corresponding peak wavelengths are around 664.0 nm, Commission Internationale de L’Eclairage (CIE) coordinates
516.5 nm and 442.8 nm for RGB LDs, respectively, from the of (0.3298, 0.3390), and a correlated color temperature (CCT)
EL spectra in Fig. 3.1(b). of 5617 K were achieved based on RGB LDs-based white
(a) light. These results show that the proposed system has high
45 performance in both UWOC and underwater SSL.
Light-output power (mW)

In above sections, the UWOC and the underwater

white-light SSL performances at a given underwater
communication distance of 2.3 m were demonstrated
30
experimentally in detail. Taking into account of the different
light attenuations for RGB LDs in water, the white-light
performance would be changed at different propagation
15 Red LD depths. Therefore, the white-light performances at different
Green LD UWOC distances were analyzed in theory, which was shown
Blue LD in Fig. 3.2. The CIE coordinates at different underwater
0 transmission distances ranging from 0.5 to 4 m were shown in
Fig. 3.2. And the corresponding CCTs were shown in the inset
0 40 80 120 160
Current (mA) of Fig. 3.2. As can be seen from Fig. 3.2, the white-light is
d e p e n d e n t o n t h e
(b)
9
442.8 nm 516.5 nm 664.0 nm
Normalized intensity (a.u.)

CCT (10 K)
3
6

0 1 2 3 4
Distance (m)

Distance
450 500 550 600 650
Wavelength (nm) 4
Fig. 3.1. (a) L-I characteristics and (b) EL spectra of the red, green and blue
LDs.
0.5
Base on the Fig 2.1, in order to examine feasibility and
general applicability of the proposed RGB LDs-based
white-light system for WDM UWOC and underwater SSL, we
demonstrated the experiment using a water tank with a length
of 2.3 m filled with tap water to simulate the underwater
channel. In order to achieve both high-speed UWOC and
large-area underwater white-light SSL, the optical filters and Fig. 3.2. CIE coordinates of the proposed RGB LDs-based white-light system
under various underwater transmission distances ranging from 0.5 m to 4 m.
optical diffuser were employed. The optical filters were used The corresponding CCTs are shown in the inset.
to attenuate the light-output power of the blue and green LDs distance because of the different attenuation coefficients for
instead of adjusting the DC to provide sufficient bandwidth different RGB LDs in water. Therefore, under different
for UWOC. The circle optical diffuser with 20° divergence propagation depths, the high-quality white-light should be
angle was used to expand the illumination area of the obtained by adjusting the light-output power of each LD. In
underwater white-light SSL. The obtained UWOC addition, it can be observed that high-quality underwater SSL
performance and underwater SSL property at an underwater was achieved at the expense of UWOC. Consequently, there is
transmission distance of 2.3 m were summarized in Table 3.1. a trade-off between SSL and UWOC based on the actual
Table 3.1 Performances of the proposed RGB LDs-based white-light system
for WDM UWOC and underwater SSL at a 2.3 m underwater distance
underwater requirements.
Light source
White-light source 4. Conclusions
Red LD Green LD Blue LD
based on RGB LDs
Parameters
Data rate (Gbps) 2.4 2.5 1.7 6.6 The white-light source for simultaneous high-speed RGB
LDs-based WDM UWOC and high-efficiency underwater
27
SSL has been proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The
WDM UWOC performance and underwater SSL property at a
2.3 m underwater transmission distance were investigated
experimentally. Furthermore, the underwater SSL
performances with increasing the propagation depth were
studied in theory. Owning to the complicated environments in
water, in order to well explore the ocean resources and
perform underwater activities, a trade-off between the UWOC
and underwater SSL needs to be made. The experimental and
theoretical study of simultaneous implementation of the
underwater SSL and WDM UWOC based on RGB LDs mixed
white-light paves the way for the underwater wireless
networks and underwater Internet of Things.
Acknowledgments
This research was sponsored by National Natural Science
Foundation of China (NSFC) (61705041 and 61571135),
Shanghai Sailing Program (17YF1429100), Shanghai
Technical Standard Program (18DZ2206000), and National
Key Research and Development Program of China
(2017YFB0403603).
10. Y. C. Chi, T. C. Wu, C. Y. Lin, H. H. Lu, H. C. Kuo, and
G. R. Lin, “Underwater 6.4-m optical wireless
communication with 8.8-Gbps encoded 450-nm GaN laser
diode,” in Semiconductor Laser Conference, Dec. 2016,
Art. 7765724.
11. S. C. Shen, H. J. Huang, C. C. Chao, and M. C. Huang,
“Design and analysis of a high-intensity LED lighting
module for underwater illumination,” Appl. Ocean Res.,
vol. 39, no. 1 (2013), pp. 89-96.
12. A. Susanto, R. Irnawati, Mustahal, and M. A. Syabana,
“Fishing efficiency of LED lamps for fixed lift net
fisheries in Banten Bay Indonesia,” Turk. J. Fish. Aquat.
Sci., vol. 17, no. 2 (2017), pp. 283-291.
13. C. D. Mobley, B. Gentili, H. R. Gordon, Z. Jin, G. W.
Kattawar, A. Morel, P. Reinersman, K. Stamnes, and R. H.
Stavn, “Comparison of numerical models for computing
underwater light fields.,” Appl. Opt., vol. 32 (1993), pp.
7484-7504.

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L. Zheng, R. Liu, and P. Tian, “34.5 m underwater optical
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laser,” Opt. Express, vol. 25, no. 13 (2017), pp.
14760-14765.
8. C. Shen, Y. Guo, H. M. Oubei, T. K. Ng, G. Liu, K. H.
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C. Cong, L. Zheng, and R. Liu, “Laser-based white-light
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lighting,” Opt. Express, vol. 26, no. 15 (2018), pp.
19259-19274.

28
S202-201808152031

Visible Light Communication System with 815 MHz-Modulation Bandwidth Based on Micro-Size Light-Emitting Diode and
Post-Equalization Circuit

Huamao Huang,1, 2, 3, * Chao Wang,1 Cheng Huang,1 Haocheng Wu,2 Hong Wang1, # 1Engineering Research Center for
Optoelectronics of Guangdong Province, School of Physics and Optoelectronics, South China University of Technology,
Guangzhou 510640, China 2School of Electronics and Information Engineering, South China University of Technology,
Guangzhou 510640, China 3Guangzhou Institute of Modern Industrial Technology, Guangzhou 511458, China
*schhm@scut.edu.cn; #phhwang@scut.edu.cn

Abstract current density would result in deteriorated aging

In order to get high modulation bandwidth in the visible light
communication (VLC) system, the micro-size lightemitting
diode (LED) with the diameter of 60 μm and the equalization
circuit (EQC) are used. The micro-size LED works under low
current density of 707.4 A/cm2 to extend its lift time. Four
key parameters, including the resistance and the capacitance,
in the EQC that consists of a two-stage common-emitter
transistor amplifier were modified to adjust the frequency
response, and, thus, to tune the 3-dB modulation bandwidth of
the VLC system. The experimental results show that the 3-dB
modulation bandwidth of the VLC system can be expanded
from 94.2 MHz to 815 MHz, if the EQC was applied and
optimized.
1 Introduction
Visible light communication (VLC) is a wireless
communication technology that modulates signals on
lightemitting diode (LED) devices. With the widespread use
of the LED lamps, the VLC technology has attracted more and
more attention [1]. As compared with the normal LED, the
upgraded LED devices with VLC has dual function of
illumination and communication, thereby gives high
performance-price ratio. As compared with the normal
wireless communication terminal, e. x. a wireless router using
electromagnetic wave, the LED with VLC has no harmful
electromagnetic radiation. However, the conventional LED
has small modulation bandwidth, usually several MHz, and,
thus, the data bit rate of the LED-based VLC system is
limited. The equalization-circuit (EQC) technique is an
effective method to improve the 3-dB modulation bandwidth
of the LED-based VLC system. In our previous work, with the
aids of the two-stage common-emitter transistor amplifier as
preEQC or post-EQC, the VLC system with optimized
photoelectric receiver can reach a large 3-dB modulation
bandwidth of 241 MHz or 281 MHz, respectively [2].
Moreover, after the optimization of the two-stage
commonemitter transistor amplifier, the 3-dB modulation
bandwidth of the VLC system can be enhanced to 375 MHz
[3]. Another effective EQC is the multiple RC series-parallel
connection cascade circuit [4]. Using this type of EQC, Zhang
H. et al. demonstrated a VLC system with the 3-dB
modulation bandwidth of 520 MHz [4]. In all the published
paper, the EQC technique are applied on the commercial LED
devices with large-size chips, which can give large luminous
flux for illumination.
As the core component in the signal emitter of the VLC
system, the LED chip can obtain high modulation bandwidth,
if its size is reduced to the order of tens of μm and the injected
current density is raised to the order of thousands of A/cm2.
Under the injected current density of 19.5 kA/cm2, a
micro-size LED chip with the active area of 435 μm2 has the
modulation bandwidth of 830 MHz [5]. The large injected
29
characteristics [6] and the lift time of these LED devices is
short. Although there is a micro-size LED chip that can get
the modulation bandwidth of 800 MHz under a relatively low
injected current density [7], the epitaxy wafer cannot be
available in the commercial market and should be specially
fabricated, since the crystal plane of the epitaxy layer is
semipolar (11-22) and the quantum well is an 8-nm single
layer. In this paper, the VLC system based on a 60
μm-diameter LED and a post-EQC is proposed. The
blue-LED chip was fabricated using commercial epitaxy
wafers. The post-EQC consists of a two-stage
common-emitter transistor amplifier and an emitter follower
[2, 3]. By carefully selecting the resistance and the
capacitance in the transistor amplifier, the 3-dB modulation
bandwidth of the VLC system can reach 815 MHz, while the
injected current density of the LED is about 707.4 A/cm2.
2 Experiments
Fig. 1 shows the measurement platform of 3-dB modulation
bandwidth of the VLC system. The vector network analyzer
(VNA) (Keysight® E5080A) transmits the alternated-current
(AC) signal, which would be modulated onto the
direct-current (DC) component at a Bias-Tee (MiniCircuits®
ZFBT-6GW-FT+), then the AC/DC composite signal drives
the LED to emit blue-light with alternated brightness and
darkness. The blue-light is collimated and focused by a pair of
optical lens, then irradiated onto a Si amplified photoelectric
receiver (PR) (Newport® 818-BB21A). The photoelectric
voltage signal would be post-treated by the EQC, then sends
to the VNA. The VNA compares the received signals with the
transmitted signals, thereby plots the characteristic curve of
the electro-optical-electrical (EOE) frequency response. In the
experiment, the amplitude of the AC signal generated from
VNA is 0 dBm. The distance between the LED and the PR is
1 m.

The light source in the VLC system is a 60 μm-diameter
micro-pixel in a blue LED chip and the injected current is 20
mA (the current density is 707.4 A/cm2). The architecture of
the chip and its fabrication process has been given in our
previous work [8]. It was shown that the
modulationbandwidth of the VLC system is about 94.2 MHz
while the injected current of the micro-pixel is 20 mA. At the
same current density, the luminous efficiency of the
micro-pixel is about 41.1 lm/W, which is suitable for
illumination. The post-EQC consists of a two-stage
common-emitter transistor amplifier and an emitter follower
[2, 3]. Based on the analysis in Ref. [3], the key parameters
are the resistance and the capacitance in the emitters of the
two transistor amplifiers, which are denoted by R1, R2, C3
and C4 in Fig. 2. These four parameters would be modified to
adjust the frequency response of the post-EQC, and, thus, to
tune the 3dB modulation bandwidth of the VLC system.
3 Results and Discussion
Fig. 3 is the frequency response of the VLC system with 60
μm-diameter micro-pixel. In this case, the post-EQC was not
added. Due to the small active area (the diameter is 0.4 mm)
of the PR, the frequency response is low. Fox example, the
30
response is -44.5 dB at the lowest frequency of 100 kHz. For
the sake of the postprocessing of the AC signals, the amplifier
with the high gain of > 50 dB could be adopted after the PR
[4]. It is also shown that the 3-dB modulation bandwidth is
94.2 MHz [8].
In order to improve the 3-dB modulation bandwidth of the
VLC system, the EQC was equipped after PR, as shown in
Fig. 1. The initial values of the four key parameters [R1, R2,
C3, C4] in the post-EQC are set to be [100 Ω, 10 Ω, 22 pF,
220 pF] according to the parameters selected for the highest
3-dB modulation bandwidth in Ref. [3]. The adjusting
process was to start with the variation of R1, while the other
three parameters hold the initial values. The frequency
response for these parameters are shown in Fig. 4.
It can be seen from Fig. 4 that the R1 has large effects on the
response at low frequency that less than 200 MHz. With the
increasing of the R1, the response at the low frequency range
decreases. As compared with the response without EQC given
in Fig. 3, it is shown that a small R1, e. x. less than 50 Ω,
would give a positive gain in the order of several tens of dB,
while a large R1, e. x. more than 100 Ω, would suffer a loss in
the same order. In the other hand, at high frequency that more
than 300 MHz, the effects of R1 on the response is small.
With the increasing of the R1, the response at the high
frequency range increases at first, and saturates at R1 = 100
Ω, then decreases. The higher response at the high frequency
range may lead to more flatten response in the whole range.
Therefore, the R1 = 100 Ω was selected for the next step of
optimization. Fig. 5 shows the frequency response of the VLC
system in the second step of optimization, in which R1 was
selected as 100 Ω, R2 is a variable, while C3 and C4 hold the
initial values. In the most part of the frequency range, with the
increasing of the R2, the frequency response decreases. Due to
the same reason abovementioned that the higher response at
the high frequency range would be preferred, the R2 was
selected as 5 Ω for the third step of optimization.

In the third step of optimization, the parameter to be varied is

the capacitance. Generally, a resistor can mainly affect the
amplitude of the frequency response, but a capacitor not only
amplify or depress the amplitude, but also shift the specific
frequency point. As a result, the frequency profile changes
dramatically if the capacitance changed. In the experiment, on
condition that the C3 was a variable, the C4 was set to be two
different capacitances, where one is a small capacitance of 39
pF and the other is a large capacitance of 220 pF. Fig. 6
shows the frequency response of the VLC system, in which
R1 and R2 were selected as 100 Ω and 5 Ω, respectively, in
the former steps, while both C3 and C4 are variables. It is
shown that the effects of the C3 on the amplitude of the
response curve at the low frequency range (see arrow (1) and
(3) in the figures) is opposite from those at the high frequency
range (see arrow (2) and (4) in the figures). This induces that
the smaller value of C3 has lower amplitude at the low
frequency range but higher amplitude at the high frequency
range. In order to get flatten response curve, the small C3 of 5
pF is better, no matter the C4 is a small value of 39 pF or a
large value of 220 pF. Compared the characteristic curves in
Fig. 6 (a) and those in Fig. 6 (b), one can find that the effect of
the C4 is to shift the peak of the frequency response. If C4 is
changed from 39 pF to 220 pF, the peak would appear at a
lower frequency.
Fig. 6 Frequency response of the VLC system with micro-
pixel and post-EQC, in which the parameters [R1, R2, C3,
C4] are (a) [100 Ω, 5 Ω, variable, 39 pF] and (b) [100 Ω, 5 Ω,
variable, 220 pF].
Fig. 7 shows the frequency response of the VLC system, in
which R1, R2 and C3 were selected as 100 Ω, 5 Ω, and 5 pF,
respectively, in the former steps, while the C4 is a variable. It
is shown that the effects of the C4 on the amplitude of the
response curve at the low frequency range is opposite from
those at the high frequency range. Therefore, since the
characteristic curve obtained in the former step is relatively
flatten, a small C4 may lead to elevated response in the high
frequency range, while a large C4 may induce elevated
response in the low frequency range. The balanced response
can be obtained in the case that C4 is 39 pF. In this case, the
3-dB modulation bandwidth of the VLC system is estimated
to be 815 MHz, which can be clearly seen from the
characteristic curve of the normalized frequency response in
Fig. 8. In addition, the response at the lowest frequency of 100
kHz is about -47.6 dB. As mentioned before, for the sake of
the postprocessing of the AC signals, the amplifier with the
high gain of > 50 dB should be adopted after the PR [4].

31
 2. Huang, H. et al, "Optimized photoelectric receiver to
enhance modulation bandwidth of visible light
communication system," Optical and Quantum
Electronics, Vol. 50, No. 43, (2018), pp. 1-12.
3. Huang, H. et al, "Optimization of the two-stage
commonemitter transistor amplifier for equalization circuit
in visible light communication system," Optical and
Quantum Electronics, (Revised).
4. Zhang, H. et al, "Gb/s Real-time visible light
communication system based on white LEDs using
Tbridge cascaded pre-equalization circuit," IEEE
Photonics Journal, Vol. 10, No. 2, (2018), pp. 1-7.
5. Ferreira, R. et al, "High bandwidth GaN-based microLEDs
for multi-Gbps visible light communications," IEEE
Photonics Technology Letters, Vol. 28, No. 19, (2016), pp.
2023-2026.
6. Tian, P. et al, "Aging characteristics of blue InGaN
micro-light emitting diodes at an extremely high current
density of 3.5 kA cm−2," Semiconductor Science and
Technology, Vol. 31, (2016), pp. 045005.
7. Haemmer M. et al, "Size-dependent bandwidth of semipolar
(11-22) light-emitting-diodes," IEEE Photonics
Technology Letters, Vol. 30, No. 5, (2018), pp. 439-442.
8. Huang, H. et al, "Compromise between illumination
performance and modulation bandwidth for micro-size
white light-emitting diode," (Submitted to Appiled
Optics).

Conclusions
The VLC system based on a 60 μm-diameter LED and a
post-EQC is proposed to get a high modulation bandwidth on
condition that the LED works under low current density.
Before adding the post-EQC, the 3-dB modulation bandwidth
of the VLC system is 94.2 MHz, while the injected current
density of the LED is about 707.4 A/cm 2. After adding the
post-EQC, which consists of a two-stage common-emitter
transistor amplifier, and adjusting the resistance and the
capacitance in the transistor amplifier, the 3-dB modulation
bandwidth of the VLC system can reach 815 MHz, while the
injected current density of the LED keeps at 707.4 A/cm2.

Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the R&D Program of Guangdong
Province under Grant number 2014B010119002, number
2016A010103011, and number 2017A050501006; the R&D
Programs of Guangzhou City under Grant number
201504291502518 and number 201610010038.

References
1. Ayyash, M. et al, "Coexistence of WiFi and LiFi toward
5G: concepts, opportunities, and challenges," IEEE
Communications Magazine, Vol. 54, (2016), pp. 64-71.
32
S202-201808162021

Design of A Multi-wavelength LED Photo-rejuvenating System

Jing Chen1,2, Liquan Guo2*, Jiping Wang2, Yinhong Chen2, Qi Zheng2, Daxi Xiong2
1
University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
2
Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, New District, Suzhou, China
*
Corresponding author: guolq@sibet.ac.cn

Abstract combines the 455nm, 595nm, 630nm, 661nm, and 828nm

To realize cosmetic phototherapy, a multi-wavelength LED LED chips into a single light module. The system can be used
cold light source design method is proposed in this work, in different photo-rejuvenating applications, e.g. whitening
which combines the 455nm, 595nm, 630nm, 661nm, and and tendering skin, treating acne, by choosing different
828nm LED chips into a single light module. Compared with wavelengths. Couple 595nm, 630nm and 828nm LED chips
the conventional phototherapies using laser or intense pulsed to form a specific spectra as shown in Fig. 1, which can
light, the proposed light source has the advantages of promote skin regeneration, enhance skin fineness and
improved safety and longer life time. The electrical design to alleviate skin uneven color. The mixed spectra of 455nm
drive the system is also proposed. The system can be used in and 661nm LED chips as shown in Fig. 2 has an
different photo-rejuvenating applications, e.g. whitening and anti-inflammatory effect on keratinocytes, can reduce skin
tendering skin, treating acne, by choosing different pigmentation, acne and so on. At the same time, the system
wavelengths. Another feature of this system is that the monitors the temperature of the phototherapy area in real
temperature of skin area exposed to the light can be time. When the skin temperature is higher than the set value,
monitored in real time. Experiments have been implemented the alarm is triggered, and the system shuts down all the
to test the radiant power density and uniformity. The results outputs.
show that the maximally achievable power density of the
system is about 75mW/cm2; and the uniformity of spot is
above 80%.
1. Introduction
With the improvement of the living standard and living
rhythm, people pay more and more attention to beauty and
health. Consequently, the effect of beauty apparatus is
becoming more and more important. The cosmetic
phototherapy system with LED cold light source is a new
and effective anti-aging tool, which is favored by the foreign
industry with its distinctive characteristics. Conventional
phototherapies using laser or intense pulsed light (IPL) Fig. 1: 595nm, 630nm and 828nm LED chips’ relative power
belong to invasive or destructive treatment. The irradiated
subject suffers from a burning sensation. Besides, these
phototherapies can also have some side effects to the normal
tissues of the human body[1]. Furthermore, the effect can
relapse after treatment. The treatment also imposes high
technical requirements on their operators. Due to the defects
in safety of conventional phototherapies, the
multi-wavelength LED photo-rejuvenating system is of great
significance.
The applications of LED photo-rejuvenating and
conventional phototherapies using laser or intense pulsed
light are different. LED photo-rejuvenating is more suitable Fig. 2: 455nm and 661nm LED chips’ relative power
for treating cutaneous diseases[2], while conventional 2. System design
phototherapies using laser or intense pulsed light can be a The overall structure of multi-wavelength LED
better choice for treating the tissues further beneath the photo-rejuvenating system is shown in Fig. 3. It mainly
hypodermis[3]. Recent studies show that different light includes the main controller, constant current driver module,
wavelengths have different effects on human body[4]. It is photoelectric conversion module, infrared temperature
demonstrated experimentally that red light at 595nm, 630nm measurement module and signal acquisition and processing
and 828nm can manage the energy center of cell growth: program.
mitochondria, stimulate blood circulation, promote the Optical
system
metabolism of cells, and speed up the restoration and
regeneration of the organization, so as to alleviate photoaging LCD SPI D/A
LED constant
LED USER
current driver
induced by UVB and promote skin repair and regeneration[5].
Blue light with a wavelength of 455nm is safe and effective MCU
STM32
for skin inflammation. Red light with a wavelength of 661nm
has strong anti-inflammatory and repairing effects[6]. KEY I/O A/D I/V convertor

Multi-wavelength LED photo-rejuvenating system is a

phototherapy system based on photobiological effect, which Wireless
33 Alarm temperature
I/O SMBus
Device measurement
module
 Fig. 3: System Block Diagram
The main controller and signal acquisition and processing
module adopt a STM32F103 processor as the controller. The
processor is the first 32-bit standard RISC processor based on
the Cortex-M3 kernel with an ARM v7-M architecture. It
provides high code efficiency and performs well in the
memory space of the normal 8-bit and 16-bit systems. This
series of microprocessors work at 72MHz, with 128K bytes
of flash memory and 20K bytes of built-in SRAM . It has rich
general I/O ports, integrates high-precision A/D, PWM and
other rich peripheral resources. It is very suitable for the Fig. 4: Constant current source circuit
design of multi-wavelength LED photo-rejuvenating 2.2 Photoelectric conversion module
system. To prevent the system from outputting too high light
2.1 Constant current driver module power, we also implement a photoelectric conversion module
The main goal of driving LED is to generate current to monitor the LED light output in real time. The
flowing through the device, so the driving mode of LED can photoelectric conversion circuit is mainly used to convert
be divided into constant voltage drive and constant current optical signals into electrical signals, generally including
drive. The constant voltage source mode requires the current photoelectric detectors and I / V (current / voltage)
limiting resistors. According to the volt-ampere characteristic conversion circuit. Because of the high security requirement
of LED, small voltage amplitude will cause a large of the multi-wavelength LED photo-rejuvenating system,
fluctuation of LED current, coupled with the negative high requirements are put forward for photoelectric detector
temperature effect of LED, current fluctuation may cause a and I / V conversion circuit.
vicious cycle of junction temperature and current, and even The I/V conversion circuit uses a high sensitivity I/V
burn the LED[7]. Therefore, LED must be driven by constant converter based on T- network. It can be seen from fig. 5 that:
current source. Constant current drivers can keep the V  (1  R9 / R6  R9 / R7) * R6 * i
amplitude of the circuit stable, which in turn results in good （2）
LED light quality. However, attention still needs to be paid to
the maximum withstand current and voltage value. Here， i is the output current of the photodiode; V is the
Constant current drive module is mainly composed of TI output voltage of the I/V conversion circuit. High sensitivity
LM3409, MOSFET tube Q1, inductor L3, freewheeling diode can be achieved by reasonably selecting resistance values of
D2, sampling resistor R13, R14 as shown in Fig. 4. LM3409 R6 , R7 and R9 .
adopts constant turn-off time control method, so it can
achieve accurate constant current without external control
loop compensation. It supports analog and PWM dimming,
and provides programmable UVLO, low power shutdown
and thermal shutdown functions.
The MOSFET switch is controlled by a set of signals with
duty cycle D . When Q1 is closed, the input voltage Vin
charges C through L3, and D2 cuts off. When the switch is
disconnected, I can be maintained for a short time due to
the presence of inductance L3, but gradually becomes
smaller. When the switch is closed, both the load current and
the capacitance current are provided by the inductance
current; when the switch is off, the load current is the sum of
Fig. 5: Photoelectric conversion circuit
the inductance current and the capacitance current. The
The voltage signal obtained by I/V conversion contains
output voltage Vo is: DC component, noise and other interference. The traditional
Vo  Vin * D low-pass filter circuit can not filter out the interference of DC
（1） component. The system can completely eliminate the
Here, D is duty cycle, Vo is the output voltage, and Vin influence of DC component by modulation-demodulation
design based on light source. As the switching frequency of
is the input voltage.
the PWM dimming waveform is set to 300 kHz. The filter
circuit is designed with 300 kHz Butterworth bandpass filter
circuit. Only 300 kHz signal can be filtered. Other
background light, stray light and noise signal can be
completely filtered out.
The 300 kHz band-pass filter circuit is also shown in the
fig.2.2. R10, C17, C21, R11 determine the high cut-off

34
frequency and the low cut-off frequency respectively. The 3. Experimental test the light source
band-pass filter frequency can be set between 299 kHz and The light source is a COB-packaged high-power LED
301 kHz by selecting the appropriate resistance-capacitance module. Each light module consists of 455nm, 595nm,
value. 630nm, 661nm, and 828nm LED chips. When the system
2.3 Infrared temperature measurement module works, the effective illumination area is a circular facula with
Real-time temperature of the skin area exposed to the a diameter of 300mm as shown in Fig. 7. In order to measure
light can be measured by detecting the human body infrared the optical power density and the uniformity of spot of each
radiation[8]. The MLX90614 sensor used in the infrared point on the circular facula, the measuring area is divided
temperature measurement module is a non-contact infrared into four concentric circles with the same effective width, and
temperature sensor chip in the form of TO-39 package. the light intensity of the central part of each circle is
MLX90614 has two digital output modes: SMBus and PWM, measured respectively. In order to make the measurement
and the default is SMBus mode. In the absence of special results more accurate, eight measurements were made for the
settings, the temperature measurement range of 10-bit PWM same ring and the average value was obtained.
output mode ranges from 20 to 120℃. The high-precision
infrared temperature measurement module MLX90614
internal integrates infrared thermopile sensor MLX81101 and
signal processing dedicated integrated chip MLX90302. The
MLX90302 is designed to handle the output signals of
infrared sensor. MLX90302 measures the object and ambient
temperature by the internal state machine, and then calculates
and outputs the calculation results through the SPI. The
circuit diagram is shown in Fig. 6. In the range of 0-120℃,
MLX90614 measurement accuracy can reach 0.5℃, for the
body temperature measurement of about 37℃, the (a) Facula area of 595nm, 630nm and 828nm LED chips
measurement accuracy can be up to about 0.1℃.
The MLX90614 module also integrates filters to block
visible and near-infrared radiation, and the wavelength
passband of the filter is 5500nm to 14000nm. The radiation
wavelength of the human body is near 9000nm,and the
optical therapy exposure wavelength range is 400nm to
1000nm. So the filter can effectively filter out the impact of
ambient light and light of physical therapy.
The optical lens and the outer package determine the
infrared field measuring range and the distance coefficient.
Above the infrared sensor there is an eyepiece which can (b) Facula area of 455nm and 661nm LED chips
Fig. 7: Effective facula area
guarantee that a sphere with the diameter of 20cm can
The TM-208 solar power meter of Tenmars Company of
fully-fill the entire perspective in the range of 0-60cm. The
Taiwan is used to measure the light intensity. Its maximum
angle of the surrounding environment on the lens is very
measuring range can reach 2000W/m2. Since the output
small, so the impact of direct thermal radiation in the
spectrum of sunlight covers the entire spectrum of visible
environment can be ignored.
light, it is reliable and effective to measure the output optical
power density of LED with the center wavelength of 455nm,
595nm, 630nm, 661nm and 828nm.
The driving current can be tuned by adjusting the voltage,
so that the intensity of the facula in the target area can be
uniformly distributed. The optical and electrical parameters
are listed in Table 1. It could be seen that the maximally
achievable power density of the system is about 75mW/cm2;
and the uniformity of spot is above 80%.

Fig. 6: Infrared temperature measurement circuit

35
 Table 1. Optical and electrical parameters This provides a reference for designing a new cosmetic
phototherapy system.
References
1. Stangl S, Hadshiew I, Kimmig W. Side effects and
Voltage Current Power Power density Uniformity complications using intense pulsed light (IPL) sources[J].
（V） （A） （W） （mW/cm2） of spot Medical Laser Application, 2008, 23(1):15-20.
2. Dong J, Xiong D. Applications of Light Emitting Diodes
in Health Care[J]. Annals of Biomedical Engineering, 20
20.8 10 44.4 54.4 0.83 17, 45(11):2509-2523.
21.5 12 52.6 64.4 0.91 3. Bahmer F, Drosner M, Hohenleutner U, et al.
Recommendation for Laser and Intense Pulsed Light
22.3 14 58.6 71.7 0.88 (IPL) Therapy in Dermatology[J]. Journal Der Deutschen
Dermatologischen Gesellschaft, 2010, 5(11):1036-1042.
22.7 15 61.9 75.8 0.90
4. Harry T. Whelan, M . D et al. The NASA Light-Emitting
4. Conclusion Diode Medical Program Progress in Space Flight and
A multi-wavelength LED cold light source design method Terrestrial Applications〔C〕. //[ M. S. EI-Genk] space
is proposed to meet the need of a cosmetic phototherapy. Technology and Applications International Forum ,〔J〕.
The designed system combines the 455nm, 595nm, 630nm, American Institute of Physics,2000, 37-43.
661nm, and 828nm LED chips into a single light module. 5. Anderson R R, Margolis R J, Watenabe S, et al. Selective
Compared with the conventional phototherapies using laser Photothermolysis of Cutaneous Pigmentation by
or intense pulsed light, the proposed light source has the Q-switched Nd: YAG Laser Pulses at 1064, 532. and 355
advantages of improved safety and longer life time. The nm. [J]. Journal of Investigative Dermatology, 1989,
electrical design to drive the system is also proposed. The 93(1): 28-32.
system can be used in different photo-rejuvenating 6. Kim Keemss, Stephanie C. Pfaff, Matthias Born, et al.
applications, e.g. whitening and tendering skin, treating acne, Prospective, Randomized Study on the Efficacy and
by selecting different wavelengths. Another feature of this Safety of Local UV-Free Blue Light Treatment of
system is that the temperature of skin area exposed to the Eczema. [J]. Dermatology, 2016, 232(4): 496.
light can be monitored in real time to improve the safety of 7. Ren Guo. Research on Switching Power Supply Based on
the system. Experiments have been implemented to test the PSCAD/EMTDC [D]. Tianjin University, 2007.
radiant power density and uniformity. The result shows that 8. Chen J, Wang J P, Shen T Y, et al. High Precision
the maximally achievable power density of the system can be Infrared Temperature Measurement System Based on
up to 75mW/cm2; and the uniformity of spot is above 80%. Distance Compensation[J]. 2017, 12:03021.

36
S202-201808280913

A Single-stage LED Driver Using Step-Down Cuk/LLC with APWM-PFM Hybird Control

ZENG Lu，LIN Wei-ming

College of Electrical Engineering and Automation of Fuzhou University
Fuzhou，China
2398434849@qq.com,18779868749

Abstract: At present, the most of LED driver on the
market is designed for worldwide line (90Vac ~ 265Vac)
applications, and cannot meet the higher voltage input
applications. Therefore, step-down Cuk PFC is proposed to
be used in higher voltage input applications (277-480Vrms)
in the paper. A half-bridge LLC was used as a DC-DC
isolation unit of the single-stage converter and adopts an
APWM-PFM hybrid control strategy to solve the problem
that the conventional pulse frequency modulation (PFM)
control strategy leads to unsatisfactory input characteristics
of the single-stage circuit and keep the LLC circuit's soft
switching characteristics. Therefore, the single-stage resonant
converter proposed in this paper possess the advantages such
as low input and output current ripple, low stress of the
power switch and high system efficiency etc. A 100W
experimental prototype was built in the laboratory, which
verifies the feasibility of the proposed scheme. Within the
entire input voltage range, the zero-voltage switch-on of the
switch and the zero-current switch-off of the secondary diode
was obtained and the system efficiency achieves up to
91.65% @ the 310Vrms input voltage and rated load.
Key words: higher voltage line; single-stage LED driver;
APWM-PFM hybrid control; step-down Cuk/ LLC converter
1 Introduction
At present, most LED driver power supplies on the
power device, and keep the soft switching characteristics of
the LLC circuit.
2 The proposed Circuit Topology
Figure 1 is the integrated step-down Cuk and half bridge
LLC single-stage resonant LED driver circuit proposed by
this paper. AC input power supply vin, diodes D1~D5 and
D7, inductors L1 and L2, DC bus capacitor Cbus, MOS tube
S2 form a step-down Cuk PFC unit; diode D6, MOS tube S1
and S2, resonant capacitor Cr, resonant inductor Lr, high The
frequency transformer T, the diodes Ds1 and Ds2, and the
output capacitor Co constitute an LLC DC-DC unit.
Step-down Cuk and half bridge LLC circuits share the switch
S2 resulting integrated each other.
Compared with other circuits, the driver circuit mentioned
in this paper adopts the step-down Cuk circuit as the PFC
circuit, and the input and output sides both contain
inductance, which can reduce the output current ripple and
the volume of the input and output filters. Since the circuit
adopts the APWM-PFM hybrid control strategy and the buck
characteristic of the step-down Cuk circuit, the drive circuit
can be applied to high voltage input applications. Because of
the soft switching characteristics of the half-bridge LLC
circuit, the power switch losses are reduced and the total
efficiency is greatly improved.
step-down Cuk(PFC) LLC Resonant Converter(DC-DC)

market are designed for Worldwide line (90Vac ~ 265Vac) L1 Lr Ds1

applications. Therefore, it cannot be used in higher voltage T*
Cbus S *
Ns1 LED
D1 D3 Np Co
input applications, such as some high voltage power grids in 1
L2
North America and some industrial applications. With the Cr
*
Ns2
vin D5 D7
development of LED applications in various fields, research Ds2
on LED drive power for high-voltage applications is D6
indispensable. In addition, due to the nonlinearity of the LED D2 D4 C1
S2
driving power supply, Power Factor Correction (PFC) must
be used to meet the IEC61000-3-2 Class C standard [1]. The
traditional AC input LED driving power supply usually Fig 1 The proposed single-stage resonant LED driver
adopts a two-stage structure, the front stage is a power factor circuit
correction circuit, and the latter stage is a DC-DC conversion Iref APWM-PFM Drive Constant current output
circuit [2]. The two-stage structure of the drive power requires GC
control circuit
two independent control systems, so its cost and reliability
Vbus_ref
are poor [3].To reduce the cost and complexity two-stage Io k
structure, LED drivers based on single-stage circuit are Vbus
presented[4]-[7].
In order to apply LED drive converter to high voltage Fig 2 APWM-PFM hybrid control block diagram
input, this paper proposes an integrated step-down Cuk and 3 Operating Principle
half bridge LLC single-stage resonant converter. The the APWM-PFM hybrid control strategy adopted is
step-down Cuk works in discontinuous mode and adopts shown in Fig.2 in this paper. The APWM-PFM hybrid
APWM-PFM hybrid control strategy to control DC bus
control strategy introduces the DC bus voltage proportional
voltage, which improves the input characteristics of the feed forward control in the traditional PFM control strategy.
step-down Cuk PFC circuit, reduces the voltage stress of the which adjusts the switching tube duty cycle by the bus
voltage proportional feed forward control to control the DC

37
bus voltage, the output current feedback control adjusts the Mode 4 [t3<t<t4]: As shown in Fig. 4 (e), the switch S1 is
switching tube frequency fs to stabilize the output current. still turned on. Current across inductor L1 equal to that
To simplify circuit analysis, the following assumptions flowing in L2. At this stage, the resonant cavity state is the
are given: same as that of the mode 3.
1) ideal semiconductor devices; Mode 5[t4<t<t5]: As shown in Fig. 4 (f), the switch S1 is
2) Since the switching frequency is much higher than the still turned on. At this stage, the resonant current is equal to
line frequency, the AC input voltage does not change during the magnetizing current, and the secondary diode Ds1 is
each switching cycle; turned off at ZCS state.
3) The bus capacitance and output capacitance are large Mode 6[t5<t<t6]: As shown in Fig. 4 (g), at time t5, the
enough, and the bus voltage and output voltage are constant; switch S1 is turned off and enters the dead time. The resonant
4) ignore the EMI delete input filter; cavity state is the same as that of the mode 5.
The key parameter waveform diagram and seven vgs1(t), vgs2(t) vgs1(t) vgs2(t) vgs1(t)
vgs2(t)
operating modal equivalent circuit diagram of proposed t
ir(t)
circuit are shown in Fig.3 and Fig.4, respectively. Combined ir(t), iLm(t)
with Figure 3 and Figure 4, the working process of the circuit iLm(t)
t
is analyzed as follows: vLm(t)
Mode 1[t0<t<t1]: the multiplexed switch S2 is in the on
state, the freewheeling diode D5 is in the off state, and the t
vCr(t)
mode 1 can be divided into two working situations: as shown
in Fig. 4(a) and Fig. 4 ( b). The current flowing through the iDS1(t), iDS1(t) iDS1(t)
t
iDS2(t) iDS2(t)
switch S2 is the sum of the Cuk PFC unit output current icuk iDS2(t)

and the LLC resonant DC-DC unit current ir. vDS1(t)

t

1): As shown in Fig. 4(a), when the step-down Cuk output

current icuk is greater than the LLC current ir, the switch S1 is vDS2(t)
t

turned off and the switch S2 is turned on at ZCS state. The

t
Cuk inductor currents iL1 and iL2 rise linearly, and the iL1(t)
step-down Cuk stage transfers the input energy to the latter
t
stage LLC and the bus line capacitance Cbus. At the same time, iL2(t)
the voltage across the primary winding of the transformer is t0 t1 t2 t3 t4 t5 t6 t
clamped at nVo and the magnetizing current of the Fig 3 Key parameter waveform
transformer rises linearly. The secondary diode Ds1 conducts. il1 L1 icuk ir A Lr iDS1Ds1 il1 L1 icuk ir A Lr iDS1Ds1
2): As shown in Fig. 4(b), when the step-down Cuk output il2
Cbus icuk -ir *
T*
LED il2 ir-icuk
T*
LED
D1 D3 S Co D1 D3 Cbus *
Lm S1 Co
current icuk is less than the LLC current ir. The switch S1 is L2
1
L2
Lm
vin C * *
turned off, the switch S2 is turned on. The Cuk inductor D5 D7
r Ds2
vin D5 D7 Cr
Ds2
B B
currents iL1 and iL2 rise linearly and the bus capacitor Cbus is D
D4 C1 D6
D4
D6
D2 C1
S2 S2
in a discharged state. The LLC stage operating state is similar 2

to the above. （a） mode1[t0-t1] （b） mode1[t0-t1]

Mode 2[t1<t<t2]: As shown in Fig. 4(c), the switches S1
L il1 L1 Lr
and S2 are turned off and enter the dead time. The Cuk il1 L1 icuk ir A r iDS1 Ds1 Io icuk ir A Ds1
T* T*
il2 icuk-iris1 LED
il2 is1 LED
inductor currents iL1 and iL2 are freewheeled through the D1 D3 Cbus S
1 Lm
*
Co D1 D3 Cbus S
1 Lm
*
Co
L2 L2
diode D5. At the same time, a part of the resonant current vin D5 D7 C * vin D5 D7 Cr
*
Ds2
charges the junction capacitance of the switching transistor S2, is2 B
r Ds2
B
D6 iDS2 D6 iDS2
D
and another part is discharged to the junction capacitance of 2
D4 C1 S2
D4 C1
S2
the switching transistor S1 until the voltage across the
（c）mode2[t1-t2] （d）mode3[t2-t3]
junction capacitance of the switching transistor S1 is zero.
Thereafter, the resonant current flows through the body diode il1 L1 icuk ir A Lr
T*
Ds1 il1 L1 icuk ir A Lr
T*
Ds1 Io
is1 il2 is1
of the switch S1 to prepare for the zero voltage turn-on of the D1 D3
il2
Cbus S
1 Lm
*
Co
LED
D1 D3 Cbus S1 Lm
*
Co
LED

L2
switch S1. At this stage, the resonant current is greater than vin
L2
D5 D7 C * vin D5 D7 Cr
*

the magnetizing current, the secondary diode Ds1 continues to B

r Ds2
B
Ds2

DD D6 iDS2 D6
conduct, and the diode Ds2 is turned off . This phase ends 22
D4 C1
S2
D4 C1
S2
until the zero current turn-off of the diode Ds1.
Mode 3[t2<t<t3]: As shown in Fig. 4(d), at time t2, the （e）mode4[t3-t4] （f）mode5[t4-t5]
switch S1 is turned on at ZVS state, and the switch S2 is il1 L1 icuk ir A Lr i Ds1
iDS1 Io
T * DS1
turned off. The Cuk inductor currents i L1 and iL2 continue to D1 D3
il2 i -i is1
Cbus rS cuk *
Co
LED
1 Lm
flow down to the minimum through the diode D5. At the same vin
L2
C *
D5 D7
time, the voltage across the primary winding of the is2 B
r Ds2
D D6
transformer is clamped at -nVo, the magnetizing current of D
2
D4 C1
S2
2
the transformer decreases linearly. The resonant current is
greater than the magnetizing current, and the secondary diode （g）mode6[t5-t6]

Ds2 conducts. Fig 4 Different operating mode equivalent circuit diagram

38
 4 Experimental Results

vds(250V/div),vgs(25V/div)
In order to verify the feasibility and working
characteristics of the high-voltage input single-stage resonant

id(1.52A/div)
LED driver power supply proposed in this paper. Based on id
vds
DSP2812 digital control platform, an experimental prototype
is designed and fabricated. The circuit parameters are shown vgs
in Table 1.
Tab.1 circuit parameters t(5ms/div)
Parameters Value Part Name Description
v in 277~380V rms - id id
- ZCS ZCS
Io 2A - - vds
Po 100W - - vds
L 1、L 2 831 uH - - vgs vgs

C bus 440uF - - t(5us/div) t(5us/div)

Lm 275uH - -
Lr 58uH - - Fig 6 The waveform of driving voltage vgs, drain-source
C1 110nF - - voltage vds and current id of switch S2 @ 347Vrms, rated load
Cr 47nF - - id id

vds(100V/div),vgs(20V/div)

vds(100V/div),vgs(20V/div)
Co 470uF - -
30:16:16 -

id(2.5A/div)
Transformer T PQ32/30 zvs

id(2.5A/div)
S 1、S 2 - 15N95K5 950V/12A,R DS(on) =0.5Ω vds
Rectifier bridge - LLB10 1A/1000V,V F =0.95V vds
D 5 ~D 7 - GU1M 1A/1000V,V F =1.7V
vgs
D s1、D s2 - ER2D 2A/200V,V F=0.975V vgs
Figure 5 is a waveform of the input voltage vin and the
t(5ms/div) t(5ms/div)
input current iin at different effective value of AC input
voltages. It can be seen from the figure that the phase of the Fig 7 The waveform of driving voltage vgs, drain-source
input current and the input voltage are basically the same, voltage vds and current id of switch S1 @ 347Vrms, rated load
and the waveform is approximately sinusoidal. Due to the
vD (100V/div),vD (100V/div)

characteristics of the step-down PFC circuit, the input current iD S1

zcs
iD (2A/div),iD (2A/div)

has a dead zone. As the input voltage increases, the dead zone
vD
of the input current gradually reduced. S1
S2

S2
vin(280V/div),iin(1.52A/div)
vin(280V/div),iin(1.52A/div)

vin
vin
iin iin
iDS2 zcs
vDS2
S1
S1

t(10ms/div) t(10ms/div)
(a)Vin=277Vrms，Po=100W
t(5us/div)
(b)Vin=347Vrms，Po=100W
Fig 8 The waveform of secondary rectifier diode current and
vin(280V/div),iin(1.52A/div)

vin voltage of 347Vrms input voltage and rated load

iin
Under rated load, Figure 9 shows power factor PF, total
current harmonic distortion THD, It can be seen from the
figure that the PF value of the prototype is higher than 0.962
and the THD value is lower than 25.5% over the entire input
t(10ms/div) voltage range. Figure 10 is a comparison of the harmonic
(c)Vin=380Vrms，Po=100W
content of input current and the IEC61000-3-2 Class C
Fig 5 The waveform of input voltage vin and input current iin
standard. It can be seen from the figure that the harmonic
under different AC input voltage
content of the input current is lower than IEC61000-3-2 Class
Under 347Vrms input voltage and rated load, Figure 6 is
C standard value. Figure 11 shows the efficiency of the
the driving voltage vgs, the drain source voltage vds and the
whole machine. When the input voltage value is 311Vrms,
current id waveform of the switching transistor S2 , and the
the maximum efficiency of the prototype is 91.65%.
switch S2 achieves zero current turn-on (ZCS); Figure 7
shows the drive voltage vgs, drain-source voltage vds, and
current id waveform of the switch S1. As can be seen from the
figure, the switch S1 achieves zero-voltage turn-on (ZVS).
Figure 8 shows the secondary side rectifier diode current and
voltage waveforms, and the secondary side rectifier diodes
implement zero current shutdown (ZCS).

39
 0.98 0.3 Fig 10 Measured input current harmonics @ 347Vrms
0.974 0.29
and rated load
0.968 0.28 0.94

0.962 0.27 0.931

0.956 0.26 0.922

0.913
PF 0.95 0.25 THD
0.904
0.944 0.24
 0.895
0.938 0.23
0.886
0.932 0.22
0.877
0.926 0.21
0.868
0.92 0.2
270 282 294 306 318 330 342 354 366 378 390 0.859
V in 0.85
270 282 294 306 318 330 342 354 366 378 390
Fig 9 Measured PF and THD curve versus input voltage V in

Fig 11 Measured efficiency versus input voltage at rated load

5 Conclusion
For higher voltage input applications, an integrated
step-down Cuk and half-bridge LLC single-stage resonant

LED driver was proposed in this paper. The defects of high on Industrial Electronics, vol. 60, no. 7, pp. 2614-2626,
bus voltage and high switching stress of the conventional July 2013.
Boost PFC is overcome by using the step-down Cuk circuit. [6]Ma H, Zheng C, Yu W, et al. Bridgeless electrolytic
In addition, the APWM-PFM hybrid control strategy is capacitor-less valley-fill AC/DC converter for offline
adopted to solve the problem that the input characteristics of twin-bus light-emitting diode lighting application[J]. Iet
the single-stage circuit are not ideal due to the traditional Power Electronics, 2013, 6(6):1132-1141.
pulse frequency modulation (PFM) control strategy and the [7]Gacio D, Alonso J M, Calleja A J, et al. A Universal-Input
soft switching characteristic of the LLC circuit is kept. The Single-Stag2e High-Power-Factor Power Supply for
100W experimental prototype was built and tested to prove HB-LEDs Based on Integrated Buck–Flyback
the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed circuit. Converter[J]. IEEE Transactions on Industrial
Within the designed input voltage range, zero-voltage turn-on Electronics, 2011, 58(2):589-5.
of the switch and zero-current turn-off of the secondary diode
was realized in the circuit. The total efficiency achieves up to
91.65 and the PF value achieves up to 0.97 and the THD
value is less than 25.5%.
References
[1] IEC，IEC61000-3-2：2001，Limits for harmonic current
emissions （equipment input current ≤16A）,2001.
[2]Guan Leshi. Research on multi-composite single-level
LED drive system based on LLC[D]. Harbin Institute of
Technology, 2015.
[3]Guan Leshi, Wang Yujie, Wang Wei, et al. Single Stage
AC/DC Converter Based on Critical Mode Boost Circuit
and LLC Resonant Circuit[J]. Transactions of China
Electrotechnical Society, 2016, 31(11):41-50.
[4]H. Ma, J. Lai, Q. Feng, W. Yu, C. Zheng and Z. Zhao, "A
Novel Valley-Fill SEPIC-Derived Power Supply Without
Electrolytic Capacitor for LED Lighting Application,"
in IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 27, no.
6, pp. 3057-3071, June 2012.
[5]D. G. Lamar, M. Arias, A. Rodriguez, A. Fernandez, M.
M. Hernando and J. Sebastian, "Design-Oriented
Analysis and Performance Evaluation of a
Low-Cost ]High-Brightness LED Driver Based on
Flyback Power Factor Corrector," in IEEE Transactions

40
41
S202-201809061711
Visible Light Communication Audio Signal Transmission System Design
JIANG Xiao-tong; GAO Huan; LI Ping
Dalian Polytechnic University School of Information Science and Engineering
Address: No. 1 light industry garden, Ganjingzi district, Dalian City
Phone:13609868241 Email:690493083@qq.com
Abstract
LEDs have excellent modulation characteristics and
enable illumination and transmission of audio signals
simultaneously. A set of point-to-point visible light audio
transmission system is constructed. The performance of the
audio transmission system is studied by using the
oscilloscope waveform. The influence of different
transmission distance and receiving half angle on the
amplitude value parameters are discussed. At the
transmitting end, the audio signal transmitted by the MP3
player is amplified and stabilized by the amplifying circuit,
the LED is driven, the electro-optical conversion is
completed, the receiving end uses the photodetector for
photoelectric conversion, and the signal is amplified and
divided by the amplification filter and the low-pass filter.
Finally get a saturated distortion-free audio signal. The
results show that the system's ultimate transmission
distance is 2m, and gradually decreases as the distance and
the receiving half angle increase.
Preface
The visible light communication technology (VLC) is a
short-range wireless optical communication, and the visible
light source is used as the terminal to realize the function of
lighting and high-speed wireless communication [1]. With
the advantages of high brightness, low power consumption,
long service life, small size and green environment
protection, white LED is regarded as the fourth-generation
energy-saving and environment-friendly lighting source [2-4].
With this feature, the audio can be modulated to the LED's
visible light while the lighting is completed. Large-scale
use of white LED can make green lighting at the same time
complete signal transmission. Compared with traditional
radio frequency communication and microwave
communication systems, VLC has the advantages of high
emission power, no occupation of radio spectrum, no
electromagnetic interference and electromagnetic radiation,
and energy saving [5-6].
This paper set up a set of audio signal transmission
system of visible light LED, white LED the divergent
Angle is bigger to the safety of the large range of signal
transmission, LED by driving the input audio signal
modulation to the LED light, has realized the transmission
of information. Traditional lens size is large, lens thickness
and system receiving end are not suitable to match, in the
transmission process of low concentration efficiency, light
attenuation. In order to improve the convergent efficiency
of the receiving end of the system, the optical signal is
collected by using Fresnel lens before the photodetector of
the receiving end. The communication mode compared
with the traditional cable transmission structures, simple,
reduce the environment pollution of electromagnetic
42
radiation pollution, with low communication cost,
transmission quickly, the output signal of saturation
distortion, low energy consumption, large transmission
power, etc, puts forward a new idea for the "green
communication".
LED visible light communication system
LED visible light communication transmits data
through optical signals, using point-to-point transmission of
data and using air as a medium, without electromagnetic
pollution, and no radiation damage to the human body. The
LED visible light communication system is similar in
structure to the optical fiber communication system,
including three major parts: transmission, channel
transmission, and reception. After the initial binary bit
stream is modulated by pre-processing and coding, after the
LED is driven, its intensity is modulated, and the electrical
signal is converted into an optical signal and sent to the
space, and the high-rate optical signal is not blocked by the
human eye. It is perceived that the basic lighting needs of
the space are achievable. The photodetector converts the
optical signal transmitted through the air into an electrical
signal, and finally demodulates and denoises the electrical
signal for the original signal.
Because the device and channel will distort the signal
transmission band, the LED response bandwidth and
transmission rate can be improved by preprocessing after
the signal conversion and compensating for the distortion.
However, the equalization adopted by the receiver is to
compensate the loss of other channels, such as phase noise.
Coding and modulation techniques are used for high
transmission rate systems with limited bandwidth. As a
result of the visible light communication bandwidth limits
the transmission rate of white LED communication system,
so the design adopted in advanced coding and modulation
technology, improve the efficiency of frequency spectrum,
thus achieve the goal of high speed transmission..
Modulation Drive Photoelectric Signal processing Demodulation
FSO
LED
encoder module detection module code
Fig.1 Visible light communication system
System design and implementation The system design
The LED visible digital audio transmission system is
shown in Figure 2. The entire system includes a transmitter
circuit, an LED lamp bead, a photodetector, and a receiver
circuit. At the transmitting end, the MP3 audio signal is
amplified and loaded onto the LED to drive the LED to
emit light, thereby generating a high-speed flickering
optical signal that varies with the amplitude of the audio
signal. Due to the visual persistence characteristic of the
human eye, when the frequency is above 50 Hz, the human
eye cannot detect this flicker. In order to collimate the light,
a lens is placed in front of the LED of the transmitting end.
The optical signal is transmitted in a free-space channel in
the form of a beam of light, at which the photodetector will
receive the optical signal and convert it into an electrical
signal. The signal is amplified and demodulated and Focal Length
denoised in the processing circuit to finally obtain a
saturated and undistorted signal.
Fig.4 Fresnel lens
LED LED The point-to-point visible light audio transmission
Audio Drive system has higher requirements for the concentrating
signal circuit efficiency of the receiving end, and the receiving surface of
the receiving end is small enough to concentrate the optical
Processing signal on one receiving surface, so the Fresnel lens is
Speaker
circuit applied to the receiving end detector, so that the
PD concentrating performance of the receiving end is improved
Fig.2 Audio transmission system
to improve the communication performance of the entire
Circuit design
system.
(1) Design of transmitter end
The circuit diagram of the transmitting circuit is shown Vcc
Rc1 15V
in Figure 3. The function of the transmitting end is to Rb1 5.1k
transmit the received audio signal to the LED and drive the 33k T2
T1 C2
LED to complete the conversion of electrical signal to + 10μF
optical signal. Rb3 V0
100Ω
Transmission circuit for integrating amplifier circuit, a C1 Re2
Re1 22μF
transistor input circuit and the base power Vi, it and Rb1, Rb, Rb2 2k 3.2k RL
RL, RLED jointly determine the appropriate set of base Vi 13.3k 4.7k
current, the output of the transistor circuit and collector VCC
power supply, it provide the collector current and output
current. When the AC signal Vi is input, generate dynamic -
base current ib, carry on all current IBQ, through the Fig. 5 Receiving circuit
emission current of the transistor get magnified, iE the ac Fig.5 receiving circuit for two levels of direct coupling
component, iE on the emitter resistance and light-emitting amplifier circuit, the first level for a total of amplifying
diodes to produce ac voltage is the output voltage. In circuit, the second amplifying circuit for a total set, Rc1
Figure 3, the coupling capacitor C functions as a both as collector of primary resistance, and resistance as
rectification, and transistor T1 amplifies the signal. The RL the base of the second stage. In all states, the pressure drop
is designed to limit the current and prevent LED from UCEQ1 of T1 tube is equal to the voltage UBEQ2 between b
burning out due to excessive current. and e of T2 tube. T1 for silicon tube, UBEQ2 is about 0.7 V,
mA Vcc the T1 are state of the working point nearly saturated zone,
5.2V
RC on the emission level of the T2 tube resistance Re2 to
Rb1 35Ω enhance the potential of T2 tube base, prevent dynamic
200Ω
C Rb signal distortion caused by saturation. Capacitance C2
100Ω
T1 ACTS as a rectification, RL as an output impedance
22μF
matching resistor, and C1 as a capacitor coupling.
LED （3）Subsequent circuit design
Rb2 GND
Vi 500Ω
RL C1
35Ω 10μF
R3
C2 10k Ls
+
Fig.3 Transmitter circuit A
1μF -
C4
(2) Receiver design 2200μF speaker
The role of the receiving end is to achieve photoelectric RL
R2 GND
conversion of the signal and to minimize the distortion rate 1M
200k
and noise to obtain the original signal transmitted through R1
10k
the air channel without distortion. Therefore, the signal
10μF
characteristics output at the receiving end can show the GND
C3
performance of the entire system.

43
Fig.6 Subsequent circuit
The electrical signal after the conversion of the
receiving circuit is processed by the amplifier and
transmitted to the speaker to play the music. Figure 6
shows the subsequent circuit. R1R2 is the negative feedback
of the voltage, C3R1 is the high-pass filter, C1R3 is the
low-pass filter, and C4 is the output coupling capacitor.
Performance study
In order to study the performance of the visible light
communication audio signal transmission system, test it
indoors, observe the audio signal in the visible light
transmission effect, use oscilloscope waveform measured
to get the basic experiment data. The audio signal emitted
by the MP3 player is loaded onto the light source LED,
which drives the LED to emit light, and the electrical signal
is modulated into the light signal with the change of optical
carrier intensity. The receiving end inputs the electrical
signal into the subsequent circuit and plays the signal into
the loudspeaker music through amplification and filtering,
so as to obtain the original audio signal and complete the
demodulation of the optical signal. The limit transmission
of the system is 2m, and the waveform diagram of the
oscilloscope is shown in Figure 7. It can be seen that the
output signal disappears completely into white noise, the
signal stops transmission, and the loudspeaker music
disappears. In the communication distance is 1 m, in
receiving the angle of 0 °waveform diagram as shown in
Figure 8, by adjusting the magnification of the power
amplifier transmitter and the receiver amplitude value than
1.
Fig. 7 Range 2m oscilloscope waveform
44
Fig. 8 Receive a half angle 0°oscilloscope waveform at a
distance of 1m
Distance in order to study the influence on the
performance of the audio transmission system, to set the
transmission distance, between 1 m to 2 m, waveform to
make use of the oscilloscope to observe and record the
transmitting terminal and receiving end amplitude values.
Ar
The amplitude value ratio formula is: （1） R 
At
Ar is the amplitude value of the transmitting end, and At
is the amplitude value of the receiving end. By adjusting
the amplification factor of the power amplifier, the
communication distance of the communication system is 1
meter, and when the receiving angle is 0°, the ratio of the
amplitude value of the transmitting end to the receiving end
is 1. The relationship between the amplitude value and the
distance is shown in Fig. 9. The voltage at the transmitting
end is 5V. As the distance increases, the amplitude value
ratio gradually decreases. The amplitude ratios are 1 and
0.4 at distances of 1m and 2m, respectively. Appropriate
increase of power when the transmission distance is 2m can
achieve stable output of the audio signal.
1.0
Amplitude ratio
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2.0
Distance(m)
Fig. 9 Amplitude ratio curve with distance
The transmission distance is kept at 1 m, and the rest
of the conditions are unchanged. The LED of the
transmitting end is directly opposite to the photodetector,
and the receiving angle of the photodetector is changed.
Observe the oscilloscope waveform and record the
amplitude values of the transmitter and receiver. The
relationship between the amplitude value ratio and the
receiving half angle is as shown in Fig. 10, and the
receiving half angle increasing amplitude value ratio is
lowered. When the receiving half angle is 0°, the amplitude
value ratio is 1, and the transmission performance at this
time is optimal.
 HAO JIE，etc. Audio demonstrator based on LED visible
light communication [J]. Physical bulletin，2015,21（8）：
1.0 82-85.
Amplitude ratio

0.5

0.0
0° 5° 10° 15° 20° 25°
Fig.10 Amplitude ratio curve with receiving half angle
Conclusion
Use of LED to build visible light communication audio
transmission system realized the transmission of audio
signals in the visible light, the system structures, simple,
low cost, can be performed within the transmission distance
of 2 m transmission, to transmit at the same time both
lighting and in the process of transmission is not affected
by the background light, the output signal saturation
distortion, not play the music is clear. At the same time,
energy conservation and environmental protection provide
a new solution to the serious shortage of radio frequency
band resources. The good transmission effect and principle
of audio signal in visible light communication show the
development prospect of visible light communication. In
the future research direction, more and more people will
participate in it, greatly promoting the development of
visible light communication. However, there are many
technologies that need to be optimized, such as modulation
coding and bandwidth expansion, which need to be further
studied.
References：
1. LEE K，PARK H，BARRY J R. Indoor Channel
Characteristics for Visible Light Communications [J].IEEE
Communications Letters，2011，15(2)：217-219.
2. LUO HONG TU， CHEN CHANG YING， FU
QIAN，etc. Key Technology of White Light LED Indoor
Visible Light Communication [J]. Optical communication
technology，2011,35（2）：56-59.
3. LIU ZHANG HONG，LV XIAO YAN，WANG FA
QIANG，etc. Current Status and Development of Visible
Light Communication for White LED Lighting [J]. Optical
communication technology，2007（7）：53-56.
4. WANG XU DONG，XU XIAN YING，WU NAN，
etc. Dimming control technology for indoor visible OFDM
communication system [J]. Photonics Journal ，2015,44
（11）：1106002.
5. LI ZHI QUAN，XIE RUI JIE，WANG CONG，etc.
Audio transmission system based on white light LED
visible light communication [J]. Journal of Luminescence，
2016,37(7)：852-857.
6. QUE DE KUAN， HUANG XING ZHOU，WEI

45
S203-201808151555

Effects of Light Quality on Physiological Characteristics of Tomato Seedlings

Zhang Tong1, Chi Jianyi2,*,Zhang Yao2, Li Chengyu1,*, Zhang Hongjie1,Zhou Xiao2, Qin Xinmiao3,Wang Qiang2
(1Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry Chinese Academy of Sciences, changchun, Jilin 13002, China; 2Baotou Rare
Earth Research and Development Center, Chinese Academy of Science, Baotou, Inner Mongolia 014030, China;3Baotou
Zhongke Ruifeng Technology Company Limited, Baotou, Inner Mongolia 014030, China)
Author for correspondence E-mail: cyli@ciac.ac.cn; chijianyi@btzkxt.cn

Abstract The treatment numbers and corresponding light conditions are

The effects of natural light and artificial light on shown in Table 1. The specific time of light supplement
chlorophyll and related enzyme activities in tomato seedling equipment is shown in Table 2. 35 days after budding,
leaves were studied by using LED lighting in a growth samples were taken to determine relevant indicators.
chamber. The results showed that： Under the condition of Table 1. Numbering and corresponding treatment measures
natural light source as main light source, supplementation of Number Corresponding treatment measures
ultraviolet (UV), violet (P), yellow (Y) could significantly
increase the content of chlorophyll a; supplementation of D12-01 Natural light + Ultraviolet (UV) 385 nm--12 h/d
ultraviolet (UV), red (R), yellow (Y) can significantly D12-02 Natural light + Violet (P) 400 nm--12 h/d
increase the content of chlorophyll b; supplementation of
ultraviolet light (UV), red (R) can significantly increase the D12-03 Natural light + Yellow (Y)580 nm--12 h/d
content of carotenoids. Ultraviolet (UV) and violet (P) were D12-04 Natural light + Red (R)620 nm--12 h/d
beneficial to increase the activities of SOD, POD and CAT in Natural light + Ultraviolet (UV)385 nm + Yellow
tomato seedling leaves, while red (R) and yellow (Y) light D12-05
(Y)580 nm--12 h/d
reduced the activities of SOD, POD and CAT. Natural light + Ultraviolet (UV)385 nm + Red
Introduction D12-06
(R)620 nm--12 h/d
Light is one of the major environmental factors affecting Natural light + Violet (P)400 nm + Yellow (Y)580
plants’ physiological and biochemical processes [1]. It not D12-07
nm--12 h/d
only provides energy for photosynthesis, but also provides Natural light + Violet (P)400 nm + Red (R)620
optical signals for plants’ growth and development [2-3]. D12-08
nm--12 h/d
Light quality, light intensity and photoperiod have certain Natural light + Red (R)620 nm + Yellow (Y)580
regulatory effects on plants’ growth and development, D12-09
nm--12 h/d
morphogenesis and physiological metabolism [4-8]. Many
studies have shown that light intensity can affect the D14-01 Natural light + Ultraviolet (UV)385 nm--14 h/d
accumulation of plant assimilates [9-10]. Light quality affects D14-02 Natural light + Violet (P)400 nm--14 h/d
the way chlorophyll absorbs light [11-12]. With the rapid
D14-03 Natural light + Yellow (Y)580 nm--14 h/d
development of intensive agriculture such as indoor
cultivation, stereo planting, and plant factories, artificial D14-04 Natural light + Red (R)620 nm--14 h/d
lighting has become an important technology in the field of Natural light + Ultraviolet (UV)385 nm + Yellow
protected cultivation [13]. It is of great significance to study D14-05
(Y)580 nm--14 h/d
the relationship between artificial light conditions and plants’ Natural light + Ultraviolet (UV)385 nm + Red
growth, strengthen the basic links [14], and provide strong D14-06
(R)620 nm--14 h/d
seedlings for protected cultivation to achieve standardized Natural light + Violet (P)400 nm + Yellow (Y)580
management and efficient production [5][15-16]. At present, D14-07
nm--14 h/d
how to use LED artificial lighting to optimize the horticultural Natural light + Violet (P)400 nm + Red (R)620
light condition has become one of the current research D14-08
nm--14 h/d
focuses. Natural light + Red (R)620 nm + Yellow (Y)580
Materials and Methods D14-09
nm--14 h/d
Materials and treatments: On January 19, 2018,
D-CK Natural light
tomato CM966 was selected for the experiment. After being
sterilized, soaked in warm water and germinated, the samples Notes: the proportion of composite artificial light used in
were planted in 72-hole seedlings in the greenhouse on the experiment is 1:1.
January 23, 2018 (grass ash: vermiculite = 2:1). Each variety Artificial light source equipment (LED) used in the test
is planted 6 seedlings for each light condition. They were process was developed by Changchun Institute of Applied
watered well every 2-3 days. And when they grew two leaves Chemistry Chinese Academy of Sciences, and produced by
and a terminal bud, the artificial lighting was conducted every China Science Rare Earth (Changchun) Co.
morning and evening. The photon flux density is 220±20
μmol/(m2·s). Two photoperiods were set in the experiment:
natural light time + artificial light time of group A was 12 h,
natural light time + artificial light time of group B was 14 h.

46
 Table 2. Enable time of artificial light source device
Total illumination time in group A: 12 h Total illumination time in group B: 14 h
Month
Morning fill time Evening filling time Morning fill time Evening filling time
January 6:30-9:00 16:20-18:30 6:30-9:00 16:20-20:30
February 6:30-8:50 17:00-18:30 6:30-8:50 17:00-20:30
March 6:30-8:10 17:30-18:30 6:30-8:10 17:30-20:30

Measurement item and measurement method: The
chlorophyll content was determined by colorimetry.
Superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and peroxidase
(POD) activity were measured by hydroxylamine method,
visible light method, and colorimetric method, respectively.
Repeat 3 times per treatment.
Data analysis: The experimental data were analyzed by
SPSS17.0 statistical software. The figures were draw by
Origin Pro 8 software.
Results and analysis
Effects of light quality on chlorophyll content:
Compared with the control group (with natural light),
supplementing ultraviolet light (UV), violet light (P), and
yellow light (Y) could significantly increase the content of
chlorophyll a; supplementing ultraviolet light (UV), red light
(R), and yellow light (Y) could significantly increase the
content of chlorophyll b; supplementing ultraviolet light (UV)
and Red light (R) could significantly increase the content of
carotenoids (see Table 3). The content of chlorophyll a and
chlorophyll b with different light conditions decreased slightly
as daylight time increased.
Some experiments showed that yellow light could increase
the content of chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b in leaves of
lettuce, promote the photosynthetic rate [17], red light could
significantly increase the content of chlorophyll in leaves of
seedlings, yellow and green light could significantly reduce
the content of chlorophyll, and inhibit the growth of seedlings
[5]. Dong Fei et al. showed that chlorophyll content was the
highest in leaves of seedlings treated with 1:1 ratio of red to
blue, but the net photosynthetic rate was lower than that of the
control, which indicated that the chlorophyll content of leaves
could not fully reflect the photosynthetic capacity of leaves
[18]. When the ratio of red to blue was 7:3, the chlorophyll
content of cucumber seedlings was significantly higher than
that of white fluorescent lamp, which was the most suitable
proportion of LED light source for cucumber seedlings[19]. In
red and blue light (R+B), yellow light (Y) was beneficial to
the formation of photosynthetic pigments in spinach leaves
and promoted the growth of spinach [20]; yellow light (Y) and
violet light (P) were beneficial to improve the photosynthetic
potential of cherry tomato and alleviate red and blue light
(R+B) stress [21].

Table 3. chlorophyll content in each treatment

Chlorophyll a Chlorophyll b Carotenoid Chlorophyll a Chlorophyll b Carotenoid
Treatment Treatment
(mg/g) (mg/g) (mg/g) (mg/g) (mg/g) (mg/g)
D12-01 0.14±0.006e 0.16±0.002b 0.71±0.007b D14-01 0.11±0.001c 0.03±0.002ef 1.77±0.018a
D12-02 0.07±0.001f 0.04±0.001e 0.77±0.031b D14-02 0.22±0.004a 0.03±0.001fg 0.79±0.031c
D12-03 0.18±0.004cd 0.12±0.001c 0.42±0.004e D14-03 0.15±0.004b 0.30±0.003a 0.58±0.023d
D12-04 0.16±0.002de 0.06±0.002de 0.55±0.006cd D14-04 0.17±0.007b 0.05±0.002de 0.76±0.015c
D12-05 0.24±0.010ab 0.14±0.006bc 0.80±0.040b D14-05 0.21±0.010a 0.02±0.001g 0.28±0.008f
D12-06 0.20±0.010bc 0.32±0.003a 0.69±0.021b D14-06 0.22±0.009a 0.18±0.009b 0.46±0.019ef
D12-07 0.26±0.011a 0.05±0.001e 0.38±0.008e D14-07 0.23±0.009a 0.06±0.001d 0.34±0.007f
D12-08 0.12±0.006ef 0.07±0.001d 0.46±0.017de D14-08 0.08±0.002c 0.13±0.006c 1.15±0.046b
D12-09 0.14±0.005e 0.29±0.009a 0.99±0.039a D14-09 0.07±0.003d 0.28±0.011a 0.53±0.005de
D-CK 0.15±0.004e 0.04±0.001e 0.06±0.010f D-CK 0.15±0.004e 0.04±0.001e 0.06±0.010f

47
Effects of different light qualities on activities of enzymes:
The activity of SOD, POD and CAT in seedlings under
different light qualities is a good indicator to reflect the stress
resistance of seedlings [22]. The results showed that compared
with the control group, SOD activity increased by 16.22%
under natural light + ultraviolet light (UV) 14 h/d, CAT
activity increased by 173.13% under natural light + violet
(P)+ yellow light (Y) 14 h/d and POD activity increased by
49.03% under natural light + violet (P) + yellow light (Y) 14 h
/ d (see Figure 4). This indicated that ultraviolet light (UV)
and violet light (P) contributed to increasing the activity of
SOD, POD and CAT in the leaves of tomato seedlings
whereas Red light (R) and yellow light (Y) supplements
caused the activity of SOD, POD and CAT to decrease. In the
control group, the activity of SOD and POD decreased with
the increase of daylight time and CAT activity increased
slightly. Although the supplement of violet light (P)
contributed to increasing the activity of antioxidant enzymes,
the increase of daylight time slowed down its rate. The results
of this study were consistent with those of Wang Hong et al.
The results showed that the content of antioxidant enzymes in
cucumber seedling leaves could be maintained at a higher
level under the light intensity of 12 h/d and 350 μmol/(m2·s),
and the senescence of cucumber seedlings could be slowed
down effectively[23].
Fig. 1. Changes of enzyme activity under different light
qualities
Studies have shown that monochrome red or blue light
(R+B) can significantly increase anthocyanin content in
tomato seedlings [24]. Red light was beneficial to
carbohydrate accumulation in tomato seedling leaves at 12 h /
D and 50 μmol/(m2·s) [6], while blue light (B) could increase
the activity of antioxidant enzymes in cucumber
seedlings[25]. Studies have shown that artificial LED Red
light (R), green light and blue light (B) can significantly
improve the tomato seedling index [Error! Reference source
not found.]. When the light hours extended to 12 and 14
hours, the seedling index increased significantly by [5].
Therefore, adding artificial light sources to greenhouse
48
seedlings can effectively improve the quality of seedling
raising.
Conclusions
1. Supplementary ultraviolet (UV), violet light (P), yellow
(Y) can significantly increase the content of chlorophyll a,
supplementary ultraviolet (UV), red (R), yellow (Y) can
significantly increase the content of chlorophyll b,
supplementary ultraviolet (UV), red light (R) can significantly
increase the content of carotenoids.
2. Ultraviolet light (UV) and violet light (P) contributes to
increasing the activity of SOD, POD and CAT in the leaves of
tomato seedlings, whereas Red light (R) and yellow light (Y)
will reduce the activity of SOD, POD and CAT. Although the
supplement of violet light (P) contributes to increasing the
activity of antioxidant enzymes, the increase of daylight time
slows down the rate of increase of antioxidant enzyme
activity.
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49
S203-201809122013
Comparison of Two LED Spectrum Engineering Approaches for Horticulture Lighting
Yue Zhuo, Guoxi Sun, Youpu Ke, Chongyu Shen, Jay Guoxu Liu
ShineOn (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd.
3/F, Building#3, Digital Planet, No.58, 5thJinghai Road, BDA, Beijing, China 100176
Abstract
With the improved efficiency of LED light sources and
fast cost reduction in recent years, LED light sources have
entered into indoor urban agriculture and vertical farming. At
present, LED light sources for horticulture lighting have two
main approaches to achieve required light spectra, one is
monochromatic LED package and the other LED package
with mixed spectra of phosphor converted light. This paper
analyzes and compares these two LED spectrum-engineering
approaches. The implementation methods and applicable
scenarios of plant lighting will also be discussed.
1. Demand Increases for Urban Agriculture
As of year 2016, China's urban population has reached
57.35% (by China National Bureau of Statistics), the world's
urban population reached 54.29%, and by 2050, 70% of the
world's population will become urban population (United
Nations, world population trends). As a result, the demand for
urban agriculture will increase significantly. Considered as a
typical type of urban agriculture, plant factories now carry out
large-scale production of vegetables, seedlings, and Chinese
herbs. Taking lettuce as an example, the production efficiency
of unit land area is about 200 times in plant factories than in
open fields[1]. Meanwhile plant factory usually has production
and sales at same location which greatly reduces
transportation cost of the goods, streamlines the sales channel
to reduce cost, and ensures the freshness of goods. In near
future it might become the primary source of vegetables for
urban population.
2. Advantages of LEDs in Horticulture Lighting
At present, horticulture lighting uses mainly high-pressure
sodium lamp and LED light source. Using LEDs as the main
source of plant factory has advantages of higher
electro-optical conversion efficiency, longer usage life, less
heat exposure even placed close to plant, leading to improved
photosynthetic photon flux density and space utilization. All
these make LED the cost-effective way for urban agriculture.
Furthermore, LED system could have tunable and controllable
spectra to be tailored for different plant types at different plant
growth stages. Additionally people can make use of various
types or shapes of LED lamps, strip lights, bulbs, linear lights
and spotlights to cover all power requirements and different
lighting configurations.[2]
3. Two LED Spectrum Engineering Approaches
3.1. Monochromatic LED Package
The spectrum of this packaging approach is solely derived
from LED chip which is attached to a substrate or leadframe
then encapsulated with transparent silicone for protection of
the chip. The most commonly used monochromatic LED for
horticulture lighting have the following wavelengths: 400 nm
UV-A, 450 nm blue light, 660 nm red light, 730 nm far red
light. Among them, 450 nm blue light and 660 nm red light
are used to match the absorption spectrum of chlorophyll
(Fig.1) and promote photosynthesize process.
50
Fig.1 the absorption spectrum of chlorophyll
Utilizing high-power ceramic packaging platform of
LEDs, these single color source can be 3-5 Watt each and
easily adopted in high-bay light fixture of greenhouse
cultivation. They usually have high photosynthetic photon
flux efficiency (PPF/W) due to molded silicone lens as first
optics. The efficiency could be 3.0μmol/J or higher. These
single color sources can be powered separately with
intelligent multi-channel lighting control system to enable
dynamic color ratio adjustment, like red to blue ratio,
Cost of monochromatic LED packages is much higher
than phosphor converted ones, mainly due to high cost of red
LED chips and separate driving IC for different LEDs. The
spectrum uniformity is also poor and one needs to leave large
space between light source and plant to help color mixing.
The cost and complexity of the overall system are also an
issue if dynamic control is required.
3.2. LED Package with mixed spectra of phosphor converted
light
This approach uses a blue chip to excite single or multiple
phosphors and achieve specific spectrum required for plant
growth by adjusting phosphor recipe. The blue chip is usually
bonded to a low cost plastic lead-frame chip carrier (PLCC),
and then encapsulated with phosphor mixed silicone.
This approach can accurately match the spectrum recipe
required for different plants at different growth stages by
changing the recipe of phosphors. Taking advantage of fully
commercialized white LED lighting industry, one can easily
get well controlled blue dies and stable phosphors of various
emitting wavelength and spectral width to achieve large scale
production with consistent photoelectric performance and cost
advantage over monochromatic color LED approach. As the
full width at half maximum (FWHM) of phosphor spectrum is
wider than that of monochromatic chip, the spectrum
continuity is better which helps to balance between plant
growth and human perception of lighting effect to the objects
as well as surrounding environment.
However, there are a few drawbacks for this approach.
With common mid-power PLCC package platforms of 2835,
3030, or 5630, photosynthetic photon flux efficiency is
generally lower than that of ceramic package with dome lens
which is typically used for the monochromatic LEDs. For
different spectrum, the efficiency is approximately 2.4-2.6
μmol/J at 0.5 W and 2.2-2.4 μmol/J at 1W. The rated power is
1.5W or less due to limited thermal dissipation capability of
PLCC package design.

3.3. Characteristics of these two spectrum engineering

approaches
3.3.1. Spectrum and lighting Effect
According to the absorption spectrum of chlorophyll
(Fig.1), blue light and red light are important spectrum
Fig.4 CIE of phosphor converted LED
components for photosynthesis effect. However, the spectra of
other colors also promote plant growth as green light can
Figure 3 is an example of horticulture spectrum with
synergize with red and blue light to synthesize pigments, help
phosphor solution by mixing 520 nm green phosphor and 660
plants to coloring, and illuminate the bottom leaves through
nm red phosphor excited by blue LED die. Its spectrum ratios
the canopy of the plant, increasing the photosynthetic rate of
of Blue: Red = 1:3, Red: Far Red = 4.8:1 are suitable for leafy
the bottom leaves to increase plant growth potential, yellow
vegetables[4][5][6], fruits and flowers, while the color
light has the advantage of sprouting and tillering, and far red
coordinates meet the ANSI 3500K tolerance (Fig.4). With
light as a plant signal source is conducive to plant
high color rendering index of 90, it also brings comfortable
elongation[3].
lighting effect for human eyes.
In order to achieve the same spectrum ratio, the
monochromatic LED needs to be combined with a number of
LEDs of 450 nm, 520 nm, 585 nm, 660 nm, and 730 nm.
These LED chips normally have different electrical properties
and difficult to manage for balanced output and life time color
shift. The spectrum of the above five monochromatic LEDs is
set to the ratio of blue: green : yellow : red : far red =
12:24:20:35:9 as shown in Fig.5. To implement a lamp like
this, it is time-consuming and cost-inhibit.

Fig.2 Spectrum comparison of two approaches with B:R=1:2

Figure 2 shows two spectrum approaches having the same

spectrum ratio of B:R=1:2. The phosphor converted LED has
wider FWHM in the red portion, and provides a small amount
of yellow and far-red light in addition to red light. The
monochromatic LED has narrow spectrum width which helps
energy utilization rate in photosynthesis. For more complex
spectra, the phosphor converted LED can be continuously and
accurately adjusted by changing the ratio of phosphors, which Fig.5 Spectrum of monochromatic light LED
is convenient to implement while monochromatic LEDs
require the use of multiple color-LEDs for combination in the
lamp, requiring more complex control circuitry and making it
more difficult to implement. 3.3.2. Cost comparison
Taking a 3.0 mm × 3.0 mm package for example, the cost
structures of the monochromatic LED and the phosphor
converted LED are shown in Table 1.

Table 1 cost structure of two approaches

Component Lead Blue Red
Type Phosphor
-frame Chip Chip
Monochr- Blue yes no yes no
omatic Red yes no no yes
Phosphor -converted yes yes yes no
Fig.3 Spectrum of phosphor converted LED

We compared the total cost with the following assumptions:

• Lamp type: T8 tube，1.2m, 36W
• Target spectrum: B(400-500nm):R(600-700nm)=1:8

51
• Package type: monochromatic LED, 1W each, 4pcs blue
and 32pcs red. The phosphor converted LED, 36pcs of
1W each.
• The cost of monochrome blue LED and phosphor
converted LED is roughly the same and set to unity.
In order to eliminate edge effect, only the irradiance data
of the center portion is plotted in Fig.9 and 10, wherein the
X-axis is the distance from the center of the PCB in mm while
the Y-axis is the relative irradiance value.

The overall cost with monochromatic LED is 4 blue LED plus

32 red LEDs which gives 1 × 4 + 1 × 2.5 × 32 = 84. For
phosphor converted solution, the overall LED cost is 1 × 36 =
36.
The monochromatic solution is about 2.3 times to the
phosphor-converted solution. This gives phosphor converted
LED huge cost advantage and suitable for large scale
installations.

3.3.3. Optical uniformity

Using LightTools optical simulation software, we study
difference in optical distances needed for certain uniformity Fig.9 relative irradiance of monochromatic LED at different
target of these two approaches: distance

Take the same assumptions as in 3.3.2, the two approaches

achieve the spectrum as shown in Fig.6. The LED
arrangements are shown in Fig.7 and 8.

Fig.10 relative irradiance of phosphor converted LED at

different distance
Fig.6 Spectrum comparison of two approaches with B:R=1:8 From Fig. 9, to achieve 90% uniformity, optical distance
of 400mm is necessary for monochromatic LED due to large
pitch of 300.6mm between two adjacent blue LEDs. The
phosphor converted LEDs have the same spectrum and the
pitch is 33.4mm. Thus only 30mm optical distance is required
to reach 90% uniformity as shown in Fig. 10. The simulation
results are summarized in Table 2. That’s the reason why
phosphor converted LEDs are more suitable for high density
vertical farming as well as side and intra canopy settings, and
the monochromatic LED for top-down lighting setup with
high ceiling and high power fixture.
Fig.7 linear light source with monochromatic LED
Table 3 and Table 4 are typical product parameters of two
approaches available on the market, respectively.
Table 2 Uniformity vs. optical distance of two approaches

Fig.8 phosphor converted LED SMT model

52
 Phosphor application segments will help wide installation of horticulture
Monochromatic lighting.
Converted
Pitch of LED with same Acknowledgments
300.6 33.4 The authors would like to acknowledge the funding from
color（mm）
The National Key Research and Development Program of
20% OD needed 100 10 China (No. 2017YFB0403902). Additionally, support from
Uniformity

to meet the colleagues in Shineon (Beijing) Technology Co., is also

80% 200 20 gratefully acknowledged.
uniformity
（mm） References
90% 400 30
1. Toyoki Kozai, Why LED Lighting for Urban Agriculture?,
Springer (Singapore, 2016), pp. 3-18.
Table 3 Typical product parameters of phosphor converted 2. Liu Wenke, Yang Qichang, “Current Status and
LED (Source: Horticulture LED portfolio from Shineon) Developmental Prospects of Artificial Lighting in Modern
Agriculture,” China Illuminating Engineering Journal,
Vol. 25, No. 3 (2014), pp. 1-3.
3. Zhang huan, “Effect of Light Environment Control on The
Growth and Development in Plant,” Nanjing Agricultural
University (Nanjing 2010), pp. 1-11.
4. Guiping Ren, et al, Effect of LED in different light
qualities on flowering time and floral qualities of
Phalaenopsis Sogo Vivien, CSHS (Kunming, 2014), pp.
Typical 21-27.
spectrum 5. Xu Wendon, “The Effect of Different Lights and Plant
Density and Harvest Time on Yield and Quality of Lettuce
in Plant Factory,” Nanjing Agricultural University
(Nanjing 2015), pp. 15-24.
6. Su Zhineng, et al, “Effect of LED Lamp with Different
Power 0.5W 1W Light Quality on Morphological Characteristics of Tomato
PPF/W 2.4-2.6μmol/J 2.2-2.4μmol/J Growth,” China Illuminating Engineering Journal, Vol. 28,
No. 6 (2017), pp. 92-99.
Table 4 Typical product parameter of monochromatic LED
(Source: Osram website)

Power 1W 2W 1W 2W
Wavelength 450nm 660nm
PPF/W 2.5-2.6μmol/J 3.2-3.4μmol/J
4. Discussion
The phosphor converted LED can conveniently realize
various types of horticulture lighting applications, such as
seedling, leafy and fruit plant, flower, mosquito repellent, etc.
It also provides proper spectrum-engineering corresponding to
the needs of different plants, such as shade-requiring plant,
sun plant, day-neutral plant, long-day plant, short-day plant,
etc.. Photosynthetic photon flux efficiency meets requirement
in most farming settings. The monochromatic LED has high
photosynthetic photon flux efficiency, but is more expensive,
and requires a longer optical distance to achieve the same
uniformity as the phosphor converted LED so that it is more
suitable for top-down high ceiling lamps. The phosphor
converted LED’s photosynthetic photon flux efficiency is
slightly lower, but it is more cost-effective, easy
customization, suitable for short optical distance hence dense
vertical farming. In the future, urban agriculture will certainly
be one of the ways to reduce shortage of high quality food
supply. As an effective and sustainable solution of shortening
production cycles, increasing production and quality,
horticulture lighting will continue to grow rapidly. Utilizing
these two different approaches of LED source in appropriate
53
S204-201808141732
Evaluating Colour Quality of Lighting: Why Meta-analysis Is Needed?
Q Liu1, 2*, Z Huang1, B Wu3, Y Liu1, H Lin1, W Wang1
School of Printing and Packaging, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430079, China
Shen Zhen Research Institute, Wuhan University, Shenzhen, 518000, China
Guangdong JG Lighting Technology Co., Ltd, Dongguan, 523808, China
*Corresponding author: liuqiang@whu.edu.cn
Abstract
The colour quality of lighting is usually assessed by
psychophysical studies and the conclusions of those works are
always dependent on the corresponding experimental settings.
In this contribution, the meta-analysis approach for this topic
is highlighted, which could derive a robust estimate closest to
the truth and thus draw a more plausible conclusion. By
revisiting the past work, the limitation of single-case studies
and the advantage of meta-analysis methods are
comprehensively demonstrated. In addition, a suggestion for
sharing psychophysical data in further work is proposed.
1. Introduction
The colour quality of lighting includes several dimensions,
such as fidelity [1, 2], preference [3-9], naturalness [10, 11],
vividness [12, 13], harmony [14] and discrimination [15, 16].
During the past years, researchers and engineers have paid
numerous efforts to search for a good method for evaluating
colour quality of lighting. In addition, The Commission
Internationale de l’Eclairage (CIE) has also set up two
Technical Committees (TC1-90 and TC1-91), with the aim of
comprehensively studying that topic.
In current stage, the colour quality of lighting is usually
assessed by psychophysical experiments, which theoretically,
is the most reliable and straightforward approach for this
issue. However, due to the diversity of experimental settings,
it is quite common that different studies with different
experimental setting actually figured out contradictive results.
Therefore, to obtain a robust conclusion, in recent years
several researchers adopted meta-analysis methods [7, 17, 18].
A meta-analysis is a statistical analysis that combines the
results of multiple scientific studies. Statistically speaking,
due to the fact that such a method could estimate the true
strength of association among groups of related works [19],
the conclusion drawn by this approach is much more
convincing.
In this paper, with the aim of highlighting the superiority
of meta-analysis approaches, a comparative analysis towards
the results of several psychophysical studies was
implemented. In addition, taking the correlation between
white lighting and colour preference as an example, the
necessity of meta-analysis method was further strengthened.
At last, an idea was raised for further work in the field of
colour quality evaluation, which advocates a platform for
exchanging psychophysical data and thus helps researchers to
assess the colour quality of lighting basing on bigger dataset.
2. The limitation of single-case studies
In this section, the limitation of single-case studies is
demonstrated by a critical review of recent psychophysical
studies. Note that the intent of this work is not to criticize the
relevant studies--such studies actually have revealed the truth
and they are definitely valuable for this issue--but to remind
the readers that those conclusions may only stand under
54
restricted conditions and that to make a robust conclusion
additional work may be needed.
For instance, since 2015 a series of psychophysical
experiments were conducted by Khanh et al [10, 12, 20, 21].
Their aim was to develop a linearly combined metric to
accurately predict the multi-dimensional visual response of
the observers. However, it was found that their fitted metrics
always varied with the accumulation of their research data,
which highlighted the fact that the conclusion of a single
study may depend on the original data and thus have
questionable external validity.
Similarly, according to a recently work by Bodrogi et al
[22], a significant cultural difference was found between
Chinese and European observers under high illuminance and
high colour rendering conditions. However, in one of our
recent work [5], such huge cultural effect has not been
observed. Definitely, such results could be ascribed to the
difference between the observers--for the work of Bodrogi et
al participants were from different nations while for our study
observers were from different parts of China. However, as far
as we are concerned, the light sources used in Bodrogi’s
experiment contributed more to that result. That is, the light
sources of that study exhibits quite similar colour rendering
prosperities and their scores of CRI (Colour Rendering Index)
[23], GAI (Gamut Volume Index) [24], FCI (Feeling of
Contrast) [25], CQS (Colour Quality Scale) [26]were almost
the same. Therefore, such experimental setting significantly
weakened the impact of light sources and thus made the
influence of cultural difference more significant. From this
point of view, it can be expected that if we repeated the
Bodrogi experiment with other set of light sources, maybe a
different conclusion will be drawn.
Therefore, although the above mentioned studies were
carried out with carefully designed experimental settings and
convincing analysis, it is quite possible that their conclusions
were only effective under restricted conditions. That is
exactly the reason why meta-analysis approach is adopted. For
instance, in 2011 Smet et al. [17] assessed the performance of
the latest colour quality metrics by a meta-analysis of several
different psychophysical studies. Similarly, in our recent work
[7], a new colour preference metric was proposed based on
such an analytical approach. Statistically, there should be no
doubt that such a protocol could derive a robust estimate
closest to the truth and thus draw a more plausible conclusion.
3. White lighting and colour preference: a case study
In order to further demonstrate the necessity of
meta-analysis approaches, the correlation between white
lighting and colour preference of lighting was adopted as a
case study.
In current stage, many designers and researchers hold the
hypothesis that people prefer whiter light sources for general
indoor lighting. That is to say, by informal convention，the
unique white of the light source seems to be another factor
influencing colour preference of lighting. In 2013, Rea and
Freyssinier conducted a series of studies in which the
correlation between colour preference and white lighting was
discussed and their results indicated that people indeed
preferred white illumination for residential applications [27].
In our recent work, similar experimental approach was
adopted and the conclusion that people prefer whiter lights
was further validated (The details of this work will be
reported in another paper of our lab). In our experiments, two
light sets were adopted: light sources of correlated colour
temperatures (CCTs) of 3000 K and 5500 K. For each
experiment, in an empty light booth the observers were asked
to rate their perception upon the whiteness and preference of
each experimental lights with a 7-point rating method. The
experimental protocol is consistent with that of our empty
light booth experiment [8], please refer to that article for
detailed information.
Fig. 2.1 Psychophysical experiment evaluating the white
sensation and colour preference of experimental lights
The above mentioned studies by Rea and Freyssinier and
by our group indicate that people actually prefer whiter light.
To make stronger conclusion, a meta-analysis was
implemented, which adopted several other data from relevant
studies, including the work of Wei et al [28], Royer et al [1].
Jost-Boissard et al [29, 30]. Szabó et al [31]. Islam et al [32].
Dangol et al [11].and Khanh et al [21].
Since none of the studies mentioned above involved the
subjective ratings upon white perception, two latest measures,
Sneutral [33] and WS [34] (as shown in Equation 1 and 2) were
adopted to predict the whiteness of those lights. The
performance of these two measures had been justified by the
visual experiments mentioned above, and the correlation
coefficients r always exceed 0.95, which indicates very high
accuracy in predicting the whiteness of lighting.
In equation 1, a1-a6 are fitting parameters and u’, v’ are
the CIE 1976 chromaticity coordinates of the stimulus.
(1)
In equation 2, Duv represents the distance from the test
chromaticity coordinates to the Planckian locus, and T denotes
CCT
(2)
Aided with these two measures, the correlations between
white lighting and colour preference regards to the work of
Wei et al [28], Royer et al [1]. Jost-Boissard et al [29, 30].
Szabóet al [31]. Islam et al [32]. Dangol et al [11].and Khanh
et al [21] were calculated, as shown in Figure 2.2.
55
Fig. 2.2 Correlation between the standard error of Sneutral
and the correlation coefficient values quantifying the
correlation between white light and colour preference
Surprisingly, the results depicted in Figure 2.2 seem to be
contradicted with those of Rea and Freyssinier, and ours. For
most of the cases shown in the figure, the correlation
coefficients between white lighting and colour preference are
quite low, which recommend against the former conclusion
that people prefer whiter lights. Till now, the defect of
single-case studies is quite obvious. That is, the conclusions
could not be regarded as robust due to the lack of external
validity.
Meanwhile, if we further examine the experimental setting
of the trails mentioned above and implemented a simple
meta-analysis, the difference of those results will be
explained. As shown in Figure 2.2, it seems that a higher
standard error of Sneutral tends to correspond to a higher
correlation between white lighting and colour preference,
which means the statement that people prefer whiter lights
may be valid when the neutrality of light source differ to a
certain extend. If the experimental lights were quite similar in
whiteness (very low standard error), it is quite possible that
the correlation between white lighting and colour preference
were masked and other colour rendering prosperities would
become the dominant factor influencing colour preference of
lighting. As for the visual study of Rea and Freyssinier and
our group, the data further validate this opinion, since the
standard errors of Sneutral are much larger than those shown
in Figure 2.2. That is why in those cases, very strong
correlations were observed.
Based on the above discussions, there should be no doubt
that a meta-analysis method could obtain more robust findings
and thus should be recommended in further work.
Conclusions and suggestions for further work
In this contribution, the meta-analysis approach for
evaluating colour quality of lighting is highlighted. With a
comparative analysis of the past work, together with a case
study upon the topic of correlation between white lighting and
colour preference, the limitation of single-case studies and the
advantage of meta-analysis methods are comprehensively
demonstrated. To sum up, the meta-analysis method could
conquer the shorting of single-case studies and derive a robust
conclusion.
To make safe conclusion, it must be highlighted that this
work do not mean to deny the single-case studies. Conversely,
the authors believe such works were indeed crucial for
investigating the colour quality of lighting and it is also true
that no one could implement a psychophysical study with
every variable considered.
The aim of this work, as mentioned above, is to remind the
readers to adopt the findings of single-case studies with
cautions, since the conclusion of those work may not be valid
under any conditions.
At last, the authors suggest building a data-exchanging
platform among all the researchers in this topic. The data for
sharing should contain several kinds of information such as
the spectral power distribution of lights, illuminance, the
experiment conditions (i.e. real room or light booth), the basic
information of observers, the time for adaption, the rating
method, as well as the visual response of the observers.
The single-case studies help us find the small part, while
the meta-analysis method finishes the jigsaw.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the financial
support of National Natural Science Foundation of China
(Project No. 61505149) and the Young Talent Project of
Wuhan City of China (Project No 2016070204010111).
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57
S204-201808141958
The Influence of Indoor LED Lighting on Depth Perception in Real World
Tingting Zhang*, Hexiang Cheng, Ling Xia, Xiaofeng Liu
Changzhou Key Laboratory of Robotics and Intelligent Technology, Jiangsu Key laboratory of Special Robot Technology,
Changzhou, China (*: t.zhang@outlook.com)
Abstract
Lighting can influence people’s performance of eyes and
their perception of depth cues. Both two factors are very
important for depth perception. Hence, lighting is expected to
have effects on depth perception. The current study conducted
a within-subjects experiment to investigate the influence of
three different indoor LED lighting environments on depth
perception in the real world. 23 participants were involved,
and they were required to play a shooting computer game
under the designed lighting environment. Depth perception
data were collected with a Depth Perception Tester both
before and after the experiment. The experiment showed that
depth perception of the operators was always influenced by
their physical and mental state in the beginning, which was
not changed by lighting environment. It was also found that
the three lighting environments used in the current experiment
did not change depth perception. Hence, we could conclude
that luminance between 350Lux and 750Lux is a safe range
that does not influence depth perception.
1 Introduction
Lighting is a basic element for people to perceive the
world and it is also an important part in the working
environment, which influences the operators’ efficiency,
motivation and degree of comfort [1]. For the people who
work as doctors, athletes, drivers, pilots and so on, lighting is
a basic element not only for seeing the environment but also
for depth perception [2, 3]. Depth perception is defined as the
perceived absolute distance between objects and observers or
relative distance between objects [4]. It is a key ability for the
operators mentioned above to evaluate relative and absolute
distance, which directly influences operators’ performance
and safety [5].
Lighting can influence depth perception from two aspects.
First, lighting can change people’s perception of depth cues
such as brightness, contrast, color, shade, and depth of field
[6]. Depth cues decide depth perception, which indicates that
lighting can also influence depth perception. Second, lighting
has effects on operators’ mental and physical state and the
performance of eyes. For example, long-time exposure under
intense light can make the operators feel fatigue very soon.
Furthermore, improper lighting environment can make
people’s vision blurred. The damage of the eye functions is
very likely to influence people’s depth perception. Therefore,
it is meaningful and important to make clear how lighting
influences depth perception in the real world.
Researchers have already done a lot of work about lighting
and depth perception, however, many of the work focused on
investigating the influence of lighting on the perceived depth
in pictorial scenes or virtual world [7, 8]. This study is
interested in exploring how the indoor LED lighting
influences depth perception in the real world. Three different
lighting environment were created in the lab and participants’
58
performance of depth perception under each lighting condition
was measured.
2 Method
Participants. 23 college students participated in the
experiment, including 12 males and 11 females. They were
aged from 18 to 22 years, with a mean of 20.1 years. All of
them had normal or corrected-to-normal vision, and none of
them had ever experienced eye surgeries. Consent forms were
signed before to experiment to make sure that they were
voluntary.
Apparatus. The Depth Perception Tester EP503A
developed by East China Normal University was used in the
experiment to measure the depth perception. The scheme of
the Depth Perception Tester is shown in Figure 1. The
standard stimuli are fixed, and the test stimulus can be moved
by users. The error between standard stimuli and test stimulus
is used to reflect users’ depth perception.
Standard Stimuli
TestStimulus
Fig. 1. The diagram of the depth perception tester
A digital luxmeter was used to measure the illuminance in
the lab. Four Philips LED lamp bulbs were used as lighting
source in the experiment.
Experiment design. Three lighting environment were
designed in this study. Daylight was blocked with thick
curtains. The lab was illuminated with fluorescent lamps on
the ceiling and LED floor lamps. The three lighting
environment were: 350Lux, 750Lux, and 750Lux at the
working area while 350Lux at the other area in the lab. When
the illuminance was 350Lux or 750Lux, it meant that the
illuminance at the working area and the other area was
similar. The working area was the area where the participants
did the experiment.
A within-subjects experiment was designed in this study.
The participants had to do the depth perception test both
before and after the experiment. Researchers have already
concluded that depth perception can be influenced by many
factors such as the performance of the eyes [9]. Hence, depth
perception may be different on different days for kinds of
reasons. It would be necessary to test the depth perception
before experiment. After they did the first test, they were
required to play a shooting RPG game ‘Knives Out’ for one
hour under one of the three lighting environment. When the
game finished, the participants did the depth perception test
again. Since there were three different lighting conditions, the
participants repeated the experiment three times on different
days. The order of the lighting condition was random.
Procedure. When participants were seated in the lab, they
first had to sign the consent form and fill in the forms with
their personal information such as name, age, gender, and so
on. The experiment conductor explained the purpose and main
content of the research. The experimental setup is shown in
Figure 2. The area where participants sit was defined as the
working area. After the participants had been clear about the
instruction, they had to do the first depth perception test.
They sit in front of the Depth Perception Tester at 2m
away, the height of the tester was adjust to make sure that it
was at the same height with participants’ eyes. The
participants could use the controller of the tester to move the
test stimulus forward or backward at two different speed until
they perceived the standard stimuli and the test stimulus at the
same depth. The experiment conductor then recorded the
depth errors Δdcm between the standard stimuli and the test
stimulus. The participants repeated the test for 20 times. The
depth error Δd representsd depth perception in this paper, and
it can be calculated by Equation 1. If the test stimulus was in
front of the standard stimuli, Δdi was positive. Otherwise, it
was negative.
20
 d
i 3.5
d  i 1
20
Display
60cm
Participants
Depth
Perception
Tester
2m
Participants Lab
Fig. 2. The experimental setup
When the participants finished the first test, they were
asked to sit in front of a 32’ LCD display at 60cm away and
play the required computer game for one hour. After that, the
depth perception test was done again.
3 Results
Data preparation. In the experiment, each participant
took part in the experiment three times because of three
lighting environment. Hence, there were three pairs of data for
each participant, including before-test data Δdb and after-test
data Δdb in every pair. Since the depth perception was closely
related to the physical and mental state of the participants and
the experiment was done on different days, the relative depth
perception Δdr was used for the following analysis, shown in
Equation 2.
d r  db  d a (2)
Data analysis. We first calculated the depth perception
error for each participant both before and after the experiment
under three lighting conditions. Figure 3 summarizes the
results of the depth perception error both before and after the
experiment. The values of abscissa axis and vertical axis were
calculated with Equation 1.
When the lab was uniformly illuminated at 350Lux, the
depth perception error after experiment was found to be
positively correlated with the depth perception error before
experiment (The Pearson’s correlation coefficient r =0.778,
n=23, p=0.001). The results When the working area was
750Lux and the other area was 350Lux, there was also a
significant positive correlation between before-test depth
perception error and after-test depth perception error ( r =
0.663, n=23, p=0.001). When the lab was uniformly
illuminated at 750Lux, the correlation was still significant
between the two variables (r = 0.589, n=23, p=0.001).
Depth perception after gaming (cm)
Depth perception after gaming (cm)
3.5 3.5
3 3
2.5 2.5
2 2
1.5 1.5
350Lux 350 &750Lux
1 1
0.5 0.5
0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5
Depth perception before gaming (cm) Depth perception before gaming (cm)
(a) (b)
Depth perception after gaming (cm)
(1) 3
2.5
2
1.5
1 750Lux
0.5
0
0 1 2 3 4 5
Depth perception before gaming (cm)
Lamps
(c)
Fig. 3. The correlation of depth perception before and after the
experiment. (a) the illuminance was 350Lux; (b) the illuminace at
the working area was 750Lux while at the other area was 350Lux;
(c) the illuminance was 750 Lux.
As we mentioned before, people’s ability to perceive depth
could change by many factors. To avoid the influence of other
factors, participants did depth perception test both before and
after experiment. The depth error d r between the two tests
could be used to explore the influence of lighting on depth
perception. Figure 4 shows the mean error of depth perception
across participants under three different lighting conditions. It
can be seen that the error of depth perception before the
experiment was larger than that after the experiment when the
illuminance was at 350Lux. This suggests that participants’
ability to perceive depth was improved after one-hour’s
exposure under the lighting environment with the illuminance
of 350Lux. It was similar for the lighting condition that the
illuminance was 750Lux at the working area and 350Lux at
the other area. However, when the illuminance was 750Lux,
the error of depth perception turned to be negative, which
indicated that participants’ ability to perceive depth decreased
after playing the computer gaming for one hour under such
lighting environment. Figure 4 also shows that the individual
difference between participants are very large since the values
of the standard errors are very large.
59
 0.4
The error of depth perception (cm) 0.3
0.2
0.1
0 This work was supported in part by the China
-0.1 350 Lux
- 0.2
- 0.3
Illuminance
Fig. 4. The average errors of depth perception across lighting
conditions. All graphs show the mean ±1 standard error.
We performed a repeated-measures ANOVA with the
factor of lighting condition (350Lux, 350&750Lux, and
750Lux). Though there was a trend that the depth perception
ability got worse when the illluminance increased. It was
found that the indoor lighting condition used in this
experiment did not influence depth perception significantly (F
(2, 44) = 1.37, p = 0.266).
4 Discussion
In the experiment, the effects of three different lightings
environment on depth perception was investigated. First, the
results showed that depth perception after the experiment was
significantly correlated with depth perception before the
experiment. Lighting condition did not influence the results.
These findings were reasonable. Participants’ performance
after the experiment was always directly influenced by their
initial physical and mental state before the experiment.
One-hour gaming under the three lighting environment was
not sufficient to make participants’ depth perception change
dramatically.
The second finding was that different levels of illuminance
did not change depth perception. In this experiment, the
indoor illuminance was specifically referred to the brightness
of the lighting where participants played the game.
Researchers have found that lighting could influence
operators’ eye fatigue [10], hence we had expected that
lighting would influence depth perception. The results of the
current study showed that depth perception did not change
when the illuminance changed from 350Lux to 750Lux, which
did not agree on our expectation. There could be several
reasons. First, the difference between the lighting was not
large enough to make change on depth perception. 350Lux
and 750Lux are both reasonable lighting environment in
offices or labs. If a higher illuminance were selected, such as
1500Lux, depth perception error may increase with increasing
illuminance. The second reason could be that the experimental
task made some of the participants who were very interested
in gaming more excited and motivated. These participants did
not feel fatigue or bored at all after one-hour’s gaming, and
hence their depth perception did not change [11, 12]. The
third reason could be that the lighting inside the Depth
Perception Tester EP503A decreased the effects of indoor
lighting.
5 Conclusions
To conclude, depth perception of the operators was always
influenced by their physical and mental state in the beginning,
which was not changed by lighting environment. Though the
current study showed that depth perception was not influenced
by the illumiance of the indoor lighting, we cannot make the
conclusion that lighting does not influence depth perception.
What we can conclude was that illuminance between 350Lux
and 750Lux was a safe range. Operators working under the
safe lighting environment can keep their precision on depth
perception. Further studies are expected to investigate more
details about the influence of lighting on depth perception in
the real world.
750 Lux Acknowledgments
350 &750 Lux Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
under Grand No.2016B03014, No.2017B02814, in part by
the National Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu under
Grant BK20170304, in part by the key research and
development program of Jiangsu 257 (BE 2017071 and
BE2017647), in part by projects of international cooperation
and exchanges of Changzhou 258(CZ20170018), and in part
by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under
Grant No.61703140, No. 61603123.
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Ergonomics, vol. 42, (2012), pp. 122-128.
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Brandt, "The relative contributions of stereo,
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350-357.
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Heynderickx, "Depth of Field Affects Perceived
Depth in Stereographs," Acm Transactions on
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60
[12] A. Mitchell and C. Savill-Smith, "The use of
computer and video games for learning: A review of
the literature," (2004).

61
S204-201808151513

The impact of LED lighting on people’s work performance between different age groups

Ming Ronnier Luo, Meiling Wang, Yu Liu

State Key Laboratory of Modern Optical Instrumentation, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, CHINA
*m.r.luo@zju.edu.cn

Abstract
An experiment was carried out to study the work 2. Experimental Setup
performance for the children, youth and aged groups including 2.1 Subjects
12, 17 and 18 subjects respectively. Note that there have been In total, 47 participants were recruited in the experiment
very few studies to compare lighting impact on different age including 12 children (6 males and 6 females), 17 youths (9
groups. For the children group, 5 sources had 3 CCTs (3000, males and 8 females) and 18 elders (9 males and 9 females).
4000, 5000K), each having Circadian Stimulus (CS) values of The former group included all third-grade primary school
0.22 and 0.42. For the youth group, only 3 sources having the students. They all had a normal vision. The age of the youths
same 4000K as the young group were studied. Their CS had a mean of 24 ranged from 21 to 25 years old and they
values were 0.26, 0.41 and 0.44, respectively. For the aged were the students at Zhejiang University. The elders had a
group, there were 4 sources including 3000 K, 4000 K and mean age of 64 with no severe eye disease. During the whole
6500 K with CS about 0.4 and the other 4000K with CS at experimental period (near two weeks), they were asked to
0.26. About 10 tests were employed including questionnaire closely follow a regular sleep-wake schedule. They were all
(KSS, mood, PANAS, fatigue), performance (d2, reading, healthy during the period.
Schulte grid) and eye fatigue (CFF and Landolt ring). It was
found that the results from all three groups showed a high CS 2.2 Environment
source to have a higher work performance. For the youth The experiments took place in an office at Zhejiang
group, 4000 K found to give a highest work performance. For University. There were 9 desks and 4 of them having higher
the aged group, a higher CCT showed a better performance. illuminance uniformity were used in the experiment. Figure 1
The results also showed a general trend, i.e. eye fatigue and shows the experimental environment. A heavy curtain was
work performance have a negative correlation. used to cover the window, so daylight was cut off from the
1. Introduction room and the only light source was installed in the ceiling
With the advanced of LED lighting, it is envisaged that including 10 units of spectral tunable lighting system, which
lighting can be used to improve not only our work efficiency had 11- LED channels and were used as shown in Figure 1.
but also well-being. This becomes a hot-topic, called health
integrated lighting (HIL). They are related to the human
circadian system, which is affected by a newly found
photoreceptor, ipRGC, intrinsic photosensitivity Retina
Ganglion Cell.
More recently, CIE recommended 5 terms in SI unit to
measure ipRGC influenced light responses, e.g. Emel, Erd, Esc,
Emc, Elc in irradiance unit [1]. Rea and Figueiro [2,3] also
proposed CS Circadian Stimulus (CS) to estimate light
response directly proportional to nocturnal melatonin
suppression. A number of papers were published by the same
Figure 1. The 10 units of the lighting units used in the
group to show the effectiveness of the measure to improve
experiment
work performance, sleeping quality, etc.
Researchers found that the reduction of work performance
2.3 Lighting conditions
due to age effect could be caused by the aging eye structure
Table 1 gives the specification of the 12 lighting
such as reduction in retinal sensitivity to light [4,5], shrinking
conditions used in the experiment. It can be seen that there
of pupil size [6] and lowering the lens transmittance [7-9].
were 4 CCTs (3000K, 4000K, 5000K, 6500K). They
Some studies worked on CCT shown great effect on work
correspond to two CS levels, a higher range between
performance. Sleegers and Moolenaar investigated lighting
0.41~0.49 and a lower range between 0.21~0.26 at desk level.
with CCT between 3000 and 12000K on the concentration of
The illuminance on the desk was set at 500 lux. The spectrum
elementary school children [10]. The results indicated a
was measured by a spectroradiometer, JETI-Specbos 1211
positive influence of the lighting system on pupils’
spectroradiometer. The lighting was generated by the colour
concentration under higher CCTs. A study on elder people
quality software to meet the desired target defined by CCT,
also showed that higher CCT can improve elder people’s work
CS and Lux. Note that Children group was first carried out the
efficiency and their comfort [11,12].
experiment, followed by youth and the aged group. It can be
seen in Table 1 that there is a large range of CCTs from
3000K to 5000K for the children group. Their results showed
that 4000K gave the best performance. So, it was only used
The aim of the present study is to investigate the impact of
for the adult group. The aged group performed the experiment
lighting parameters of CCTs and CS on work performance
last, and a wide range of CCTs was used.
across three aged groups.
62
 Table 1. The specification of the Lighting conditions used Landolt
D2 test 10 Schulte grid 10 5
ring
Subject Emel Writing 15 Reading 40 Reading 40
Symbol CCT(K) CS
Group （μw/cm2） CFF,NPA, Landolt
Searching 10 14 5
d2 ring
3000L 2995 0.21 30
Question-nair
3000H 2944 0.42 34 Reading 30 5 CFF,d2 12
e
Children 4000L 3982 0.26 37 Question
D2 test 10 5
4000H 4033 0.42 53 -naire
Visual
5000H 4996 0.47 65 12
test,CFF,NPA
4000LL 4009 0.26 39 Question-nair
5
Youth 4000HL 4054 0.44 38 e
4000HH 3943 0.41 52 Total 119 Total 98 Total 94
3000H 2995 0.41 30 2.5 Test Methods
4000H 3995 0.41 50 Various test methods were used. Some of them were
Elder slightly different according to different aged groups. The
4000L 4027 0.26 40
intension is to make subjects to feel interesting and to
6500H 6499 0.49 60
successfully accomplished the work assigned to them.
The spectral power distribution (SPD) corresponding to 2.5.1 Questionnaires
the 5 lighting conditions in the children group are given in For assessing sleepiness, 5 different icons in Figure 1 were
Figure 2. used for the children group. Each represents a certain level of
sleepiness. Each participant was asked to tick the one that
most properly described the state. The icon method found to
be particular attractive for children.

Figure 1. Face icons used in the children’s group

For assessing mood in children group, each child was asked

to answer to scale 5 perceptions (sad, happy, angry, fun,
excitation), followed by a scale: “NO”, “no”, “yes”, “YES”
(Definitely disagree (NO) and Definitely agree YES)).
Alertness was assessed by Karolinska Sleepiness Scale
(KSS). The ratings ranged from 1 to 9, where 1 means “very
Figure 2. The 5 SPDs used in the children group alert” and 9 means “very sleepy”.
In the youth experiment, each participant had to scale 5
2.4 Procedure perceptions (Tired-energetic, Low spirit- excited,
Each participant took one session each day. Each Uncomfortable-comfortable, Unpleasant-pleasant, Unlike-like)
participant visited the laboratory at the same time during the in a 6-points scale. For example, -3 means most tired and 3
whole period. Participant can choose one period from the means most energetic. There is no neutral grade in between.
following three: 9:30~11:00, 13:00~14:30, 16:00~17:30, and In the PANAS (Positive and Negative Affect Schedule) test,
they attended the same period continuously each day until ten positive affect scales (interested, excited, strong,
completed all the lighting conditions. enthusiastic, proud, alert, inspired, determined, attentive and
Prior to the experiment, a training session was giving to active) and ten negative affect scales (distressed, upset, guilty,
help them familiarize the tests before the formal experiment. scared, hostile, irritable, ashamed, nervous, jittery and afraid)
The testing procedures were slightly different for each were rated on a scale of 1 to 5, based on strength of emotion,
subject group because of the slightly different test methods where 1 =‘very slightly or not at all’ and 5 = ‘extremely’ to
chosen in each experiment. On the right side of the task is the yield one positive global score and one negative global score
duration (t in min). Participants were asked to answer the following 4 questions:
“My eyes are uncomfortable.”, “I have blurred vision.”, “My
Table 2. The procedure of each subject group shoulder/neck/back feel pain.”, for which each question is
Children Youth Elder reported from 0 to 4 categories, where 0 and 4 correspond to
Task t Task t Task t “I can’t feel it” and “It’s serious”, respectively.
Adaptati
Adaptation 10 Adaptation 10 10 2.5.2 Cognitive performance
on
Question-nair Question-nair Question Four tasks were used to evaluate work performance, d2 test,
5 5 5 Schulte grid, writing and searching and reading.
e e -naire
Visual test, CFF,NPA, d2 test was a particularly useful measure of attention. It
CFF, NPA
12
d2
14 CFF,d2 12 provides many characters of “p” and “d”. Each had different
63
combination of strokes on the top or bottom. The task is to
mark out those having a “d” with a total of two strokes located
above or below。
Schulte grid was also used to evaluate the attention level. It
includes a 9*9 table with number from 1 to 81 randomly
distributed in each table. Each subject was asked to point all
the numbers following the sequence from 1 to 81 as rapidly as
possible meanwhile read out the number.
Reading, writing and searching tasks were mainly
designed to make subjects to feel fatigue. The reading
materials included novels and magazines which were chosen
for each aged group. The reading speed was recorded. For the
writing task, a book was given to participants. They were
asked to copy a paragraph for about 15 mins. For the
searching task, participants were asked to find out the target
shape from a complex picture and then paint them.
2.5.3 Visual performance
Visual acuity was measured by Landolt ring on a computer
software. Participants were asked to sit 1.6m away from the
computer screen. Landolt ring with different orientation gaps
showed on the screen and participants used the keyboard to
enter the right orientation. After the experiment, the software
automatically reports the Visual Acuity result on the screen.
A Critical Flicker Frequency (CFF) meter was used to
measure the eye fatigue. Each subject adjusts the frequency
until they just cannot see a green flashing light against a black
background. CFF was measured before and after whole
procedure of experiment and the difference between the two
frequencies indicates the fatigue caused by the light
illuminated tasks.
Near point accommodation (NPA) method was also used.
A clearly visible printed letter was first placed at a distance of
35 cm. It was then moved towards the participants’ dominant
eye at a speed of 1cm/s until the clear letter became illegible.
3. Results
All the data were analyzed with SPSS software. For most of
the data, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) method was used to
analyze the main effect of lighting condition on work
performance. However, since some data had heterogeneity of
variance and they were not normal distributed, Mann-Whitney
U test and Kruskal-Wallis test (95%CI) were applied to
perform the statistical test. Two tail t-test was adopted to use
as the post-hoc test.
3.1 Cognitive performance
The higher the d2 score, the greater attention participant has.
For the children group, the interaction of CS by CCT was
tested among 2*2 conditions (3000H\3000L\4000H\ 4000L).
The ANOVA results revealed a significant impact of CS on d2
(F1,11 = 4.362; P = .045). Two tail t-test showed that d2 score
is significant higher under high CS lighting than low CS
lighting at 4000K (p=0.02). The results showed that 4000K
performed better d2 task than that under 5000K (p=0.011).
For the youth group, the post-hoc t-test showed that the effect
between 4000HL and 4000LL almost reached significance (p
=0 .063), 4000HL had much higher d2 score than that of
4000LL. For the elder group, the two tail t-test results showed
a significant effect of CS on d2 at 4000K (p=0.024), higher
CS lighting caused higher d2 score than low CS lighting. Also,
t-test showed a significant effect of CCT on d2, participants
reached a higher d2 score under 4000K than that under 6500K
(p=0.018).
For the children group, reading speed was affected by the
64
CS value, children read significantly faster under high CS
lighting than low CS lighting at 3000K (p=0.029, M-U test),
also reading speed under 4000K and high CS was
significantly faster than that of 4000K low CS (p=0.061,M-U
test).
There was hardly any significant difference of the result for
Schulte grid and Landolt ring under the lighting conditions
studied.
3.2 Questionnaire
For the children group, The ANOVA results revealed a
significant main effect of lighting on “Excitement” (F4,44 =
3.589; P=.011). Two-tail post hoc t-test showed that
participants felt more excitement under 5000H than that of
3000H (p=0.005), and felt more excitement under 5000H than
that of 4000H (p=0.009). CS also had significant effect on
“Excitement” too (p=0.002), i.e. a high CS lighting triggered a
higher excitement score than that under low CS lighting. In all,
“Excitement” score had a higher score under a higher CS and
higher CCT lighting conditions.
Sleepiness questionnaire results showed that only 4000H
had a significant effect on children’s sleepiness. Under 4000H
condition, sleepiness after the task period was significantly
higher than the baseline (two tail t-test, p=0.027)
For the youth group, the score of the positive emotions
dropped after the experiment for all lighting conditions. But
there was no significant difference between them. The KSS
results showed that only 4000HL lighting caused significant
difference than that of the other conditions, i.e. participants
felt more sleepy under 4000HL condition (paired t-test,
p=0.31).
For the elder group, lighting condition had no significant
effect on PANAS result. Participants’ positive emotion
decreased under 4000H lighting after the experiment (p=0.055)
and their negative emotion decreased under 6500H lighting
(p=0.066). Lighting condition did not affect KSS result. We
also found that lighting effect on mood in this experiment is
not obvious.
3.3 The relationship between work performance and eye
fatigue
Comparing the result of work performance and fatigue in
the children group, the results clearly showed that the lighting
conditions that improve work performance would also cause
more eye fatigue. The results from d2 test and CFF were
compared to represent concentration level and fatigue level,
respectively. It was found that concentration (d2 test) and eye
fatigue (CFF) had significant negative correlation (Pearson
Correlation Coefficient= -0.308, p=0.04). This implies that a
higher attention level devoted to the work will cause higher
eye fatigue. This relationship is especially obvious in the
children group.
4 Conclusions
The effect of CS on children was more obvious than adult
and elder. That may because of children’s lens transmittance is
much larger at short wave so they were more sensitive to the
blue part of light.
In children and youth group, they didn’t feel any
uncomfortable for the lighting conditions. However, in elder
group we found that high CCT lighting like 6500K made them
feel glare and uncomfortable. It was well known that due to
the cataract absorbs and scatters light as it passes through the
lens, elders were more sensitive to glare especially when the
illuminance was high. This experiment result showed that
high CCT can also product uncomfortable glare for elder
people.

Acknowledgement
The authors like to thank the support from the National Key
R&D programme of China (Project No. 2017YFB0403700).

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S204-201808151713

Display white points under different ambient lighting conditions

1
Rui Peng, 1Ming Ronnier Luo, 1Mingkai Cao, 2Jingyu Fang, 2Youn Jin Kim
1
State Key Laboratory of Modern Optical Instrumentation, Zhejiang University
Hangzhou, China
2
Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. Shanghai, China
*m.r.luo@zju.edu.cn

Abstract
The purpose of this study is to investigate the image
‘white’ point on a display under dark environment and
different ambient illuminants. A single image composed of
black text and white background was used. It was converted
by means of the CAT02 chromatic adaptation transform from
6500K and Duv of zero, into 48 different white points varying
at 6 CCTs and 8 Duv levels. Through psychophysical
experiments, observers’ subjective evaluations of neutral
white and preferred white for 48 white stimuli were obtained
via a pair comparison method. The results showed that the
most neutral and preferred image white points were located at
7200K and 6000K respectively in the dark environment, and
CCTs ranged from 6600 to 7300K and 5900K to 6300K
respectively under different ambient illuminant conditions. It
was also found that both the neutral white and preferred white
were below the Planckian locus. The chromaticities of the
neutral white and preferred white shifted in the same direction
with the change of those of ambient lightings. The results can
be proposed to achieve visual comfort on mobile devices
under various ambient lighting conditions.
1. Introduction
With the rapid development of display devices, people
have put forward higher requirements for the color appearance
of display devices. In academic research and industrial
applications, it has been recognized that white, which is
defined as a color perception that does not contain any hue,
has a fundamental effect on the color appearance of the
display [1]. Therefore, research on the white point of the
display is crucial. However, despite the precise description of
the meaning of white, its chromaticity standard is still quite
vague, and the standard of white point substantially depends
on the industry and country. For example, D50 is used as
standard white point in the printing industry, while in the
photography it is D65 [2]. As far as the geometrical location is
concerned, a recommended standard white point in America is
D65, while in Japan it is D93 [3]. In addition, there are many
inconsistencies in the conclusions of psychophysical
experiments on white points in many studies. For lighting
industry, the whites are those along the blackbody and
daylight loci [4].
Smet [5, 6] studied the unique white for object and
illumination modes under different illuminance levels. He
found that the CCT and Duv for the two modes were different,
i.e. average of 6609K and 5989K, and -0.0048 and -0.0085,
respectively. The results do not vary much between different
illuminance levels.
The perception of white on mobile display, however, has
been found to be significantly different for different ambient
illuminants [7-10]. Choi and Suk [7] studied the white
perception of a 9.7-inch tablet under 11 ambient lighting
conditions and a dark condition. The dark-adapted white is
7300 K, slightly above the Planckian locus. The
chromatic-adapted whites were 6179 to 7479 K in CCT and
−0.0038 to 0.0144 in Duv. The tablet used, however, had a
white border, which may affect the evaluation of the white
appearance made by the observers. Moreover, Suk’s
experiment to ask subject to judge ‘optimun’ white, which
was not clearly defined.
In this study, a psychophysics experiment was conducted
to investigate the most ‘neutral’ and ‘preferred’ white points
on a display under both dark-adapted and chromatic-adapted
conditions. The aim of the study is to reveal the two white
points under varying ambient illuminants.
2. Experimental preparation
An image composed of white background and black texts
on a a NEC PA302W display was selected in the experiment.
Black frame was added to simulate mobile device, the width is
about 10% of the original image. The original image under
D65/10 was converted by means of a chromatic adaptation
transform (CAT02), into 48 different white points varying at 6
CCTs(3000K, 4000K, 5000K, 6500K, 8000K, 10000K) and 8
Duv levels(-0.02, -0.015, -0.01, -0.005, 0, 0.005, 0.01, 0.015).
Fig. 1 shows the chromaticity coordinates of 48 white points
in CIE 1976 u’v’ chromaticity. CAT02 [11] is a chromatic
adaptation transform to predict corresponding colours
between different illuminants. Corresponding colours are a
pair of colours having the same appearance under two
different illuminants. Given a set of tristimulus values in
XYZ, the corresponding XcYcZc (c=1,2,…48) values can be
obtained by the CAT02. The 48 transformed images were
displayed randomly on the display as shown in Fig. 2.
Observers only viewed the image and border, the rest was
covered by a mid-grey cardboard having L* of 63, as shown
in Fig. 2.

66
 The lighting system used was a spectrum tunable LED was arranged like an office. Walls and ceilings are white or
illumination system from Thouslite®. It includes twelve wood, and most of the furniture is black, reducing the
identical light units which were evenly arranged on the interference of other color stimulus to the observer. In order to
ceiling, and semi-transparent frosted diffuser plates are evenly illuminate the display surface, the display was placed
installed to ensure uniform and stable light emission. Six
ambient illuminant conditions were used in the experiment,
including one dark condition and five lighting conditions with
same zero Duv but varied at CCT of 3000K, 4000K, 5000K,
6000K, 8000K. The average illuminance of the ambient
illuminant was set as 500lx at the center of the viewing table.
Table 1 summarizes the colorimetric characteristics of the
ambient lighting conditions, including measuring CCT, Duv,
chromaticity coordinates, illuminance and CRI (color
rendering index). The luminance of the display under different
ambient lighting conditions was measured using a calibrated
JETI-Specbos 1211 spectroradiometer in a 45/0
viewing/illumination geometry. The display surface is 45°
from the light source and the measuring direction is
perpendicular to the illumination direction. The measurement
results showed that the surface brightness of the display under
the five ambient illuminant conditions was 208 cd/m2, and at a 45°angle below the center of the light source. A chair
under the dark condition was 207 cd/m2. Therefore, ambient was set in front of the display with a distance around 75cm.
illuminants had little effect on the brightness of the display The height of the chair was adjustable to ensure that each
surface. observer could have a viewing geometry of 45/0 to avoid the
glare from the screen.
Fig. 3 Experimental environment
Altogether 20 observers participated in the experiment,
including 10 males and 10 females between 18 and 25 years
old having an average age of 22.4. All observers passed the
Ishihara colour vision test and had normal color vision.
Each observer was required to evaluate 48 stimuli under
six ambient lighting conditions in terms of neutral white and
preferred white. Each evaluation had a forced choice, for
neutral white, to judge whether the colour of the stimulus can
be classified as white (either “yes” or “no”); for preferred
white, to estimate whether like the color of the stimulus or not
(either “like” or “dislike”). In order to avoid mutual
interference of the answers, two sets of experiment were
performed. In total, 11520 judgments were made in the
Fig. 1 The 48 white points plotted in CIE 1976 u’v’ diagram experiment: 48 (display stimuli) × 6 (ambient illuminants) × 2
(evaluations) ×20 (observers).
Prior to the experiment, the computer was turned on for
about one hour in advance to keep the display steady. The
order of stimuli and ambient illuminants for each observer
were randomized to eliminate any sequential effect. There was
a training session before the formal experiment for observers
evaluating five stimuli in a specified ambient lighting
condition to get familiar with the experiment procedure. When
the ambient illuminant changed, the observer was asked to
close her or his eyes. After that, the observers opened their
eyes to adapt in the environment for two minutes. At the same
time, the experimenter explained the experimental
requirements and procedure to the observer. Each stimulus
Fig. 2 Experimental situation was presented for 5 seconds and the observer was asked to
Table 1 Colorimetric characteristics of 5 ambient lighting orally report the results. The experimenter was responsible for
conditions recording answers. The same procedure was repeated for all
Nominal Measuring the 48 stimuli under each ambient lighting condition. Each
Duv x y lux CRI
CCT(K) CCT(K) observer carried out two sessions for assessing neutrality and
3000 2995 0.0001 0.4371 0.4038 499 92.9 preference respectively. The whole experiment was lasted for
4000 4006 0.0001 0.3801 0.3764 504 93.7
5000 4990 0.0002 0.3454 0.3522 501 98.5
approximately 75 minutes for each observer.
6000 6004 0.0005 0.3220 0.3325 502 96.2 3. Results and discussion
8000 7984 0.0003 0.2953 0.3053 498 97.8 3.1 Observer variability
Fig. 3 shows the experimental environment. The The inter-observer variations referred to the deviation
experiment was carried out in a room with no window, and it between the evaluation results of each observer and the
average results of all observers. The inter-observer variation
67
was characterized using the Coefficient of Variation (CV),
which can be calculated using Eq. (1):
(1)
where, n is the number of observers. A smaller value of CV
indicates a better agreement between the two sets of data.
Table 2 summarizes the CV values of neutral white and
preferred white evaluations of observers under 6 ambient
lighting conditions.
The inter-observer variations had a mean of 8.01 and
31.04 for assessing neutrality and preference, respectively.
The results indicates that observers had large variation for
assessing the latter.
Table 2 The observer variation in CV unit for neutral and
preferred white points under each lighting conditions
3000K 4000K 5000K 6000K 8000K
Neutral 9.68 6.56 5.66 3.93 8.67
Preferred 32.83 31.70 27.56 31.89 31.40
3.2 The difference between neutrality and preference
results
In this study, correlation coefficient method was used to
analyse the relationship between neutrality and preference
results. Pearson's correlation coefficient r was used to indicate
the degree of linear correlation between two variables. In
general, the greater the absolute value of r, the stronger the
correlation. Table 3 shows the correlation coefficients(r) for
all observers between neutral and preferred white under
different ambient lighting conditions.
The r value between neutral white and preferred white of
all observers is ranged from 0.500 to 0.620. The results
showed some correlation between neutral white and preferred
white under different ambient lighting conditions.
Table 3 The correlation between neutral and preferred white
results for each condition
3000K 4000K 5000K 6000K 8000K Dark
0.591 0.507 0.527 0.500 0.607 0.620
3.3 Adaptive white points
Bubble chart is widely used to visualise the trend of the
results. The results of the experiment were plotted in CIE
1976 u’ v’ chromaticity diagram together with the Planckian
locus and the iso-temperature lines, for which they were
plotted, 3000, 4000, 5000, 6500, 8000, 10000K and the curves
linked the Duv values. The cross points stand for the image
white point. The percentage score chosen to be neutrality or
acceptability for each image under each illuminant condition
was ranked from high to low, and only those white points
greater than 50% (more than half of the people think it is
white) were plotted in the bubble chart. The bubble is larger,
the percentage score is higher, so more observers think it is
white. The distribution of the neutral and preferred white
results can be seen in Fig. 4. The red and green colours
respectively represent the percentage score of neutral white
and preferred white rated by the observers.
Fig. 4 The neutral and preferred white stimuli rated by the
observers (drawn using red and green circles respectively ).
Fig. 4 shows that the neutral white points are distributed in
the region below the Planckian locus with CCT ranged from
5000K to 10000K under dark condition. However, the
preferred white point was more dispersed. 5000K is most
preferred image white point in the dark.
A weighted averaged method was used to calculate the
most neutral and preferred image white point. The average
scores of each white point were calculated, only those more
than 50% were calculated, i.e. their coordinates. The weighted
mean were calculated by the tristimulus values of 48 white
point and taking the corresponding scores as the weight. The
most neutral and preferred image white points were at 7204K
and 5966K respectively in the dark environment. Fig. 5 and
Fig. 6 respectively compare the weighted CCT and Duv
between the three sets of data under different illuminant
Dark
conditions.
13.57
30.85
Fig. 5 Plot of the CCT results from three sets of data
Mean
0.559
Fig. 6 Plot of the Duv results from three sets of data
Comparing between the present ‘neutral’ and ‘preferred’
whites, two systematic trends were found:
 For lower ambient CCTs (3000 and 4000K), their white
points on the display are much higher than the ambient
conditions by more than 2000K and 3000K,
respectively. The difference is greatly reduced under
higher CCTs.
 The ‘neutral’ whites are always higher than the
‘preferred’ whites for each ambient CCT by 500K to
1000K.
Comparing the whites from different sets of data, the
results can be summarized below:
 Choi and Suk’s ‘optimum’ white agreed well to the
present ‘neutral’ white results under all ambient
conditions. This indicates that their observers think a
more neutral white appears to be optimum.
68
  Under dark condition, Smet’s white for the object mode
white (5989K) is closer to the present ‘preferred’ white
(5966K).
Conclusions
A pair comparison experiment was conducted to find
neutral and preferred white point on a display under different
ambient lighting conditions. Weighted average method was
used to calculate the most neutral and preferred white points.
The results showed that the most neutral and preferred white
points were at 7200K and 6000K respectively in the dark
environment, and CCTs ranged from 6600 to 7300K and
5900K to 6300K respectively under different ambient lighting
conditions. The results are in general.

Acknowledgement
The authors like to thank the support from the National
Science Foundation of China (Project No. 61775190).

References
1. K. Plataniotis and A. N. Venetsanopoulos, Color Image
Processing and Applications (Springer, 2000).
2. M. Langford and E. Bilissi, Langford's Advanced
Photography (Taylor & Francis, 2011).
3. A. Van Hurkman, Color Correction Handbook:
Professional Techniques for Video and Cinema (Pearson
Education, 2013).
4. L. Whitehead, “Interpretation concerns regarding white
light,” Color Res. Appl. 38(2), 93–95 (2013).
5. K. A. Smet, G. Deconinck, and P. Hanselaer,
“Chromaticity of unique white in illumination mode,” Opt.
Express 23(10), 12488–12495 (2015).
6. K. A. G. Kevin, D. Geert, and H. Peter, “Chromaticity of
unique white in object mode,” Opt. Express 22(21),
25830–25841 (2014).
7. K. Choi and H.G.Suk, Assessment of white for displays
under dark and chromatic-adapted conditions (Optical
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8. X. Feng, W. Xu, Q. Han, and S. Zhang, “LED light with
enhanced color saturation and improved white light
perception,” Opt. Express 24(1), 573–585 (2016).
9. Y. Ohno and M. Fein, “Vision experiment on white light
chromaticity for lighting,” in CIE/USA-CNC/CIE Biennial
Joint Meeting (Davis, USA, 2013).
10. J. Wu, L. Zhang, C. Chen, G. Marcu, W. Chaohao, M. Xu,
R. Motta, W. Chen, and J. Z. Zhong, “Ambient light
adaptive displays,” (Google Patents, 2016).
11. M. D. Fairchild, Color Appearance Models (John Wiley &
Sons, 2013).

69
S204-201808151721

Design of LED Light for Stimulating Cells in the Study of Light Therapies

Jianfei Dong1,* and Zhuowei Zhang2,*

1
Research Center of Light for Health, State Key Laboratory of Solid State Lighting, Suzhou Institute of Biomedical
Engineering and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou 215163, China,*jfeidong@hotmail.com
2
No. 102 Hospital of PLA, Changzhou 213003, China, *zhuowei_zhang@outlook.com

70
Abstract
Among the wide and miscellaneous applications of light emitting diodes (LEDs), light therapies are probably one of the
most mysterious cases to the engineers of LED devices and systems, due to the profound biological principles involved therein.
Nevertheless, retrofitting the conventional light therapeutic devices with LEDs is also becoming a promising field to both
researchers and engineers. The long life time, high controllability, high bandwidth and the availability of diverse wavelengths
ranging from ultraviolet to infrared make LEDs excellent solutions for light therapies, and empower them with many more
freedoms in tuning irradiance, pulse durations and spectra than lasers, halogen lamps and other conventional light sources.
However, the existing literature still lacks sufficient criterion to design an LED light source so as to achieve optimal effects in
various light therapies. Besides, how human cells respond to the stimulation of LED light, especially in a quantitative sense, is
still far from being fully understood. Among the tremendous efforts along this research track, LED light design first needs to be
customized to biological experiments. This paper aims at investigating the specific requirements of light-cell interaction
experiments mainly in terms of the light spots and irradiance, based on which a method for designing a suitable LED light
source to stimulate cells will be proposed.
1. Introduction
The long life time and high lumen efficiency have enabled LEDs to retrofit most existing general lighting systems.
Moreover, their advantages of high controllability, high bandwidth and the availability of various wavelength contents ranging
from ultraviolet to infrared also enable LEDs to become excellent solutions in many other different fields varying from
horticulture [1] to light therapies [2]. Among these areas, this paper focuses on their applications in improving human health [3].
Medical therapies by light are known in the literature as low-level light therapy or photobiomodulation [4]. Light therapies
are safe, nontoxic and noninvasive, and hardly have side effects. These therapies generally aim at four main clin-ical targets, i.e.
promoting wound healing and reducing infla-mmation; inducing analgesia to nerves; acting on lymph nodes to reduce edema
and inflammation; and promoting muscle relaxation and reducing tenderness [4]. They have been used in treating e.g.
inflammation [5] and neurological diseases [6].
PBMs are also called low-level light therapies, since they usually use low power densities (typically <100mW/cm2 [4]) and
hence do not cause thermal effect (typical temperature 42–150oC) or photoablation (typically 107–1010W/cm2) [7]. The
relatively lower power densities mainly result in biological effects within cells, causing cell apoptosis, proliferation,
differentiation and etc.
Conventional light therapies usually rely on lasers, including inert gas lasers and semiconductor laser diodes such as HeNe,
ruby, argon, krypton, GaAs, and GaAlAs [8]. However, lasers are generally expensive, and have potential hazard to human
health. LEDs, especially in visible light range, are much more affordable and safer than lasers. Moreover, since PBM-based
light therapies use lower power densities, LEDs are excellent alternatives for lasers in such applications. On the other hand,
since the beam width (e.g., in terms of the full width at half maximum, or FWHM) of an LED is usually much larger than that of
a laser diode, LEDs can treat much larger surfaces than lasers can do, especially when they are integrated in an array. All the
aforementioned advantages will make LEDs more favorable in PBMs [3].
On the other hand, the biological mechanism of PBMs is usually attributed to the absorption of red and near infrared (NIR)
light in the respiratory chain located within the mitochondria, where cytochrome C oxidase (CCO) is the main light receptor [9].
This absorption of light energy may cause photodissociation of inhibitory nitric oxide (NO) from the CCO, and then lead to
enhanced enzyme activity, electron transport, mitochondrial respiration and ATP production [4].
While the basic biological mechanisms of PBMs are understood, many more fundamental problems are yet to be
investigated regarding the light-cell interactions during light therapies. Among all the unresolved problems, the lack of
quantitative mechanisms of how cells respond to various light parameters is the main obstacle that hinders the successful
applications of light therapies in treating many diseases. The research along this track is hence important for determining the
radiation parameters of the LEDs, i.e. the doses including irradiance, pulse durations and treatment time, to achieve optimal
effects in light therapies.
As a step forward to this goal, this current work intends to address a basic problem in the experiment of stimulating cells
with light; i.e. how to design a suitable LED light source for such experiments? Although LEDs have already been used in many
studies of light therapies, few existing literatures have explicitly formulated such a design problem, or provided detailed
guidelines to achieve adequate radiant quantities in such experiments.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. The requirements of light-cell interaction experiments will be investigated in
Sec. 2. The design method to achieve adequate radiant quantities will be proposed in Sec. 3, followed by the development and
testing of a real setup. Sec. 5 concludes the paper.
2. Requirements of light-cell interaction experiments
As far as light-cell interaction experiments are concerned, the cells to be stimulated by light have to be first cultured in some
utensils. The cells are usually plated at the bottom of

71
 Fig. 1 Fungi cultured in a 60mm petri dish
Table 1 Some commonly used cell culturing utensils and their bottom dimensions
Radius (cm) Area (cm2)
96 well plate
0.32 0.32
(one well)
24 well plate
0.8 2
(one well)
12 well plate
1.2 4.5
(one well)
35mm petri dish 1.6 8
60mm petri dish 2.6 21
Table 2 Main radiometry and photometry quantities
Quantities Units Symbols
Irradiance mW/cm2 Ee
radiometry
Energy density J/cm2 He
Illuminance lux Ev
photometry
Luminous flux lm v

these utensils with culturing media, e.g. DMEM, agar and etc. Fig. 1 shows an example. Efforts are usually made to distribute
the cells as uniformly as possible, at a certain cell population, e.g. 2E6 cells in one 35mm petri dish. The commonly used
utensils and their bottom areas are listed in Table 1. The first requirement of the radiometric property in light-cell interaction
experiments is that the light power shall evenly distributes over the entire cell culturing area, e.g. one well of a 96-well plate, so
as to render the same light stimulation condition to all the cells under testing.
As mentioned in Section 1, the typical irradiance used in PBM-based light therapies is in the range of 5-100mW/cm2.
Therefore, the second requirement of the radiometric property in light-cell interaction experiments is that the light source shall
be able to render the power density, i.e. irradiance, in the range of 5-100mW/cm2.
Since it is less straightforward to perceive radiometric quantities than photometric ones, it is useful to compare the irradiance
values with their corresponding illuminance values. Table 2 shows the main radiometric and photometric quantities that are
commonly used respectively in the light therapy and illumination literature. The relation among these four quantities can be
referred to [3]. According to [10], given

72
 Fig. 2 The light spectra of four commercial LEDs of blue [11], green [12], red [12] and white [13], together with the curve
Table 3 Equivalent illuminance values of four LEDs at =100mW/cm2

Coefficient Equivalent
in Eq. (1) illuminance (lux)
Blue [11] 47.56 4.76E4
Green [12] 481.62 4.82E5
Red [12] 174.32 1.74E5
White [13] 311.40 3.11E5

a certain light spectra, the ratio between the illuminance Ev and the irradiance Ee can be calculated by

. (1)

Here, =683lm/W is a constant; is the CIE standard spectral luminous efficiency curve; and is the power
spectral density of the light source.
To show the equivalent illuminance of a light source at the irradiance =100mW/cm2, consider four commercial LEDs of
blue [11], green [12], red [12] and white [13], as illustrated in Fig. 2. Their equivalent illuminance values are listed in Table 3.
Taking the white LED as an example, to reach the irradiance of 100mW/cm2, the illuminance needs to reach 311*103lux, which
is 778 times more than the 400lux value that is normally required to illuminate a table in an office! Obviously, although
PBM-based light therapies require relative lower power densities, the requirement to reach the max irradiance of 100mW/cm2 is
still not an easy task!
As a summary, to perform light-cell interaction experi-ments, an LED light source is required to achieve a light spot that can
cover a chosen cell culturing utensils as listed in Table 1, and can reach 100mW/cm2 at the interface with the culturing media.
3. Design of LED arrays to meet the requirements of the light-cell interaction experiments
An LED source is modeled as a Lambertian emitter, whose irradiance distribution can be expressed by the following cosine
law [14].
(2)
Table 4 Total radiant power required to achieve 100mW/cm2 irradiance in different cell culture utensils
Total power
(W)
96 well plate (one well) 0.032
24 well plate (one well) 0.2
12 well plate (one well) 0.45
35mm petri dish 0.8
60mm petri dish 2.1

where is the viewing angle; r is the distance between the LED and the target point; is the irradiance at θ=0; m is
called the Lambertian mode number, and can be calculated by

73
 . (3)

Here, is the half angle when the radiant power

However, as listed in Table 4, the total radiant power required to achieve 100mW/cm2 irradiance in different cell culturing
utensils is too high for a single LED chip to achieve. LEDs are usually integrated into an array, so that the total radiant power
and irradiance can be increased to the required levels.
In the case of an LED array, the mixed irradiance from all the LEDs in the array at a certain position can be
calculated by
(4)
where the subscripts i and j respectively denote the i-th LED chip and the j-th point on the target plane [14,15,16]. As an
example, Fig. 3 depicts the irradiance distribution from a 4-by-4 LED array on a plane 6cm away from it. In this case, the
spacing between each two adjacent LEDs is 0.5cm. The half angle of each LED is 60 o.

Fig. 3 The irradiance (in mW/cm2) distribution from a 4-by-4 LED array on a plane 6cm away from it

According to the requirements in Sec. 3, the irradiance shall be distributed within the desired light spot. A design method to
achieve these requirements is summarized as follows.
Step 1. Select the wavelength of the LED and the required irradiance, according to the principle of the studied light therapy.

Fig. 4 There example LED boards at different wavelengths

PWM
Constant current
dimming LED light
MCU current irradiance
board
driver
DC voltage

Constant
voltage 220V AC
driver
Fig. 5 Electrical design scheme of LED light sources

Step 2. Determine the dimension of the cell culturing utensil, and calculate the total radiant power.
Step 3. Choose the working distance between the light source and the culturing media.

74
 Step 4. Select the LED chips (i.e. including the total radiant power, half angle and electrical characteristics) and their
number, and calculate the irradiance distribution using Eq. (4).
Step 5. Check whether the irradiance distribution meet the criteria set in Step 1. If not, go back to Step 2.
4. Development and testing of a real setup
To verify the design method, three different LED light sources are developed, respectively at 450nm, 415nm and 810nm.
Each of the board contains a 4-by-4 LED array.
The LED boards are driven by a constant current source and can be tuned by PWM dimming signals from a
micro-computing unit (MCU), as illustrated in Fig. 5. To ensure the stability of current amplitude, a constant current driver is
used, which can enable tuning the current amplitude in the range of 0-4A, with the current ripple controlled below 150mVpp.
The current amplitude can be tuned by the PWM signal output from the MCU module.
Taking the 415nm board as an example, the modeled and measured (by Thorlabs PM100D power meter) irradiance values in
a 35mm diameter circle at different working distances are shown in Fig. 6. The irradiance distribution at the working distance of
6cm is plotted in Fig. 7. Clearly, the design requirements in terms of both the irradiance and the light spot dimension have been
achieved.
5. Conclusions
In this work, we have investigated the design requirements for performing light-cell interaction experiments in order to study
the biological mechanisms of light therapies. Based on these requirements, an LED array design method has been proposed and
tested.

Fig. 6 The measured and fitted irradiance of the 415nm board in a 30mm diameter circle

Fig. 7 The simulated irradiance distribution at the working distance of 6cm

In our future work, the setup will be used in studying the quantitative mechanisms of light therapies, so as to deepen the
knowledge of how human cells respond to the stimulation of LED light; and therefore also to optimize the light doses for
treating various light therapies.

References
1. P. Schulze, L. Barreira, H. Pereira, J. Perales, and J. Varela. Light emitting diodes (LEDs) applied to microalgal
production. Trends Biotechnol. 32(8):422-430, 2014.
2. N. Yeh, C. Wu, and T. Cheng. Light-emitting diodes-their potential in biomedical applications. Renew. Sustain. Energy
Rev. 14(8):2161-2166, 2010.

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3. J. Dong and D. Xiong. Applications of Light Emitting Diodes in Health Care. Ann. Biomed. Eng. 45(11): 2509-2523,
2017.
4. L. de Freitas and M. Hamblin. Proposed mechanisms of photobiomodulation or low-level light therapy. IEEE J. Sel. Top.
Quantum Electron. 22(3):348-364, 2016.
5. H. Chung, T. Dai, S. Sharma, Y. Huang, J. Carroll, and M. Hamblin. The nuts and bolts of low-level laser (light) therapy.
Ann. Biomed. Eng. 40(2):516-533, 2012.
6. C. Meng, Z. He, and D. Xing. Low-level laser therapy rescues dendrite atrophy via upregulating BDNF expression:
implications for Alzheimer’s disease. J. Neurosci. 33(33):13505-13517, 2013.
7. P. Prasad. Introduction to Biophotonics. Hoboken: Wiley, 2003.
8. P. Avci, A. Gupta, M. Sadasivam, D. Vecchio, Z. Pam, N. Pam, and M. Hamblin. Low-level laser (light) therapy (LLLT)
in skin: stimulating, healing, restoring. Semin. Cutan. Med. Surg. 32(1):41-52, 2013.
9. T. Karu and S. Kolyakov. Exact action spectra for cellular responses relevant to phototherapy. Photomed. Laser Surg.
23(4):355–361, 2005.
10. 宋贤杰，胡荣生。光照度和辐照度的转换。光源与照明1:20-21, 1997。
11. Everlight, Inc., datasheet, “SMD MID POWER LED 62-217B/XK2CSXXXXXXXXXXZ15/2T.”
12. Cree, Inc., datasheet, “Cree XLamp ML-E LEDs.”
13. Everlight, Inc., datasheet, “A23 0.5 W Series.”
14. I. Moreno, M. Avendaño-Alejo and R. Tzonchev. Designing light-emitting diode arrays for uniform near-field irradiance.
Appl. Opt. 45(10): 2265- 2272, 2006.
15. J. Dong, W. van Driel, and G. Zhang. Automatic diagnosis and control of distributed solid state lighting systems. Opt.
Express 19:5772-5784, 2011.
16. J. Dong and A. Pandharipande. Efficient Distributed Control of Light-Emitting Diode Array Lighting. Systems. Opt. Lett.
37(14):2910-2912, 2012.

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S204-201808152158

Lighting illuminance influence on blue light induced melatonin depression

Shanshan Tang1，Ya Guo2，Wentao Hao3，Shuai Huang2，Ke Wei4，Rongrong Wen3，Jianqi Cai2*，Aiqin Luo1*

1 Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, 100081, China
2 China National Institute of Standardization, 100191, Beijing, China
3 Kunshan Company of Human Factor Engineering Research and Development Center, Suzhou, 215333, China
4 Mianyang Institute of Product Quality supervision and Quality Inspection, Mianyang, 621000, China
*Corresponding Author: Jianqi Cai and Aiqin Luo

77
Abstract environment, 14 subjects participate in the human factor
Blue light in the range of 450~480nm has been proved to experiments. Salivary melatonin concentration is measured
induce melatonin depression. However, the dose limit of blue three times during the measurement: 2h prior to sleep, 1h prior
light has seldom been reported in previous study. In this to sleep and sleep starting point. It is analyzed whether blue
study, human factor experiments have been performed to light induced melatonin depression is influenced by lighting
compare lighting influence on melatonin emitting in lighting illuminance.
environments with correlated color temperature of 3000K and 2 Materials and method
5000K in ordinary illuminance. It is indicated that blue light A total of 28 subjects participate in the experiment based
below 300lux has little influence on melatonin depression in on previous investigation. It is confirmed that all subjects
the lighting environment below 5000K. Consequently, have similar schedule: getting home at 19:00 and going to bed
illuminance is an important factor for trigger of non-visual at 23:00. Fluctuation is below 10min without jet lag, and sleep
photo-biology effect. In the lighting environment with quality is well. Subjects are healthy without sleep-aid drugs
illuminance below 300lux, no distinctions can be found in the taking. All of them come from Beijing. Prior to experiment,
function of blue light induced melatonin depression between subjects have signed informed consents. Detailed information
non-visual effect luminaires and ordinary luminaires. on sex and age distribution is shown in Table 1.
1 Introduction
In studies on photo-biology effect with eyes as receptor, Table 1 Detailed information on sex and age
lighting is known to cause both visual effect and non-visual distribution.
effect. In 2002, Berson found the third kind of photosensory Household lighting with Household lighting with
cell called ipRGC [1], which affects physiology parameters 3000K 5000K
including body temperature [2], heart rate [3], blood pressure
and cortisol [4-6]. Non-visual effect tends to be different No. Age Sex No. Age Sex
when lighting wavelength varies. Previous studies show that
001 7 Female 101 8 Male
blue light in the wavelength range 450~480nm is likely to
cause melatonin depression and sleep quality reduction [7-8]. 002 25 Male 102 23 Female
Consequently, melatonin depression effect is taken into 003 25 Male 103 23 Female
consideration in the researching and development process of 004 33 Female 104 26 Male
an increasing number of lighting products. 005 33 Female 105 26 Male
LED lighting with correlated color temperature below 006 35 Female 106 36 Male
4000K contributes to melatonin emitting and sleep, while
LED lighting with correlated color temperature above 4000K 007 35 Female 107 36 Male
induces melatonin depression and poor sleep quality [9-10]. 008 35 Male 108 36 Female
Melatonin is an important sleep-correlating chemical which 009 35 Male 109 36 Female
distributes in the mouth and blood. In studies on non-visual 010 38 Male 110 37 Male
photo-biology effect, melatonin is a typical physiology index. 011 38 Male 111 37 Female
Blood is an ideal specimen for melatonin measurement.
012 60 Male 112 50 Female
However, high risk and ethical limits exist in blood collection.
Quantitative analysis of salivary melatonin makes a progress 013 64 Female 113 55 Male
in technology of collection, storage, pretreatment and test. 014 64 Female 114 65 Male
Most human factor experiments on melatonin take saliva as Average Average
specimen [11-12]. 37.6 35.3
age age
For photo-biology effect, triggering requires enough
lighting dose [13-14]. It is important to figure out that whether The aim of this study is to figure out whether blue light
non-visual effect has a dose limit for triggering, and whether induced melatonin depression is influenced by lighting
blue light induced melatonin depression is influenced by illuminance. It is necessary to control disturbance from
illuminance. In this study, we inspect and collect data from daylight. According to previous statistical data over the years,
hundreds of household lighting environments. It is found that sunset time in Beijing in May is 20:08. In this study, saliva
illuminances of most rooms are below 300lux. Luminaires collection time is 20:30, 21:30 and 22:30. Saliva collection is
with sleep-aid function in the market generally take 3000K as performed based on SARSTEDT method. To avoid interfering
typical correlated color temperature, which is different from from food digesting and water dilution, fasting is required
luminaire products with correlated color temperature of 30min prior to sleep and water deprivation is required 10min
5000K. prior to sleep. Coefficient of variation inside BRK1519H1/H2
Luminaires with correlated color temperature of both 3000 kit is below 10%. Detailed information of saliva collection
and 5000K are employed in our experiment. For each procedure is shown in Table 2.
correlated color temperature in household lighting

78
 Table 2 Detailed information of saliva collection procedure.
Procedure Detailed information Instrument
Fasting 30min prior to sleep (Food) ——
10min prior to sleep (Water)
Saliva collection 20:30, 21:30, 22:30 SARSTEDT instrument

Specimen storage 0~4℃, 7 days. Fridge/Incubator

Measurement Centrifugal treatment Hengnuo 5-21R centrifuge

Enzyme-linked immuno assay Boxun HPX-9052MBE Incubator
BRK1519H1/H2 kit
VersaMax microplate reader (450nm)

3 Results and discussion

Melatonin is a kind of amine bormone which is mainly
emitted by conarium. Content of melatonin in saliva
(4~10pg/ml) is much less than in blood, so the fitting curve
should be adjusted according to the value range of
concentration. Fitting curve is constructed from experiment
with R2=0.9994 (Figure 1). In statistics, normalization is
effective to reduce differences. Consequently, saliva
melatonin contents from the three times measurements are
normalized for T-test and difference analysis.

Figure 2 Independent T-test results of saliva melatonin

concentrations.

Paired T-test is performed on melatonin concentrations

inside 3000K and 5000K respectively from the three times
measurements on subjects (Table 4 and Figure 3). Saliva
melatonin concentrations present no significant difference
after 2h lighting and 1h lighting both in 3000K and in 5000K.
It is implied that melatonin emitting variation in 5000K
presents similar feature to that in 3000K in illuminance below
300lux, and there is no melatonin depression effect in this
illuminance.
Figure 1 Fitting curve for saliva melatonin quantifying. Table 4 Paired T-test results of melatonin concentrations.

Independent T-test is performed twice on melatonin P value

concentrations inside the three times measurements for Tested Pair
subjects in 3000K and 5000K (Table 3 and Figure 2). There is 3000K 5000K
no significant difference between melatonin concentrations
from the three times measurements in two color temperatures. 20:30-21:30 0.509 0.939
It is implied that saliva melatonin contents present no obvious
distinctions between 3000K and 5000K after the same 21:30-22:30 0.99 0.707
duration below 300lux.
20:30-22:30 0.262 0.546

79
 Table 3 Independent T-test results of saliva melatonin concentrations.
3000K
Time
Mean Deviation
20:30 0.3444157 0.01201762
21:30 0.3276821 0.01350344
22:30 0.3279007 0.0067801
Figure 3 Paired T-test results of melatonin concentrations.
ext about the next steps in your analysis
4 Conclusion
In this study, comparison is made on saliva melatonin
concentrations from three times measurements before sleep in
household lighting between 3000K and 5000K when
illuminance is below 300lux. No significant difference is
found in melatonin contents between the two correlated color
temperatures in the three time points. After 1h lighting and 2h
lighting, melatonin emitting variation in 5000K presents
similar feature to that in 3000K without significant difference.
Luminaires with 3000K and 5000K color temperatures present
no significant different influence on melatonin emitting below
300lux, which is not enough for triggering non-visual effect of
blue light induced melatonin depression. It is inferred that
non-visual photo-biology effect is correlated to lighting
illuminance. For ordinary household lighting, LED luminaires
with correlated color temperatures below 5000K have little
influence on melatonin emitting. Non-visual triggering is
likely to result from the combination of SPD and illuminance.
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S204-201808221809
The Effect of Office Lighting Strobe on Human Physiology
Xiaojie Zhao1,2, Dandan Hou1,2, Yandan Lin1,2, Wei Xu1,2*
1lnstitute for Electric Light Sources, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
2Engineering Research Center of Advanced Lighting Technology, Ministry of Education, Shanghai, China
ydlin@fudan.edu.cn, 13501903746
Abstract
LED is generally used as office light sources, and the
problem of stroboscopic effect becomes apparent with LED
lighting in working environments all over the world because
of drivers and dimmers. So the physiological effect of
working environments with different lighting strobe on human
is therefore proposed in this study. The experimental lighting
conditions contained three frequencies ( 100Hz/400Hz/
1500Hz) and three modulation depths (10%/ 30%/70%). Ten
healthy students were subjected to each condition in a
simulated office. Searching the Anfimov table task,
transcribing task and filling in the scales were executed in this
experimental process, in which the participant’ s brainwave,
pupil size, critical flicker fusion threshold (CFF) were fully
measured. The results showed that pupil size was found to
have no significant effect in this experiment, but fatigue
scales, CFF before and after searing the Anfimov table task
and brainwave of Occipital lobe all had significant results.
Combing the figure of Low-Risk Level and no observable
effect level (NOEL) from IEEE Std 1789TM-2015 [1], the
closer the condition was to no-risk area, the greater power of
the Alpha and Beta waves in the Occipital lobe, the clearer the
consciousness. And difference values of CFF before and after
searching task showed that the fatigue significantly increased
under 70%, the fatigue scale was also in good agreement with
this. And based on the results, guiding relationships were
provided, which could be used as proposal for the
stroboscopic effect in office applications.
1. Introduction
New technologies were developed in LED that also
introduced high levels of flicker or strobe. The former are
associated with visible TLA (temporal light artefact) for static
observer in a static environment, typically with the
frequencies of ~80Hz; The latter, on the contrary, may also
occur for light fluctuating with frequencies higher than 100Hz
for static observer in non-static environment, is strobe [2].
Healthy lighting focusing on the flicker and strobe has
been studied recently [1]. The flicker can cause intensive
discomfort for subjects exposed for a long time [3].
Measurements of electroretinogram have indicated that
modulation of light in range of 100Hz to 160Hz and even up
to 200Hz is resolved by people retina although the flicker is
too rapid to be seen [4]. And the stroboscopic light may
influence the basic brainwave pattern (EEG) which has been
well established by medical research, however, Rikard kuller
found EEG was not significantly affected by flicker in his
experiment which requires further research [5]. And flicker
critical fusion frequency (CFF) has also been used on the
study of strobe effect, which can be as the physiological meter
of visual fatigue to find impairment of visual performance in
tasks [6]. Other researches on the brain fatigue, recognition
load, and the task efficiency were also carried out with EEG
or subjective assessment. However, there have been very few
studies on the impact of non-visible flicker from LED in
offices.
81
This study intends to discuss the physiological effect of
LED in interior working environment. The effects of lighting
strobe on human’ s physiological reactions of visual fatigue
and concentration were studied with non-subjective
evaluations. And there were fatigue scales as the subjective
evaluations. It was expected to propose lighting conditions
suitable for interior working so as to reduce visual fatigue and
promote concentration for the long working hours.
2. Methods
Ten young students (4 males and 6 females) totally, aged
22 + 0.6, participated in this study. All participants presented
healthy states, normal vision and colour vision. For each
participant, the order of nine conditions was random. Before
the experiment, they were shown how to use the flash fusion
frequency meter and then they exercised tasks to be familiar
with the experimental process.
The experimental lighting conditions contained 9 sets of
light sources with 3 frequencies (100Hz/400Hz/1500Hz) and
3 modulation depths (10%/30%/70%) described in Table 2.1.
The choice of variables was based on the relation chart about
frequency and modulation depth combining a large number of
researchers' conclusions from the IEEE 1987-2015
Recommendation document [1]. Under different modulation
depths and frequencies, the hazard of time light modulation
are different. It is representative to select a 3 ×3 square
spanning three areas on that chart. After the implementation
of the variable parameters, then strobe meter was used to
measure the frequency and modulation depth of the desktop to
calibrate parameters. And the average colour rendering (Ra)
of light source was larger than 85. The correlated temperature
(CCT) was about 4000K and illumination was about 300lx.
They were measured at the work surface. The light level and
the distribution in the room were consistent for each lighting
condition.
Parameter Values
Frequency (Hz) 100;400;1500
Modulation depths (%) 10;30;70
Illuminance (lx) 300
Color rending index 85
UGR（glare） <19
CCT (K) 4000
Table 2.1: Experimental conditions
A controllable lighting system including the waveform
signal generator, power amplifier and LED panel light was
designed in this study for the required lighting environment.
And a general office field (3.1m × 1.95m × 2.02m) was
simulated as the experimental space (Fig 2.1).

Fig 2.1: The photo of laboratory office
Total experimental time was 210min for each participant,
including 10min lighting adaptation, then participants needed
to wear EEG and Eye Tracker to record physical parameters.
10min experimental tasks, including searching the Anfimov
table task, transcribing task, and CFF measurement before and
after each task, 3min completing scales. (Fig 2.2)
Fig 2.2: Experimental process
The data of non-subjective evaluation including EEG,
pupil size and CFF was collected as the physiological signals.
In this study, we analyzed the Alpha and Beta wave in the
visual zone, pupil size and CFF based on the physiological
reaction of vision; The Alpha and bate wave in the
concentration zone were also analyzed as concentration
reaction. Subjective evaluation was assessment of self-fatigue
symptoms scales which can reflect their degree of fatigue.
3. RESULTS
3.1 EEG
The power of brain waves was analyzed firstly. We found
that there is significance in Alpha and Beta waves of Occipital
lobe by One-way ANOVA analysis, you can see p-values in
the Figure 3.1.1 and Figure 3.1.2. But there is no significance
in the Frontal lobe (P>0.05).
It’ s concluded that the power is bigger under 1500Hz than
other conditions which tells that the participants have
concentration of attention under the 1500Hz. Beside that, the
power of brain waves under the 100Hz and 400Hz are so
small similarly which should be noted. If possible, whether
there is a critical physiological change value.
82
P=0.039<0.05
Figure 3.1.2: This is based on frequency and modulation
depth chart form IEEE [1]. (different area colors represent
different risks of TLM. white is high-risk zone, yellow is
low-risk zone, and green is risk-free zone.) The size of the
circle represents the size of the Alpha wave power in
Occipital lobe. The nine circles stand the nine conditions.
P=0.024<0.05
P=0.017<0.05
Figure 3.1.2: This is based on the frequency and
modulation depth chart from IEEE [1]. The size of the circle
represents the size of the Beta wave power in Occipital
lobe.The nine circles stand the nine conditions.
3.2 CFF
The data was difference values of CFF which were
measured before and after the office tasks. The experimental
results showed the decreasing CFF with the increasing
modulation depth for the searching the Anfimov table task
which revealed that high modulation depth could easily result
in visual fatigue (Figure3.2.1). And the office lighting of 70%
modulation depth made workers tired so that their work
performance was declining. The modulation depth, 10% , 30%
and 70%, were used in this experiment, and there is
significance between these three modulation depths. The
larger CFF was, the more tired the worker were. But One
-way ANOVA analysis of CFF under frequencies showed that
it was not significant. And it should be noting that CFF under
different frequencies for different office tasks need to
further study. From the above analysis, it told that the staff’ s
work performance would be influenced by lighting
stroboscopic effect.

P=0.019<0.05
p=0.004<0.05
Fig 3.2.1: This is based on the frequency and modulation
depth chart from IEEE [1]. The size of the circle represents
difference values of CFF measured before and after the
searching Anfimov table task.The nine circles stand the nine
conditions.
3. 3 Scales
After the tasks, the participants finished the fatigue scales
according to their real feelings. By the One-way ANOVA
analysis, the p-value in the Figure 3.3.1 indicated that the
fatigue symptoms under 10% and 70% appear the significant
differences. However, it was not significant under
frequencies.
In addition, the participants thought they were tired
obviously under 70% for subjective evaluation. And for the
non-subjective analysis of CFF during searing task, the results
showed significant fatigue under 70% for the participants. It is
important that the results of scales and the analysis of CFF
have the uniformity. Totally environment of 70% may cause
the worst lighting strobe which need to further study.
P=0.047<0.05
Fig 3.3.1: At modulation depth, the error bar chart of fatigue
symptoms.
4. Conclusions
A good lighting environment can enhance bright
environment as well as guarantee worker’ s health. In the
study, the effect of office lighting strobe on human physiology
was explored with different frequencies and modulation
depth.
Firstly, the high frequency and the low modulation depth
could make the Alpha and Beta waves power in the Occipital
lobe increase, the consciousness was clearer. The attention of
participants in completing the task was affected by the
modulated light, which was in agreement with previous
83
findings by Nilsson Tengelin, et al [7]. And we also found that
pupil size was not affected by the lighting environment in this
experiment .
Secondly, the CFF and scales all had the similar
consistency which reflect the users’ fatigue. The experimental
condition of 70% could effectively enhance their fatigue
which was seen as general effect. From the methodological
point of view, this result supported previous paper that
subjective assessment by means of scales were both powerful
and reliable in detecting physiological parameters [8].
Finally it’ s suggested that interior working office
application, could intelligently adjust lighting environments in
the future, according to the requirements and the thinking of
results, to achieve the optimal lighting environment.
Acknowledgments
This research is supported by National Key R&D Program
of China(Project No. 2017YFB 0403700). We thank for all
the participants in the experiment.
References
1. IEEE, “IEEE Recommended Practices for Modulating
Current in High-Brightness LEDs for Mitigating Health
Risks to Viewers[S],” IEEE Std 1789™-2015, 2015.
2. CIE, “Visual Aspects of Time-Modulated Lighting
Systems – Definitions and Measurement Models[S],”
CIE TN 006:2016, 2016.
3. Jo Olsen. et al, “Human Factors Studyon Light
Modulation in Indirect Office Lighting[J],” Human
Factors and Ergonomics Society, Vol. 58, 1(2014), pp.
1104-1108
4. S. A. Burns, et al, Analysis of nonlinearities in the flicker
ERG, Optometry & Vision Science, Vol. 69, 2(1993), pp.
95-105.
5. Rikard kuller, et al, “The impact of flicker from
fluorescent lighting on well-being, performance and
physiological arousal[J],” ERGONOMICS, Vol. 41,
4(1998), pp.433-447.
6. Hao, W.-T., et al, “Lighting effect health test and
evaluation method based on physiological index of human
visual system[J],” Cie Midterm Meetings & Conference on
Smarter Light for Better Life, 2018.
7. Nilsson Tengelin, et al, “Effects of non-visual optical
flicker in an office with two different light sources[J],”
Cie Midterm Meetings & Conference on Smarter Light for
Better Life, 2018, pp:468-476.
8. Igor Knez, “Affective and cognitive reactions to
subliminal flicker from fluorescent lighting,
Consciousness and Cognition[J],“ Vol. 24, 1(2014), pp.
97-104.
9. JD Bullough PhD. et al, “Effects of flicker characteristics
from solid-state lighting on detection, acceptability and
comfort[J],” Lighting Res. Technology, Vol. 43, No. 3
(2011), pp. 337–348.
S204-201808221810

Effects of CRI and GAI on Emotion and Fatigue in Office Lighting

Dandan Hou1,2 , Ye Ge1,2 , Yandan Lin1,2*

1lnstitute for Electric Light Sources, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
2Engineering Research Center of Advanced Lighting Technology, Ministry of Education, Shanghai, China
ydlin@fudan.edu.cn, 13501903746

Abstract light source. Their results suggested that when GAI is used to
This paper investigated the influence of Color Rendering supplement CRI, two indicators (when CRI≥80, 80≤GAI≤
Index on emotion and visual fatigue. By comparing the impact 100) seem to ensure positive subjective impressions of nature
of different CRI and GAI values on the color perception and and activity. Considering the universality of the results, this
emotions, getting the recommended values of CRI and GAI in study chose most widely used CRI and GAI as variables to
the office environment. In this experiment, GAI was used to investigate the impact of light sources color rendering index
assist Ra to evaluate the relationship of color rendering index on emotion and fatigue, in order to find suitable value for
with emotion and visual fatigue. The test methods used in the office environment.
experiment include color matching, critical flicker frequency Methods
test, and emotion and fatigue scales, through which the The participants were randomly recruited between ages of
experiment was conducted in different ways ranging from 18~29 years old, with total number of 10 including 4 males
physiological indicators, eye fatigue indicators, emotional and and 6 females, average age at 22.60±(std)2.73. All with
fatigue scales. The experimental results were analyzed by normal orthoptists and no color blindness, color weakness or
(ANOVA) variance analysis, (PCA) principal component other eye diseases.
analysis, mean-value analysis, repeated measurement, and The experiments were conducted in a lighting lab and the
multivariate analysis. The results showed that the participants room size is L37m×W3.2m× H3.1m. One side of the room is
are most likely to produce positive emotions in the condition open and has a neutral grey curtain. The curtains were closed
of GAI = 120, Ra = 80, and they are least likely to accumulate during the experiment. There are desks, sofas, tea tables,
fatigue. Under GAI = 100, Ra = 100 cases, the mean value of chairs, paintings and so on. The layout of the laboratory is
the critical flicker frequency (CFF) difference is the smallest, shown in figure 1.
and participants are not prone to fatigue. GAI has a certain Figure 1 Experimental Environment
influence on emotions, while the influence of Ra is smaller.
Finally, GAI=100, Ra=100 and GAI=120, Ra=80 are easier to
generate positive emotions.
Introduction
The light source color rendering index (CRI) is a
parameter that quantifies the degree of agreement between the
object color appearance under the light source to be measured
and the object color appearance under the reference lighting
object [1]. It has been quantified using the CIE color rendering
index Ra to describe the degree the light source expresses the
color appearance of the object, and the full color gamut index
GAI can be used to reveal the sensitivity of the hue saturation
and the hue sensitivity [2]. Current standards and studies on In this experiment, six THOUSLITE LED CUBE with a
color rendering of light sources mainly focus on the research spectral tunable light source was used to create 9 different
on color discrimination and color matching. lighting conditions, which were determined according to table
Newman W P [3] and others explored the relationship 1. The spectral power distribution corresponding to the 9
between the color rendering index and the stress levels, the conditions is shown in figure 2.
results showed that with the increase of color rendering index Table 1 Experimental parameter setting
(from Ra= 80-85 to Ra = 96), the stress level decreased Parameter Type Parameter Value
significantly. According to this result, the light irradiation CRI(Ra) 60,80,100
with the color rendering index similar to the natural sunlight Variable
GAI 80,100,120
could reduce the pressure. In addition, he also obtained the
Illuminance(lx） 300
conclusions that reducing stress levels could also be
associated with other phenomena, such as improving positive CCT(K） 4000
Constant
emotions and work performance, reducing employee absences Duv <0.01
and pain perception. UGR <19
In addition, with the wide use of white LED in recent years,
Ra can't well describe the feeling of the people for light source
color rendering [4] [5] [6], and a scholar considerd that the
description of the CRI has nothing to do with the human
subjective feeling, and it could not accurately describe the
color properties of solid-state lighting [7].
In view of this situation, JP Freyssinier [2] and MS Rea [8]
used GAI to assist CRI in measuring the color rendering of the
84
 questionnaire were chosen from the present study [12], and the
specific comments were about preference, appreciation,
attractiveness, pleasantness, colourfulness, vividness, natural
and harmony. Subjects were asked to circle the preferred
grade. In the study of Rea and Freyssinier [8], they thought that
some observers may focus on a particular color, while others
may give an overall impression of objects in the field of view
when there are many objects to be observed. Therefore, we
asked observers to evaluate the oil paint at right. To ensure
consistency of subjects evaluation target.
The sequence of experimental conditions in the
experiment is random. In addition, the order in which the
Amfimov table and the colors selected in different
experimental conditions are also random. The experimental
process of each part is shown in the following table 2.
Table 2 Experimental Process
Figure 2 Spectral power distribution in different NO. Process Duration
experimental conditions.
Fill in the basic information,and
A variety of test methods were adopted in the experiment, 1 3min
conduct color blindness test.
including subjective scale and objective test. The specific Familiar with the experimental
methods are as follows: 2 10min
procedures and equipment
Chromatic Anfimov Table: chromatic anfimov table
3 Dark adaptation 3min
contains 1200 English letters, letters are A, B, C, E, H, K, N,
X, A, with the same probability, each letter randomly shows 4 Conditon 1, environmental adaptation 3min
one of the twelve kinds of color. These colors were selected 5 CFF test-3 times 4.5min
evenly from the color rings of the Wilhelm Ostwald color 6 Chromatic anfimov table 8min
system which was shown in figure 3. The observer's task was 7 CFF test-3 times 4.5min
to select the “B” that matches the specified color.
PANAS, Fatigue sematic scale, Color
8 4min
Perception Scale,
9 Repeat 4-8 to complete the remaining 8 conditions
Results
First, we conducted ANOVA analysis of CFF-error in
different experimental conditions. Through multiple
comparison results of post-test, the significant difference was
found between GAI=100, Ra=100 and GAI=100, Ra=60
(P=0.031). Moreover, the CFF-error is smaller when
GAI=100 and Ra=100. In other words, it is less likely to cause
(a) fatigue.
(b) According to the analysis results of the color perception
Figure 3 (a) The color rings of the Wilhelm Ostwald color scale, there is a significant difference between GAI=100,
system; (b) Excerpts of Chromatic Anfimov Table. Ra=100 and GAI=110, Ra=90 in the evaluation of
Because color printing on Anfimove table could inevitably attractiveness. The score of the former was significantly lower
produce color difference. Thus, we compare the printed color than that of the latter (P=0.046). It can be seen from the
block with the standard color block and calculate the color comparison of the mean value that GAI=110, Ra=90 have the
difference using Reilly cube root color difference formula. highest average value of attractiveness, and there is a
The results were within the range allowed (△E<1). significant difference compared with other conditions.
CFF is measured by the flash fusion frequency meter. After that, we used the same method to analyze the
Each measurement is divided into forward threshold and PANAS scale and fatigue scale. The PANAS scale can be
reverse threshold test. The average value is the test value. analyzed in the following standard ways: 1, 3, 5, 9, 10, 12, 14,
Fatigue semantic scale include tiredness, insecurity, 16,17 and 19 items in the scale are added as positive effect
fatigue feeling and fuzzy feeling of four parts which reference scores. And the sum of 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 11, 13, 15, 18 and 20
the VAS-F [9], and also included a part of visual fatigue, rated items in the scale was used as a negative effect score. Then,
by a five point scale (0 = none, 2= slight, 3 =moderate, 4 = the results were analyzed by using repeated measurement in
obvious, 5 = severe). The symptoms includes tired eyes, sore SPSS:
or aching eyes, irritated eyes, dry eyes, hot or burning eyes, Table 3 Repeated measurement significance- PANAS scale
double vision, blurred vision, dizzy and headache [10]. (I)GAI (J)GAI Mean Difference (I-J) Sig.
Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) [11]: GAI=100 -0.0877 0.19
each part has five kinds of state, "1" on behalf of the least, "5" GAI=80
GAI=120 -0.1349* 0.045
represents the highest degree ， used to investigate the GAI=80 0.0877 0.19
emotional states of subjects in different conditions GAI=100
GAI=120 -0.0472 0.497
Color Perception Scale include a series of pairs of GAI=80 0.1349* 0.045
adjectives with opposite meanings, and there are 7 levels of GAI=120
GAI=100 0.0472 0.497
measurement between pairs of adjectives. 8 word pairs in the
85
 As can be seen from the table above, the score of PANAS Through the rotation matrix, we can get that the variables
scale at GAI=80 is significantly different from that at related to the first principal component are indicators of
GAI=120, while the score of PANAS scale at different Ra drowsiness, exhaustion, fatigue, exhaustion, energy, fatigue
conditions is not significantly different. This indicates that and fatigue. The second main component related variables are
GAI may have a certain influence on positive and negative dry eyes, hot eyes, sore eyes, open eyes and other indicators.
emotions, while Ra has a small influence. Next, we can The variables related to the third principal component are line
analyze and compare the mean of PANAS scale in different of sight blur and line shadow. Associated with the fourth
experimental conditions. principal component are indicators such as talking and
moving the body. Due to these principal component index has
good correlation, we can put the first principal component
named the tired and poor efficiency, the second principal
component named dry eye, the third principal component
named the line of sight is not clear, the fourth principal
component named movement and dialogue.
Therefore, we succeeded in reducing the original 25
problems to 4 main components and made clear the
contribution of the problem to the final result. Then, we could
carry out further data analysis on the four principal
components. The following table is to calculate the mean
value of the principal components under various conditions,
namely, the comprehensive score of factors. With the above
Figure 4 PANAS Score results, we could comprehensive principal component values
Finally, we compared the two mean values and concluded calculated by principal component comprehensive model, and
that GAI=100, Ra=100 and GAI=120, Ra=80 were more according to the comprehensive principal component values to
likely to generate positive emotions. its sort, comprehensive comparison of various conditions.
As for the fatigue scale in different conditions, we can use Table 4 The mean value and ordering of principal
SPSS for Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to achieve the components in different conditions
purpose of dimensional reduction. First, KMO and Barlett Component
tests were performed. KMO tests could be used to observe the 1 2 3 4 total
(Mean value)
data extracted from the principal components. This GAI=80, Ra=100 -0.03 -0.37 -0.11 0.26 7
experiment measured fatigue scale coefficient is 0.865 which GAI=100,Ra=100 -0.30 -0.07 0.16 0.23 3
was within the significant interval, so it is suitable for the use
GAI=110, Ra=90 0.04 0.03 -0.22 0.00 5
of principal component analysis for dimension reduction. In
GAI=80, Ra=80 0.12 -0.12 0.05 -0.03 3
addition, the P value detected by Barlett's was less than 0.001,
which indicated that the data can be analyzed by principal GAI=100, Ra=80 0.04 -0.03 0.23 -0.38 5
component analysis. GAI=120, Ra=80 -0.09 0.02 -0.12 -0.23 9
The characteristic value of the first principal component GAI=80, Ra=60 0.15 0.48 0.05 0.09 1
was 12.139, so it accounted for 12.139/25*100=48.556% of GAI=100, Ra=60 -0.08 -0.02 -0.08 -0.09 8
the total variation. Similarly, the characteristic value of the GAI=120, Ra=60 0.15 0.07 0.04 0.14 2
second principal component was 4.025, which accounts for According to the mean value and ranking above, we can
16% of the total, and the following principal components and get that the first principal component indicates that subjects
so on. From the result, the eigenvalues of the principal are most tired and least efficient when GAI=80, Ra=60, while
components 5 is less than 1, and interpret data variation ratio subjects are least tired and most efficient in the condition of
is only 3.523%, and the fourth principal component so far has GAI=100, Ra=100. The second principal component indicates
accounted for the proportion of 75.039%（>75%）,so the fifth that the eyes are the driest and hottest when GAI=80, Ra=60,
principal component should be eliminated. We can also look while the eyes are the least dry and hot in the condition of
at the scree plot to prove it. GAI=80, Ra=100. The third principal component indicates
that the vision is least clear when GAI=100, Ra=80, While in
the condition of GAI=110, Ra=90, the vision is the clearest.
The fourth principal component indicates that GAI=80,
Ra=100 is the most difficult condition to move and talk, and
the condition of GAI=100, Ra=80 is the easiest. The
contribution of these principal components to overall fatigue
decreases with the decrease of the proportion of principal
components. The comprehensive principal component showed
that GAI=80, Ra=60 were the most prone to fatigue, and the
condition of GAI=120, Ra=80 is the least prone to fatigue.
Conclusions
 About the CFF- error, the results showed that the
CFF-error in condition GAI = 100, Ra = 100 is significantly
less than the conditions of GAI = 100, Ra = 60, and the mean
value of CFF-error in the condition of GAI = 100, Ra = 100 is
Figure 5 Scree Plot small. In other words, this condition caused the lowest visual
fatigue.

86
  From the ANOVA results of the color perception scale, 11.Watson, David, L. A. Clark, and A. Tellegen. "Watson D,
we can find that: the charm of oil painting for participants in Clark LA, Tellegen A. Development and Validation of
GAI = 110, high Ra = 90 is significantly higher than that of Brief Measures of Positive and Negative Affect - the
GAI = 100, GAI =100 and Ra = 100, Ra = 80. Panas Scales. J Pers Soc Psychol 54: 1063-1070."
 The PANAS scale, we used a repeated measurement 54.6(1988):1063-1070.
and the mean comparison, discovered GAI is likely to have a 12.Smet, K. A., et al. "Memory colours and colour quality
certain influence on positive and negative emotions, but the evaluation of conventional and solid-state lamps. " Optics
influence of Ra is relatively small. It is easier to generate Express 18.25(2010):26229
positive emotions, less accumulated negative emotions in the
condition of GAI = 100, Ra=100 and GAI = 120, Ra = 80.
 The results of principal component analysis to fatigue
scale showed that it is most easily to generate fatigue in the
condition of Ra=60, GAI=80, and then is in the condition of
Ra = 60 GAI = 120; It is the least prone to fatigue in the
condition of GAI=120, Ra=80. The eyes are the most dry and
hot when GAI=80, Ra=60, and the least dry and hot when
GAI=80, Ra= 100.
Generally speaking, in the range of 80≤GAI≤120 and 60
≤Ra≤100, participants were less likely to cumulative fatigue
with the increase of GAI and Ra. GAI = 120, Ra = 80 and
GAI = 100, Ra = 100 is the easiest to produce positive
emotions and not easily accumulated fatigue.
Acknowledgments
This research is supported by National Key R&D Program
of China (Project No.2017YFB0403700).
References
1. Aazami, M. A., and E. Jalili. "Method of Measuring and
Specifying Colour Rendering Properties of Light Sources,
CIE Publication 13.3‐1995, Central Bureau Of the CIE,
(nonmembers)." Color Research & Application
20.3(2010):212-212.
2. Freyssinier, Jean Paul, and M. Rea. "A two-metric
proposal to specify the color-rendering properties of light
sources for retail lighting." Proceedings of SPIE - The
International Society for Optical Engineering 7784(2010).
3. Newman, W. Paydon, and J. Rebman. "The effects of
increased color rendering index on stress and depression."
International Conference on Electrical, Electronics, and
Optimization Techniques IEEE, 2016:58-60.
4. J,He, Y,Sun, and Y,Lin. " Review of Current Measures for
Color Rendition Property of Light Sources." China
Illuminating Engineering Journal 26.4(2015):6-10.
5. Narendran, Nadarajah, and L. Deng. "Color rendering
properties of LED light sources." Proceedings of SPIE -
The International Society for Optical Engineering
4776(2002):61-67.
6. Seim, T. "In search of an improved method for assessing
the colour rendering properties of light sources." Lighting
Research & Technology 17.17(1985):12-22.
7. Sophie JostBoissard, Marc Fontoynont, and Joachim
BlancGonnet. "Perceived lighting quality of LED sources
for the presentation of fruit and vegetables." Journal of
Modern Optics 56.13(2009):1420-1432.
8. Rea, Mark S, and J. P. Freyssinier‐Nova. "Color rendering:
A tale of two metrics." Color Research & Application
33.3(2010):192-202.
9. Shahid, Azmeh, et al. Visual Analogue Scale to Evaluate
Fatigue Severity (VAS-F). STOP, THAT and One Hundred
Other Sleep Scales. Springer New York, 2011:399-402.
10.Wang, Y., et al. "A model for evaluating visual fatigue
under LED light sources based on long-term visual display
terminal work." Lighting Research & Technology
(2017):147715351769001.

87
S204-201808221812

Study on Psychophysiological Effects of Window Glare on Human Body

Sijie He1,2, Yandan Lin1,2*

1lnstitute for Electric Light Sources, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
2Engineering Research Center of Advanced Lighting Technology, Ministry of Education, Shanghai, China
ydlin@fudan.edu.cn, 13501903746

Abstract
Window glare is a common phenomenon in current office environment, which can easily affect office efficiency, causing
visual fatigue, eye discomfort and other issues. At present, there are two types of experiments in window glare study: real window
environment and artificial window simulation. In this paper, the effects of window glare on human were studied by artificially
simulated by LED light source, using the luminance and color temperature of window glare as variables, then use the subjective
and objective human data as standard to evaluate five kinds of glare metrics, DGP, DGI, UGR, VCP, and DGI. The experiment
found that the luminance of the window glare had a very significant influence on the subjective evaluation of the subjects reflected
in the De Bore scale (p=0.000<0.001). The color temperature of the window glare light source (p=0.000<0.001) and the
luminance of the window glare source (p=0.000<0.001) all have extremely significant influence on the relative pupil size, which
indicates that the relative pupil size reflects the body's obvious physiology of glare perception. When the subjective evaluation De
Bore score or relative pupil size was used as a benchmark, the evaluations of the five glare indexes all had extremely significant
correlations (p ≤0.05), and DGP shows the best performance.
1.Introduction
In the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America Lighting Handbook of (IESNA, 2000), the glare is defined as " the
sensation produced by luminance within the visual field that is sufficiently greater than the luminance to which the eyes are
adapted to cause annoyance, discomfort or loss in visual performance and visibility " Assuming that there is glare in the visual
field, that is, a feeling of brightness that the human eye cannot tolerate, it will cause boredom, uncomfortableness, or loss of vision
response. Therefore, glare is one of the important causes of visual fatigue, it will also affect the body's mood and work efficiency.
Glare is generally divided into two types: disability glare and discomfort glare [1], which are classified according to their
influence on visual comfort. The difference between these two glare types can be explained more intuitively using the German
glare term: physiological glare (disabling glare) and psychological glare (discomfort glare). Among them, uncomfortable glare is
an important factor that should be considered in office lighting design [2].
In recent years, many studies have identified the benefits of daylight in buildings to the health of occupants, including their
necessity to regulate circadian rhythms, but simply maximizing daylight is undesirable. If glare is caused, the suitability of the
living space may be affected. Window glare typically occurs when sunlight is directed into a room or when it is reflected by the
work surface and surrounding surfaces and enters the viewer's eyes. Littlefai et al. found that a good field of view should include
the control of the foreground and the horizon of the sky. [3] At this point, attention needs to be paid to controlling the glare effect
associated with the high luminance of the sky field of view. In addition, Osterhaus study found that existing assessment methods
predict greater tolerance to daylight glare if a pleasant view is seen from the glare-producing window. [4]
In addition to the above experiments conducted under real daylight conditions, the research of window glare has also studied
the use of electrical lighting to simulate the effects of window glare. Iwata et al. studied the use of LED lighting simulation of
artificial windows for work types and window view for human glare perception research and found that the subjective glare
evaluation of the VDT task is higher than the paper task, and it also finds that the window view has an effect on the discomfort
caused by window glare. [5] Ju Young Shin et al. installed 1414 rows of incandescent lamps in the window box simulated the
experiment by pasting different pictures of view. The results showed the type of field of view and the distance of the field of view
are two key factors that influence the subjective evaluation of window discomfort glare. [6]
In this study, preliminary data analysis of human subjective evaluation and physiological index affected by glare was
conducted to study the psychological and physiological effects of window glare, and the accuracy of objective glare evaluation
was verified. Due to the precise control of the optical physical quantity of the glare source, the experimental part of this research
mainly uses LED panel light to simulate the office working environment with window glare, explores the subjective glare
evaluation and physiological indicators of different glare source conditions, and expects to use experimental data to evaluate the
existing objective glare evaluation metrics.
2.Experimental design
This project designed experiments to explore the effects of window glare on various health indicators, including
psychophysical and physiological indicators in the office environment. The purpose of this experiment is to simulate the light
environment of a real office.
2.1 Experimental environment
For the lighting conditions, the actual experimental environment of the lighting environment in the 3.2 m3 m office
environment simulated in the laboratory model is shown in Fig.1. The ceiling has six light cubes (multi-channel arbitrary light
simulator) that provide background illumination, i.e. the adaptive luminance, and the desktop illumination under background
illumination is 300 lx. Two LED panel lights (60 cm60 cm) were used as the main window glare source, hanging at a distance of
110 cm from the ground so that the center of the vertical direction was facing the observed eye position of the subject. There are
two stage lights placed on the high chair to illuminate the LED panel light, which is used to fill the light to achieve the color
temperature and luminance set by the experimental conditions, and has ensured that the stage light does not enter the eyes, and
there is no problem of uniformity and discomfort.
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 Fig.1 Experimental environment

2.2 Experimental condition

The color temperature condition of the window glare source is set by referring to the all-day daylight parameter measured by
the lighting passport (Fig.1). As shown in Fig.1, the color temperature of daylight under sunny days is basically in the range of
4200-7500 K. According to the integrated daylight measurement data and the actual electric lighting device exist in the office. The
color temperature of the glare source in this experiment is set at 3000, 4500, 6000 K. Kim W et al. measured the luminance of
daylight through the window [7]. Although the luminance of outdoor direct sunlight will reach 100,000 cd/m2 or more,
considering the light transmittance of window glass lighting glass is slightly higher than 80% on average, as well as curtain
shielding and illumination angle, the luminance of the glare source designed in this experiment is 1000, 3000, 6000, 10000 cd/m2.

Fig.2 Daylight color temperature and illuminance change chart

Finally, the luminance and color temperature of the lighting fixture are measured using an imaging luminance meter. The
experimental conditions and serial numbers are shown in the Table 1.
Table 1 Experimental condition
Experimental
Experimental condition
order
CCT(K) Luminance(cd/m2)
1 1000
2 3000 3000
3 6000
4 1000
5 3000
4500
6 6000
7 10000
8 1000
9 3000
6000
10 6000
11 10000
12 4000(Background lighting) 3000(Background lighting)

2.3 Experimental process

In the introduction part, the experiments related to the research of window glare have been mentioned. According to the
literature research, most of the glare experiments involve human health indicators, which are mainly divided into psychophysical
quantity, work performance, physiological index, biochemical index, eye fatigue, emotion, etc. aspect. This experiment uses the
nine-point De Bore rating scale to reflect the psychophysical quantity, the visual analog fatigue assessment scale (VAS-F) and the
89
visual perception semantic difference scale to reflect the degree of physical and eye fatigue. Using the Ann Fermo J calibration
table to judge the work performance, and using the Tobbi eye tracker to record the eye track and relative pupil size of the test
during the experiment, 3F Medical's monitor measures the heart rate and oxygen saturation.
Ten paid subjects (5 females and 5 males, Mean ±SD ages =21.3 ± 1.19 years old) participated in this experiment. Before
opening the artificial window glare source, the subject needs to fill in the basic information table under the background light
source illumination, then wear the eye tracker to perform the eye tracker calibration, and the monitor sensor in the left hand. In
each glare environment, it is necessary to adapt for 3 minutes then to complete the Ann Fermo J calibration table. Next to fill in
the nine-point De Bore rating scale, VAS-F and the visual perception semantic difference scale according to the feelings at that
time. A total of 12 sets of glare conditions, after completing 6 conditions, there will be a 5 minutes’ break. The whole experiment
will last for 2.5 hours.
3 Results
The results and data analysis of this study mainly include the subjective evaluation results of glare, including the De Bore
nine-point scale, VAS-F and the visual perception semantic difference scale, analysis and discussion of human physiological
indicators. At the same time, the correlation between the evaluation and physiological indicators and the glare index obtained by
the glare metric model is compared.
3.1 Psychophysical quantity
The experiment found that De Bore scores of the subjects under different luminance and color temperature window glare
sources was significantly different. The subjective scores of the subjects under the various experimental conditions are shown in
Fig.3. ANOVA analysis of variance was performed using SPSS statistical analysis software for repeated measurements in two
factors. The analysis results are shown in Table 2.

Table 2 Results of ANOVA analysis of variance of De Bore scores

Factor df F Sig.
CCT of glare source 2 1．514 0.241
Luminance of glare source 2 14．623 0.000
CCTLuminance 4 2．048 0.108

Fig.3 De Bore score ratio in different glare source environment

The color temperature was found to have no significant effect on the subjective evaluation of glare reflected by the De Bore
evaluation scale (P=0.241), and the luminance had a significant effect on the subjective evaluation reflected by De Bore
(p=0.000<0.001). There was no interaction between color temperature and luminance (p=0.108), indicating that the effects of
luminance on De Bore scores were consistent at different color temperatures.
From the analysis of SPSS(Fig.4), the De Bore score value decreases with the increase of the luminance of the window glare
source, that is, the degree of discomfort is more serious.
9

6
D e b o re

1
2 .5 3 .0 3 .5 4 .0 4 .5
2
lo g 10L (L :c d /m )

Fig.4 De Bore scores obtained for each luminance, with the error bars indicating a 95% confidence interval for the mean.

As Fig.5 shown, De Bore scores at 6000K 4500K CCT are significantly lower than 3000K CCT, indicating the higher color
temperature, the more uncomfortable the window glare caused. The relative energy of the blue light corresponding to the 6000K
high CCT is the highest, it is found that the greater the blue light energy of the glare source, the more uncomfortable the subject is.
This conclusion is consistent with Flannagan. [8]

90
 Fig.5 Score of the De Bore scale at different color temperatures, with 95% confidence interval

Through the two-two mean comparison and T-test in SPSS, a significant difference in VAS-F scores and visual perception at
3000 cd/m2 and 6000 cd/m2 was found.
3.2 Psychophysical quantity
Fig.7 shows the average pupil size change for eight subjects under 12 glare conditions. It can be seen from the 8 curves of
Fig.7 that the relative pupil size of the reference condition (12 condition) is the largest for each subject, and the relative pupil size
under the condition of the luminance of 7,11. The sizes are relatively small.
Table 3 shows that the CCT of the window glare source (p=0.000<0.001) and the luminance of the window glare source
(p=0.000<0.001) have extremely significant effects on the change of the pupil size, indicating that the relative pupil size is an
obvious physiological indicators of the human body's perception of glare. As Fig.8 shown, the higher the luminance, the smaller
the relative pupil size; the higher CCT will also make the pupil relative size smaller. It’s also found The average relative pupil size
and the subjective De Bore score mean linear fit curve (R2 = 0.7264), indicating that there is a strong correlation between
subjective discomfort and physiological indicators. This also verified the research of Lin Yandan et al. [9]
120
s u b je c t1
r e la t iv e p u p ils iz e ( % )

s u b je c t4
s u b je c t5
90
s u b je c t6
s u b je c t7

60 s u b je c t8
s u b je c t9
s u b je c t1 0
30
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
g la r e c o n d it io n

Fig.7 The average curve of relative pupil size of 8 subjects

under 12 glare conditions

Table 3 Results of ANOVA analysis of variance of relative pupil size

Factor df F Sig.
CCT of glare source 2 15.165 0.000
Luminance of glare source 2 76.547 0.000
CCTLuminance 4 2.092 0.109

80
r e la t iv e p u p ils iz e ( m e a n ) : %

2
1 0 0 0 c d /m
75 2
3 0 0 0 c d /m
2
6 0 0 0 c d /m
70

65

60

55
1500 3000 4500 6000 7500
C C T /K
Fig.8 Relationship between the mean value of
relative pupil size and CCT under different luminance
3.3 Glare index
This topic uses glare analysis software to obtain the final values of five glare metric model: Daylight glare index DGI, Visual
comfort probability VCP, CIE glare index CGI, CIE glare index UGR, Daylight glare probability DGP. First, take photos of
different in the experimental glare environment, and then use photosphere to synthesize pictures with high dynamic range
images. The Evalglare is then used to analyze the glare scene using the above five glare indices to obtain a glare index
score.
When using the De Bore score as a benchmark, as Table 4 shown, the evaluations of the five glare indices of DGP, DGI, UGR,
VCP, and CGI have extremely significant correlations (p values are equal to or less than 0.001), and the DGP evaluation metrics
and subjective De Bore scores mean The best correlation is (p=-0.860, R2=0.740).
When the average pupil size was used as a benchmark, as Table 5 shown the evaluations of the five glare indexes of DGP,
DGI, UGR, VCP, and CGI were all significantly correlated (p values were equal to or less than 0.05). Among them, the

91
correlation of DGP and VCP was significant. More significant. The correlation between DGP evaluation measures and relative
pupil size was best (p=-0.867, R2=0.752).

Table 4 Correlation analysis between glare index and De Bore score

Variable 1 Variable2 Pearson value Sig. R2
DeBore DGP -0.860 0.000 0.740
DeBore DGI -0.799 0.002 0.638
DeBore UGR -0.851 0.001 0.664
DeBore VCP 0.844 0.001 0.712
DeBore CGI -0.813 0.001 0.661

Fig.9 Relationship between DGP and De Bore scores

Table 5 Correlation analysis between glare index and relative pupil size
Variable 1 Variable2 Pearson value Sig. R2
Pupil size DGP -0.867 0.000 0.752
Pupil size DGI -0.697 0.012 0.486
Pupil size UGR -0.710 0.010 0.505
Pupil size VCP 0.767 0.004 0.589
Pupil size CGI -0.703 0.011 0.494
Conclusions and outlook
In this thesis, the effects of window glare on human psychology and physiology were studied. The glare metric model was
evaluated based on the subjective evaluation and objective evaluation of glare. Through experiments, it is found that the
luminance and color temperature of window glare have significant effects on subjective evaluation and physiological indicators.
Among five glare metric model, DGP showed the best performance with human perception.
There is still room for improvement in the research of the experiment. It is hoped that after a large number of human
subjective evaluations and physiological indicators experiments, a glare evaluation model suitable for the office environment will
be obtained.
Acknowledgments
National Key R&D Program of China (Project No. 2017YFB0403700) .The authors would like to thank Dr. YD Lin and DD
Hou for helping improve the experiment design.
References
1. Boyce P R. Human factors in lighting [M]. Crc Press, 2003．
2. Xia L ,Tu Y , Liu L , et al., A study on overhead glare in office lighting conditions [J]. Joumal of the Society for Information
Display, 201l, 19(12): 888-898．
3. Littlefair, P J. Designing with Innovative Daylighting. [R] Building Research Establishmen ,Crown Research
Communications, London. 1996.
4. Osterhaus, W.K.E., Discomfort glare from daylight in computer offices: how much do we really know? [R] 9th European
Lighting Conference, Reykjavı´k, Iceland, 18–20 June, Proceedings of LUX Europa 2001.: 448–456.
5. Iwata, T, Imai M, Hagiwara H, Akiyama Y, Sekihara M. Effects of task and views on discomfort glare from windows. [R]
PROCEEDINGS of the Conference on Smart Lighting for Better Life at the CIE Midterm Meeting 2017 (20171006).
6. Ju Y S, Yun G Y, Kim J T. View types and luminance effects on discomfort glare assessment from windows[J]. Energy &
Buildings, 2012, 46(2): 139-145.
7. Kim W, Kim J T. A prediction method to identify the glare source in a window with non-uniform luminance distribution[J].
Energy & Buildings, 2012, 46(4): 132-138.
8. Flannagan M J. Subjective and objective aspects of headlamp glare: effects of size and spectral power distribution[J].
Luminance, 1999.
9. Lin Y, Fotios S, Wei M, et al. Eye movement and pupil size constriction under discomfort glare[J]. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci,
2015, 56(3): 1649-1656.

92
S204-201808291921
Quantitative Analysis of Full Spectrum LEDs for High Quality Lighting
Jay Guoxu Liu, Wei Tang, Yonghao Qin, Guoxi Sun, Chongyu Shen
Shineon (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd.
3/F, Building#3, Digital Planet, No.58, 5thJinghai Road, BDA, Beijing, China 100176
Abstract
With the latest progress in new generation of phosphor
and packaging design, higher quality, full spectrum, white
LEDs become possible. By engineering the spectrum power
distribution (SPD), we have developed full spectrum light
sources and proposed methods for evaluating thelight sources’
color quality, spectral continuity, and eye-safety. The spectral
continuity, which is termed as Cs, quantifies the color quality
of a light source in comparison to the reference illuminants.
The calculation is based on a spectral area coincidence
between the measured light source and the reference light
source. In order to provide a guidance of minimizing
harmful blue light of a spectral power distribution of a LED,
we also defined the hazard blue light ratio which is termed as
Br and formulated by combining the methods used by IEC/EN
62471 standard and TÜV Rheinland. Several approaches of
creating full spectrum LEDs have been studied and evaluated
from aspects including color rendering index (CRI), IES
TM-30-15, spectral continuity Cs, blue light hazard ratio Br.
These assessments provide a helpful method to guide the
optimization of future light sources.
Keywords: White LEDs, High CRI, Spectral power
distribution (SPD), Full spectrum, Spectral continuity, Blue
light hazard ratio, Fidelity index, Gamut index.
1. Introduction
After the past decade of fast improvement in LEDs
efficiency and cost, attention has shifted recently to the
quality of LED light to human and society[1]. Such human
centric lighting has important effect in quality of life, visual
experience, health and human performance. Therefore, Full
Spectrum lighting (FSL) has become more and more attractive
due to quality such as high color fidelity, high color saturation,
and more close to natural light. Meanwhile, it also brings
many new challenges to phosphor materials and the LEDs
packaging technology. Full spectrum lighting (FSL), which
usually represents the spectral wavelength of the light source,
covers the range of wavelengths that are distinguishable by
human eyes. However, how to define FSL is still lack of
commonly accepted definition; the characterization of full
spectrum lighting needs to be qualified. This paper is to
develop qualitative explanation and quantitative analysis for
full spectrum white LEDs.
2. Light Source Considerations
A) “Full” spectrum has two dimension of definition. On the
x-axis of spectral power distribution (SPD) is the wavelength
range cover the spectrum, while on the y-axis is the fullness of
spectral power distribution in radiant energy. The wider the
wavelength range the fuller the spectrum is. However, it is
idea not to include the harmful UV and energy wasteful IR
spectral range. As shown Fig. 1., for the phosphor converted
white LED, people attempted use violet or deep blue LED to
excite the multiple-phosphor to achieve wide distribution (400
- 700nm), the violet excited LEDs can render better white
color and more closely emulate the full color spectrum of sun
93
light. But the luminescence and aging properties of packaging
materials such as the violet chip quantum efficiency, phosphor
quantum yield needs to be further improved. In additional, a
more common approach for achieving full spectrum lighting
is uses blue LEDs to excite phosphors (e.g. cyan, green and
red and etc.). Although the wavelength is not as full as the
former approach but the 430 - 700nm covers majority of
visible light and more importantly, it is in line with photopic
sensitivity function. And these LEDs with high CRI have been
produced without sacrificing the lumen efficiency, reliability,
and cost [2].
Fig. 1. Spectral wavelength range of common LED and full
spectrum light sources
Photopic vision is the vision of the eye under well-lit
conditions. In humans and many other animals, photopic
vision allows color perception, mediated by cone cells, and a
significantly higher visual acuity and temporal resolution. The
human eye uses three types of cones to sense light in three
bands of color. The biological pigments of the cones have
maximum absorption values at wavelengths of about 420 nm
(blue), 534 nm (bluish-green), and 564 nm
(yellowish-green)[3]. Their sensitivity ranges overlap to
provide vision throughout the visible spectrum. Visible light is
usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of
400–700 nm, between the infrared (with longer wavelengths)
and the ultraviolet (with shorter wavelengths)[4]. That is, the
effective visual limits are between 400 to 700 nm under
normal viewing conditions.
A SPD of full spectrum lighting should emulate the
spectrum of a reference source such as daylight or a
blackbody of the same color temperature. The reference light
source is selected by TM-30-15 standard (reference illuminant
continuous). The corresponding power distribution is smooth
and continuous, minimizing the ups and downs of the
spectrum in radiant energy, avoiding unbalanced amounts of
light in different parts of the spectra [2], [5].
To better quantify the fullness characteristics of a
spectrum and to quantitatively evaluate the ability of a light
source to reveal color quality，we define the continuity of
spectrum Cs in reference to the standard lights which are
incandescent and daylight and their mix-light for 3000k,
6500k, 5000K, respectively. The continuity is determined by
the light source's wavelength range and spectral power
distribution. In the wavelength range of 400 - 700 nm, the
weighted value of the reference source’s SPD subtracts the
absolute weighted value of the SPD difference between the
reference source and the test source, which is then divided by
the weighted value of the reference source’s SPD. The value
of spectral continuity Cs is expressed in percentage form. All
spectral calculations are based on brightness normalization.
The schematic diagram is shown in Fig. 2. and the proposed
equation of Cs is defined below:
Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of spectral continuity of test light
source
Where Cs is the spectral continuity, and
are the spectral power distribution weighting functions of the
test and reference sources, respectively. is the bandwidth
in nm. The greater the Cs value is, the better the continuity is.
The reference illuminant’s continuity is 100%.
B) Blue light has long been observed to cause photochemical
damage to retinal photoreceptors and pigment epithelium cells,
leading to the retinal disorders such as age-related macular
degeneration (AMD) and visual fatigue[6-7]. The study
demonstrates that the photo damage to retinal photoreceptors
and pigment epithelium cells was not only due to the high
photon energy of short-wavelength blue-violet light, but also
due to the blue-light phototoxicity specifcally related to the
photosensitizer A2E[8]. A2E (N-retinylidene
-N-retinylethanolamine) is a key photosensitive fluorophore
that mediates lipofuscin phototoxicity. It is excited by blue
light with maximum absorption at around 440 nm. Study
further proves that blue-light phototoxicity to pigment
epithelium cells appears to be concentrated in a narrow band
of wavelengths centered on 435 nm ± 20 nm, as shown in Fig.
3.[9-10]. It is significant that selectively attenuating the
hazardous portion of the blue spectrum (wavelengths from
415 nm to 455 nm) may provide protection for the retina.
Fig. 3. Phototoxic action (apoptosis) spectrum on A2E-loaded
RPE cells and morphological changes of the RPE cells[8]
A number of safety reference documents are available to
provide support in the understanding the technical definitions
and test procedures. IEC/EN 62471:2006 as a standard
provides evaluation methods for the photobiological safety of
lamps and lamp systems[11], [12]. IEC/EN 62471 has proposed
94
to use spectral weighting functions for assessing retinal
hazards of broadband optical sources, as shown in Fig. 4. In
addition, TÜV Rheinland has established a method to evaluate
the blue light hazard ratio for a LED backlight TV as the ratio
of light in the range from 415 nm - 455 nm compared to 400
nm - 500 nm. An eye safe TV is recommended with the ratio
to be less than 50%.
Fig. 4.
Spectral plot of the blue-light hazard weighting function
Blue light hazard ratio is minimized in a full spectrum,
which is the added advantage of full spectrum lighting. We
define the blue light hazard ratio as Br. by combining the
methods used by IEC/EN 62471 and TÜV Rheinland. We
limit the major damage in the 415 - 455 nm blue light range
according to the study[8] by Kirk Smick and used by TÜV
Rheinland, but adopted the blue light hazard weighting
function used by IEC/EN 62471 standard. The blue light
hazard ratio of spectral power distribution, B r, is therefore
defined as:
Where is the spectral power distribution
weighting function of a test source, is the blue light
hazard weighting function, is the bandwidth in nm. It is
suggested that the lower the Rb the safer to human eye. The
schematic diagram is shown in Fig. 5.
C) Since Full spectrum light emulates the reference light,
their CRI or Ra can be very close to 100. The traditional Ra is
no longer adequate to describe the color characteristics of the
full
Fig. 5. Schematic diagram of blue light hazard ratio of test
light source
spectrum light. Therefore, the more and more frequently used
new color quality evaluation standards such as IES TM-30-15
need to be introduced to characterize the full spectrum color
properties. .
There are several different methods to test the quality of
light, they are:
1) Color Rendering Index (CRI)
 2) Color Quality Scale (CQS) Ra97-B (blue chip excitation, targeted Ra 97), Ra97-V (violet
3) IES TM-30-15 chip excitation, targeted Ra 97), Ra97-DB (dual-blue chips
Color rendering index (CRI)[13] is a measure of how well excitation, targeted Ra 97). Their SPDs are obtained and the
colors can be perceived using light from a source, relative to spectral continuity Cs, the blue light hazard ratio Br, color
light from a reference source such as daylight or a blackbody fidelity index Rf, and color gamut index Rg of these LEDs
of the same color temperature. The CRI provides a scale of were calculated using the Eq. (1-2) and IES TM-30-15. These
values from 0 to 100, with 100 being the best color rendering parameters are listed and compared with reference sources in
light quality and a value below zero representing very poor Table 1-3 with CCT of 3000K, 5000K, and 6500K,
color rendering. It should be noted that a CRI of 100 does not respectively.
mean perfect lighting, nor are the colors perfectly accurate.
The CRI value is an expression of how close the observed Table 1. Test parameters of light sources at 3000K CCT
light is to the reference light. Sample Ra80-B Ra90-B Ra97-B Ra97-V Ra97-DB
Reference
(Incandescent)
Another metric one can use to evaluate the lighting
quality is called Color Quality scale (CQS)[14]. It was tried to Spectral

find an alternative to the unsaturated CRI colors. Proposed by Ra 80 90 97 97 97 100

Rf 82.0 90.0 94.5 95.5 95.0 100
NIST, there are 15 highly saturated colors that are used to Rg 99.5 100.5 100.5 99.0 99.0 100
compare chromatic discrimination, human preference, and Cs 64.3% 75.6% 82.5% 84.3% 85.4% 100%
Br 45.2% 41.5% 35.1% 26.2% 29.7% 31.0%
color rendering. Eff.(lm/w) 135 113 105 85 97 —
Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) developed the
Table 2. Test parameters of light sources at 5000K CCT
new and improved method called TM-30-15 for evaluating Reference
Sample Ra80-B Ra90-B Ra97-B Ra97-V Ra97-DB
light source rendition[15]. Color science research backs this (Mixed)

new method and provides an even more accurate Spectral

measurement of color rendering. Currently, TM-30-15 is used Ra 80 90 97 97 97 100

in conjunction with CRI, however it may eventually replace Rf 81.5 89.0 91.5 96.0 93.0 100
Rg 94.5 99.0 98.5 102.5 98.5 100
the CRI metric. The TM-30-15 method uses a Fidelity Index, Cs 66.0% 76.1% 79.8% 87.3% 85.2% 100%

Gamut index and Color Vector Graphic to evaluate the light Br

Eff.(lm/w)
46.6%
150
42.9%
123
39.3%
110
43.8%
88
33.8%
104
35.8%
—
source color rendition. The Fidelity Index Rf is used to Table 3. Test parameters of light sources at 6500K CCT
measure the light source’s closeness to a reference source. Sample Ra80-B Ra90-B Ra97-B Ra97-V Ra97-DB
Reference

The Gamut Index Rg is used to measure the increase or (Daylight)

decrease in Chroma of a light source. The Color Vector Spectral

Graphic is an intuitive tool that shows which colors will be Ra 80 90 97 97 97 100

more or less saturated, or just right through a visual Rf 82.0 87.5 93.5 96.0 93.0 100
Rg 96.5 97.5 100.0 103.0 98.0 100
representation. The difference between the Fidelity Index of Cs 64.9% 73.3% 76.9% 85.8% 83.4% 100%

CRI and TM-30-15 method is that the latter uses 99 color Br

evaluation samples (CES), instead of just 8 or 15 [16-17].
3. Experiment
To test the above definition, we have formulated five
types of white LED packages using different wavelength
chips and phosphor color combinations. The white LED
packages were prepared by the following steps. First, the LED
chips were die-attached onto the cavity of 2.8 x 3.5mm SMD
lead-frame with the thermally conductive adhesive. Then
electrodes of LED chip were connected to the lead-frame with
Au alloy wires for electrical interconnection. The mixture of
phosphors and silicone was then dispensed on top of the LED
chips for white light conversion. We conducted the design of
experiment (DOE) by selecting suitable chip size and
wavelength to match the phosphor formulation and mixing
ratio to optimize the targeted performance and parameters.
This allows us to engineer the SPD of each LED packages.
The photoluminescence measurements (PLE) were
carried from the UV to VIS spectra region by EVERFINE
LED300E and EVERFINE HAAS-2000. The packages are
characterized under 0.5W driving power at 25ºC case
temperature. SPD, CRI were measured, while color fidelity
(Rf), color gamut (Rg), the spectral continuity (Cs), and the
high-energy blue light ratio (Br) were calculated. Finally, the
test data of different CRI LEDs corresponding to 3000K,
5000K and 6500K, were obtained and compared.
4. Results and Discussion
Using above descripted process, we have produced and
collected LED packages which are targeted at different CRI
and CCT. These include Ra80-B (blue chip excitation,
targeted Ra 80), Ra90-B (blue chip excitation, targeted Ra 90),
95
Eff.(lm/w)
49.4%
148
44.7%
128
40.5%
117
37.4%
95
38.3%
100
36.9%
—
The reference illuminants’ emission spectra[15] are also
listed in the tables for comparison. As shown in Table 1-3, the
spectra and values of Rf, Rg and Cs have been improved
significantly with the increase of Ra under the same CCT. The
higher the Ra value, the more accurate the colors are. The Rf
conceptual application and mathematical scaling remain very
similar to Ra but with a much more color samples. An Rg
score that is around 100 means that the light source can
produce colors with a similar level of saturation as the sun at
daylight (approx. 5600K/6500K). The three tables illustrate
that the Rf and Rg values of white light excited by violet chip
are better than those excited by blue or dual-blue chips.
Objects lighted by violet excited LED appear as they would
be in sunlight, but the luminous efficiencies of LEDs excited
by violet chip are rather low in this experiment due to the
lower efficiency of violet chip and lower quantum yield of
blue phosphor. In additional, it also can be seen from the three
tables that the spectral continuities of Ra80 LEDs range from
64% to 66%, Ra90 LEDs range from 73% to 76%, Ra97
LEDs range from 77% to 88%. The greater the spectral
continuity of the test source, the better the performance of R f
and Rg. This is exactly what we expected with the definition
of Cs. Take example for the spectra of 5000K LEDs as shown
in Fig. 6. Compared with the Ra80 and Ra90 LEDs, Ra97
LEDs exhibit the better spectral continuity, showing the more
abundant and broader range of colors. The Ra97-V and
Ra97-DB samples follow the reference spectrum better than
the Ra97-B LED does, thus they can present the actual color
of the objects more closely to the reference source. Based on
this study and more collected experimental data, the spectral
continuity values of all Ra97 LEDs are greater than 77%, 80%,
and 82%, for 6500K, 5000K, and 3000K, respectively.
Therefore, we concluded that a full spectrum lighting typically
has high color quality properties with Ra>95, Rf>90,
Rg=100±3, Cs>80%.
Fig. 6. The spectra of test sources at 5000K CCT
The blue light hazard ratios Br of LEDs have been
decreased with the increase of Ra under the same CCT. This
is because that high Ra means the SPD of the light source
follows the SPD of the reference light source without high
blue light energy peak. From Table 1-3, it is shown that the
blue light hazard ratio Br of Ra80-B light sources are the
highest, followed by the Ra90-B and Ra97-B light sources,
with Ra97-DB and Ra97-V light sources are the lowest (with
exception of Ra97-V at 5000K). Based on these data, we
found that the blue light hazard ratio of full spectrum lighting
Br shall not exceed 40%. The blue light hazard ratio depends
mainly on the design of blue component in the spectrum. In
additional, given the light sources with equal lumen outputs
but different CCT’s, the light with the higher CCT will emit
more blue light energy and contain higher Br, thus is more
hazardous. It is worth noting that minimizing the blue light
hazard ratio Br should not be at a cost of sacrificing the color
fidelity and saturation of the light source.
In the meantime, researches has indicated that the blue
turquoise light (465 - 495 nm), which is peaked at different
wavelength from the blue hazard range, have substantial effect
upon alertness and general wakefulness[18,19]. The effects
appear to be mediated through the intrinsically photosensitive
retinal ganglion cells (ipRGC)[20]. These cells is important
components of the circadian pacemaker. Stimulation of the
ipRGC can suppress melatonin levels in the circulation. The
ipRGC has the peak wavelength sensitivity around 480 nm.
Maintaining appropriate blue-turquoise light in spectrum can
promote natural energy, focus, and overall performance
during day time; whereas reducing blue-turquoise light, which
inhibits the production of melatonin, can assist better sleep at
night[21]. Circadian rhythm lighting has gradually attracted
people's attention. Intelligent and healthy lighting can be
achieved by using CCT tunable, full-spectrum LEDs,
integrated with sensing components and control system.
5. Conclusion
This paper makes quantitative evaluation of full spectrum
LEDs for high quality lighting. Full spectrum lighting LEDs
simulates reference sources (incandescent light or daylight)
with continuous and balanced spectrum, exhibiting better
spectral continuity in the wavelength range and radiant energy.
The spectral continuity Cs and blue light hazard ratio Br of a
light source are proposed to better guide the package design of
light source. It is recommended to characterize full spectrum
LED light source using the combined CRI, IES TM-30-15,
spectral continuity and blue light hazard ratio concepts. We
96
finally proposed that a full spectrum lighting should have
well-balanced performances of great color quality and good
eye safety with Ra>95, Rf>90, Rg=100±3, Cs>80%, and
Br<40%.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to acknowledge the funding from
The National Key Research and Development Program of
China (No. 2016YFB0400600). Support from the colleagues
in ShineOn (Beijing) Technology Co., is also gratefully
acknowledged.
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of the CQS[J]. Handbook of cultural intelligence, 2008:
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Moving Forward with New Color Rendition Measures[J].
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and rod-cone photoreceptive systems account for all
major accessory visual functions in mice”, Nature. 2003
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97
S205-201807231951

Impact Ionization in Schottky-type Al0.4Ga0.6N Avalanche Photodiodes

Huan Yan, Wenle Zhang, Hao Jiang*

State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, Sun Yat-sen University
Guangzhou 510275, China
stsjiang@mail.sysu.edu.cn

Abstract
Schottky-type Al0.4Ga0.6N solar-blind avalanche photo
diodes under front and back illumination have been
characterized. Dark current was kept lower than 1 pA at the
reverse bias below 100 V. The photodiodes achieved
maximum gain over 1000 under both front and back
illumination conditions. The higher gain obtained by the back
illumination is ascribed to the avalanche process initiated by Fig. 1. Schematic structure of front and back illuminated Schottky-type
the holes with larger impact ionization coefficients. Impact AlGaN APDs
ionization coefficients for holes and electrons in Al0.4Ga0.6N For the device fabrication process, ohmic contacts were
have been extracted. formed by etching to the n+-Al0.7Ga0.3N layer and forming a
Introduction circular-mesa, and then depositing Ti/Al/Ni/Au (150/800/200/
III-nitride semiconductor materials have attracted much 600 Å) metal layers followed by annealing at 870 ℃ or 30 s
attention due to its applications in optoelectronics, such as in N2 ambient. Schottky contacts were deposited using Pt with
LEDs, photodetectors, photovoltaic cells and so on. AlxGa1-xN a semitransparent thickness of 100 Å and a diameter of 300
material, with its wide and adjustable energy band, is a prime μm.
candidate for producing high-performance UV detectors. It is Discussions
capable of solar-blind UV detection when Al composition Spectral responsivity measurements of the APDs were
exceeds 40%. [1] Several research groups have reported conducted under the front and back illumination conditions. As
AlGaN based avalanche photodiodes (APDs) with high shown in Figure 2(a), the photodiode exhibited sharp cutoff at
multiplication gain. [2-5] However, there are some obstacles ~280 nm under both front and back illumination conditions,
preventing AlGaN APDs from high sensitivity and high which means the device is capable of solar-blind detection. A
reliability. One of the problems is the excess noises originating peak responsivity of 44 mA/W was obtained at 262 nm
from impact ionization which could affect the sensitivity of together with an external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 21% in
APDs. It is vital to understand the impact ionization the case of front illumination, while a maximum peak of 98
characteristics in AlGaN to realize solar-blind UV detection mA/W (EQE=46%) was demonstrated under the back
with high sensitivity, especially for single-photon detection. It illumination. Light absorption of Schottky contact is ascribed
has been theoretically calculated that impact ionization to reason why external quantum efficiency in back illumination
coefficients for holes (β) are larger than that for electrons (α) condition is larger than that in front illumination condition.
while a previous work has experimentally demonstrated that α Transmission spectrum measurements were also performed to
is larger than β in Al0.4Ga0.6N in a relatively low electric-field confirm the Al composition in the each of AlGaN layer. In
range of 0.77-1.88 MV/cm. [6-7] In this paper, we fabricated Figure 2(b), section A, B and C represented the Al0.4Ga0.6N
and characterized Schottky-type Al0.4Ga0.6N APDs. The values active layer, the graded AlxGa1-xN layer (x=0.7~0.4) and the
of α and β in Al0.4Ga0.6N were extracted from the experimental n+-Al0.7Ga0.3N ohmic-contact layer respectively, which are
data of avalanche gain under the front and back illuminated consistent with our design values.
conditions.
Experiments
Shown in Figure 1 is the schematic structure of front and
back illuminated Schottky-type Al0.4Ga0.6N APDs. The
epitaxial layers were grown on a 2-inch double-side-polished
c-plane sapphire substrate using low-pressure metal organic
chemical vapor deposition. Epitaxial growth started with the
deposition of an optimized high-temperature AlN buffer layer
followed by a 1 µm-thick unintentionally doped (uid)
Al0.7Ga0.3N window layer. Next, a 500 nm-thick Si-doped
n+-Al0.7Ga0.3N layer was deposited as a window and
ohmic-contact layer. To reduce the lattice mismatch and avoid
the accumulation of the photo-generated carriers due to the
band offset between the ohmic-contact layer and active layer, a
60 nm-thick composition-graded uid-AlxGa1-xN layer
(x=0.7~0.4) was deposited on the ohmic-contact layer. Finally, Fig 2. (a) Spectral responsivity of AlGaN APD under front and back
illumination at zero bias. (b) Transmission spectrum of epitaxy layers.
a 160 nm-thick uid-Al0.4Ga0.6N layer was grown as an active
Figure 3 shows the reverse current-voltage (I–V) curves of
layer.
the fabricated photodiodes under dark and illumination
conditions. Dark current of the device was kept lower than 1
98
pA when the reverse bias was below 100 V. Once the reverse
bias voltage exceeded 100 V, the dark current exponentially
increased with increasing reverse bias. For both the front and
back illuminations, the photocurrents showed similar
increasing tendencies with the dark current. Higher
photocurrents were obtained under back illumination than
under front illumination in the whole reverse-bias region. No
Gieger-mode was observed in the measuring range, i.e., the
solar-blind APDs are operating at linear mode.

Fig. 5 Maximum electric fields varied with bias voltage simulated by

Sentaurus TCAD
The calculated impact ionization coefficients for electrons
and holes in Al0.4Ga0.6N are shown in Figure 6.

Fig 3. Reverse I–V characteristics of the AlGaN APD under dark, front
illumination, and back illumination conditions.
Figure 4 demonstrates the gain curves derived from I-V
curves. The multiplication gain (M) was calculated using the
formula M= (Iph-Idark)/Iug, where Iug is the photocurrent at unity
gain (M=1). The flat photocurrent between 8 and 20 V was
designated as the unity gain reference. Multiplication gain over
1000 was achieved under both front and back illumination
conditions. It is known that photon-generated holes dominate
the avalanche process under the back illumination, while
photon-generated electrons dominate the process under the
front illumination. The higher multiplication gains obtained
under the back illumination indicate that the values of β are
larger than those of α in Al0.4Ga0.6N.
Fig 4. M–V curves of the AlGaN APD under front and back illumination
conditions.
The impact ionization coefficients for holes and electrons
under different electric fields were calculated by following
equation: [7-9]
(1a)
(1b)
(1c)
The electric field value E in the device was simulated using
Sentaurus TCAD. Maximum electric field strengths in the
depletion region show a good linear variation with different
reverse biases as shown in Figure 5.
Fig 6. Impact ionization coefficients for holes and electrons in Al0.4Ga0.6N.
The relationship between impact ionization coefficients and
electric fields can be fitted by following equation: [7]
(2a)
(2b)
Fitting parameters are as below: Ae=6.6×104cm-1, Be=5.4
MV/cm; Ah=2.5×104 cm-1, Bh=1.7 MV/cm. The curve fits for
impact ionization coefficients in Figure 6 (solid lines) show
good agreement with the experimental value. Impact ionization
coefficient β is kept larger than α in the whole bias range. The
values of β and α get closer as the electric fields become larger,
which is consistent with the trend in GaN. [10] The difference
between our experimental value and the theoretical calculation
could be ascribed to the defects in epitaxial layers and the
approximation in the simulation process.
Conclusions
In summary, Schottky-type solar-blind Al0.4Ga0.6N APDs
have been fabricated and characterized under front and back
illumination. A low dark current of less than 1 pA at reverse
bias below 100V has been realized. The solar-blind APDs
exhibited multiplication gain over 1000 under both front and
back illumination. The higher gain obtained by the back
illumination is ascribed to the avalanche process initiated by
the holes with larger impact ionization coefficients. The
extracted impact ionization coefficients for holes are larger
than those for electrons, which is consistent with theoretical
calculation.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Key Research
Program of China (No. 2016YFB0400901) and the National
Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) under
Grant
No. 61634002.
References

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100
S205-201808201042

Optimal Optical Design of UV-LED Curing System with High Illumination and Luminance
Uniformity

Peipei Wang, Zhiliang Jin, Daxi Xiong

Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology，Chinese Academy of Sciences
No.88, Keling Road, Suzhou New District, Jiangsu Province, 215163
Email: wangpp@sibet.ac.cn，xiongdx@sibet.ac.cn

Abstract illuminated as the conveyor belt in the automated production

In this paper, we propose a design of LED UV-curing
system for automated industrial production lines. The main
novelty of this design is the application of compact packaged
UV-LED module. The optical system uses conventional
lenses rather than specially designed lens or reflectors to
collimate the rays, saving material costs and making for easier
mounting. Through the analysis and calculations, the optical
design of the LED UV-curing system is optimized. The
experimental results indicate that our design in this paper have
significant advantages in illumination intensity（>1.5W/cm2）
and uniformity（>0.8）over traditional UV-curing systems.
The total power consumption is only 1.6KW
I. Introduction
UV-curing is a process in which ultraviolet light is used to
initiate a photochemical reaction that generates a crosslinked
network of polymers [1]. UV-Curing technology has
streamlined and increased automation in many industries in
the manufacturing sector [2]. Nowadays, UV-curing is widely
used in graphic arts industry, 3D printing, medical, aerospace
and many other fields.
Traditional UV-curing system uses fluorescent lamps or
mercury lamps as light source. However，as a new kind of
solid-state light source，LED is obviously the better choice of
light source of UV-curing for the advantages of narrow
bandwidth , low energy consumption, short response time,
long service life and small package size[3]. The FWHM of
LEDs can be as narrow as 20nm, emitting a narrow spectrum
of radiation matching the peak absorption wavelength of
UV-cured adhesive.
In the ultraviolet wavelength range, higher radiation
energy can accelerate the curing speed. It means，in the
application of automation industry, the production and
processing speed can be improved by increasing UV
irradiance.
In this paper，a novel design of LED UV-curing system for
automated industrial production lines is proposed to achieve
high illuminance and luminance uniformity. The optical
system uses conventional lenses rather than reflector or
specially designed lens to collimate the rays, reducing
material costs and making for easier mounting.
II. Optical Design of UV-Curing System
As we know，the UV radiation power of single LED chip
is limited, which cannot meet the needs of high speed
UV-curing. In practical applications, it is necessary for plenty
of LED chips mounted together to get sufficient UV radiation
power.
There have been several solutions proposed for high power
UV-curing system. Some arrange the LEDs light by array to
obtain a large area of UV light spots [4-5]. With this method,
the target surface can easily achieve high irradiance and
uniformity [6-7]. But the disadvantage is that the optical system
has a large structure. Some use optical system to focus
ultraviolet light into linearity. The samples are evenly
line moves at a constant speed. This method has the advantage
of compact structure but the disadvantage of complex optical
system.
Li et al[8]，designed a free-form lens by optical simulation
method, which can converge the divergent UV-LED light into
linear light spot. However, at the present stage, such a
complex lens cannot be processed. As a result，It is currently
not available for industrial applications.
We propose a compact packaging method for UV-led.
With the use of conventional lenses, a linear UV spot(5cm×
40cm) with high radiation intensity（>1.5W/cm2） is achieved.
Optical design for UV-curing system can be divided into
two steps: 1) Package of LED Chip, and 2) Design of Lens
system.
1)Package of LED Chips
As is shown in Fig.1, UV-LED chips are packaged
together in a COB type module [9]. A total of 36 LED chips
with 4 different center wavelength are arranged in particular
order. Different LED chips are connected in series and
parallel, so it can be controlled simultaneously by the
electrodes at the edge of the module.
Table 1 lists the layout and parameter of UV-LED module.
（a） （b）
Fig.1 (a) 3D model of UV-LED module; (b) LED
distribution in module
Table 1 Layout and parameter of UV-LED
Parameter Value
Center wavelength/nm 365/385/395/405
Total number of LED chips 36
LED chip size 45mil
Overall luminous size/ mm 10.5×8
rated radiation power/W 30W
rated total power/W 200W
With this compact packaged LED module，the emitting
spectrum is shown in Fig.2. Under the irradiation of spectrum
in fig.2, the curing speed of UV adhesive is the fastest.

101

Fig.2 Emitting spectrum of UV-LED module
2) Design of Lens system
Most optical glasses have strong absorption of ultraviolet
light, so we use quartz with high transmittance to ultraviolet
light as lens material.
In order to focus the divergent light emitted by LED into a
linear spot, we choose a cylindrical lens to focus the beam in
only one direction (Fig 3(a)(b)). In addition, a flat convex lens
is added between UV-LED light source and cylindrical lens to
reduce the loss of light energy and improve the UV
distribution of the spot on the target surface. Ray tracing
simulation has been performed with TracePro [10].
Optical Properties of flat Convex Cylindrical Lens
Fig.3(a)(b). In the YZ plane, the cylindrical lens converges on
light. But in the XZ plane where the YZ plane is
perpendicular, the cylindrical lens does not change the
direction of light propagation. For this characteristic of
cylindrical lens, we can get linear spot by shaping the light
emitted from UV-LED surface light source. The ray tracing
simulation will be performed in TracePro according to the
LED module packaged in Figure 1 and the lens system in
Figure 3. On the target surface，which is 125mm away from
the UV-LED light source，we obtain the elliptical spot as
shown in Fig.5 (a).
(a) (b)
Fig.3 Optical system of a cylindrical lens and a flat convex
lens viewed along the YZ plane(a) and XZ plane(b)
Fig.4 Optical system of two flat convex lens
102
Compared with the above optical system with cylindrical
lens, the optical system composed of two plano-convex lenses
is as shown in Fig4. The spot obtained after modeling in
TracePro is shown in Fig5(b). The lens A in Fig. 4 conforms
to the lens A' specification in Fig. 3, and Lens C has the same
focal length with the cylindrical lens (lens B) in YZ
plane.This allows the spot of the two lens systems get are the
same size on the Y-axis and different in the X-direction, as
shown in Figure 5.
（a） （b）
图5. (a)Spot of optical system with cylindrical lens; (b) Spot
of optical system of two flat convex lens
In order to get a 5cm×40 cm spot on the target surface of
125 mm from the light source, only one set of light sources
cannot meet the requirements. We use a combination of
multiple optical systems. only one set of light sources cannot
meet the requirements. We use a combination of multiple
optical systems. The parameters of the lens, the spacing
between the cylindrical lens and flat convex lens, the spacing
between the UV sources, etc. are adjusted and optimized in
the simulation, and the optimal design is finally obtained.
The major emitting light path is illustrated in Fig. 4(a), and
the simulation result is shown in Fig. 4(b). The illumination
uniformity is better than 0.8, while the average UV irradiance
inside the spots is over 1.5w /cm2.
In this design, 8 identical LED modules are aligned (as
shown in Fig 6(a)), among which the middle six modules
adopt the lens system of flat convex lens and column lens, and
the two light sources on both sides adopt the lens system of
two flat convex lens combination.
（a）
 Max: 1.65W/cm2
Irradiance of the spot
Ave: 1.5W/cm2

Conclusions
In this paper, we present a design of optical system for
UV-curing system that meets the industrial specification for
high speed curing process.
According to the UV curing system design proposed in
this paper, the total power of system is only 1.6KW, which
can reach the ultraviolet irradiance of over 1.5W/cm2, so that
the UV adhesive can be quickly cured within 5s. We assume
（b） the UV-curing time is 5s under the above UV irradiation.
Fig.6 Simulation result in TracePro We can achieve rapid UV curing for automated industrial
production lines, by adjusting the forward speed of the
The parameters of the optical system are listed in Table 2, conveyor belt to 0.6m/min. It means that a system can provide
and the lenses used are all conventional lenses. an effective UV curing length of up to 36 meters in one hour,
Tab.2 Parameters of optical systems and consumes only 1.6KW.
Distance from Comparing with traditional UV-curing system, our design
Lenses Main parameters is smaller in size, and has advantages in both illumination
light source
intensity and uniformity. Another advantage of this design is
Optical Lens A Ø18mm，f=15mm 1mm
system
that the lenses used in secondary optical design are
with 28mm×25.7mm， conventional ones, which means it is convenient to adjust the
cylindrical Lens B F=25.4mm ； 9.4mm lenses to provide customized solutions for different industrial
lens R=12.2mm applications [12].
Optical With the engineering prototype machines, the optical
Lens A Ø18mm，f=15mm 1mm system based on compact packaged UV- LED module are
system of
two flat expected to be conducted in industrial applications soon.
convex lens Lens C Ø25mm，f=25mm 9.4mm

For a practical product, the thermal management must be References

resolved associated with optical design[11]. As is shown in 1. Xie J, You L D, Hou W J. Experimental research of
Fig.7，all UV-LED modules are mounted on a same heat sink, ultraviolet LED source system in stereolithography
and a fan is installed on each side of the heat sink. The wind apparatus[J]. Opto-Electronic Engineering, 2009,
direction is consistent, removing the heat generated by the 36(2):100-104.
UV-LED module. 2. Xie J, You L D, Hou W J. Experimental research of
ultraviolet LED source system in stereolithography
apparatus[J]. Opto-Electronic Engineering, 2009,
36(2):100-104.
3. Schubert E F, Kim J K. Solid-state light sources getting
smart[J]. Science, 2005, 308(5726):1274-1278.
Fig.7 Heat sink 4. Wen-Hai X U, Zhao H, Yong-Jun L U. Design of an
III. Experimental Results optical system for UV curing source with LED array[J].
According to the optimal design of optical system, the Optics & Precision Engineering, 2007, 15(7):1032-1037.
engineering prototype of UV-curing system has already been 5. Yong-Jun L U, Wen-Hai X U, Zhao H, et al. Design a
finished. single spot UV-curing system with two-dimensional
UV-LED array[J]. Journal of Applied Optics, 2009,
30(1):16-19.
6. Moreno I. Effects on illumination uniformity due to
dilution on arrays of LEDs[C]// SPIE International
Symposium on Optical Science and Technology.
International Society for Optics and Photonics,
Fig.8 Engineering prototype of UV-curing system 2004:268-275.
7. Xia X, Yu B, Liang L. Design of LED lens for
UV irradiance is measured by optical power meter. The rectangular light field[J]. Semiconductor Optoelectronics,
experimental results indicate that, with this design, the optical 2010, 31(5):690-693.
system realizes ideal uniformities of illuminance and 8. Li M, Sun J, Zhang D, et al. Optical System Design for
luminance for UV-curing. In our experiment, curing time for Ultraviolet-LED Curing Based on the Structure of
UV adhesive is less than 5 seconds. Freeform Surface[J]. Acta Optica Sinica, 2014,
34(12):236-241.
Tab.3 System parameters 9. Wu H H, Lin K H, Lin S T. A study on the heat
Parameter Value dissipation of high power multi-chip COB LEDs[J].
Spot Size/cm 5cm×40cm Microelectronics Journal, 2012, 43(4):280-287.
Overall size/cm 470cm(L)×125mm(W)×280mm（H）
rated total power/W 1.6kW
103
10. Wu R, Zheng Z, Li H, et al. Optimization design of
irradiance array for LED uniform rectangular
illumination[J]. Applied Optics, 2012, 51(13):2257.
11. Chai W W, Chen Q H, Ling-Hong L I, et al. Heat
Dissipation Analysis of High Power LED Connected to
104
Copper Coated Heat Sink by Soldering[J]. Chinese
Journal of Luminescence, 2011, 32(11):1171-1175.
12. Ulrich W, Mann H J. Trends in optical design of
projection lenses for UV and EUV lithography[J]. Proc
Spie, 2000, 4146:13-24.
W201-201809061942

Simulation, Fabrication and Characterization of 3300V/10A 4H-SiC power DMOSFETs

Shiyan Lia, Yunfeng Chena, Hao Liua, Runhua Huanga, Qiang Liua, S. Baia
a
State Key Laboratory of Wide-Bandgap Semiconductor Power Electronic Devices,
Nanjing Electronic Devices Institute
Nanjing, China
Email: shiyanli014@163.com
determine parameters of the drift region such as thickness and
Abstract doping concentration. Fig.1 shows the simulation results of
Power devices of the 3.3 kV class are of much interest to theoretical blocking voltage. The thickness of drift epilayer
various industries, particularly rail transportation and range from 24μm -33μm, and the doping concentration range
industrial medium voltage motor drives. In this paper, 4H-SiC from 2.4×1015 cm-3 to 3.6×1015 cm-3. The blocking voltage
power DMOSFETs with breakdown voltage higher than 3.6 increased as the added of drift layer thickness and reduced of
kV has been successfully fabricated by using an 30 μm-thick, doping concentration. We set the blocking voltage 4.3 kV as
15 -3
2.8×10 cm doped drift epilayer. The JFET regions were the drift layer parameters selection criteria. According to the
implanted with nitrogen ions to minimize the current simulation results, Wn- = 30μm and Nd = 2.8×1015 cm-3 was
spreading resistance. A 4H-SiC DMOSFET with an active chosen as this MOSFET device drift epilayer parameters.
area of 0.08 cm2 showed a specific on-resistance of 19.7
mΩ-cm2 at room temperature with a gate bias of 20 V. The
device shows a leakage current of 23 μA, which corresponds
to a leakage current density of 142μA/cm-2 at a drain bias of
3.3 kV. In this report, the influence of JFET region width to
the DMOSFETs on-state current density was studied by a test
MOSFET with an active area of 8.0×10 -4 cm2.
Keywords: Silicon Carbide, DMOSFET, Breakdown
Voltage, Specific on-resistance
1. Introduction
Silicon carbide (SiC) is an attractive semiconductor for
high power applications due to its superior material properties,
such as wide band gap and high critical field. This enables
SiC devices to operate at much higher temperatures and offer Fig.1 The simulations of relationship between drift epilayer
a lower specific on-resistance compared to devices in parameters and theoretical blocking voltage.
conventional semiconductor materials [1,2]. When fully We also studied the influence of JFET region width to
developed, a 4H-SiC power DMOSFETs, is expected to have the DMOSFETs gate oxide reliability. Fig.2 (a) shows the
a low specific on-resistance which matches that of a silicon distribution of electric field for a DMOSFET in a reverse bias
IGBT device, in addition to fast switching speeds, temperature 3300 V. The highest electric field is under the P-well regions
independent switching characteristics, and very low switching in bulk of SiC, and due to the pinch off effect of P-well
losses. The SiC high voltage power devices can be used in region, the electric field intensity under the JFET region was
current power converters and circuit breakers, which dwindle reduced dramatically. This avoids the gate oxide breakdown
in size and lifting efficiency. The used of SiC power devices caused by high surface electric field. Fig. 2(b) shows the
will improve efficiency and reduce system size for many simulation results of the relationship between JFET region
industrial application like traction drives and grid-tied width and surface electric field intensity. The JFET width was
renewable energy conversion. range from 2μm -5μm. As can be seen in the Fig. 2(b), the
Over the last twenty years, SiC power devices have DMOSFETs surface electric field intensity under JFET region
achieved great improvement in blocking voltage and current decrease significantly as the JFET width narrow down. It was
rating. Power devices of the 3.3 kV class are of much interest shown that the thermally grown gate oxide layer in a 4H-SiC
to various industries, particularly rail transportation and MOSFET is reliable for oxide electric fields up to 4 MV/cm
industrial medium voltage motor drives. Recently, a 3.3-kV [6], so the surface electric field under JFET region need lower
power DMOSFET in 4H-SiC was reported [3], [4], with a than 1.4 MV/cm. On the other hand, the device on-state
specific on-resistance of 27 mΩ-cm2. The Current Spreading current density improved quickly as the increasing of JFET
(CS) layer was introduced to minimize the current spreading region width. According to the simulation results, we chose
resistance, which achieved a specific on-resistance of 14.8 3.5 μm as 3.3 kV SiC DMOSFETs JFET region width.
mΩ-cm2 [5]. In this letter, the simulation, the fabrication, and
the electrical characteristics of 4H-SiC DMOSFETs were
reported. We present our latest results in 3300V 4H-SiC
DMOSFET and a breakdown voltage of 3.6 kV, a specific
on-resistance of 19.7 mΩ-cm2 is demonstrated.
2. Device Simulation
The relationship between drift epilayer parameters and
theoretical blocking voltage, on-state current density were
simulated and discussed. The SILVACO ATLAS TCAD
software with finite elements method has been used to
105
 un-doped, the device on-state current density improved
quickly as the increasing of JFET region width increase.
When the JFET width is 3.5um, the JFET doping and CSL
doping can realized a 20% and 38.4% on-state current density
improving, respectively. Fig. 4(b) shows the simulation results
of the relationship between JFET widths, JFET doping, CSL
and DMOSFET blocking voltage. As can be seen in the Fig.
4(b), the device blocking voltage decreased as the JFET width
increase. The CLS doping will cause the additional blocking
voltage decreasing.

Fig.2 (a) The electric field distribution of off-state in SiC

DMOSFETs; (b) The relationship between JFET region width
and surface electric field intensity.

Fig.4 (a) The relationship between JFET region, CLS

doping and on-state current density; (b) The relationship
between JFET region, CLS doping and theoretical blocking
voltage.
3. Device Fabrication
A simplified cross section of the 3.3 kV 4H-SiC
DMOSFET structure is shown in Fig. 3 (a). An 30µm-thick,
2.8×1015cm-3 doped n-type drift epilayer was grown on the
Si-face of an n+ type 4H-SiC substrate, cut with an 4°offset
angle. The p-wells with retrograde profile were formed by
aluminum implantation with various implantation energy and
Fig.3 (a) The DMOSFET structure without JFET region dose, and then heavy dose nitrogen implantations were
doping; (b) The DMOSFET structure with JFET region performed to form n+ source regions. The MOS channel
doping; (c) The DMOSFET structure with CSL doping. length, which is defined by the distance between the edges of
The JFET resistance and the current spreading n+ source regions and the p-wells, was 0.7 µm. Heavy dose
resistance at the JFET outlet of 3.3 kV-class SiC DMOSFET aluminum implantations formed p+ contacts to the p-wells as
tends to be higher than that of 1.2 kV-class DMOSFET, well as the floating guard ring based edge termination
because the doping concentration of 3.3 kV-class drift layer is structure.
lower than that of 1.2 kV-class drift layer. The optimized
JFET region doping and current spread layer (CSL) structure
can reduce the JFET resistance, effectively. As is shown in
Fig.3, three design structures were simulated and discussed to
discover the influence of JFET region doping and CSL to
DMOSFET on-state current density and theoretical blocking
voltage. The doping concentration of the additional JFET and
CSL structure was 1.0×1016cm-3.
Fig. 4(a) shows the simulation results of the relationship
between JFET widths, JFET doping, CSL and DMOSFET
Fig.5 The simplified cross section of the 3.3 kV 4H-SiC
on-state current density. The JFET width was range from 2μm
power DMOSFET
-5μm. As can be seen in the Fig. 4(a), when the JFET region
106
 All the implants were activated at 1600 °C. A 550 Å thick
gate oxide layer was thermally grown at 1250 °C in dry 02,
then nitrided at 1250 °C in NO. The ohmic contacts to source,
drain and p+ regions were formed with alloyed Ni. An
LPCVD oxide layer (0.7 µm thick) was then deposited as an
inter-metallic dielectric layer, and via holes was opened. A 4
µm aluminum overlayer was deposited and was patterned
using a wet-etching technique to form electrodes.
The wafer of 3.3 kV/10A 4H-SiC MOSFET is shown in
fig.2. The active area size of 3.3 kV MOSFET device is
8.0×10-2cm2.
Fig.6 Photograph of the wafer that 3.3 kV/10A 4H-SiC
MOSFET.
4. Experiment Result
Fig.7 shows the room temperature on-state I-V
characteristics of the 4H-SiC DMOSFET with an active area
of 8.0×10-2cm2. It was shown that the thermally grown gate
oxide layer in a 4H-SiC MOSFET is reliable for oxide electric
fields up to 4 MV/cm. The gate oxide layer thickness was 50
nm, so a gate bias of 20V was chosen for the device on-state
characterized. With a Vgs of 20V, the device showed a drain
current of 14.4A at a forward voltage drop of 4.0 V, which
corresponds to a current density of 180 A/cm2. The specific
on-resistance (Ron,sp), measured at a VDS of 1.0 V, and a VGS
of 20V, was approximately 19.7 mΩ-cm2.
Fig. 7 The room temperature on-state IV characteristics of the
3.3 kV 4H-SiC DMOSFET. A specific on-resistance of 19.7
mΩ-cm2 was measured with a gate bias of 20 V.
Fig.8 shows the off-state characteristics of the 3.3 kV
4H-SiC DMOSFET at room temperature. The device built on
30µm thick, 2.8×1015cm-3 doped n-type epitaxial layer, and a
termination structure were implemented with 210 µm long
and 40 rings. The device was immersed in Flourinert oil to
prevent arcing in air during the measurement. The device
shows a normal off characterized. The device was able to
support a drain voltage of 3.6 kV with gate electrode shorted
to the source electrode. The device shows a leakage current of
23 μA at a drain bias of 3.3 kV, which corresponds to a
leakage current density of 142μA/cm-2, normalized to the total
107
device area including the edge termination. The theoretical
parallel plate electric-field calculated for this structure is 2.30
MV/cm. Due to field crowing at the edge of DMOSFETs, the
peak electric-field will be much higher at the edge of 3.3 kV
power DMOSFETs.
Fig. 8 The room temperature off-state IV characteristics of the
4H-SiC device. A leakage current of 23μA was measured at a
drain bias of 3.3 kV.
The influence of JFET region width, CSL doping to the
DMOSFET on-state current density was studied by test
MOSFETs with an active area of 8.0×10-4 cm2, the JFET
width was range from 2.5μm -5.0μm. The Current Spreading
layer (CSL) was implanted with Nitrogen at high energy so
that the current spreading resistance at the JFET outlet is
minimized. Fig.9 shows the on-state characteristics of the test
DMOSFET at room temperature. The red line shows the Rsp,on
of test MOSFETs without JFET doping, we can see that the
decreased as the JFET width increase. The black line shows
the Rsp,on of test MOSFETs and the CSL region were
implanted with nitrogen ions to a doping concentration of
1.0×1016cm-3. As can be seen in the Fig. 9, with CSL doping,
the device shows no remarkable change in Rsp,on. When the
JFET width is 3.5um, the CSL doping can realized a 10.6%
reduction in Ron,sp.
Fig. 9 The room temperature Ron,sp characteristics of test
MOSFETs with difference JFET widths. The red line is
devices without JFET doping and the black line is devices
with CSL doping.
It is important to decrease the resistances of the MOS
channel due to the low MOS channel mobility. The influence
of channel length to the DMOSFETs on-state current density
was studied by test MOSFETs with an active area of 8.0×10 -4
cm2. The DMOSFET was fabricated on two SiC wafer and the
channel length was range from 0.7μm -1.2μm. Fig.10 shows
the on-state characteristics of the test DMOSFET at room
temperature. As can be seen in the Fig. 10, the Rsp,on of test
MOSFETs shows a linear relationship with channel length in
range of 0.7um-1.2um. The block voltage of all three channel
length devices show no significant differences, so the 0.7um
was chosen as channel length of 3300V/10A 4H-SiC power
DMOSFETs

Fig. 10 The room temperature Ron,sp characteristics of test

MOSFETs with difference channel lengths.
Conclusions
3.3 kV 4H-SiC power DMOSFETs have been developed
on n+ type developed conductivity 4H-SiC substrates. The
devices utilized 30 µm thick, 2.8×10 15cm-3 doped n-type
epitaxial layer as drift layer and a float ring guard termination
structures. With a Vgs of 20V, the device showed a drain
current of 14.4A at a forward voltage drop of 4.0 V. A
specific on-resistance of 19.7 mΩ-cm2 and breakdown voltage
higher than 3.6 kV was achieved. The influence of CSL and
channel length to DMOSFET on-state characterizes was
studied in this paper.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank all the members of State Key
Laboratory of Wide-Bandgap Semiconductor Power
Electronic Devices. The work was supported by the National
Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant
No.2016YFB0400502).
References
1. S. Ryu, S. Krishnaswami, B. Hull et al, “Development of
8 mΩ-cm2, 1.8 kV 4H-SiC DMOSFETs,” Materials
Science Forum Vols. 527-529 (2006) pp. 1261-1264
2. M. Matin, A. Saha, and J. A. Cooper, “A Self-Aligned
Process for High-Voltage, Short-Channel Vertical
DMOSFETs in 4H-SiC,” IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON
ELECTRON DEVICES, VOL. 51, NO. 10, (2004),
pp.1721-1725
3. L. Cheng, S.-H. Ryu, C. Jonas. et al, “3300 V, 30 A
4H-SiC Power DMOSFETs,” ISDRS 2009.
4. K. Wada, K. Uchida, R. Kimura. et al, “Blocking
Characteristics of 2.2 kV and 3.3 kV -class 4H-SiC
MOSFETs with Improved Doping Control for Edge
Termination,” Materials Science Forum Vols 778-780
(2014) pp 915-918.
5. H. Kono, M. Furukawa, K. Ariyoshi, et al. “14.6 mΩcm2
3.4 kV DIMOSFET on 4H-SiC (000-1),” Materials
Science Forum Vols 778-780 (2014) pp 935-938.
6. D. Stephani, “Recent progress in the development of SiC
power switches,” presented at the ICSCRM Conf., Lyon,
France, Oct. 5–10, 2003.

108
W201-201809091418

Design and Fabrication of 1.2kV/40mΩ 4H-SiC MOSFET

Runhua Huang, Hao Liu,Tao Liu,Tongtong Yang,Song Bai,Ao Liu, Yun Li and Zhifei Zhao
State Key Laboratory of Wide-Bandgap Semiconductor Power Electronic Devices, Nanjing Electronic Devices Institute
No.524, Zhong Shan East Road,Nanjing,China
18626422152@163.com

ATLAS, a 10 μm thick drift layer with a doping concentration

Abstract of 1×1016 cm-3 was chosen for a 1600 V blocking voltage[6].
A 4H-SiC MOSFET with breakdown voltage higher than The termination structure was optimized by finite elements
1200V has been successfully designed and fabricated. simulations. 15 floating guard rings (FGR) with 2.5 μm width
Numerical simulations have been performed to optimize the realized by P+ implantations were used. The first ring spacing
parameters of DMOSFET. The n-type epilayer is 10 µm thick is 0.9 μm, and the following ring spacings increase gradually
with a doping of 1×1016 cm-3. The devices were fabricated to 2 μm. After simulations, terminations with different ring
with a floating guard ring edge termination. The drain current spacing were realized, and the breakdown voltages for
different ring spacing were presented in Figure2. First ring
Id = 20 A at Vg = 20 V, corresponding to Vd ≤ 1.6 V.
spacing of 0.9μm will be used for enough photolithography
Introduction
and etch process window.
because of its high critical electric field and wide bandgap,
4H silicon carbide (4H-SiC) is regarded as an ideal
semiconductor for high temperature, high power, high
radiation conditions. Silicon is the most widely used
semiconductor material in power devices, but devices in Si are
limited in terms of its junction operating temperature at
125℃. Compared to Si devices, SiC devices can operate at
much higher temperatures. Due to its large bandgap, SiC has
negligible intrinsic carrier generation at high temperatures up
to 300℃.
SiC MOSFET is a better candidate for high power
applications. However, the conduction performance 4H-SiC
MOSFETs is limited by low inversion channel mobility. The
inversion channel mobility can be increased by post-oxidation
anneal in nitric oxide (NO) after standard oxidation, but it is
not enough. In most SiC MOSFET reported, the channel
resistance is the dominant component of the on-resistance.
The channel on-resistance in SiC MOSFETs is inversely
Fig.1. Schematic cross-sectional view of a 1200V 4H-SiC
proportional to inversion channel mobility, but directly
DMOSFET
proportional to channel length. Limited by low inversion
channel mobility, short channel length must be used to obtain
a low channel resistance[1]. In the SiC DMOSFETs, the
channel length is less than 0.5um, so a self-align must be
used[2,3]. DMOS structure was used in 4H-SiC MOSFET for a
high breakdown voltage. Up to present, the SiC MOSFET
with breakdown voltage of 900V, 1200 and 1700V have been
commercialized, and 3300V products are under
development[4,5].
In this paper, based on the previous studies, we report a
1200V/40mΩ 4H-SiC MOSFET with floating guard ring
(FGR) termination. A 0.5μm inversion channel has been
obtained by self-align mask. After a brief description of the
technological process, 4H-SiC MOSFET characterization will
be presented.
Simulation Fig.2. Termination optimization of a 1200V 4H-SiC
DMOS structure was used for a high breakdown voltage. DMOSFET
Figure1 shows a simplified schematic cross section of a
DMOSFET unit cell. Electrons flow laterally from region N+
through an inversion channel on the implanted region, P-well
then vertically through the JFET region, through the drift
layer, and then reach the substrate and drain. The inversion
channel length is defined by the P-well and N+ implants, and
the optimal channel length is 0.5 μm. According to the
simulation results by finite elements method using SILVACO
109
 implantations with depth of 0.2 µm. The length of channel
length is determined by the polysilicon oxidation thickness.
All the implants were activated at 1650℃ for 30 min in
Ar. After sacrificial oxidation, 500-Å-thick gate oxide was
thermally grown at 1200℃ in dry O2, and then annealed in
NO. A 0.5µm polysilicon layer is deposited by LPCVD and
doped with phosphorus to form the gate electrode. 1μm
PECVD oxide layer was then deposited as an inter-metallic
dielectric, and via holes were opened. The N-type, P-type
source and N-type drain ohmic contacts were formed by Ni.
The ohmic contacts were annealed at 950℃. A 4 μm Al
overlayer was deposited to interconnect all cells across the
device.
Characterization
The Vth is approximately 2.3 V, considering Ids =10 mA.
The pulsed current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of a 1200V
4H-SiC DMOSFET are shown in figure 5. The DMOSFET
conducts 40 A at VDS ≤ 1.5 V and VGS = 20 V. The
on-resistance is less than 40mΩ, the spectic on-resistance is
lesa than 6.4mΩ (Active Area:16mm2). The performance of
4H-SiC MOSFET is limited by the field effect mobility. The
field effect mobility of inversion channel can be test by lateral
channel MOSFET, and maximum field effect mobility is
approximately 22 cm-2/V.
On-resistance vs temperature characteristics are shown in
the figure6. With the temperature increasing from 25℃ to
150 ℃ the on-resistance increases from 33mΩ to 63 mΩ.

Fig.3. Flow of self-aligned implantation technique with

channel length defined by sidewall.
Fabrication
The 4H-SiC MOSFET were fabricated on 350 µm thick
n+ type 4H-SiC substrates. An epitaxial N− drift layer was
grown with doping concentration of 1×1016 cm-3 and the
epitaxial thickness was 10 μm to obtain a breakdown voltage
higher than 1200 V. FGR termination was realized by P+
implantation, and the 55 µm length termination is composed
of 15 floating guard rings. The regions P+ was implemented
by multiple Al implantations with a maximum energy of
320keV , and the implant depth was about 0.6 µm.
Figure4 fabricated 1200V/40mΩ SiC MOSFET
If the P-well and n+ were formed using different masks,
the misalignment of two masks would result in a different
MOS channel length on each side of the cell. The N+
implantation mask is in a self-aligned fashion with respect to
the P-well to avoid the decrease of threshold voltage (Vth) and
degrade the breakdown voltage (Vbr). A self-aligned technique
must be used to obtain channel lengths ≤ 0.5µm[7-9].The
P-well implantation mask was formed by 1.5µm polysilicon,
the P-well regions was formed by implanting Al with
maximum energy of 550 keV, and the implant depth was 0.8
µm. After P-well implantations, the polysilicon mask is
oxidized to increase its width by 0.5 µm per side, and this
oxidized polysilicon mask defines the N+ source implant. N+
source regions were formed by a heavy-dose nitrogen

110

Fig.5.ID -VD characteristics of the 1200V 4H-SiC
DMOSFET
Fig.6.On-resistance vs temperature characteristics
Fig.7. Blocking characteristics of 1200V DMOSFET at
Vgs=0V.
Blocking performance has been characterized up to a
leakage current of 100 µA. The blocking characteristics of a
1200 V 4H-SiC DMOSFET at VGS = 0 V are shown in fig.8. The
breakdown voltage is higher than 1600 V. Figure7 shows the
leakage current vs temperature characteristics. In room
temperature, the leakage current is lower than 12 nA at
VGS=0V and VDS=1200 V, and the leakage current increases
111
with temperature. In 150 ℃, the leakage current is increased
to 1.5μA.
Fig.7. Leakage current vs temperature characteristics.
(a)
(b)
Fig.7. Switching waveforms of 1200V40mΩ 4H-SiC
MOSFET,(a)turn-on, and (b) turn-off.
Figure7 shows dynamic characteristics of a packaged
1200V40mΩ SiC MOSFET. A 1000V supply voltage and a
200 mH load inductor were used. The device demonstrated
fast, and low loss switching characteristics, tdon=22ns,
tr=23ns, tdoff=111ns, df=44.5ns, Eon=0.86mJ, Eoff=0.337mJ.
Conclusions
According to the simulations, 1200V 4H-SiC MOSFET
have been fabricated. An 10µm thick epitaxial n- drift layer
with doping of 1×1016 cm-3. A 4H-SiC MOSFET with active
area of 16 mm2 has been realized. I–V and blocking
characterizations were performed at room temperature.
Breakdown voltage exceeds 1600 V. The on-resistance is less
than 40mΩ. In 150 ℃, the leakage current is lower than 1.5μ
A at VGS=0V and VDS=1200 V
Acknowledgments
 Project supported by the National Science and Technology
Major Project (No. 2016YFB0400402).
References
1. W. Sung, K. Han and B. J. Baliga, "A comparative study
of channel designs for SiC MOSFETs: Accumulation
mode channel vs. inversion mode channel," 2017 29th
International Symposium on Power Semiconductor
Devices and IC's (ISPSD), Sapporo, 2017, pp. 375-378.
2. J. Jiang, T. Chang and C. Huang, "A novel implant
masking processes for double self-aligned 4H-SiC
DMOSFETs," 2015 IEEE 11th International Conference
on Power Electronics and Drive Systems, Sydney, NSW,
2015, pp. 678-680.
3. J. Y. Jiang, T. F. Chang and C. F. Huang, "A novel
implant masking processes for double self-aligned 4H-SiC
DMOSFETs," 2015 IEEE 11th International Conference
on Power Electronics and Drive Systems, Sydney, NSW,
2015, pp. 678-680.
4. Matocha K, Chatty K, Banerjee S, et al. 1700 V, 5.5
mΩcm 4H-SiC DMOSFET with stable 225 oC operation.
Mater Sci Forum, 2014, 778–780: 903
5. Wada K, Uchida K, Kimura R, et al. Blocking
characteristics of 2.2 kV and 3.3 kV-class 4H-SiC
MOSFETs with improved doping control for edge
termination. Mater Sci Forum, 2014, 778–780: 915
6. ATLAS User’s Manual, www.silvaco.com
7. Huang R, Tao Y, Song B, et al. Design and fabrication of
a 3.3 kV 4H-SiC MOSFET[J]. Journal of Semiconductors,
2015, 36(9):54-57.
8. R. Huang, Y.Tao, D.Bai, et al., "Design and fabrication of
1.2kV 4H-SiC DMOSFET," 2016 13th China International
Forum on Solid State Lighting: International Forum on
Wide Bandgap Semiconductors China (SSLChina: IFWS),
Beijing, 2016, pp. 16-18.
9. M. Matin, A. Saha and J. A. Cooper, "A self-aligned
process for high-voltage, short-channel vertical
DMOSFETs in 4H-SiC," in IEEE Transactions on
Electron Devices, vol. 51, no. 10, pp. 1721-1725, Oct.
2004.

112
W201-201809091629
Development of 1.7 kV 40 mΩ 4H-SiC Power DMOSFETs

Hao Liuab, Runhua Huanga Tao Liua, Ao Liua Shiyan Li a Song Bai a Lijie Yang a
Longxing Shib
a
State Key Laboratory of Wide-Bandgap Semiconductor Power Electronic Devices, Nanjing Electronic Devices Institute
Nanjing, China
b
National ASIC System Engineering Research Center Southeast University
Nanjing, China
Email: micksun85@163.com
Abstract
In this paper, a1.7 kV power DMOSFETs in 4H-SiC were
reported. The device utilized 14 um thick n-type epilayers
with a doping concentration of 7×1015 cm-3 for drift layer.
The active area size of 1.7kV DMOSFET device is
20.5  10-2cm2. The device was able to support a blocking
voltage of 2 kV with gate electrode shorted to the source
electrode. The device shows a leakage current density of
68uA/cm2. At room temperature, the 4H-SiC DMOSFET
showed a specific on-resistance (Ron,sp) of 8.2 mΩ-cm2 and an
ID of 50A at VDS of 2.0V。The paper shows the blocking and
conduction characteristics of the device from 25℃ to 150℃
and the device demonstrated extremely fast,low loss swithing
characteristics.
Introduction Fig. 1. Simplified cross section of the 1.7 kV 4H-SiC
Silicon carbide (SiC) is an attractive semiconductor for high power DMOSFET
power applications due to its superior material properties, All the implants were activated above 1650 °C. A 500 Å
such as wide band gap and high critical field. This enables thick gate oxide layer was thermally grown at 1250 °C in dry
SiC devices to operate at much higher temperatures [1] and 02, then nitrided at 1250 °C in NO. A doped polysilicon layer
offer a lower specific on-resistance [2] compared to devices in was deposited and patterned as gate electrode. The ohmic
conventional semiconductor materials. However, the poor contacts to source, drain and p+ regions were formed with
MOS channel mobility µFE and high interface state density Dit alloyed Ni. An LPCVD oxide layer (0.7 µm thick) was then
is the main limitation for 4H-SiC power MOSFETs full deposited as an inter-metallic dielectric layer, and via holes
application in energy devices market. Recently, various was opened. A 4 µm aluminum overlayer was deposited and
post-oxide-deposition annealing techniques were reported for was patterned using a wet-etching technique to form
increasing of the MOSFET channel mobility [3-6]. In this electrodes. A photograph of fabricated wafer of 1.7 kV
paper, we present our latest development in 4H-SiC power 4H-SiC MOSFET is shown in Fig.2. The an active area size of
DMOSFETs. A 0.5 um long MOS gate length was fabricated 1.7kV MOSFET device is 20.5  10-2cm2.
by a polysilicon self-aligned process, and a 30 um longth
floating guard ring termination structure was used. In this
paper，static and switching characteristics of our 4H-SiC
DMOSFETs with active areas of up to 0.2cm2 are
presented.
Device structure and processing
A simplified cross section of the 1.7 kV 4H-SiC
DMOSFET structure is shown in Fig. 1. An 14µm-thick,
7.0  1015cm-3 doped n-type drift epilayer was grown on the
Si-face of an n+ type 4H-SiC substrate, cut with an 4°offset
angle. The p-wells with retrograde profile were formed by
aluminum implantation with various implantation energy and
dose, and then heavy dose nitrogen implantations were
performed to form n+ source regions. The MOS channel
length, which is defined by the distance between the edges of
n+ source regions and the p-wells, was 0.6 µm fabricated by a
polysilicon self-aligned process and it was used to minimized
the MOS channel resistance. Heavy dose aluminum Fig. 2. Photograph of the 1.7 kV 4H-SiC power
implantations formed p+ contacts to the p-wells as well as the DMOSFET wafer
floating guard ring based edge termination structure.
Experimental Results
The threshold voltage is approximately 2.6 V,
considering Ids =18 mA. The pulsed current-voltage (I-V)
characteristics of a 1700V 4H-SiC DMOSFET are shown in
figure 3. The DMOSFET conducts 50 A at VDS ≤2 V and VGS

113
= 20 V. The conduction resistance is less than 40mΩ. The
performance of 4H-SiC MOSFET is limited by the field effect
mobility. The field effect mobility of inversion channel can be
test by lateral channel MOSFET, and maximum field effect
mobility is approximately 22 cm-2/V.

Fig.5. Blocking characteristics of a 1700V SiC

Fig. 3. ID -VD characteristics of the 1700V 4H-SiC
DMOSFET
Fig. 4. Conduction characteristics of the 1700V 4H-SiC
DMOSFET
The conduction increases to 77mΩ at 150℃,which is
approximately 102% increase over at room temperature,which
was observed on 4H-SiC JFETs,where the drift resistance
dominated the on-resistance.However,in 4H-SiC power
DMOSFETs,the MOS channel resistanceis is the dominant
resistive component,and its temperature characteristics are
different from that of bulk electron mobility.The MOS
channel resistance decrease with temperature which
conuterbalance the increase in drift resistance with
temperature,resulting in temperature stable on-resistance[7],as
shown in Fig4.
DMOSFET (active area =0.205cm2). The measurement was
done in Fluorinert oil at room temperature.
Figure.5 shows the blocking characteristics of the 1700V
SiC DMOSFET at room temperature, measured on-wafer
using a curve tracer. The wafer was immersed in Fluorinert oil
to prevent arcing in air during the measurement. The device
was able to support a VDS of 2.0 kV with gate electrode
shorted to the source electrode. The device is normally off,
and showed a leakage current of 11.1 uA at a drain voltage of
1.7 kV, which corresponds to a leakage current density of 1.6
uA/cm2. The ideal parallel plate peak E-field of
the14µm-thick, 7.0  1015cm-3 drift epilayer used for this
device at a drain voltage of 2.0 kV is approximately 2.5
MV/cm.
As shown in Figure 6 which is the blocking
characteristics from 25℃ to 150℃.The 1700V 4H-SiC
DMOSFET with VGS=0V breaks down in availanche at
just over 2kV ,but the sub-breakdown leakage current
increases with temperature from less than 14μA at
VDS=1700V at 25℃ and below to 19μA at VDS=1700V at
150℃，In the test the leakage current rises to 20μA at
VDS=1700V at 100℃ ， then drops back to19μA
VDS=1700V at 125℃ and 150℃.

Fig.6. Blocking characteristics of 1700V 4H-SiC DMOSFET

at 25℃，75℃，100℃，125℃ and 150℃with Vgs=0

114

(a)
(b)
Fig. 7. Switching waveforms of the 0.205 cm2 4H-SiC
DMOSFET. A 1000 V supply voltage and 200mH load
inductor were used. (a)Turn-on transients,and(b) turn off
transients
Figure 7 shows dynamic characteristics of a packaged
0.2cm2 device at room temperature.A supply voltage of 1000
V and a load inductor of 200mH were used. The device
demonstrated extremely fast, low loss swithing
characteristics(tdon=22.5ns,tr=23.5ns,tdoff=143ns, tf=49.5ns),
which suggest that this device can offer significant
improvement in switching performance over commercially
available silicon power MOSFETs.
Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant
No.2017YFB0102302).
References
1. S. Ryu, S. Krishnaswami, B. Hull et al, “Development of
8 mΩ-cm2, 1.8 kV 4H-SiC DMOSFETs,” Materials
Science Forum Vols. 527-529 (2006) pp. 1261-1264
2. M. Matin, A. Saha, and J. A. Cooper, “A Self-Aligned
Process for High-Voltage, Short-Channel Vertical
DMOSFETs in 4H-SiC,” IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON
ELECTRON DEVICES, VOL. 51, NO. 10, (2004),
pp.1721-1725
3. M. K. Das, B. A. Hull, S. Krishnaswami et al, “ Improved
4H-SiC MOS Interfaces Produced via Two Independent
Processes: Metal Enhanced Oxidation and 1300C NO
Anneal,” Materials Science Forum Vols. 527-529 (2006)
pp. 967-970
4. W. Wang, S. Banerjee, T. P. Chow et al, “Interface
Properties of 4H-SiC/SiO2 with MOS Capacitors and
FETs annealed in O2, N2O, NO and CO2,” Materials
Science Forum Vols. 457-460 (2004) pp. 1309-1312
5. P. Fiorenza, L. K. Swanson, M. Vivona et al,
“Characterization of SiO2/SiC interfaces annealed in N2O
or POCl3,” Materials Science Forum Vols 778-780 (2014)
pp. 623-626
6. J. Y. Jiang, T. F. Chang and C. F. Huang, "A novel
implant masking processes for double self-aligned
4H-SiC DMOSFETs," 2015 IEEE 11th International
Conference on Power Electronics and Drive Systems,
Sydney, NSW, 2015, pp. 678-680.
7. S. Ryu, S. Krishnaswami, M. Das, B. Hull, J. Richmond,
B. Heath, A. Agarwal, J. Palmour,and J. Scofield, “10.3
mΩ-cm2, 2 kV Power DMOSFETs in 4H-SiC,”
Proceedings of the 17th ISPSD, May 23-26, 2005, Santa
Barbara,CA. pp.275 – 278.

Conclusions
4H-SiC DMOSFET has been successfully fabricated.The
devices have the maximum field effect mobility is
approximately 22 cm-2/V and a threshold voltage of 2.6V.The
DMOSFETs exhibit a blocking voltage of 1.7 kV and a
specific on-resistance 8.2 mΩ-cm2 at room temperature,the
on-resistance is dominated by the MOS channel resistance，
which suggests that further improvement in the MOS channel
mobility is necessary to improve the device performance. The
on-current of 50A is measured from a 0.205cm2device。Stable
avalanche characteristics are observed from the device at
approximately 2kV.Dynamic measurement of the device
showed a turn on time(tdon+ tf) of 72ns and a turn-off
time(tdoff+tr)of 166.5ns when controlling a current density of
97.5A/cm2,with a 1000V supply voltage.The excellent
blocking capability and fast switching speed of the device
suggest that the device are deal for high voltage,high
frequency,and low loss power switching applications.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank all the members of State Key
Laboratory of Wide-Bandgap Semiconductor Power
Electronic Devices. The work was supported by the National
115
W201-201809102226

Development of 6.5kV 50A 4H-SiC JBS diodes

Yunfeng Chen, Ji Tan, Song Bai, Runhua Huang, Rui Li

State Key Laboratory of Wide-Bandgap Semiconductor Power Electronic Devices, Nanjing Electronic Devices Institute
Nanjing, China
Email: feichangcyf@gmail.com

Abstract extension (JTE) technique, the FGR structure has the

A study of 6.5kV 50A JBS diodes based on 4H-SiC were
reported. These high voltage SiC JBS diodes utilized 65 um
thick n-type epi-layers with a doping concentration of 1×10 15
cm-3. The active area and total chip area of the JBS diodes
were 75mm2 and 110mm2. Meanwhile, the FGR structure of
700um was applied for controlling the edge termination
electrical fieldof the JBS diodes. The JBS diodes were able to
support a blocking voltage of 6.5 kV with leakage current
lower than 1.5uA. Under forward bias of 3.70V, the forward
current of the JBS diodes could reach 50A at room
temperature. Barrier height and ideality factor of the JBS
diodes were extracted to be 1.26eV and 1.03. High
temperature (425K) characteristics of the JBS diodes were
also measured and analyzed.
Introduction
High voltage silicon carbide (SiC) power devices have
demonstrated to satisfactory device performances and high
operation temperatures as compared to Si and GaAs based
devices [1]. They have the potential to significantly improve
the system performance, reliability, and cost of energy
conversion systems by providing reduced part count,
simplified circuit topology, and reduced switching losses. SiC
Junction barrier Schottky(JBS) diode, which is already
commercially available, takes an important place in power
semiconductor devices [2]. High-voltage and high-power SiC
JBS diode is still continuously investigated by researchers for
its important and fundamental role in future power and energy
systems [3]. In the present work, we report about the SiC
6.5kV 50A JBS diodes, including design, fabricating and
analysis.
advantages of characteristics-insensitive to implantation
concentration. Therefore, the FGR structure can be used in
high voltage devices by simply improving the ring numbers.
In Fig. 2(a), we used totally 120 rings to protect the
termination area. The widths of the rings changed from 5um
to 3um, while the distances between rings changed from 1um
to 5um. Actually, this FGR structure can guarantee a
breakdown voltage of nearly 8kV. At 8kV, the highest
electrical field distributionalong the x-axis inside the FGR
structure was shown in Fig. 2(b). The outside edge of the
electrical field reached about 650um, while the whole width
of the FGR was 700um. This redundant design is mainly for
improving the yield of the high power diodes. Meanwhile the
area loss of the edge termination area takes a small percentage
for the whole diodes area. By both simulating the active area
and edge termination under high reverse voltage bias, the
electrical field breakdown position was below the side of
p-type junctions in the active area, as shown in Fig. 2(c).

Fig. 1 A schematic cross-section of the designed 6.5kV 50A

JBS diodes
Device structure and processing
A schematic cross-section of the designed 6.5kV 50A JBS
diodes was shown in Fig. 1. TCAD-SILVACO software was
used to simulate and improve the characteristics of the JBS
diodes by optimizing the device structures, including the edge
termination area and the active area. The Floating guard rings
(FGR) structure was applied in this JBS diodes to suppress the
electrical field in the edge area. Unlike junction termination
116
 Fig. 2 (a) the electrical field distribution of JBS diodes
around the termination area; (b) the highest electrical field
distribution inside the FGR structure along the x-axis; (c) the
electrical field distribution comparison between the active
area and the edge termination area
The 6.5kV 50A JBS diodes with a total chip area of
110mm2 were fabricated on 4-inch N-type 4H-SiC 4°off-axis
wafers. As shown in Fig. 3, the JBS diodes had an active area
of 75mm2. Firstly, the wafers were grown with 65um thick,
1e15cm-3 N-type doped epitaxial layer as starting substrate.
Then, Aluminum ion implantation formed the p-type junctions
in active area and floating guard rings in edge termination
area at the same time. Implanted Al ions were activated by
1650°Chigh temperature annealing. Titanium was chosen as
the barrier metal by 500℃ annealing. Then the Aluminum
layer and the silver layer were fabricated as positive and
negative electrodes. Finally, the JBS diodes were passivated
by PECVD SiO2/Si3N4 and polyimide.
Fig. 3 the photograph of the 6.5kV 50A JBS diodes
Experimental results
The I-V characteristics of the fabricated JBS diodes were
measured in a Microtech Cascade probe station equipped with
an IWATSU parameter analyzer. High temperature (425K)
tests of the diodes were also accomplished in this test system.
Fig. 4 illustrates both the forward and reverse properties of the
JBS diodes. Under reverse 6000V bias, the leakage current
was below 0.5uA. When the bias voltage reached 6.5kV and
7.0kV, the reverse current became 1.5uA and 10uA. When the
forward bias was applied, the JBS diodes were opened at
0.64V (100uA). The forward current of the diodes could reach
50A under the bias of 3.70V.
117
Fig. 4 typical I-V characteristics of the 6.5kV 50A JBS
diodes
According to the thermionic emission law of the Schottky
barrier forward curves [4], the equation of the SiCSchottky
diodes forward current density could be described as, (when
V>3kT/q)
Where A* is the Richardson constant (146 A•cm-2/K2for
4H-SiC). So Barrier height φB and ideality factor n of the SiC
JBS diode could be extracted to be 1.26eV and 1.03. In the
active area of the JBS diodes, the p-type Junction region width
and the Schottky barrier region width were 1.4um and
3.75um. We changed the Schottky barrier region width from
3um to 4.5um (not shown). Considering the actual Schottky
electrode area, we found that both the effective forward
current density and the reverse breakdown voltage of the
diodes remain unchanged during these width variations. It
means that the diodes performance could be further optimized
by choosing suitable p/n width rate.
Fig. 5 the forward I-V characteristics measured at
different temperatures ranging from 300K to 425K; the inset
shows the threshold voltage variations of the I-V curves
The forward I-V curves of the JBS diodes measured at
increased temperatures from 300K to 425K were shown in
Fig. 5. The threshold voltage of the diodes decreased from
0.64V(300K) to 0.42V(425K). Meanwhile, the working
voltage of the diodes increased with temperature (from 3.70V
at 300K to 7.50V at 425K).
Two main reasons may attribute to the variations of
forward current properties under increased temperature. One
is the Schottky contact inhomogeneities, which is often
mentioned in analyzing the common Schottky contact
structures [5]. As plotted in Fig. 6(a), as temperature increased
from 300K to 425K, the ideality factor of the Schottky barrier
increased consistently from 1.03 to 1.35, while the Schottky
barrier height deceased from 1.26eV to 0.96eV. Our Ti-based
JBS diodes usually have a better Schottky contact property
than Ni-based ones [6]. The other reason comes from the N-
region below the Ti Schottky contact electrodes, which are
affected by the side p-type junction regions. The effect of the
N- region resistance in JBS diodes could be modeled with a
series combination of a diode and a resistor R through which
the current flows. The JBS diodes current density equation
considering series resistance became[7]
And it could be rearranged as
Therefore, a plot of d(V)/d(lnJ) vs J would give RA as the
slope of the line. The equivalent series resistance increased
from 56.7mΩ to 136.3mΩ, with temperature increased from
300K to 425K, as illustrated in Fig. 6(b). On the other hand,
the N- region below the Ti Schottky contact will also help to
reduce the diodes leakage under high reverse voltage. We will
focus on the optimization of the N- region of the JBS diodes
in the future research.
the JBS diodes are extracted to be 1.26eV and 1.03 at room
temperature. The high temperature (425K) characteristics of
the JBS diodes are also measured and analyzed.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank all the members of State Key
Laboratory of Wide-Bandgap Semiconductor Power
Electronic Devices. The work was supported by the National
Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant
No.2016YFB0400502).
References
1. G.B. Gao, J. Sterner, H. Morkoc, IEEE Trans Electron
Dev., 41 (1994) 1092
2. Pala V et al 2014 Proc. ECCE 2014 (Pittsburgh, PA, Sept
14–18) pp 449–54
3. T. Heinzel et al, ECPE SiC & GaN user forum,
Nuremberg, March 2017
4. D. K. Schroder, Semiconductor Material and Device
Characterization, 3rd ed. New York, NY, USA: Wiley,
2006
5. P. M. Gammon et al, Journalof Applied Physics 114,
223704 (2013)
6. S. U. Omar et al, IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices,
Vol. 62, No. 2, February 2015
7. H. Lu et al, Applied Physics Letters 91, 172113 (2007)

Fig. 6 (a) calculated ideality factor n and Schottky barrier

height as a function of temperatures according the thermionic
emission theory; (b) plot of d(V)/d(lnJ) vs J of the SiC JBS
diodes; the inset shows the series resistance with temperature
increasing from 300K to 425K
Conclusions
In this work, the 6.5kV 50A SiC JBS diodes have been
designed, fabricated and characterized. Based on the 4-inch
4H-SiC substrate, the fabricated JBS diodes have the reverse
breakdown voltage higher than 6.5kV (1.5uA under 6.5kV,
10uA under 7.0kV). The forward electrical characteristics
tests show that at room temperature the threshold voltage is
0.64V, and the forward working voltage is 3.70V with
forward current of 50A. Barrier height and ideality factor of

118
W201-201809132116

Threshold Voltage Instability of 1200V SiC MOSFET Devices

Ao Liu1 , Tongtong yang1, Song Bai1 , Runhua Huang 1, Hao Liu1

1.State Key Laboratory of Wide-Bandgap Semiconductor Power Electronic Devices, Nanjing Electronic Devices Institute
Nanjing, 210016, China
E-mail: 15851831604@163.com

Abstract
1200V 4H-SiC MOSFETs have been designed and fabricated sucessfully. The drain current Id = 20 A at Vg = 20 V,
corresponding to Vd = 2.0 V. The stability of threshold voltage was studied soon. It is believed that the instability in device
behavior during gate bias stress is due to capture of electrons by the SiC/gate dielectric interface traps and the gate dielectric near
interface traps. A constant gate voltage of +20V/-10V is applied to the gate at a temperature of 150℃. The threshold voltage are
monitored for device stability. Compare with three other commercial devices,the devices show little variation in the Vth.
Keywords-SiC MOSFET;threshold voltage ; interface states
I. INTRODUCTION
As a typical wide band gap semiconductor material, SiC has a wide band gap. Meanwhile it has high breakdown voltage, high
carrier saturation velocity, high thermal conductivity and good thermal stability. Power MOSFETs made by materials of SiC have
high breakdown voltage and fast speed of turn-on and turn-off, which can surmount the shortcomings of Si MOSFET and can be
applied in high frequency high power. SiC MOSFETs have realized industrialization abroad [1].
Threshold voltage stability of MOSFETs is very important to system application. Improvement in threshold voltage stability has
been a critical milestone for the industrial application of silicon carbide power devices. Compared to silicon devices, the interface of
SiO2-SiC possesses a higher density of interface states due to the more complex crystal structure. The effect of near SiO2-SiC
interface traps on the threshold voltage stability in SiC power MOSFET devices was first reported by Lelis [1]. However, there
are a number of papers which report nearly identical Vth behavior of high-k dielectric Si MOSFETs [2-4]. In this paper, 1200 V
4H-SiC power MOSFETs were designed and fabricated, The work presented mechanism and model of threshold voltage drift, and a
comparison experiment of threshold voltage instability with commercial MOSFETs was made .Finally, the mechanism of threshold
voltage shift was discussed.

II. DEVICE STRUCTURE AND CHARACTERISTICS

Figure 1 shows the cross-section of the MOSFET.
The 4H-SiC MOSFET was fabricated on 350 µm thick n+ type 4H-SiC substrates. A 10 μm thick drift layer with a doping
concentration of 6×1015 cm-3 was chosen for a 1200 V blocking voltage design. The regions P+ and P-well were
implemented by multiple Al implantations with a maximum energy of 320keV and 550keV and the implant depth was about
0.6 µm and 0.8 µm respectively. N+ source regions were formed by a heavy-dose nitrogen implantations with depth of 0.2
µm.
To avoid the decrease of threshold voltage (Vth) and degrade the breakdown voltage (Vbr), the N+ mask is in a
self-aligned fashion with respect to the P-well. After the P-well implantation the second mask layer was deposited, and then
dry etched. The length of channel region is defined by the sidewall’s width. All the implants were activated at 1650℃ for 30
min in Ar. 500-Å-thick gate oxide was thermally grown at 1200℃ in dry O2, and then annealed in NO. Ni for source,
drain and P+ region contact was then deposited and annealed at 950℃. 1μm PECVD oxide layer was then deposited as an
inter-metallic dielectric, and via holes were opened. A thick Al overlayer was deposited to interconnect all cells across the
device.

Fig.1 cross-section of the MOSFET

The termination parameters are optimized by simulations, and the electric-field distribution for reverse bias 1.2 kV for
FGR termination is presented in figure 2. The termination structure has been optimized by adjusting the ring spacing. In
119
the simulations, 15 FGRs with 2.5 μm width was used. The first ring spacing is 0.9 μm, and the following ring spacings
increase gradually to 2 μm.

Fig.2 Simulation of FGR termination

The pulsed current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of a 1200V 4H-SiC MOSFET are shown in figure 3. The MOSFET
conducts 20 A at VDS = 2.0 V and VGS = 20 V. The blocking characteristics of a 1200V 4H-SiC MOSFET are shown in
figure 4， blocking voltage is about 1650V. The Vth is approximately 2.2 V, considering Ids =0.5 mA.

Fig.3 I-Vcharacteristics of the MOSFET

Fig.4 Blocking characteristics of the MOSFETs

Figure 5 shows high-low frequency capacitance-voltage(C-V) measurements result. The MOSFET shows indiscercible
frequency dispersion. It indicates interface state density is below 1×1012 cm2 .Figure 6 shows a MOSFET chip encapsulated in the
metal-ceramic shell.

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 Fig.5 C-V characteristics of MOS capactance

Fig.6 a 1200V SiC MOSFET

III. MECHANISM AND MODEL

Charge trapping at and near the SiC-silicon dioxide (SiO2) gate insulator interface can lead to degradation in
device performance and reliability. Effects include decreased channel mobility due to coulombic scattering, reduced effective
mobility due to reduction in the free carriers in the channel [1], shift of the threshold voltage (VT), and instability of the
threshold voltage [2].
According to the Deal committee formulation for silicon [3], this charge in general can be due to interface traps (NIT),
oxide traps (NOT), fixed charge (NF), and mobile ions (NM). Interface traps have long been a concern, and a great deal of
effort has been exerted in finding processing steps that reduce these densities [4]. Mobile ions have not been an issue, but
fixed charge and
oxide trapped charge have. A balancing of this charge with interface traps in n-channel MOSFETs have led to reasonable
threshold voltages. However, by reducing NIT, this can lead to a shift in the threshold voltage to negative values. A change in
the balance of the different types of trapped charge can also change the percentage of free carriers in the channel. Finally,
oxide traps are probably the cause of instabilities observed in the threshold voltage following gate-bias stressing.
The basic algorithm for the tunneling model is as follows. First, the total number of active oxide traps is defined, along
with their spatial distribution. In the simulations presented here, an average oxide trap density of 1×1012 cm–2 was assumed
over the first 50A from the SiC interface, with an exponential decay of the trap density into the oxide. The interface traps
were taken to vary from mid 1013 cm–2 values near the band edges down to mid 1011 cm–2 values at mid-gap [7]. The oxide
traps, which are assumed to be either positively charged or neutral based on the likely physical nature of the trap [5], were
initially set to a zero-gate-bias steady-state condition to ensure a realistic initial charge. Then, for a given gate-bias stress and
measurement simulation, a series of applied gate-bias stresses and stress times is determined. With the application of each
new gate bias, the surface potential is found self-consistently with the assumed interface trap and oxide trap occupations.
Next, the electric potential in the oxide is determined using numerical methods, from which the electric field is calculated.
This is followed by the tunneling-calculation loop. With every time step, the change in oxide-trap occupancy is calculated.
The new distribution of charged oxide traps can be found from the present distribution using a similar procedure to that for
calculating the time-dependent occupation of interface traps [8]:
nOT(x,t+△t)= nOT(x,t)+ △nOT(x,t) (1)
The incremental change in the charged oxide trap distribution is found by taking the difference between the electrons
tunneling in and those tunneling out (equivalent to holes tunneling in),
△nOT(x,t)= △t*ptun_h(x) *[nOT_total(x)- nOT(x,t)]- △t*p tun_e(x) *n OT(x,t), (2)

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wherein ptun_e and ptun_h are the tunneling probabilities for electrons and holes, respectively, and nOT_total is the total number of
oxide traps present whereas nOT is the number of oxide traps that are positively charged. The probability of electrons or holes
tunneling in is calculated using the WKB approximation [6], wherein the tunneling barrier height,

is a function of effective tunneling mass, m*t, oxide trap energy level, Et , and localized oxide field,εOX; and wherein q is the
electronic charge and h-bar is Planck’s constant divided by 2π. The barrier height will in general be different for electrons
and holes, due to differences in the effective tunneling mass, oxide trap energy level, and the sign of the electronic charge.
The energy level of the oxide trap was assumed to vary, depending on the charge state [9], with the positively charged oxide
trap having an energy level just below the valence band of the SiC, based on values in the literature [10].
The rate of change of the oxide trap density with respect to time is found to be sharply peaked spatially, with a
full-width half-max value of around 2A. This peak moves logarithmically with time into the oxide, at an approximate rate of
2A per decade of time, which leads to the notion of a tunneling front, wherein most trap states in its wake have changed
charge state [6]. For a two-way
tunneling model, trap states in the wake of the tunneling front have generally achieved a new steady-state value, with the
number of electrons tunneling in equal to the number tunneling back out. The initial time steps are set to the initial tunneling
transition time of about 0.1 ps [6]. As the tunneling front proceeds deeper into the oxide, the time step is increased since the
change in oxide trap occupation described by (2) continually decreases due to the exponential decay in tunneling probability
with oxide depth. The surface potential, electric field, etc., are re-calculated several times per decade of time. This process
proceeds until the total simulated stress time is reached, and is repeated for all the gate-bias stress steps, including those
simulating a measurement.

IV. EXPERIMENT
In order to conduct this test, ten devices were packaged in a TO258 package. Packaged 1.2 kV MOSFETs were stressed
at a constant gate bias of +20 V /-10V with the source and the drain grounded. The devices were stressed at a temperature of
150°C for a specific period of time. The devices were allowed to cool, then the Vth were tested under Ids =0.5 mA. The results
is showed in Fig.7. Very little shift in threshold voltage was observed between the pre-stress and post-stress data under gate
bias of +20 V , indicating excellent stability of the MOSFETs. Under gate bias of -10 V, max shift is about 0.3V.

Fig.7 1000 hours HTGB under +20 V /-10V

As a contrast, commercial devices of three companies were tested under the same condition. Among these devices,
the flat-gate was applied in C company , the trench-gate was applied in R company and S company.

Fig.8 1000 hours HTGB under +20 V /-10V(devices from C comany)

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 Fig.8 1000 hours HTGB under +20 V /-10V(devices from R comany)

Fig.10 1000 hours HTGB under +20 V /-10V(devices from S comany)

The results show shift of the threshold voltage has occur in both flat-gate and trench-gate. After 1000 hours HTGB test,
under gate bias of -10 V, max △VTH of three commercial devices is about 0.3V. And under gate bias of 20 V, max △VTH of
three commercial devices is about 0.6V. It seems that the shift of the threshold voltage is obvious in the first 400 hours.

Fig.11 Experimental platform

V. CONCLUSION
. 1200V 4H-SiC MOSFETs have been designed. The MOSFET conducts 20 A at VDS = 2.0 V and VGS = 20 V. Blocking voltage
is about 1650V. The stability of threshold voltage was studied . It is believed that the instability in device behavior during gate bias
stress is due to capture of electrons by the SiC/gate dielectric interface traps and the gate dielectric near interface traps. After 1000
hours HTGB test, the VTH shifts is lower than commercial devices.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We would like to thank all the members of state key laboratory of Wide-Bandgap semiconductor power electronic devices.
Helps received from other department of Nanjing electronic devices instiute are also acknowledged.

REFERENCES

[1] Callanan, R.J. Agarwal, A. Recent progress in SiC DMOSFETs and JBS diodes at Cree[C]. IECON 2008. 34th Annual Conference of IEEE , 2008, 2885
– 2890.
[2] Li Yun, Li Zheyang．Influence of Flow Rate on Epitaxial Growth of SiC[J]. Semiconductor Technology, 2008．33:266-268．
[3] Li X,Tone K, Cao L,et al．6 A,1 kV 4H SiC normally-off trenched-and-implanted vertical JFETs[C]．Mater Sci Forum，2000，338-342：1375-1378.

123
[4] Adamowicz, M. Giziewski, S. Performance comparison of SiC Schottky diodes and silicon ultra fast recovery diodes[C]. CPE 2011. 7th International
Conference-Workshop , 2011, 144 - 149 .
[5] Kang, I.H.;Kim, S.C. Accurate Extraction Method of Reverse Recovery Time and Stored Charge for Ultrafast Diodes[J]. IEEE Transactions on Power
Electronics,2012. 27(2): 619-622.

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W202-201808140813

Effect of GaN barrier layer thickness on morphology and optical properties of multilayer InGaN
quantum dots
kai Qu,a Hailiang Dong,a,b Jianjie Liu,a Gangzhi Jia,aShufang Ma,c Jian Liang,b, Taiping Lu,a and Bingshe Xu,a,c
a
Key Laboratory of Interface Science and Engineering in Advanced Materials, Taiyuan University of Technology, Ministry of
Education, Taiyuan, Shanxi 030024, P. R. China
b
College of Materials Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, Shanxi 030024, P. R. China
c Institute of Atomic and Molecular Science, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, Xi'an, Shaanxi, 710021 P.R. China
Education, Taiyuan 030024, China
E-mail address: xubs@tyut.edu.cn (B. Xu).

Abstract: Light-emitting diodes based on InGaN have a problem called a green gap. InGaN quantum dots have proven to be a
promising structure to solve this problem due to their strong carrier localization effects. In this study, we fabricated InGaN / GaN
quantum dots and conventional InGaN / GaN multiple quantum wells by adjusting the growth mode and compared their quantum
confinement Stark by intensity-dependent and temperature-dependent photoluminescence measurements. Effects and internal
quantum efficiency. The stress modulation effect of GaN barrier layer on multilayer InGaN quantum dots is studied. It is found
that as the thickness of GaN barrier layer increases, the stress accumulation phenomenon and the polarization effect caused by
stress are weakened, and more importantly, the residual stress is reduced. The density of the non-radiative recombination center in
the epitaxial layer is reduced. On the other hand, the temperature-dependent photoluminescence spectrum indicates that the local
state in the quantum dot decreases slightly as the thickness of the GaN barrier layer increases, but the carrier can not be trapped by
the non-radiative recombination center even if the temperature rises to room temperature. . By analyzing the stress field and the
local effect of the carrier, it can be concluded that as the thickness of the GaN barrier layer increases, the main reason for the
increase in quantum efficiency in the quantum dot is the decrease in the number of non-radiative recombination centers.
Key words: InGaN Quantum Dot,thickness of GaN barrier layer,Formation Mechanism, Optical Property
1. Introduction
InGaN quantum dots are considered to replace InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells as active regions for green or red
light-emitting diodes and laser devices. Compared to quantum well structures, InGaN quantum dots have two outstanding
advantages. First, quantum dots The growth mode makes it effective to release the stress in the material, so the
quantum-constrained Stark effect can be largely attenuated [1]; secondly, the quantum dot structure has a stronger carrier local
area than the quantum well. The effect can effectively limit the carriers and reduce the probability of non-radiative recombination
[2]. Based on the above reasons, InGaN quantum dots have received great attention and have been successfully fabricated by
MOCVD or MBE [3] InGaN quantum dots have two growth mechanisms, S-K mode and phase separation [4-5]. Due to the
simplicity of the S-K mode for the preparation of quantum dots, many self-assembled InGaN quantum dots are grown using the
S-K mode and have been successfully used to fabricate light-emitting diodes and laser devices [6-7].
In order to increase the brightness of a green LED or the gain of a laser, a multi-layer stacked quantum dot is generally used as an
active region [8-9]. In the multi-layer quantum dot structure, the strain energy in the InGaN quantum dots will pass up through the
GaN barrier layer, so that the strain energy of the upper quantum dots is larger than that of the lower quantum dots, and the strain
increases with the increase of the number of layers, with strain layer by layer. Accumulation, the quantum-restricted Stark effect is
enhanced, and the defect density is also increased, resulting in a decrease in the quantum efficiency of the LED and an increase in
the loss in the laser device. According to the study of multi-layer stacked InAs quantum dots, the thick GaAs barrier layer can
effectively isolate the local strain [10], and relieve the stress accumulation phenomenon to some extent. Similarly, by adjusting the
thickness of the GaN barrier layer in the growth of multilayer InGaN quantum dots, the stress in the material can also be adjusted
to improve device performance.
2. Sample preparation and characterization
The samples tested in this chapter were epitaxially grown on a c-plane sapphire substrate using a TS300 type MOCVD
manufactured by Aixtron. The three sources used in the epitaxy process are trimethylgallium (TMGa), triethylgallium (TEGa) and
trimethylindium (TMIn), and the five sources are NH3, N2 and H2 as carrier gases. The detailed growth process is as follows:
Close the DOR valve for 1 minute and check for O-ring pressure changes. Under a hydrogen atmosphere, the temperature was
raised to 1120°C and held for 180 s to remove impurities on the surface of the sapphire substrate to clean the substrate. After
slowly cooling to 530 oC, NH3 was introduced, and the substrate was first nitrided for 360 s, then the TMGa source was turned on
to grow a 25 nm thick GaN nucleation layer. The TMGa source was turned off and the nucleation layer was annealed at a
temperature of 1070 oC for an annealing time of 70 s. The TMGa source was turned on to grow unintentionally doped GaN of 3
μm thick. The carrier gas was switched from H2 to N2, and TEGa and TMIn were used to grow six cycles of InGaN/GaN multiple
quantum wells. The germanium and barrier layers were grown at 715 °C and 850 °C, respectively. Three groups of samples with
thicknesses of 15 nm, 17.5 nm and 20 nm were grown, and other growth conditions were consistent. The following are labeled A,
B, and C, respectively, and the sample structure is shown in Fig. 2.1.

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Fig. 2.1 The diagram of the three samples

The SPA-300HV type AFM was used to analyze the surface topography of the three samples, and the working mode was tapping.
The polarization effects and carrier local effects of the samples were characterized by variable power PL and variable temperature
PL tests, respectively. The variable power PL test uses a 266 nm laser with a slit width of 1 mm and an excitation power density
from 1.35 W/cm2 to 42.3 W/cm2. The variable temperature PL test ranged from 10 K to 300 K using an excitation source of 325
nm He-Cd laser with a slit width of 0.45 mm and an excitation power density of 2.65 W/cm 2 .
3. AFM surface topography analysis
Figures 3.1 (a), (b), and (c) are AFM scans of three samples, respectively. It can be seen that sample A has a distinct quantum dot
morphology, while sample B combines the step flow morphology of quantum dots and quantum wells, and the morphology of
sample C is similar to that of quantum dots. In the InGaN/GaN periodic structure, each layer of InGaN can influence each other,
and compressive stress can be accumulated by layer stacking. Therefore, Sample A should have the largest compressive stress
because its barrier layer 15 nm is the thinnest of the three samples. The thickness of the barrier layer of sample B is increased to
17.5 nm, and its compressive stress is smaller than that of sample A. Similarly, the compressive stress in sample C should be
further reduced as the thickness of the barrier layer is further increased. The largest compressive stress in sample A leads to the
formation of quantum dots, and its growth mode is similar to the S-K mode. At the same time, the formation of quantum dots can
release a part of the stress. For sample B, due to the increase of the barrier thickness, there is not enough compressive stress to
promote the transition of the growth mode to the S-K mode, thus forming a morphology in which the step flow and the quantum
dots coexist. Since the formation of quantum dots can release stress, the residual stress in sample A is not necessarily larger than
sample B, or even smaller. For sample C, both the increase in surface roughness and the morphology of similar quantum dots
indicate that the thickest GaN barrier layer greatly attenuates the stress accumulation effect, and a 20 nm thick barrier layer can
isolate each layer between InGaN quantum dots. Interaction, so its residual stress is minimal. The residual stress is directly related
to the polarization effect in the material, and the polarization field in the three samples is analyzed later.

Fig. 3.1 3x3 µm2 AFM images of A, B and C

4. Polarization effect analysis

Polarization effects are ubiquitous for InGaN/GaN structures. Including the spontaneous polarization of GaN thin films and the
piezoelectric polarization caused by lattice mismatch between InGaN and GaN, a strong polarization electric field is generated in
the material, which produces a quantum-confined Stark effect and reduces the efficiency of radiation recombination. Variable
power PL testing is a common method used to analyze polarization effects.
The room temperature variable power PL test results of the three samples are shown in Fig. 4.1. It can be seen that the change of
excitation power density has a great influence on the luminescence wavelength and FWHM of the three samples. The multiple
peaks in the PL curve are derived from the Fabry Perot interference of the sapphire substrate-epitaxial layer-air interface[11]. In
order to further analyze the influence of the change of excitation power density on the luminescence behavior of the three samples,
after the Gaussian fitting of the original spectrum, Figure 4.2 (a) lists the peak energy of the PL spectrum of the three samples as a
function of the excitation power density, Figure 4.2 (b) is the change in the full width at half maximum of the PL spectrum with
the excitation power density. It can be seen that the peak energy of the three groups of samples increases with the increase of the
excitation power density, and the full width at half maximum tends to decrease. A larger excitation power density can generate
more photo-generated carriers, shielding a part of the polarization field, causing the emission wavelength to shift blue, that is, the
peak energy is increased, and the band filling effect is also the luminescence peak increases with the excitation power density. A
mechanism of shifting, shielding the polarization field increases the overlap of the electron hole wave function and thus reduces
the FWHM, while the band filling effect increases the illuminating component to increase the FWHM. Our test results show that
the band filling effect does not work, even if the excitation power density is increased to 42.3 W/cm 2, it is not enough to stimulate
the carrier to fill into the high energy band, indicating that there is a strong local state in the quantum dot sample. It will be
introduced in the test of the temperature change PL.

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Fig.4.1 The room-temperature PL spectra at different excitation power density for A，B，C

Fig. 4.2 (a) The room-temperature PL peak energy at different excitation power density
(b) FWHM as a function of excitation power density
Three phenomena in Figure 4.2 (a) are worth noting. First, Sample A has the lowest peak energy, the longest wavelength. Second,
sample B has a blue shift of 0.26 eV, which is slightly higher than 0.21 eV of sample A. Third, Sample C had a blue shift of 0.18
eV, the smallest of the three samples. Sample A has the lowest peak energy, probably due to its highest indium content or the
strongest polarization field. However, the second phenomenon indicates that the polarization field of sample B is slightly higher
than that of sample A. It can therefore be concluded that sample A has the lowest peak energy due to its highest indium content. So
why does sample A have the highest indium content, and the highest indium content does not form the largest polarization field?
According to the results of AFM, it can be seen that the stress accumulation effect of sample A is the largest, and the stress
accumulation to a certain extent can transform the growth mode into the S-K mode and form InGaN quantum dots. The S-K mode
facilitates the release of stress, but the sample B combined with the two growth modes does not release the stress as effectively as
the sample A, so the residual stress of the sample A is smaller than that of the sample B. Sample C has the thickest GaN barrier
layer, effectively isolating the stress of each layer of InGaN quantum dots, so its residual stress is the smallest, and the
corresponding polarization field is also the weakest.
According to Fig. 4.2 (b) The change trend of height and width, for sample A, as the excitation power density increases, the
FWHM decreases rapidly from 107.5 nm to 63.4 nm, while the falling speed of sample B decreases. Slowing down, sample C has
the smallest amount of drop, which is consistent with the discussion in the previous paragraph, further demonstrating that thick
GaN barrier layers can effectively attenuate the stress accumulation effects of multilayer quantum dot structures.
5. Local effect analysis
The carrier localization effect is another important feature of InGaN quantum dots. We used the variable temperature PL test to
compare the local states of the three samples. The test range for variable temperature is 10 K to 300 K. A total of 20 temperature
points are selected. The test results are shown in Fig. 5.1 Since the sapphire substrate-epitaxial layer-air interface has a strong
Fabry Perot interference effect, A plurality of spikes appeared in the PL spectra of the three samples, and the half-height widths of
the three samples were relatively large due to the existence of different local states in the formed quantum dots.

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Fig.5.1 The temperature-dependent PL spectra of the three samples, (a) A, (b) B, (c) C

The variation of the illuminating wavelength and the FWHM of the three sets of samples with temperature is shown in Fig. 6.
Similarly, since the excitation source for the variable temperature PL test is 325 nm, it is smaller than the 266 nm laser used in the
variable power PL test. Therefore, the peak energy measured by the variable temperature PL is smaller than the result of Fig. 4.2
(a). As shown in Figure 5.2 (a), the peak energy of the three sets of samples increases with increasing temperature, which is
different from the common S-shaped curve in InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells. The S-shaped curve is the result of
redistribution of carriers in different local states after thermal excitation. There is a strong local state in sample A, which can well
limit the carrier even if the temperature rises to room temperature, so its peak energy only increases from 2.11 eV to 2.13 eV. At
the same time, since sample A has the highest indium composition, its peak energy is the smallest. This is consistent with the
variable power test results. The peak energies of samples B and C are not much different, indicating that their indium
compositions are basically the same, the energy change of sample B is 0.05 eV, and the energy change of sample C is 0.07 eV,
indicating that the local effect of sample B is slightly stronger than that of sample C , but both are weaker than sample A. This will
continue to be discussed later.

Fig. 5.2 (a) Peak energy shift as a function of temperature of the three samples
(b) The variation of FWHM with temperature

As shown in Figure 5.2 (b), the change in FWHM with temperature shows three different trends. For sample A, as the temperature
increases from 10K to 100K, the full width at half maximum decreases slightly, and the half-height width from 100 K to 300 K
continues to increase. The full width at half maximum of sample B is almost constant from 10 K to 30 K, and then rapidly
decreases until the temperature rises to 200 K, and the half-height width is almost constant between 200 K and 300 K. The full
width at half maximum of sample C showed a different trend. When the temperature increased from 10 K to 140 K, the full width
at half maximum decreased rapidly and increased slightly during the subsequent temperature rise. The carrier local model [12] can
be used to explain the phenomenon of luminescence peak wavelength and FWHM with temperature, as shown in Figure 5.3.

Fig.5.3 The schematic of carrier transport, relaxation and recombination process in QDs
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It can be seen that the carriers can be relaxed from the shallow local state to the deep localized state, or they can be transitioned
from the deep local state to the shallow local state by thermal excitation, and may be trapped by defects during the motion. . Due
to the formation of quantum dots, these three samples have strong local effects compared to conventional InGaN/GaN multiple
quantum well structures, and there are many in three samples due to the non-uniformity of the formed quantum dot size. Deep
local state and shallow local state with different local capabilities. According to this model, the motion mechanism of carriers in
samples A, B, and C is shown in Fig. 5.4.

Fig.5.4 The carrier transport model in the three samples

For sample A, since it has the deepest local state, when the temperature rises from 10 K to 100 K, the carriers in the deep local
state are stable, only in the shallow local state. The carriers obtain energy and thus transition between different shallow local states.
At this time, the half-height width of the blue wavelength shifts while the wavelength of the light decreases, and the temperature
continues to rise. The carriers in the deep local state obtain some energy. However, it is not enough to make it out of the deep local
state. It is only excited to the deeper local state where the energy is higher, so the wavelength of the light is still blue-shifted, but
the full width at half maximum begins to increase. The deep local state of sample B is centered in three samples, and as the
temperature increases from 10 K to 200 K, the carriers gradually gain energy to transition between different shallow local states.
The half-height width of the blue shift is also gradually reduced. As the temperature continues to rise, the carriers get enough
energy to transition from the deep local state to the shallow local state, but at the same time the band gap shrinkage effect caused
by the temperature rise also begins to work. As a result of the action, the illuminating wavelength and the full width at half
maximum are almost constant in the temperature range of 200 K or later. For sample C, when the temperature is raised from 10 K
to 160 K, the transition between the shallow local states of the carriers causes a blue shift and a half-height width of the emission
wavelength, because the deep local state is in the third The sample is the weakest, so when the temperature reaches 160 K, the
carrier can escape from the deep local state to the shallow local state transition, so its luminescence wavelength continues to shift
blue, while the full width at half maximum increases slightly.
In order to further compare the strength of the local states in these three samples, the normalized integral intensity of their PL
spectra is shown in Fig. 5.5. The phenomenon that the integrated intensity is quenched with increasing temperature can be
attributed to non-radiation. The activation of the compound center, so we used the two-channel Arrhenius equation to fit it:

Here we assume that there are two non-radiative recombination mechanisms in three samples, I(T) represents the normalized
integrated intensity at temperature T, and C1 and C2 are correlation coefficients for two non-radiative recombination centers, E1
and E2. Represents the energy required to activate these two non-radiative composite centers.
The fitting results are shown in Table 1, where we assume that only the radiation complex acts at 10 K, the non-radiative
recombination is suppressed, and the internal quantum efficiency of the three samples is calculated using I300 K/I10 K. The E2
values of the three samples gradually decreased, which is consistent with our previous discussion. E2 represents the activation
energy in the high temperature range. This energy can be understood as the energy required for the carrier to escape from the
binding of the quantum dots. C2 represents the number of non-radiative recombination centers in this temperature range. The E2
values of the three samples were all greater than 60 meV, which is greater than the activation energy of the InGaN/GaN multiple
quantum wells reported in the literature [13], indicating that the quantum dot structure has a stronger local effect than the quantum
well. We also noticed that the value of C2 gradually decreased from sample A to C, indicating that the number of non-radiative
129
recombination centers is also decreasing as the stress accumulation effect is reduced, so the internal quantum efficiency of sample
C is the highest among the three samples. of. C1 and E1 represent the non-radiative recombination centers in the low temperature
range and their corresponding activation energies. The E1 values we fit are not much different from those reported in the literature
[14], so E1 can also be understood as exciton binding energy. The exciton is quenched into free electron-hole pairs with
temperature and thus captured by the non-radiative recombination center, which can explain the quenching phenomenon of the
integrated intensity of the PL spectrum in the low temperature range.

Fig. 5.5 Variation of the normalized integrated PL intensity with the reciprocal temperature for A , B , and C . The solid lines
represent the best Arrhenius fitting results using Eq. (1).
Table 5.1. The Arrhenius fitting results of A, B, and C.
Sample C1 E1 (meV) C2 E2 (meV) I300K/I10K

A 2.84 12.32 110.79 69.89 7.5%

B 3.04 10.25 85.40 63.12 8.4%
6. Summary
In this paper, the effects of different GaN barrier layers on the morphology and optical properties of six-period multilayer InGaN
quantum dots are studied. The results are as follows: (1) Atomic force microscopy results show that when the thickness of GaN
barrier layer increases from 15 nm to At 20 nm, the morphology of quantum dots disappears and transforms into quantum-like dot
features. This is because the thicker GaN barrier layer can effectively alleviate the stress accumulation effect of multilayer
quantum dots, thus reducing the SK growth mode. stress. (2) It can be seen from the variable power PL test that the emission
wavelengths of the three groups are blue-shifted with the increase of the excitation power density, and the change of the FWHM is
continued. It is known that the shielding polarization field effect is the luminescence peak. The main mechanism of blue shift with
increasing excitation power density, and the sample C can be judged according to the decrease of the full width at half maximum,
that is, the thickest sample of the GaN barrier layer has the weakest polarization field. (3) Variable temperature PL test data show
that the behavior of PL spectra of three groups of samples with temperature changes is different from the traditional S-shaped
curve, which is a typical feature of quantum dots. Using the Arrhenius equation to fit the curve of the integrated intensity of the PL
spectrum with temperature, it can be seen that the local potential energy decreases with the increase of the thickness of the GaN
barrier layer, but it is still higher than the conventional InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well. Finally, combined with the variable
power PL test, it can be concluded that as the thickness of the GaN barrier layer increases, the main reason for the increase in
quantum efficiency in the sample is the decrease of the polarization field and the decrease in the number of non-radiative
recombination centers.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2016YFB0401803).
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131
W203-201808141609

Normally-off fluoride-based plasma treatment AlGaN/GaN HEMTs with maximum fT and fmax of
61GHz/130GHz using TiN-based source ledge

Ling Yang, Bin Hou, Minhan Mi, Peng Zhang, Jiejie Zhu, Meng Zhang, Qing Zhu, Yanrong Cao, Ling Lv, Xiaowei Zhou,
Xiaohua Ma, and Yue Hao State Key Discipline Laboratory of Wide Band-gap Semiconductor Technology, School of
advanced materials and nanotechnology, Xidian University, Xi’an 710071, China yangling@xidian.edu.cn

Abstract
Normally-off thin barrier AlGaN/GaN high mobility electron
transistors (HEMTs) with a gate length of 0.1μm have been
fabricated on a SiC substrate. The use of fluoride-based
plasma treatment combined with TiN-based source ledge
produced the normally-off device exhibits a threshold voltage
of 0.6V, a saturation drain current density of 845mA/mm at a
gate bias of 3V, a peak trans-conductance of 412mS/mm, a
current-gain cutoff frequency (fT) of 61GHz, and a maximum
oscillation frequency (fmax) of 130GHz. A high
transconductance (gm) and frequency performance E-mode Fig. 1. (a)-(b) A schematic cross section and top view of
AlGaN/GaN HEMTs were achieved by TiN-based source E-mode AlGaN/GaN HEMTs using TiN-based source ledge is
ledge. shown in the SEM photo

I. Introduction II. Epitaxial structure and device fabrication

GaN based enhancement-mode transistors are attracting a
great interest as they allow the fabrication of single-polarity
voltage supply and Enhancement/Depletion-mode
(E/D-mode) logic circuits for digital and mixed-signal
applications [1]-[4]. However, in spite of the excellent results
achieved in D-mode devices, the performance of E-mode
devices is still modest. In 2004, Endoh et al. [5] reported the
non-recessed-gate E-mode AlGaN/GaN devices with a
threshold voltage of 0V, maximum drain current of
550mA/mm for VGS=2V, maximum trans-conductance of
295mS/mm, a fT of 58GHz and a fmax of 108GHz. By using
the fluorine-based gate treatment, Palacios et al. [6] reported
the E-mode AlGaN/GaN devices with a threshold voltage of
0.1V, a record fT of 85GHz and a record fmax of 150GHz.
Medjdoub et al. [7] reported the E-mode InAlN/GaN devices
with a threshold voltage of 3.5V, a fT of 59GHz. Feng et al.
[8] reported fluorine plasma ion implantation E-mode
AlGaN/GaN devices with a threshold voltage of 0.2V,
maximum drain current of 735mA/mm for VGS=4V, a fT of
39GHz and a fmax of 91GHz. Singisetti et al. [9] have used
N-polar GaN hetero-structure to fabricate the Emode GaN
MOS-HEMTs with a threshold voltage of 1.6V, maximum
drain current of 1150mA/mm for VGS=5.5V, a fT of 122GHz
and a fmax of 35GHz. In spite of the important work
performed over the last years, there is not a good tradeoff
between threshold voltage and frequency performance in
Emode AlGaN/GaN HEMTs.
The performance of E-mode devices has traditionally been
limited by their low trans-conductance and very high parasitic
resistances. In this letter, we present E-mode AlGaN/GaN
HEMTs where we have maximized the trans-conductance by
reducing the access resistances and separation between the
gate and channel. Also, the use of fluorine plasma treatment
increases the turn-on voltage of the Schottky gates and
maximum drain current of the devices. Combining these
approaches, we have fabricated E-mode devices with a
performance similar to the one in state-of-art transistors: 0.6V
of threshold voltage and excellent high frequency
performance (fT =61GHz and fmax=130GHz).
132
The un-doped AlGaN/GaN hetero-structure layers were
grown at the Xidian University on a 3-in SiC substrate using
metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The
HEMT hetero-structure comprised 1.5μm un-doped GaN
buffer and 10nm Al0.23Ga0.77N barrier. Hall measurements
showed a carrier density of 0.6×1013cm-2 and an electron
mobility of 2000cm2/V • s. The sheet resistance is
approximately 360Ω/□ at RT.
Device processing started with Ti/Al/Ni/Au source/drain
electrodes, and then deposited 20nm Ti from source to gate
side. After the Ti deposition, the device were annealed at
830℃ for 30s in a N2 environment in order to form the
ohmic contacts and in order to have the Ti react to form TiN
[10]. The formation of TiN is key for the formation of ohmic
contacts because TiN has a low work-function and also
because the formation of TiN forms nitrogen vacancies, which
dope the AlGaN layer [11]. Therefore, the TiN-based source
ledge can reduce source access resistance. Device isolation
was achieved by reactive ion etching using Cl2 plasma. A
120nm thick plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition
(PECVD) SiN layer was deposited to provide a passivation.
Two e-beam lithographies were used during the gate
definition. The first lithography defined the foot of the gate.
Then, the gate was transferred to the SiN layer with a
CF4/O2based dry etch. A 4min over-etch at the RF power of
150W was performed to assure the complete removal of the
SiN below the gate and to partially deplete the channel
underneath by introducing fluorine ions into AlGaN barrier, in
a process similar to the one describe by Cai et al. [12] It was
also found that the plasma treatment increase the turn-on
voltage of the gates. The second e-beam lithography defined
the top part of the gate. A Ni/Au/Ni multilayer was deposited
for gate contact. A schematic cross section of the structure and
top view scanning electron microscope photograph of
AlGaN/GaN device with Ti-based source ledge were shown in
Fig.1 (a). Three different lengths of TiN-based source ledge,
L_ledge as shown in Fig. 1(b), were used in the experiment:
0.4μm, 0.8μm, and 1.2μm. The gate length of all the devices
was 0.1μm while the gate width was 2×50μm. The
source-togate distance was 1.6μm and the gate-to-drain
distance was
Fig. 2 (a) TLM measurement with different TiN strips
between two pad (b) Schematic showing the model of
resistances in the TiN-based region and TLM pads used to
measure the reduction in resistance due to depositing and
annealing Ti 2.3μm.
III. Results and discussions
In order to characterize the reduction in sheet resistance we
fabricated different devices with transfer line method (TLM)
patterns that are shown in Fig. 2. A measured contact
resistance is about 0.5Ω-mm. From the Fig. 2(a), the sheet
resistance without any TiN strips is 357Ω/□. The length of
the TiN strip is defined as the LTiN. The length of the TLM
patterns is defined as the L. With the increase of LTiN, the
sheet resistance decreases from 357Ω/□ (WTiN/W=0) to
293Ω/□ (WTiN/W =0.8). It indicates that the formation of
TiN during the annealing can be lower the horizontal transport
resistance based on enhancement of dopant on the surface of
AlGaN barrier layer. Fig. 2 (b) shows the model of resistances
in the TiN-based region in TLM measurement. The gray
squares are ohmic contacts and the yellow strips are the TiN
strips. Rc is the contact resistance of the ohmic contact.
Rsheet is the sheet resistance of the AlGaN/GaN
hetero-structure. RTiN is the resistance of the TiN layer on
top of the AlGaN. Rc2 is the resistance between the TiN layer
and 2DEG. According the circuit topology, the sheet
resistance of the TiN-based region (the red block region) can
be equivalent to the RTiN-strip. The calculated sheet
resistance of RTiN-strip is 277Ω/□.
Fig. 3. A transfer characteristics of E-mode AlGaN/GaN
HEMTs with different lengths of TiN-based source ledge at
Vds=10V. The inset is shown the maximum drain current and
trans-conductance versus L_ledge.
Fig. 3 shows the measured trans-conductance (gm) and drain
current versus gate-to-source voltage of E-mode AlGaN/GaN
133
HEMTs with different TiN-based source ledge. A threshold
voltage of 0.6V can be calculated, and the threshold voltage is
no changed with variety of TiN-based source ledge. The
maximum drain current increased by 18.5% from 713mA/mm
of the reference device to 845mA/mm for the device with
L_ledge=1.2μm. The peak extrinsic transconductance
increased by 21.2% from 340mS/mm of the reference device
to 412mS/mm for the device with L_ledge=1.2μm. The
gm/gm_max at a high drain current level such as
Ids=0.6A/mm is reduced to 0.72 for the reference device and
0.81 for the devices with L_ledge=1.2μm. This shows an
improved linear behavior over a wide source-drain current
range, which is similar to the simulated result [13][14]. The
decrease of source-gate resistance equates to the downscaling
of the source-gate spacing, and it has a strong positive impact
on the trans-conductance peak.
Fig. 4. Measured DC and pulsed I-V characteristics of E-mode
AlGaN/GaN HEMTs with different lengths of TiN-based
source ledge. (a) L_ledge=1.2µm. (b) L_ledge=0.8µm. (c)
L_ledge=0.4µm. (d) L_ledge=0µm.
Fig. 4 shows the behavior of current collapse of E-mode
AlGaN/GaN HEMTs with different lengths of TiN-based
source ledge in DC and pulsed I-V measurement at quiescent
biases (VGS0=-20V, VDS0=0V). It can be seen that the
current collapse is getting more and more sever when
TiN-based source ledge decreases from 1.2 to 0µm, while the
E-mode AlGaN/GaN HEMTs with TiN-based
L_ledge=1.2µm shows a smaller current collapse. Fig. 5 (a)
summarized the degree of current collapse and on-resistance
in E-mode AlGaN/GaN HEMTs with different lengths of
TiN-based source ledge. The output current (ID,D) is defined
at (VGS, VDS) of (3V, 10V) with different L_ledge over that
with zero quiescent bias (ID,S). It is clear that TiN-based
source ledge technology can significantly improve current
collapse. Fig. 5(a) also summarized the ratio of ID, D over ID,
S and the ratio of Ron,D over Ron,S from the measured DC
and pulsed I-V curves. Both the ratio of ID, D over ID, S and
the ratio of Ron,D over Ron,S decreased 6.05% and 5.51%
respectively with increase of TiN-based source ledge. It
indicates that the improvement of current collapse can be
achieved by TiN-based source ledge. The small signal
microwave measurements were performance using the
Keysight E8363 network analyzer. The system was calibrated
with a short-open-load-through calibration standard. On-wafer
cold-FET and hot-FET measurements were used to de-embed
the parasitic pad capacitances and inductances [15]. Fig. 5(b)
shows the

Fig. 5. (a) Current collapse ratio and on-resistance (Ron)
collapse ratio at quiescent bias (VGS0=-20V, VDS0=0V) over
the static one. (b) measured RF characteristics of E-mode
AlGaN/GaN HEMTs with TiN-based source L_ledge=1.2μm
at VDS=10V and VGS=1.1V.
measured current gain (|H21|), maximum available gain
(MAG) and Mason’s unilateral gain (U) versus frequency
range of 140GHz at the bias of VDS=10V and VGS=1.1V.
The deembedded fT of 61GHz and fMAX of 130GHz was
extracted by extrapolation with a -20dB/decade roll-off.
Fig. 6. Typical variation of (a) fT and (b) fmax as a function
of gate volgate in E-mode AlGaN/GaN HEMTs with different
lengths of TiN-based source ledge.
Fig. 6 shows the gate bias dependence of fT and fmax. The
peak current-gain and power-gain cutoff frequency appear at a
gate bias of 1.1V. With the TiN-based source ledge increases,
the small-signal RF performance has been significantly
improved. The peak current cutoff frequency increased by
24.5% from 49GHz of the reference device to 61GHz for the
device with L_ledge=1.2μm. The peak power cutoff
frequency increased by 26.2% from 103GHz of the reference
device to 130GHz for the device with L_ledge=1.2μm. The
uniform RF characteristics over a wide range of bias condition
in the TiNbased source contact ledge devices are useful to
improve the linearity of these devices with respect to
traditional E-mode AlGaN/GaN HEMTs.
Table I summarizes the performance of the E-mode
AlGaN/GaN devices presented in this paper and those
reported earlier E-mode GaN RF devices [6]-[9], [16]. The
Emode AlGaN/GaN HEMTs with TiN-based source ledge
exhibit a substantial RF performance (e.g., fT and fmax)
improvement without sacrificing the DC characteristics (e.g.,
Vth, Gm_max) compared with the reported earlier E-mode
GaN RF devices. Noteworthy, the performance of the E-mode
AlGaN/GaN HEMTs demonstrated in this paper can be
further improved by optimizing the experimental condition of
TiN-based source ledge.
Conclusions
In this paper, a high linearity of trans-conductance (gm) and
frequency performance E-mode AlGaN/GaN HEMTs have
been developed. The CF4 plasma treatment is used to shift the
threshold voltage from negative to positive. The use of thin
barrier layer combined with TiN-based source ledge produced
the E-mode HEMTs exhibits a threshold voltage of 0.6V, a
134
saturation drain current density of 845mA/mm at a gate bias
of 3V, a peak trans-conductance of 412mS/mm, a current-gain
cutoff frequency (fT) of 61GHz, and a maximum oscillation
frequency (fmax) of 130GHz. These devices also show an
excellent high frequency performance and high threshold
voltage similar to the state-of-the-art D-mode HEMTs.
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W203-201808272109
Simulation technology of GaN internal matching package device
J. Q. Lee, Y. N. Liu, J. Cao, Z. F. Hu, Y. X. Cui, and S. J. Cai
Hebei Semiconductor Research Institute
Hezuo Road, Shijiazhuang, China
lijigqg@163.com,13833192002
Abstract
This paper reported a design method for GaN internal
matching packaged devices was shown. Through testing
structure designing, introduced a method of measure
S-parameter of bonding wire group and extract inductance of
bonding wire. By matching circuit packaging design and
S-parameter measurement, established 3D electromagnetics
model and simulated the design, then comparing simulation
results with measured results, optimized simulation
parameters and settings, which improved the accuracy of EM
simulation. Demonstrate an internal matching power device
with 2.1GHz-2.2GHz operation frequency and 55dBm output
power. The input and output impedances measured by
load-pull is close to the design value, which achieved the
expected design performance.
1. Introduction
With the rapid development of wireless communication,
radar and electronic counter measures, the performance of
microwave power amplifier, as key for radiation transmitting
system, is required to be higher. The core part of power
amplifier is the power device, which depends many key
parameters such as bandwidth, efficiency and output power
for systems. Therefore, designing for microwave power
device is important. Comparing with MMIC, GaN power
devices requires bonding wire, ceramic or MOS capacitor,
packaged transistor and other components, which is the
difficult part of design and simulation.
This paper introduced a method for design and
simulation, and demonstrated a GaN packaged power device
with 55dBm output power. Pass the measurement and
verification of bonding wire and internal matching network,
with 3D electromagnetics simulation and GaN large-signal
model, design and simulation for integrative power device has
been obtained.
1 Structure for internal matching device
GaN internal matching power device is a package device
that matches the active device to a specific impedance by
using bonding wire, plate capacitor and other passive
components, and impedance matching network inside the
packaged shell. As shown in Fig 1, GaN internal matching
packaged device contains GaN transistor, plate capacitor,
bonding wire, packaging shell.
Fig.1 Structure of internal matching device
Design topologies is simple for the above internal
matching device. Generally, the input port required to connect
136
a L-C-L T-type impedance transform to increase the input
impedance; the output port was packaged with bonding wire
directly because of the high output impedance.
In the completed internal matching package device,
bonding wire used as connector and inductor. Two kinds of
plate capacitor are determined by base material, ceramic and
Si-based MOS capacitor. The advantages of ceramic capacitor
are high breakdown voltage and high q-factor, which is
suitable for most situations; the advantages of Si-based MOS
capacitors are compatibility with Si process, low cost and
large capacitance.
2. Bonding wire testing, inductance extracting and EM
simulation
The simulation for bonding wires, which are the key to
internal matching devices, required the model ‘s parameters
which needs to be measured and extracted. In order to insure
accuracy, repeatable and wide-band character for the
measurement, we designed test structures for bonding wire
group, which showed in Fig 2. The structure for microwave
probe connecting to microstrip is fabricated on ceramics, that
one port is RF pad for probe and the other is bonding pad for
bonding wire, connecting by taper transmission line to achieve
wide bandwidth.
Fig.2 Test structure of bonding wire group
In order to extract the inductance of different bonding
wire or bonding wire groups, requires the S-parameter of
bonding wire. Because the wires bonded on microstrip lines,
the test requires de-embedding calibration, that move the
calibration plane as close to the bonding wire as possible to
reduce the impact of test structure. The dash line in Fig 2 is
the calibration plane. In this test structure, it is difficult to
extract the S-parameter of single bonding wire group, instead
the result is that of the pad with bonding wires. Fig 3 is the 3D
model bonding wire of calibration plane.
Fig. 3 3D model structure for bonding wire group behind the
calibration plane
Because bonding wires are used as inductor in matching
circuit, only S-parameters is not enough for circuit design. So
it is necessary to extract its inductance for later design. The
bonding wire’s equivalent C-L-C π-type circuit is shown in
Fig 4. The capacitance and inductance ofπ-type circuit can be
calculated by Y-parameter that converting from S-parameter.
After verifications, this could be used for extraction with
bonding wire of different sizes. Then packaged as model
library for circuit design.
Fig. 4 Equivalent circuit of bonding wire
Instead of using as single component in internal
matching devices, bonding wires always packaged with plate
capacitor, which would not obtain accurate simulation caused
by port connecting issues. In order to solve this problem,
considering parasitic parameters of port interconnect, 3D
electromagnetics simulation is required. This paper presents
3D EM modeling and simulation with structures of the
bonding wire, then after optimizing settings and parameters,
obtain the simulated results. Simulated results versus
measured results is provided by Fig 5.
Fig. 5 EM simulated vs measured results of bonding
wire group
3. Package simulation and verification
Another difficult part for measurement is the lead
terminal of packaging shell. The outside port is able to
connect to test fixture then to vector network analyzer(VNA).
However, the inside port couldn’t connect to VNA directly. So
it is difficult to measure the S-parameters as we mentioned
before for bonding wires.
We might obtain the S-parameter of packaging shell with
EM simulation, which has to be verified. In this paper, the
design of verification circuit for simulation contain a L-C-L
T-type circuit and packaging shell, which used ceramic
capacitor with 20 pF and 8 bonding wires for both input and
output connecting.
The test method for entire packaged structure is similar
with that for bonding wires. With a set of test fixture that
could be calibrated by TRL, move the calibration plane to
shell lead. There are two keys for test fixture. First, in order to
keep the wide bandwidth character, we designed a wide
bandwidth transform circuit with taper lines. Next, to avoid
the parasitic effects by dimension changes, the width of shell
lead should be the same as the width of microstrip line at the
circuit port. The impedances for two port are 50Ω and 10.6Ω.
Using Rogers 4350B as medium substrate, The designed wide
bandwidth test fixture which covers 0.8-12GHz is provided in
Fig 6.
137
Fig. 6 wide bandwidth test fixture of packaging structure
In the 3D EM software, according to the physical size
and material properties of actual packaging shell, the measure
devices are modeled and simulated. After optimizing various
settings of simulation, the simulated results versus measured
results was shown as Fig. 7 and Fig.8 .
A conclusion can be drawn from the comparison of the
results. The simulated results are very close to the measured
results, and also the resonant frequency error is very small.
From above, we could guarantee the accuracy of EM
full-wave simulation after optimized various parameters and
settings. This work lays a foundation for the internal matching
packaged devices design and simulation.
Fig. 7 Simulated vs measured S11 of packaged test
circuit
Fig. 8 Simulated vs measured S21 of packaged test circuit
4. Result
This paper demonstrated an GaN internal matching
device with 2.1-2.2GHz operation frequency, 55dBm output
power and 48V working voltage, whose entire gatewidth is
36mm of GaN HEMT dies. According to the simulation for
GaN device models, the input impedance of the device is
about 0.53+j*1.03Ω and the best power load-pull impedance
is 2.83+j*1.27Ω in 2.1GHz-2.2GHz band. In general, the real
part of input/output impedance of packaged devices should be
larger than 3Ω for external matching. When the impedance is
too low, the external matching would be very sensitive, which
would not only increase the loss, but also affect the frequency
character. Thus, with the structure shown in Fig 1, we need to
increase the impedances by L-C network. The input matching
plate capacitor, using ceramic substrate and connecting by
bonding wire group, is about 20pF according to design. The
output port with high impedance could bond to the lead of
shell directly.
After the matching network design, the schematic circuit
simulation is required with GaN large signal model, which has
the drain voltage 48V, quiescent current 500mA and frequency
2.2GHz. The simulated results shows that the input source
impedance is 3.05+j*5.21Ω, output load impedance of
maximum power is 3.69-j*2.61, the best output power is
55.3dBm, and the best PAE is 81%. The impedance circular
diagram of load-pull is provided in Fig 9. networks,” in Proc. 37th Midwest Circuits Syst. Symp.,
Lafayette, LA, Aug. 1994, pp. 1224–1226.
3. J.Q. Lee,Ruixia Yang, “X-band 30 W Internally Matched
GaN HEMTs”, Research & Progress of SSE Solid State
Electronics. Vol. 28, No. 4,Dec. 2008,pp.493-496.

Fig. 9 Simulated impedance circle

In order to verify the simulated results, we need to
measure the actual packaged devices with load-pull system.
The measured results is shown in Fig 10, which the input
source impedance is 2.93+j*5.02Ω, output load impedance of
maximum power is 3.55-j*2.26, the best output power is
55.1dBm, and the best PAE is 78%.

Fig. 10 Measured impedance circle

The simulated results versus the measured results is
shown in table 1. As shown, excellent agreement is seen
between measured and simulated results, which proof that the
method for GaN internal matching devices presented in this
paper is feasible and effective.
Table. 1 The simulated versus measured results of GaN
internal matching packaged devices
Simulated Measured
Zs 3.05+j*5.21 2.93+j*5.02
ZL 3.69-j*2.61 3.55-j*2.26
Pout/dBm 55.3 55.1
Eff/% 81 78
5. conclusion
This paper shows a design method for GaN internal
matching packaged device, which focused on bonding wire
testing, inductance extracting, and modeling for bonding wire
group. Comparing 3D EM simulated results with measured
results, we can obtain that the error was small. After that, we
designed a method for measurement and verification of
packaged circuit and internal circuit, and set up wide band
testing circuit. Package modeling for 3D simulation help to
achieve accuracy results for packaged devices simulation.
Demonstrate an internal matching power amplifier with
2.1GHz-2.2GHz operation frequency and 55dBm output
power. After design, simulation, fabrication and packaging for
the devices, its input and output impedances, output power
and efficiency measured by load-pull is close to the simulated
results, which achieved the expected design performance.
Reference
1．P. H. Aaen, J. A. Plá, and C. A. Balanis, “Modeling
Techniques Suitable for CAD-Based Design of Internal
Matching Networks of High-Power RF/Microwave
Transistors,” IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE
THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 54, NO. 7, JULY
2006,pp. 3052–3059,
2. D. Brody and G. R. Branner, “A modeling technique for
internally matched bipolar microwave transistor
138
W203-201809071651

A Modified Method for Sensitive Parameters of GaN HEMTs Large Signal Model

Ziyue Zhao, Yang Lu, Hengshuang Zhang, Chupeng Yi, Meng Zhang, Xinchuang Zhang, Xiaohua Ma and Yue Hao
Key Laboratory for Wide Band-Gap Semiconductor Materials and Devices,
Xidian University, Xi’an 710071, China
18691874570@163.com, 18691874570

Abstract HEMT. There are 17 parameters in this circuit. The parasitic

The role of device modeling in RF circuit has received
increased attention across a number of disciplines in recent
years. Consequently, there are higher requirements on the
accuracy of the model. Therefore, this paper intends to discuss
the way to build the Angelov Model of the Gallium Nitride
(GaN) based high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs). For
the classic Angelov Model, there are many parameters to
describe the trace about Ids curves. With these parameters, the
accuracy of the model can be ensured. However, for the Ids
curve, one of the main obstacles is that the classic Angelov
Model can hardly describe its accuracy, especially when the
gate voltage is lower than the knee voltage because of some
sensitive parameters is regarded as constant. In order to solve
the obstacle, a modified Angelov Model changes the value of
two parameters which are sensitive for the output Ids curve is
proposed in this paper. Fitting the formula according to the
value of the parameter, finally, the accuracy of the curve
fitting can be improved, and the error can be reduced to 1%.
Introduction
At present, with the development of RF circuits, GaN
devices are widely used, because it has good microwave
characteristics [1]. For circuit design, the most important is
the accuracy of the device model. The accuracy of the device
primary concern of the circuit design is the leading reason for
many types of models being proposed. The criterion for
judging the model is the fitness for the accuracy and the
suitability for CAD tools [2]. Angelov Model has a good
record in these areas [3]. The parameters of this model can be
easily extracted by the basic measurement of the GaN
HEMTs. So we can easily characterize the device model. The
problem with simple parameters is that there will be some
error in the description of some behavior of the device.
In this paper, a new way to describe the parameter is
proposed. The way is to focus on the inaccurate aspects of
traditional models, and we conduct targeted research and
replace sensitive parameters with more precise functional
relationships to improve the accuracy of the model. For these
sensitive parameters, it is more difficult to accurately describe
them in the whole work range, so it is mainly for the more
commonly used work range, and then make a function to fit
the parameter to improve the accuracy of the model. Our main
concern is the accurate fitting of the output curve of the
device.
Small-signal Model
Angelov Model can well incorporate in commercial
Harmonic Balance (HB) simulators, and it can predict gain,
intermodulation distortion, generation of harmonics [4].
Angelov Model has also developed very well in recent years.
First, we need to test the GaN device. The device is made
by Xidian University. We test the device which is on wafer. S
parameters of device were measured by B1500A and E8363B
which were made in Agilent Technologies. The frequency of
the test is from 0.1GHz to 40GHz. The equivalent circuit of
the transistor shown in Fig. 1 was used to model the GaN
139
parameters Cpgd, Cpg, Cpd were extracted from the S
parameter measurements at Vds=0V and Vgs=-6V at room
temperature. The parasitic parameters Lg, Ld, Ls, Rg, Rd, Rs
were extracted from the S parameter measurements at
Vds=0V and Vgs=2V at room temperature. Intrinsic
parameters can be tested at any bias [5]. In this paper, for
example, the bias is Vds=5V and Vgs=1V. And the small
signal simulation results are shown in the fig. 2 [6]. In the
figure, the red line indicates the test value and the blue line
indicates the simulation value.
Cpgd
Gate Lg Rg Cgd Rd Ld Drain
Rgd
Cgs Rds Cds Cpd
Cpg
Ids
Ri
Rs
Ls
Source
Fig.1. Equivalent circuit of the transistor
Fig.2. Simulation results for small signals
According to the small signal simulation results, it can be
found that the circuit can well simulate the small signal
performance of the device. Jitter at higher frequencies is
caused by measurement errors. It can be seen that 17
parameters can accurately fit the device behavior.
Traditional Angelov Model
Drain current Ids is the most important nonlinear part of
the model. The core part of the Angelov Model is the
description of the behavior of Ids. For most devices, the Ids
fitting error is within 10% [7]. The GaN device is very
difficult to get the accuracy harmonics simulation because it is
very linear. The tanh function was chosen since this function
can describe the curve exactly and can accurately characterize
its derivatives.
The current equations of Angelov Model are [8]:
 I ds  I PK 0  (1  tanh( p ))  tanh( p  Vds )
0.7

(1   Vds  LSB 0  exp(Ebd (Vdg  Vtr )))

test-Vgs=1V
test-Vgs=0V
(1) 0.6
test-Vgs=-1V
test-Vgs=-2V

 p  sinh[P1m  (Vgs  Vpk )  P2 m  (Vgs  Vpk ) 2 0.5 test-Vgs=-3V

0.4

 P3m  (Vgs  Vpk )3 ]

Ids
(2) 0.3

V pk  V pks  DV pks  DV pks  tanh( s  Vds ) 0.2

 Kbgate  Vbgate  Vsb 2  (Vdg  Vbdrain ) 2 0.1

(3) 0.0

 p   R   s  (1  tanh( p )) 0 2 4 6 8 10

(4)
The most of parameters in Angelov Model can be extracted
through testing and calculation. Among them, ψp is a power
series function centered at Vpk [4]. The function of sinh is
more suitable for devices of GaN, it can make the gm close to
actual test value. λ is the parameter which means the slope of
the Ids in saturation region which is varying with Vds. The
magnitude of its value directly affects the slope of the current
in saturation region. αR is the parameter which accounts for
the slope at small current and Vds is very low. And αs models
the slope of the current in the saturated region where the Vds
is low too [9]. The method to get these parameters is shown in
fig. 3.
Fig.3. Sensitive parameters extraction method
For traditional Angelov Model, all these three parameters
are constant. These parameters play a decisive role in the fit of
the curve near the knee voltage and they are very sensitive. It
is difficult for the simulation curve to fit the test curve with
these parameters being constant. The simulation results of the
traditional model are shown in the fig. 4. In the picture, the
test curves are represented by lines, and the fitted curves are
represented by points. The error exceeds 5%. So, each
parameter has a different value under different bias condition,
which makes the curve more accurate. For these three
parameters, if we make every parameter change with the bias,
it will make the formula more complicated. Therefore, after
many experiments and simulations, it is found that α s and λ
are relatively more sensitive and have a great impact on the
simulation curve. Next, we will research these two
parameters.
Vds
Fig.4.
Traditional Angelov Model simulation result
Modified Angelov Model
Under different biases, the curve is fitted and the values of
the sensitive parameters αs and λ are continually changed to
improve the accuracy of the curve. When the curve fits well,
we can get the value of each parameter under different biases.
Then, for these two parameters, we get a set of values that
vary with the biases. These parameter values may not have a
clear physical meaning as before when they are constants,
however, they can make the curve fitting more accurate, and
this set of parameter values can be easily obtained.
Then, when we get this set of parameter values, we need to
numerically fit these values using the simplest formula try our
best. For further simplification, we can make these parameter
values only changing with Vgs. When the gate voltage is
constant and the drain voltage changes, the parameter value is
constant. This will greatly reduce the complexity of the
formula. If the sensitive parameters are fitted over the entire
test range, a simple formula is impossible to complete the
parameter fitting. Therefore, we need to select the common
working area in the circuit design, and extract the parameters
of this range. It not only ensures the fitting accuracy of the Ids
curve, but also greatly simplifies the parameter formula. In
this paper, for gate voltage, the selected working range is from
-3V to 1V.
Test Ids curve at different gate voltage when the drain
voltage is from 0 to 10V. The range of gate voltage is from
-3V to 1V, and the step is 1V. Then we can get 5 curves. For
each curve, we use the above formula to fit, αs and λ can be
equal to any value, and make the simulation curve coincide
with the test curve as much as possible. The parameter values
are shown in the table. 1.
Table.1. Values of parameters
Vgs -3V -2V -1V 0V 1V
αs 0.65 0.674 0.71 0. 74 0.75
λ 0.0575 0.055 0.043 0.025 0.02
Next, we should use mathematical formula to represent the
value of the parameter under different gate voltage. We can
choose the following formula to characterize the parameter
values.

   AnVgsn
n 0 (5)

 s   BnVgsn
n 0 (6)
In these formulas, An or Bn is arbitrary real number.
Moreover, the value of n is larger, the more accurate the fit to
the parameters. But at the same time, the problem is that the
formula is more complicated. After repeated trials, the value
of n was finally chosen to be 4. In this way, the accuracy of
fitting the Ids curve can be satisfied, and the complexity of the

140
formula can be reduced as much as possible. The specific
form of the formula is as follows. 0.7
test-Vgs=0.5V

  A V  AV  A V  AV
1 gs  A0
4
4 gs
3
3 gs
2
2 gs
0.6
test-Vgs=-0.5V
test-Vgs=-1.5V
(7) test-Vgs=-2.5V

 s  B V  B V  B V  BV
1 gs  B0
0.5
4 3 2
4 gs 3 gs 2 gs
(8) 0.4

The fitting curve of the parameters is shown in fig. 5. The

Ids
0.3
fitted curve is represented by a black line, and the parameter
0.2
values of the five bias points are represented by red dots. It
can be seen from the figure that the parameters can be well 0.1

fitted under different gate voltages. And the curves are 0.0
smooth, it can fit well to the remaining points in the range 0 2 4 6 8 10

which we need (from Vgs is -3V to Vgs is 1V). For the rest of Vds
the test range, increasing the complexity of the formula can Fig.7. Fitting results of different bias
also be well fitted. According to fig. 7, we can see that there is also a good fit
under these biases. Therefore, for sensitive parameters, there
0.06
0.75 fitted curve
fitted curve
is a good fitness within the required working range. In
summary, this method has a significant improvement on the
0.70 0.04
accuracy of curves fitting.
αs

0.65
Conclusions
0.02
For sensitive parameters, if you make them constant, it is
-3 -2 -1 0 1 -3 -2 -1 0 1

Vgs Vgs difficult to further improve the accuracy of the fitting.

(a) (b) Therefore, for the key parameters, you can use polynomial
Fig.5. Fitting curve for the parameters instead of these parameters, you could make it more
The test curves and the simulation curves are compared by reasonable and more accurate for different biases. In this way,
the fig. 6. In the picture, the test curves are represented by the accuracy of the model can be maximized and the error will
lines, and the fitted curves are represented by points. As can be as low as 1%. However, this way also has certain
be seen from the figure, the curve is more accurate, especially drawbacks. In order to ensure accuracy and guarantee its
for the curve around the knee voltage, because αs mainly simplicity, so you need to choose the most common and most
affects the accuracy of the curve near the knee voltage. And needed working range into the simulation. In this way, a
the error is less than 1%. In this way, the accuracy of the satisfactory fitting result can be obtained under the premise of
model is greatly improved, and it is also very important for ensuring simplicity.
the circuit design. So this improved method is very References
meaningful. 1. Khan M A, Bhattarai A, Kuznia J N, et al. “High electron
mobility transistor based on a GaN-AlxGa1-xN
0.7
test-Vgs=1V
heterojunction,” Applied Physics Letters, (1993),
0.6
test-Vgs=0V
test-Vgs=-1V
pp.1214-1215.
test-Vgs=-2V 2. Angelov I, Thorsell M, Kuylenstierna D, et al. “Hybrid
0.5 test-Vgs=-3V
measurement-based extraction of consistent large-signal
0.4 models for microwave FETs,” 2013 European Microwave
Ids

0.3 Conference, IEEE, Nuremberg, Germany, Oct. 2013, pp.

267-270.
3. Angelov I, Bengtsson L, Garcia M. “Extensions of the
0.2

0.1 chalmers nonlinear HEMT and MESFET model,” IEEE

0.0
0 2
Fig.6. Advanced Angelov Model simulation result
In order to verify that the fitting is well within the required
range, the curves with gate voltages of -2.5V, -1.5V, -0.5V
and 0.5V are selected for simulation. The simulation results
are shown in the fig. 7. In the picture, the test curves are
represented by lines, and the fitted curves are represented by
points.
Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques,
4 6 8 10
Vol.44, (1996), pp. 1664-1674.
Vds 4. Angelov I, Zirath H, Rorsman N. “A new empirical
nonlinear model for HEMT-devices,” 1992 IEEE MTT-S
Microwave Symposium Digest, Albuquerque, USA,
August. 1992, pp. 1583-1586.
5. Wang C, Xu Y, Yu X, et al. “An Electrothermal Model for
Empirical Large- Signal Modeling of AlGaN/GaN
HEMTs Including Self-Heating and Ambient Temperature
Effects,” IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and
Techniques, Vol. 62, (2014), pp. 2878-2887.
6. Zhang W, Yuehang X, Ruimin X. “Research on parameter
extraction method for GaN HEMTs small signal
equivalent circuit model,” Dianbo Kexue Xuebao/chinese
Journal of Radio Science, (2015), pp. 772-776.
7. Angelov I, Andersson K, Schreurs D, et al. “Large-signal
modelling and comparison of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs and
SiC MESFETs,” 2006 Asia-Pacific Microwave
Conference, Yokohama, Japan, Dec. 2006, pp. 279-282.
8. Angelov I, Thorsell M, Andersson K, et al. “On the Large
Signal Evaluation and Modeling of GaN FET,” Ieice
Transactions on Electronics, (2010), pp. 1225-1233.

141
9. Wen Z, Xu Y, Wang C, et al. “A parameter extraction
method for GaN HEMT empirical largee signal model
including self-heating and trapping effects,” International
Journal of Numerical Modelling Electronic Networks
Devices and Fields, (2017).

142
W205-201808131509

Design and Simulation of 1800V 40A 4H-SiC SBD using TCAD

Min Yuan, Houcai Luo, Chunjian Tan, Quan Zhou, Luqi Tao, Huaiyu Ye, and Xianping Chen*
Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Technology & Systems, Education Ministry of China, Chongqing University and College
of Optoelectronic Engineering, Chongqing University.
400044 Chongqing, China.
xianpingchen@cqu.edu.cn

Abstract current can flow. Conversely, when reverse bias is applied,

Silicon carbide (SiC) is presenting as an attractive material
for the next generation high voltage power devices which
benefits from its excellent material properties. SiC Schottky
barrier diode (SBD) compares with silicon based, which has
superior characteristics in terms of rectification, reverse
recovery time, etc. In this paper, a high voltage 4H-SiC SBD
with reverse breakdown voltage of 1800 V and forward
current of 40 A is designed as implemented in TCAD. The
termination structure of the device is designed with multiple
Field Limiting Rings (FLRs). The parameters of the active
area and FLRs terminal protection structure are optimized.
The steady state and transient characteristics of the device are
simulated separately. As a result, the thickness of the N-type
epitaxial layer is 16 μm and the doping concentration is
5.8×1015 cm−3. Furthermore, the forward current is 40 A when
the forward voltage is 1.60 V at room temperature. Finally, a
temperature generation model is added to calculate the lattice
temperature profile and analysis areas of possible failure
during pulsed operation.
1. Introduction
Silicon carbide (SiC) is a good candidate for silicon (Si) in
high power applications due to its excellent material properties
such as wider bandgap (3.26 eV), higher breakdown critical
electric field (3 MV/cm), promising thermal conductivity (4.9
W/cm·K) and so on [1]. Due to the high critical breakdown
electric field, SiC power devices require thinner drift region as
compared to silicon-based devices for the same blocking
voltage capability, thereby resulting in reduction of ON-state
resistance.
However, there are some difficulties to have a trade-off
within breakdown voltage and ON-resistance on silicon-based
SBD, which is unable to satisfy the needs of current devices’
developments. While high voltage SiC SBDs have the
advantages of lower ON-state voltage drop and higher
recovery speed, not only can reduce conduction losses, but also
improve work efficiency and reduce switching losses, which
are the mainstream of the power device development [2]. In
order to further improve the breakdown characteristics of SBD,
this paper proposes a 1800 V SiC SBD device. The cell
parameters and the termination structure with FLRs are
optimized. FLRs have been widely used in high voltage SiC
SBD. It’s an attractive method because that FLRs can be
formed together with active region [3], simplifying the process
steps and saving costs. In addition, the reverse breakdown and
forward recovery characteristic of a SiC SBD in series ambient
temperature are simulated [4]. And the reliability of a SiC SBD
under transient overcurrent condition is also studied.
2. SBD Mechanism And Structural Design
The conduction mechanism of the SBD is clearly
depicted in Fig. 1. When forward bias is applied, the
potential difference between the metal-semiconductors
reduced. Simultaneously, the barrier on the semiconductor
is lowered, so that the electrons in the semiconductor are
more likely to move toward the metal, which a large
the potential difference between the metal-semiconductors
increased. And the increased barriers blocked electrons
from the semiconductor to the metal crossing, which the
current flowing therethrough is small. The above analysis
indicates that the Schottky barrier has a single conductivity
[5].
(a) Forward bias (b) Reverse bias
Fig. 1 Energy band diagram of Schottky barrier
In this paper, a 1800 V SiC SBD device is designed and
the simplified schematic is shown in Fig. 2, in which it
containes two areas i.e. cell and termination. Considering
terminal factor which is 0.8 in the simulated SiC SBD
device, the breakdown voltage of cell area is about 2038 V.
The cell sustained avalanche voltage is mainly dependent
on the thickness and doping concentration of drift region.
The doping concentration is calculated as follows [6]:
4
 3 10 15  3
N Drift   
 BV
 pp 
Where BVpp represents the blocking voltage of the
simulated SiC SBD. Besides, the drift region thickness is
calculated as follows:
2   SiC  BV pp
t Drift 
q  N Drift
Where εSiC is the relative permittivity of 4H-SiC and q is
the electronic charge. Based on the above formulas, the
optimized parameters of cell structure are obtained, which
the drift region thickness is 16 μm and its doping
concentration is 5.8 × 1015 cm-3. For 2D simulation, the
length of device in z direction is 1 μm in default. In order
to obtain a desired current, the length of z direction is set to
1×106 μm, which corresponds to the area of the device is
68×28 μm2. Further, a work function of 4.28 eV is used for
Schottky contact to get desirable forward characteristics.

143

Fig. 2 Schematic cross-section of the 4H-SiC SBD device with
multipie floating guard rings
In order to determine the optimum parameters in the FLRs
structure, the simulation uses the idea of iteration that is a
single ring is first optimized, then additional rings add, and
subsequently re-optimize in whole. Fig. 3 illustrate the effect
of the first guard ring spacing (S1) on breakdown voltage.
Remarkably, the breakdown voltage of SBD increases firstly
and then decreases with increment of with the increment of S1.
And the optimum spacing of a single ring is around 3.0 μm.
Due to the increase of S1, the Schottky junction edge first
reaches the critical electric field of SiC material, causing the
device to break down in advance. Furthermore, other FLRs are
simulated repeatedly with the above methods to obtain the
optimal spacing Error! Reference source not found.. Table 1
lists the ultimate simulation parameters designed for the 1800
V SiC SBD. It can be found that with the increment of the
sequential rings the optimal first ring spacing is no longer valid.
The increase in the number of the FLRs will change the
electric filed profile.
Fig. 3 The relationship between breakdown voltage and the frst
guard ring spacing
Table 1. Design parameters for 1800 V 4H-SiC SBD
Structure parameter Value
Thickness of N- drift region, D1 16 µm
Thickness substrate region, D2 6 µm
Thickness of FLRs, D3 1.0 µm
Length of Al anode, L1 15 µm
Length of oxide layer, L2 53 µm
144
Length of oxide layer, L3 6 µm
Distance of the first ring, S1 1 µm
Distance of the second ring, S2 1.5 µm
Distance of the third ring, S3 2 µm
Distance of the fourth ring, S4 2 µm
Doping concentration of substrate
5.8e15 cm-3
region, Nsub
Doping concentration of P+ rings,
1.1e17 cm-3
NP+
After the optimization of structural parameters of
1800V SBD, in order to investigate distribution of electric
field at the Schottky interface, the electric field
distributions and 1D electric field profile are obtained from
the electric field distribution contour plot, as shown in Fig
4(a) and 4(b), respectively. The added P+ rings can act as a
partial pressure to prevent the device from being broken
down in advance. Figure 4(b) tells us that the SBD with
FLRs structure is prone to peak electric field at the edge of
the Schottky junction and the edge of the last ring. Some
other measures may also be taken to reduce the peak
electric field, such as adding a field plate structure to
combined with the FLR structure. We will study that in the
future.
According to the above structural parameters, the
blocking voltage can reach 2038 V without considering the
terminal protection efficiency. The breakdown voltage can
reach 1800 V when considering the FLRs terminal
structure. The final protection efficiency is up to 90%.
Fig. 4(a) Breakdown electric field distribution in a 4H-SiC
SBD with FLRs
 Fig. 4(b) Electric field strength distribution of 4H-SiC SBD
with FLRs in schottky interface
3. Steady State Characteristic Simulation
In order to investigate the properties of 1800 V SiC
SBD, forward characteristics and reverse breakdown
curves at different temperature ranges from 300 K to 450 K
are simulated, as shown in Fig. 5. and Fig. 6. Notably in
Fig. 5, normal temperature simulation demonstrates that
when the conduction current is 41.6 A corresponding to the
forward voltage of 1.6 V and the turn-on voltage of 0.8 V.
When the temperature is up to 450 K, the turn-on voltage
decreases by 0.2 V. Besides, since the resistance of the
epitaxial layer is increased under high temperature, the
forward voltage corresponding to the 40 A on current is
increased to 2 V at 450 K. The forward current
corresponding to the 1.75 V forward voltage is reduced Fig. 6 Reverse I-V characteristics of the 1800 V 4H-SiC
from 50 A to 33 A when the temperature ranges from 300 K SBD at different temperature
to 450 K. 4. Transient Characteristic Simulation
Fig. 6 shows the reverse I-V characteristics of the 4H-SiC Since there are no minority carriers storage in the
SBD at 300 K~450 K. Clearly, the reverse leakage current of Schottky barrier, the frequency characteristics are not
the device is 10-12 A at normal temperature. As the temperature limited by the electrons storage effect. Therefore, the
rises, the reverse leakage current of the device increases reverse recovery characteristic of the Schottky diode is
exponentially. An interesting phenomen should be noticed that theoretically desirable. In order to study the SiC SBD
the reverse leakage current of the device increased largely with
performance under high current density pulsed condition,
the increment of temperature, while the breakdown voltage
high current density operation of the SiC SBD is simulated
almost keeps at constant. The reason may be explained that the
leakage current generated by the thermal electron emission using mixed mode circuit simulator in TCAD [7]. The
process is a strong function of temperature. Moreover, holes diode is simulated by using a simple pulse circuit, in which
have a higher impact ionization rate than electrons in SiC, the the current drop rate is 200 A/μs [8]. In addition, the
breakdown voltage almost remained constant even at elevated self-effect heating models are used to calculate during
temperatures. transient simulation.

Fig. 5 Forward I-V characteristics of the 1800 V 4H-SiC
SBD at different temperature
Fig. 7 Anode voltage waveform during forward recovery
The forward recovery test circuit and anode voltage
waveform during the pulse are shown in Fig. 7. Since there
are no case of minority carriers injection in SBD structure,
the bulk resistance of the device remained almost
unchanged, and the voltage of the device doesn’t drop after
the current is balanced. Therefore, since the reverse
recovery charge of the SBD is very small, the switching
speed is very fast and the switching loss is also extremely
small, which is especially suitable for high frequency
applications.

145

Fig. 8 Lattice temperature distribution of SBD during
forward recovery
The lattice temperature distribution of SBD under
pulsed condition is depicted in Fig. 8., which shows the
internal temperature distribution of the SBD device when a
current rising with a certain di/dt is applied. Peak
temperature of 305 K is observed in the vicinity of
Schottky junction. The small rise in lattice temperature
indicates minimum losses within the device. Based on the
analysis of lattice temperature profile, it can be concluded
that the drift region is the major source of power
dissipation [9].
3. Wahab Q. et al., "A 3 kV Schottky barrier diode in
4H-SiC," Applied Physics Letters, vol. 72, no. 4, 1998, pp.
445-447
4. Huang Runhua et al., "Development of 10 kV 4H-SiC JBS
diode with FGR termination," Journal of Semiconductors,
vol. 35, no. 7, 2014, pp 074005
5. Baliga B. J., Fundamentals of Power Semiconductor
Devices. Springer, 2008, pp. 298 - 306
6. Imhoff E. A. and Hobart K. D., "High-Current 10 kV SiC
JBS Rectifier Performance," Materials Science Forum, vol.
600-603, 2007, pp 943-946
7. Silvaco© "ATLAS User's Manual", 2014.
http://www.Silvaco.com.
8. Bartolf H., Sundaramoorthy V., Mihaila A., Berthou M.,
Godignon P., and Millan J., "Study of 4H-SiC Schottky
Diode Designs for 3.3kV Applications," Materials Science
Forum, vol. 778-780, 2014, pp. 795-799
9. Pushpakaran B. N., Bayne S. B., and Ogunniyi A. A.,
"Thermal analysis of 4H-SiC DMOSFET structure under
resistive switching," in Power Modulator and High
Voltage Conference, 2015, pp. 523-526.

5. Conclusions
A 1800 V 4H-SiC SBD with FLRs termination
protection structure is designed and simulated using TCAD
tools. Based on the idea of iteration, 0.9 of terminal factor
is obtained using FLRs structure and the breakdown
voltage reached 1800 V. Further, the steady state
characteristics of the device are analyzed at different
temperature. As the temperature increased, the on-current
density and the Schottky barrier gradually decreased,
leading to a reduction in the forward voltage drop of the
SBD, while reverse leakage current is rising dramatically.
Simultaneously, the forward recovery characteristics of
SBD are simulated. We analyzed the device performances
under pulsed conduction, showing that a weakness region
is located at Schottky contact interface due to the high
dissipation.
Acknowledgements
This work is co-supported by the State Key Laboratory
of Advanced Power Transmission Technology under Grant
No. GEIRI-SKL-2017-013,the National Natural Science
Foundation of China under Grant No. 61405238 and Grant
No. 51706029, the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu
Province under Grant No. 2014GXNSFCB118004, and the
Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
under Grant No. 106112017CDJQJ128836.
References

1. Baliga B. J., "Material Properties and Transport Physics,"

Fundamentals of Power Semiconductor Devices, 2008, pp.
23-89
2. Baliga B. J., Shielded Schottky Rectifiers. 2015, pp.
103-140.

146
W205-201808151215

Optimization of Close-Coupled Showerhead suitable for wide bandgap semiconductor production

Wenqing Fang, Chuanbing Xiong, Yong Pu, Li Wang, Jianli Zhang, Junlin Liu, Peng Zhao, Longquan Xi, Zhijue Quan,
Changda Zhen, Xiaolan Wang, Chunlan Mo, Huihua Tang, Shuan Pan, Chaopu Yang, and Fengyi Jiang*
Nanchang University
Nanchang, Jiangxi, P.R.China
fwq@ncu.edu.cn, Mobil: 13807095537

Abstract
This paper summarizes the growth characteristics and mechanism of 4 kinds of Close-Coupled Showerhead(CCS) developed
by our unit in the past 20 years. Based on these mechanism, it can be see that the mechanism of CCS suitable for InGaN growth
is different from that of CCS suitable for AlGaN. Still based on these mechanism, it is explained why TS CCS is more suitable for
the growth of high alumina materials at present. But why should TS CCS be improved to suit the mass production of wide band
gap semiconductor materials in the future? For this aim, a modified TS CCS is introduced which can be cleaned online by
chlorine gas. It is expected that the modification will not only produce higher quality AlN materials , but also stabilize the initial
state of the reactor, thus ensuring the stability of mass production. This paper also deals with the unique mechanical Mg δ
-doping and mechanical pulse growth. These methods are expected to provide a reference for the growth and doping of other
ultra-wide band gap semiconductor materials.
Key words: TS CCS MOCVD, AlN, Clean on line, δ-doping,
pulse growth, AlInN, GaN-on-Si

Introduction
In this paper, the topic is limited to the growth of Nitride materials with high aluminum content. In order to realize the stability of
the output of wide band gap semiconductor devices, there must be a suitable MOCVD, otherwise, there is no way to talk about it.
The famous Close-Coupled Showerhead (CCS) MOCVD tool made by TS has been adopted to grow AlN by many groups due to its
minimized parasitic reaction [1, 2]. It also has the advantages of high temperature growth and simple control of growth parameters.
Its main drawback is that it is difficult to clean the reactor after growing too much AlN, which leads to the uncertainty of the initial
state of the reactor and affects the precise control of temperature. In order to get good repeatability during mass production, the
reactor must be baked and cleaned over and over again. In other words, the use of TS CCS MOCVD can produce the best samples
of optoelectronic devices, but for now at least, how to balance stability and capacity in mass production is a big challenge. Another
MOCVD (G5) from AIXTRON can been cleaned online with chlorine, but because CCS has used vacuum brazing in the
manufacturing process, it is found that it is the solder ,not the stainless steel which is not resistant to chlorine corrosion (Fig.1).
Therefore, it is necessary to develop a non-brazed TS CCS , which can replace easily the original CCS in size. This kind of CCS is
expected to help the wide band gap semiconductor mass production.

1. Showerhead Improvement 1, based on TS CCS, A kind of “tube in tube showerhead ”

Fig.2 compare the “Tube in tube showerhead” with standard TS CCS. “Tube in tube showerhead” is easy to braze without
double vacuum brazing.The InGaN growth effect of this showerhead is good because TMIn is surrounded by ammonia and

Fig.1: TS CCS contains 3 layers, which is made of many stainless steel

capillaries by vacuum brazing. It is the welding solder which is not resistant to
sprayedcorrosion
chlorine vertically to the surface of the wafer .Therefore, while largerⅤ/ Ⅲ is need, the growth effect of this kind of
showerhead is good. More than a decade ago, we used this kind of showerhead to grow ZnO and had achieved the world's
leading crystal quality by MOCVD growth method. It was far ahead, a record((002)118″/(102)213″) has not been broken by
now, to our knowledge.

147
Fig.2: The left is the standard CCS diagram of TS , and the right is the
diagram of “ tube in tube showerhead” , in which the nozzle of TMIn passes
through and is concentric with the ammonia nozzle.
2. Showerhead Improvement 2, ( III+V) merges into one layer，a kind of unconventional showerhead.
This showerhead is showed in Fig.3. it looks strange, but it can work in GaN blue LED production , only P-layer

Fig.3: Compared with the left image, the right image omits a layer,
that is TMGa and ammonia mixed before ejection.
must grow at a much higher showerhead temperature. Compared with (III+V) gas flow form ejected in the reactor of Aixtron
G4 MOCVD, it may be not so strange. Another advantage of this showerhead is that it can be made without vacuum brazing,
which allow on-line cleaning using chlorine gas. The author also speculated that this showerhead might be more suitable for
InGaN growth. The reason for this is below.
3. Showerhead Improvement 3, A monolayer twin showerhead
This showerhead is showed in Fig.4. It maybe very special.we separate the monolayer-showerhead into two horizontal
chambers. Besides solving the Mg doping problem, this kind of the showerhead brings brand new methods to grow the
nitride semiconductors, which is showed in Table1
Table 1 Possible new growth mode of III-Nitrides with monolayer twin showerhead reactor
GasLine1 GasLine2 GasLine3
Material Pressure Growth mode
source V1 source V2 source
0 AlN High NH3+ pave Al NH3 Off H2 On TMAl
1 GaN:Mg High GaN+pave Mg NH3 Off TMGa Off CP2Mg
2 GaN:Si High V-Ⅲ premix NH3 SiH4 On TMGa On H2

3 InN High V-Ⅲ premix NH3 On TMIn On N2

4 AlGaN:Mg High GaN+ pave Al Mg NH3 Off TMGa Off TMAl Cp2Mg
5 InGaN1 High GaN+InN NH3 On TMGa Off TMIn
6 InGaN2 High premix+H2 NH3 On TMGa/TMIn Off H2
7 AlInN1 High InGaN+pave Al NH3 Off TMIn Off TMAl
8 AlInN2 ？ AlN+InN NH3 On TMIn Off TMAl
9 AlInGaN:Si High InGaN+pave Al NH3 SiH4 Off TMGa/TMIn Off TMAl

148
Fig.4.A monolayer twin showerhead and the gas lines configuration
Take for example, No.1/GaN:Mg growth mode is presented in Table 1, where “Pressure” is the pressure of reactor;
“Growth mode” is the possible growth mode controlled by both left and right showerhead; “GasLine1” is the first carrier
gas line in Fig.4 ; “Source” is ammonia or silane. When V1 is off, ammonia or silane can only go into the left showerhead;
while V1 is on, ammonia or silane can go into left and right showerhead both at the same time. In order to improve the gas
distribution uniformity into the both showerheads, small hole VCR shims were added to inlet connection of both
showerheads in this work. For further uniformity improvement, MFC can be used, as shown in the Fig.4. by dotted lines.
“GaN:Mg=GaN+pave Mg” represents that GaN growth is only occurred below the left showerhead, while there is no
ammonia in the right showerhead, only paving Mg is occurred. Due to the susceptor is rotated at the speed of 100 rpm,
such Mg doping have “Sheet” characteristic ( true Mg δ-doping). And the growth of other materials in the table can be
understood in the same way. On the microscopic level, the materials growth all have “Sheet” characteristic, which is worth
studying. Naturally, if the “Sheet” is thin enough, the material growth become continuous.
Here are some some preliminary but important conclusions based on this showerhead:①“InGaN≠GaN + pave In”, that
is Indium can not be incorporated when TMIn and NH3 are separated. Therefore we conclude that “GaN + pave In” growth
mode is not approriate for growing InGaN and “ Indium ammoniated” growth mode is not a feasible method.
Microscopically, TS CCS has this kind of ammoniation mechanism to some extent, so it may be not the best equipment to
grow InGaN. The “tube in tube” showerhead may be more better to grow InGaN ②“AlN=NH3 + pave Al” is better. This
conclusion is very important. Microscopically, TS CCS has this kind of Al ammoniation mechanism to some extent, so it
may be the right equipment to grow AlGaN. In Fig.2, in TS CCS, because the ammonia nozzle and the TMAl nozzle are
separated too close, it may be necessary to improve the TS CCS in order to further enhance the effect of "AlN=NH3 pave
Al".③“AlInGaN=InGaN +pave Al”“AlInN=InN +pave Al” are better, it is easy to grow AlInGaN! ④ Mg-dopping is
more easy , it is a true Mg δ-doping process! It may be instructive for the growth of P-ZnO and other super wide bandgap
semiconductor. ⑤Except for the middle piece of wafer, the growth uniformity of this showerhead has no problem.⑥it is
easy to introduce in-situ chlorine clean .The author think that in-situ clean with chlorine would be first important for the
mass production of GaN-on-Si and other high Al content materials.
Showerhead Improvement 4, Chlorine resistant TS CCS
The author think the monolayer twin showerhead above is very important, but it look like a science fiction to same extent.
The world has a large number of TS CCS MOCVD equipment. Based on the the basic principles summarized above, the hole
spacing can be adjusted small, and the vacuum brazing process can be abandoned to make cleaning on line available with
chlorine gas .The modified TS CCS will become suitable for the growth of high aluminum materials. This modified TS CCS can
ensure that its size can be exchanged with the original TS CCS . It is believed that this kind of TS CCS will play a key role in
the mass production of wide band gap semiconductor. The structure and photographs of the modified TS CCS are shown in
Fig.5

149
Fig.5 .Modified TS CCS. Hollowed-out, no vacuum brazing, so resistance to
chlorine. Interchangeable with the original TS CCS in size.
Showerhead Improvement 5, Without chlorine on-line cleaning, multi-cavity template growth of high-alumina materials
may not stable in mass production.
In the mass production of wide bandgap semiconductor devices, the stability of the initial state of the MOCVD reactor is
very important. It has been proposed that in the multi-cavity MOCVD, one cavity is specially arranged to grow the AlN and the
other cavity to grow the GaN, and then it is transferred in vacuum. The authors believe that this method can not guarantee the
stability of the initial state of the reactor .Chlorine on-line cleaning process is already the standard process of AIXTRON G5.
However, the reactor of this equipment is in the form of horizontal flow, so it may not suitable for the growth of high quality and
high aluminum materials.

Conclusions
Our modified TS CCS, which can be cleaned online by chlorine gas, may be very important for the stability of mass
production of high aluminum materials. At present, the standard TS CCS may be the best Commercial MOCVD for AlN growth
according to our analysis above. But because of the consideration at same time of InGaN and AlGaN growth, it may still not
be the best MOCVD for AlN in the future. Our modified TS CCS is expected to achieve better quality and interchangeability with
the original TS CCS in size when AlN is grown. At the same time, the initial state of the reactor can be stabilized by on-line
cleaning of chlorine gas, thus ensuring the stability of mass production in the future. In this paper, we report a variety of CCS ,
each of which has its own advantages, especially the “monolayer twin showerhead ” and the “tube in tube showerhead”.
Mechanically.δ-doping and δ- growth can be realized flexibly, and this kind of CCS is worthy of consideration and attention.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by National Key R&D Program of China （NO:2017YFB0403700）

References

1. M.Razeghi, The MOCVD Challenge, IOP publishing ,Bristol and Philadelphia, 1995
2. TS, AIXTRON, VEECO, The Manual about the MOCVD

150
SW206-201808151038

3D CFD Simulation of High-temperature MOCVD Reactor for Epitaxial AlN Growth

JK. Yang1*, JC. Yan1,2,3, XD. Wang2,3, H. Chen2,3, H. Li2,3, WJ Wang1,2,3, RF. Duan1,2,3, JX. Wang1,2,3, YP. Zeng1,2,3, JM. Li1,2,3
1
State Key Laboratory of Solid-State Lighting, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 35, Tsinghua
East Road, Haidian District, Beijing
2
Youwill Hitech Co. Ltd, No. 35, Tsinghua East Road, Haidian District, Beijing
3
Advanced Ultroviolet Optoelectronics Co. Ltd, high tech Zone Zhang Ze new industrial park, Changzhi, Shanxi
Email: yjkun@semi.ac.cn

Abstract
Multi-wafer MOCVD equipment for epitaxial AlN
growth is indispensable for the development of AlGaN-based
UV LED. In this study, 3-Dimensional computational fluid
dynamics modeling coupling surface reaction kinetics was
carried out, and the number and distribution of the nozzle was
optimized for home-made six-wafer reactor chamber. The
average growth rate and inhomogeneity in thickness was
about 1μmph and less than 7%, respectively.
Introduction
AlGaN-based ultraviolet light emitting diode (UV LED)
is attracting more and more attention due to the potential
applications in sterilization, water purification, medical
phototherapy, secure communication and so on[1]. Metal
organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) with the
advantages of good reproducibility and accurate component
control is employed to grow AlN and AlGaN materials [2]. Up
to now, the planetary reactor is predominant, and for
GaN-based materials commercialized MOCVD equipment
fully loaded up to 56×2" wafers is available with excellent
uniformity and reproducibility of epitaxial materials. However,
multi-wafer MOCVD equipment for AlN growth is still under
the way. On the one hand, higher growth temperature over
1200℃ is indispensible due to low mobility of Al surface. On
the other hand, severe pre-reactors occur before the precursor
arrive the substrate [3-5].
In order to obtain high quality films, the uniformity in
thickness and composition plays a prominent part in the
MOCVD reactor design. Transport phenomena are rather
complex in MOCVD reactor, including the buoyant fluid
motion and the forced convective fluid flow, the heat and
mass transfer, the gas phase and surface chemical reactions for
AlN growth [6, 7]. So, it is difficult to understand these
mechanisms only by experimental method. Fortunately,
computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technology can predict
the temperature field and species concentration field in a
reaction chamber, and is highly applied to the development of
MOCVD equipment due to the benefits of shortening design
cycles and reducing development costs. In previous reports,
the geometry of reactor chamber and process parameters was
optimized by CFD simulation [8-14]. Furthermore, heat
transport was considered in simulation, as well as the
reactions between the precursors [15, 16]. It is noted that
almost all models are simplified to a 2-dimensional (2D)
model either the axisymmetric shape of reactor to for the
simplicity. However, 3-dimensional (3D) model is
indispensable when the geometry of reactor chamber is
nonaxisymmetric.
In this study, home-made MOCVD equipment with
six-wafer reactor chamber was designed for epitaxial AlN
growth. 3D CFD modeling coupling surface reaction kinetics
151
was carried out to optimize the growth rate of AlN layer and
uniformity in thickness.
Experimental and simulation
Epitaxial AlN layer on sapphire substrate was carried out
using a home-made MOCVD system. As shown in Fig. 1(a),
the reactor chamber with 6×2" wafer is of vertical structure
for gas flow mode. It is noted that a thermal shield was
applied to reflect the radiation from the heater, which reduced
the power of the heater due to the reduction of thermal loss,
and the fact was demonstrated by lots of experiments.
Figure 1(a) the reactor chamber of home-made MOCVD
equipment and (b) the schematic diagram of the model
Trimethylaluminum (TMAl) and ammonia (NH3) were
used as the Al and N sources, respectively, and hydrogen was
used as the carrier gas. The basic operation parameters were
listed in Table 1. Before the initial growth, the substrate
surface was cleaned by a bake-out in hydrogen atmosphere
at 1100℃. At first, the nitridation was conducted using the
mixture of NH3 and H2 for 5 minutes at the same temperature.
Then, the temperature was reduced to 800℃, and about 50 nm
AlN nucleation layer was deposited using the TMAl flow rate
of 40 sccm. Finally, the 1μm-AlN layer was grown using the
TMAl flow rate of 200 sccm after the temperature was raised
to 1250℃. The surface morphology was characterized by
JSM-5600LV scanning electronic microscope (SEM) and
Nanoscope III atomic force microscope (AFM) operating in
the tapping mode. The crystal quality of as-grown films was
studied by a Bede D1 high resolution X-ray diffraction
(HR-XRD) using Cu Kα1 radiation. Especially, the thickness
of AlN layer was analyzed by Ellipsometer for monitoring the
growth rate.
H2 flow rate (slm) 56
NH3 flow rate (slm) 4
Reactor pressure (Torr) 50
Susceptor temperature (℃) 1250
Susceptor rotation speed (rpm) 1000
Table 1 Operation parameters of AlN growth
3D model was built according to actual reactor chamber,
as shown in Fig. 1(b). The basic operation parameters for
simulation come from Table 1. The modeling approach was
based on the solution of mixed convective laminar flow of
multi-component gas mixtures, coupled with heat and mass
transfer, including gas phase and surface reaction kinetics of
chemical species, using standard CFD technology. / (r22-r12)
Mixture-dependent gas properties are taken into account and
determined by means of kinetic theory [17]. The heat transfer
by thermal radiation is computed by a Monte Carlo ray tracing Where, = . The
approach to account for the surface-to-surface radiation
substrate was located at a circle region with the radial radius
exchange across the transparent fluid domain bounded by
range from 37 mm to 87 mm. In order to obtain the uniformity
semitransparent and opaque walls [18]. The gas phase reaction
in thickness, nine circles regions were analyzed with the
mechanism includes the precursor species and their
spacing 5 mm, as shown in Fig. 2(d).
predominant decomposition by-products and reaction
The growth rate dependence of the radial radius for the
pathways. Main gas-phase and surface reactions is designed
three models is shown in Fig. 3. For comparison, the
according to the reference 6.
experiment results from the model-3 are accordingly shown.
In addition, the following parameters and assumptions
were also imposed:
(1) The simulation parameters are provided in Table 1.
Especially, the sum of gas flow rate is 60slm for the
limit of mass flowmeter, and the temperature of the
basic susceptor was set to a constant of 1250℃.
(2) the reactor chamber wall including the ceiling and
side wall was cooled by circulating water of 20℃. So,
the outer wall was set to a constant of 20℃, and the
reactor chamber inner wall was set to the coupled
thermal condition for thermal boundary condition.
(3) The distance between the ceiling and basic susceptor
was 60mm according to the data of MOCVD-GaN
equipment. The diameter and spacing of the nozzle
was 1mm and 6mm, respectively, and the maximum
number of the nozzle was 660.
(4) Laminar flow was adopted because the Reynolds
number was less than 2300.
Results and discussion
Gas velocity in the nozzle, is given by
=MP0/SP,
Where M is the gas flow rate, and M=60slm. P 0 is the tube
pressure and P0=800Torr. P is the reaction pressure and Figure 3(a) the growth rate dependence of the radial radius (b)
P=50Torr. Then, gas velocity is only related to the total area of average growth rate and inhomogeneity in thickness.
the nozzle. So, the number and distribution of the nozzle is We can see that the average growth rate gradually
important to the AlN growth rate and uniformity in thickness. increases when the number of the nozzle is reduced. This
Three difference models, as named “model-1”, “model-2” and should attribute to the increase of gas velocity. The
“model-3”, were calculated,and the distribution of the nozzle distribution of the nozzle in the model-3 is optimized with the
is shown in Fig. 2 (a-c). The number of the nozzle is 660, 318 smallest of the inhomogeneity in thickness. It is found that the
and 278, respectively. The simulation started to obtain proper average growth rate of the model-3 is close to 1μmph, and that
growth rate of the AlN films by controlling the number of the the inhomogeneity in thickness is less than 5%, which are
nozzle. Then, the distribution of the nozzle was optimized. acceptable for the MOCVD equipment. So, the model-3 was
selected to experiment. It is noted that the average growth rate
from the experiment results was larger than one in the
model-3. The difference of the results between experiment and
simulation may ascribe to the fact that some others
compounds containing Al is ignored in calculation of the
average growth rate such as <Al<CH3>2:NH2>3.
For the model-3, the distribution of AlN growth rate is
shown in Fig. 4(a). The color is representative of the growth
rate, which is almost the same. The temperature field is shown
Fig. 4(b). It is worthy of noting that a sharp rise in the
temperature happens at 10mm over the basic susceptor.

Figure 2 three models (a-c) and (d) the schematic diagram of

the basic susceptor.
The average growth rate in the wafer region is defines as:
152
Figure 4 (a) the distribution of AlN growth rate, (b) the
temperature field (c) velocity vector and (d) streamlines of the
model-3.
Flow pattern in the reactor chamber plays a dominant
role of the repeatability. The velocity vector and streamlines
of the model-3 are shown in Fig. 4(c-d). It can be see that the
vortex happens in the vicinity of the ceiling, which is far from
the substrate. In previous reports, the thickness of the
boundary layer was about 10 mm over the substrate [19].
Furthermore, laminar flow was obvious at the range of 20 mm
over the substrate. Hence, the vortex had no effect on the
species concentration. The average thickness of AlN layer was
monitored using the same operation parameters, and there was
no difference in AlN thickness between the runs, which
indicated that the model-3 was of the stability for epitaxial
AlN growth. In addition, spiral streamline was observed due
to the rotation of the basic susceptor, which was benefit to not
only increase the growth rate due to pumping effect, but also
improve in the uniformity in thickness.
In order to further investigate the uniformity in crystal
quality, AlN layer was characterized by the XRD and AFM, as
shown in Fig. 5. Typically, the XRD (002) and (102) FWHM
was 63 arcsec and 598 arcsec, respectively, and the RMS
roughness was 0.3 nm for the scan of 5×5 μm2. These results
were compared with previous reports [20]. Furthermore, there
were little difference in the XRD FWHM and surface
morphology for different regions, which demonstrated the
good uniformity of crystal quality at the total range of 2"
wafer.
153
Figure 5(a) (002) and (102) rocking curves of epitaxial AlN
layer and (b) the XRD (102) FWHM and RMS roughness for
the scan of 5×5 μm2. The insert showed the typical AFM
images.
Inclusion
Home-made MOCVD equipment with six-wafer reactor
chamber was designed for epitaxial AlN growth using 3D
CFD simulation. The average growth rate and the
inhomogeneity in thickness were about 1μmph and less than
7%, respectively.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Key R&D
Program of China (Nos. 2017YFB0404202), the National
Natural Sciences Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61527814)
and Youth Innovation Promotion Association CAS 2017157.
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154
SW207-201807231618
Establishing thermal model for the design of the high-power LED headlight cooling device
Haiyang Wang, Peipei Wang, Jialin Liu and Daxi Xiong*.
Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
No.88 Keling Street, Suzhou 215163, China.
xiongdx@sibet.ac.cn, 0512-69588302.
Abstract
A study of the thermal performance of a novel radiator in
high-power LED (light-emitting diode) headlight is presented.
The thermal resistance model is built to analyze the factors
which have impacts on the radiator temperature. The analyses
are based on the experiment combined with computations
using the CFD software ANSYS Icepak. The prediction
results are validated with the experimental one. The
temperature distribution of the LED module and radiator are
obtained. The maximum temperature of the radiator is reduced
by about 25℃ compared with a certain headlight while the
input power is 16 W. The effects of the number of fins,
substrate spacing and fin thickness on the radiator temperature
are also examined. The Results indicate that the optimum
parameters are: number of fins=36, substrate spacing=3 mm
and fin thickness=2.5°. Meanwhile, as the input power
increases to 22 W, the maximum temperature of the chip is
only 85.01 ℃, therefore, the heat dissipation of headlight
designed in this paper is greatly enhanced.
Introduction
Light-emitting diode (LED) is the fourth-generation
headlamp after incandescent, halogen lamp and high-intensity
discharge lamp (HID). In recent years, LED is widely used in
the traffic signal light, and has been the symbol of high-grade
cars. In 2007, Lexus LS 600h applied LED in the near-optical
system, then the Audi R8 used LED as headlight in 2008. Up
to now, many auto brands like Mercedes-Benz, PSA, BMW,
Toyota and Ford etc. use the LED headlamp as the
front-lighting system. LED has many advantages, such as
small size, low energy consumption, quick response and so
on. It conforms to the trend of developing because of energy
saving and safety in the future. The dimension of chip is much
smaller than the traditional light source in the optical design
of the headlamp, therefore it has the potential of being a point
light source[1-3].
However, the photoelectric conversion efficiency of LED
can only reach about 20% and the other 80% energy is
converted into useless heat due to the limitation of
semiconductor manufacturing technology. Currently, the
power of the modern LED chip is above 1W, and the bottom
heat transfer area is less than 1 mm2, corresponding to 100
W/cm2 of heat flux, which will result in high chip junction
temperature[4-5]. the high junction temperature will greatly
lead to the dominant luminescence wavelength drift, the
decline of the optical efficiency, as well as the degradation
lifetime of the chip[6-7]. Therefore, effective thermal design
with low thermal resistance are necessary to improve the
performance of LED automotive headlight[8-16].
To enhance the heat dissipation capability of LED
headlamp, many studies are discussed. Bielecki et al.[17]
showed that the used finned structures allow to have even
higher density LEDs in applications. Zhao et al.[18]
performed the heat dissipation method based on
thermoelectric cooling effect and studied the heat dissipation
155
performance of different types of system experimentally.
Zhou et al.[19] proposed a kind of heat pipe radiator which
can manage the temperature of the chip more effectively
compared with the common fins radiator and the plate
radiator. Luo et al.[20] used a series of micro spray
transmitting heat into the cooling system to achieve the
purpose of heat dissipation. Wang et al.[21] studied the
technology of plate heat pipe by the simulative and
experimental mothed. The influence of two kind of heat
source arrangement modes (centralized and decentralized) was
discussed. Tang et al.[22] researched the design of LED lamps
based on the chimney effect. The effects of the number of fins
and the inner diameter of the chimney were investigated by
means of numerical calculation and experiment. Seung et
al.[23] carried out the studies on the radial heat sink adapted
to the circular LED light and optimized the cooling model.
Yan et al.[24] conducted the investigations on the liquid
cooling of high-power LED for the applications in automotive
headlamp. Adam and Samuel[25] analyzed the system and
junction temperature using a finite element analysis with a
thermal resistance network model.
The methods mentioned above can reduce the chip
junction temperature from the purely cooling effect of view.
However, it also has inherent defects, such as complicated
structure, wasted energy, expensive cost, and poor stability.
The main objective of this paper is to present a novel
headlight radiator, build the 3d modeling through the solid
modeling computer-aided design software – SolidWorks, and
analyze its thermal performance to show the potential
applications to the headlight using the ANSYS Icepak. The
challenge is to optimize the model to get a better thermal
performance. The result shows that the maximum temperature
of the radiator is reduced by about 25℃ compared with a
certain headlight, which meet the safety requirements of
high-power LED lights. Meanwhile the new radiator almost
does not increase production costs and production time. The
headlight in this paper breaks through the structure of the
traditional headlamp radiator and increases the life of the LED
chip.
Structure optimization of radiator
Thermal conduction is the transfer of heat (internal
energy) due to microscopic collisions of particles and
movement of electrons within the medium. The
microscopically colliding objects, including molecules, atoms,
and electrons, transfer disorganized microscopic kinetic and
potential energy, jointly are known as internal energy.
Conduction takes place in all phases of matter including
solids, liquids, gases and waves. The energy rate conducting
as heat between two mediums is a function of the temperature
difference (temperature gradient) between the two mediums
and the properties of the conductive medium The law of heat
conduction, also known as Fourier's law, states that the time
rate of heat transfer through a material is proportional to the
negative gradient in the temperature and to the perpendicular
area of the heat flows, i.e.,
T
dQ    dS   dS  gradT
n
where (in SI units) dQ is the amount of heat transferred
(J), λ is the material's conductivity (W·m−1·K−1), dS is an
oriented surface area element (m2), and gradT is the
temperature gradient (K·m−1).
The forced air cooling of the headlight is mainly achieved
through heat conduction, and the heat transfers in the various
parts of the headlight (such as LED module and radiator) or in
the same part body (such as radiator cylinder and fin). The
main heat dissipation path from the LED chip to the ambient
is: LED chip → substrate → radiator fins → ambient.
By Fourier's law, the heat transfer rate is directly
proportional to the area perpendicular to the direction of heat
flow (the section area perpendicular to the central axis of the
radiator), so the section area must be increased to accelerate
momentum and energy conservation laws for fluid flows.
Fluid properties are considered as constant, which is
computed based on the ideal gas law. The relative error for the
convergence criterion (all dependent variables) is less than
10-3. Denser grids are yielded in regions where a boundary
layer develop near the chip and substrate, the number of grids
is about 4,200,000, and the number of nodes is about
4,220,000. The grid is shown in Figure 3 (c). The result in the
experiments and simulations is shown in Figure 4.
Figure 2 Photograph of the experimental setup.
(a) (b) A B
C
D E F

the heat conduction in the radiator. Secondly, the contact area

between the substrate and the radiator should be increased to (c)
accelerate the conduction of heat flow from the substrate to
the radiator. In addition, heat conduction rate would be sped
up by changing the thickness and number of fins which
increases the forced air cooling efficiency to increase the
temperature gradient. In this paper, a new headlight radiator is
designed, as shown in Figure 1. Heat dissipation performance
will be evaluated using the radiator temperature and the Figure 3 (a) Test sample. (b) Temperature monitoring point.
junction temperature. To achieve its optimal thermal (c) Grid diagram.
performance, parametric studies were conducted on the As illustrated in Figure 4 (b), the simulative results are
number of fins, substrate spacing and fin thickness. consistent with the test results. The maximum deviation is
(a)
2.79%, within an acceptable range, which indicates that the
method of numerical simulation is feasible.
(a)

θ Δ

(b)
(b) 90 experiments
simulations
80
temperature (C)

70

60

50

40

A B C D E F

Figure 4 (a) The simulated surface temperature contours. (b)

Figure 1 (a) Fins diagram. (b) Radiator diagram. The comparisons between the radiator temperature in the
Results and discussions experiments and simulations.
Method validation Effect of fin number on heat dissipation
The test platform and wiring connection diagram are We Set Δ=3mm, θ=2.5°and analyze the influence of fin
shown schematically in Figure 2. Thermocouples are used to number of radiator on the maximum temperature of radiator.
measure the temperature of A, B, C, D, E and F of radiator The number of fins is set to 24~36, and Figure 5 shows the
respectively in Figure 3 (a) and (b). The 3D model is built relationship of the maximum temperature of radiator, the
through SolidWorks and simulated by Ansys Icepak. To radiator weight and amount of fins.
facilitate research, the part of the model which has a little 38
65 maximumt temperature M
influence on the result is simplified, and the fillet of the model
maximumt temperature (C)

is neglected, as shown in Figure 3 (a). The radiator material is 37

set to pure aluminum, and the thermal conductivity is 240 63

W/(m·K). Base plate is set to cuprum, and the thermal

M (g)

36
conductivity is 387.60 W/(m·K). The LED chip is set as a
61
volumetric source, and the nominal heating power is 20 W. It
35
is assumed that 80% of input power is converted to heat, thus
the heating power is 16 W. Environment temperature is 20℃. 59

The approximate Reynolds and Peclet numbers for this 34

24 26 28 30 32 34 36
problem are 6204.88 and 4396.19, respectively. Therefore, N
turbulent conditions are assumed. Icepak Flow Simulation Figure 5 Relationship between the maximum temperature and
solves the N-S equations, which are formulations of mass, M and the number of fins.

156
 It can be seen from Figure 5 that the maximum
temperature of the radiator designed in this paper is reduced
by about 25℃ to 59.11℃ compared with headlight mentioned
above. The maximum temperature of radiator is degressive
with the number of fins when the number of fins changes from
24 to 36. The radiator surface area increases with the number
of fins and forced wind cooling improves the efficiency of
heat radiation, so the temperature declines rapidly with the
number of fins.
In Figure 5, it also can be found that the weight of radiator
increases by nearly 9 per cent from 32.896 g to 35.922 g.
More fins increase the higher cost and more complex
processing technology. Therefore, in order not only to
minimize the maximum temperature of radiator, but also
reduce the radiator weight, it is suggested that the number of
fins is set to 36 considering the processing technology. Thus,
the maximum temperature of radiator is 59.11℃ and the
weight of radiator is 35.92 g.
Effect of substrate spacing on heat dissipation
On the premise of the above research, the base plate
interval (Δ) is optimized in the range of 1.5~2.5 mm. The
maximum temperature of radiator and the illumination
distribution at the distance 25 m are shown in Figure 6.
62
maximumt temperature (C)
61
60
59
58
1.5 2.0 2.5
Figure 6 Relationship between the maximum temperature and
relative illumination and Δ.
With the increase of substrate spacing, the maximum
temperature of radiator is decreasing. This is because the
sectional area for heat transfer of the radiator increases with
the interval of the substrate, the heat transfer of the radiator is
accelerated, and the temperature drops rapidly.
The surface shape of the lamp reflector is mainly designed
for the point light source. As shown in Figure 6, the average
illumination at 25m is rapidly reduced to 65% when the
interval of the substrate increases from 1.5 to 4.5 mm.
Therefore, it is recommended to set 3 mm to minimize the
maximum temperature of radiator and ensure the brightness of
the lamp, while the radiator weight is 35.92 g.
Effect of fin thickness on heat dissipation
Based on the above research, the fin thickness is optimized
in the variation range of 1.0~4.0°when the number of fins is
set to 36 and substrate spacing is set to 3 mm. The maximum
temperature of the radiator and the radiator weight M is
shown in Figure 7.
maximumt temperature
63
maximumt temperature (C)
62
61
60
59
1 2
Figure 7 Relationship between the maximum temperature and
M and θ.
As illustrated, when the fin thickness increases from 1.0 to
2.5, the maximum temperature of the radiator declines. As it
continues to increase, the maximum temperature of the
radiator rises rapidly. The reason is: When θ<2.5°, section
area of radiator for heat transfer increases along with θ, which
enhances heat dissipation efficiency, and the temperature
decreases with the increase of fin thickness. When θ>2.5°, the
distance between fins becomes smaller, the average surface
convective heat transfer coefficient as well as heat dissipation
is reduced, and then the overall external thermal resistance is
increased, which reduces the cooling efficiency.
It also indicates the fact that the weight of radiator
increases from 30.48 g to 41.37 g when fin thickness varies
from 1.0°to 4.0°, increasing by nearly 36%, but the maximum
temperature of the radiator increases by 2.57 ℃ from Figure
7. It is suggested that θ=2.5° minimizes the maximum
temperature of the radiator and makes the radiator weight
smaller. And the maximum temperature of the radiator is
59.11 ℃ while the weight of the radiator is 35.92 g.
Temperature of chip at different power
Since the above research, this paper researches the
maximum temperature of the new headlight in varied power,
and the results are shown in Table 1. The junction temperature
maximumt temperature
Relative Illumination 100% of chip continues to rise with power. While the power is
increased to 22 W, the junction temperature of the chip is only
85.01 ℃. However, the temperature of the current lamp is
Relative Illumination
90%
80%
more than 84 ℃ when the power is 16 W (see above), so the
heat dissipation of headlight designed in this paper is greatly
70% enhanced.
Table 1 Comparison of the junction temperature with different
60%
powers
3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5

P/W 12 14 16 18 20 22
Tj/℃ 55.46 61.36 67.42 73.18 79.09 85.01
P: Heating power Tj: Junction temperature
Conclusion
A kind of headlight radiator made in aluminum is designed
in this paper. When the thermal power of LED chip is 16 W
which is equal to the certain headlamp and the working
temperature is 20 ℃, the maximum temperature of the
radiator can be reduced about 25 ℃ to 59.1063 ℃, the
maximum temperature of LED chip is 67.42 ℃, and the
radiator weight is 35.922 g. When the thermal power is up to
22 W, the maximum junction temperature of the LED chip is
only 85.01 ℃. The novel radiator can meet the safety work
requirement when thermal power of LED chip is less than 22
W, and it almost does not increase production cost and
production time. The fin number, substrate spacing and fin
thickness of the radiator have been optimized, and the
optimum parameters are: N=36, ∆=3 mm, θ=2.5°. The
headlight described in this paper breaks through the structure
of the traditional LED headlight with inadequate cooling,
increases the service life of the LED chip, and provides a new
M 42 way to solve the heat dissipation problem of the high-power
40 LED.
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158
SW207-201808152018

Properties of Thermal Interface Materials and Its Impact on Thermal Dissipation and Reliability of LED
Automotive Lighting

Ru Li1,2, Qian Liu1, Limin Huang2, Liwei Yin2, Guojian Song2

1. Shanghai Institute of Ceramic, Chinese Academy of Sciences. No. 1295, Dingxi Road, Shanghai, China.
2. Changzhou Xingyu Automotive Lighting Systems Co., Ltd. No.182, Qinling Road, Xinbei District, Changzhou, Jiangsu,
China.
E-mail: liru@xyl.cn, Tel: +86-519-8168-5954, +86-136-8525-5096.

Abstract conductivities are usually decided by the filler used for

The properties of thermal interface materials (TIMs), such thermal conduct. We chose each two of the three common
as thermal resistance, oil bleed and long term reliability, etc., statuses from the current TIM market, a phase change material
were investigated systematically in the present paper. And (PCM), and a novel kind TIM of graphene-based polymer
their impacts on LED (Light Emitting Diode) automotive composite. All the materials and their thermal properties are
lighting performance were also discussed at the same time. listed in table 1. TIM were printed on PCB backside with
The results shown that different TIMs possess small 0.1mm thickness controlled by a 0.1mm thickness stencil
difference in thermal resistance and temperature test results. printing jig.
All TIMs were tested by thermal resistance test instrument Table 1. Selected Thermal Interface Materials and Their
（T3ster） at 0.1mm thickness with a typical LED of 18.2W, Properties.
the smallest thermal resistance is 0.1303K/W, while the Thermal Type
highest thermal resistance is 0.2883K/W. Without using No. P/N Conductivity (Working
thermal interface material, the thermal resistance is about W/m·K status)
0.99K/W, which refers to the thermal resistance of air. For 1 KE3466 1.9 Silicone Rubber
other properties, such as oil bleed, long term reliability, etc., 2 SE4485 2.8 Silicone Rubber
are also need to be considered comprehensively when it’s 3 LF3500 3.5 Silicone Gel
used for LED automotive lighting. 4 TC5351 3.3 Silicone Gel
1. Introduction 5 OSR500 3.1 Grease
Due to LED’s higher light performance, better design 6 T-300X 3.0 Grease
flexible, smaller size and possibility of multi-style, LED 7 TPCM-780SP 5.4 PCM
automotive lighting is playing an more and more important 8 GR2 2.5 Graphene
role in global automotive lighting marketing, especially for 2.1 Thermal Resistance Test
the latest adaptive driving beam (ADB), matrix LED, pixel There are several thermal conductivity test standards, such
LED, micro-LED and digital light processing (DLP) based as ASTM-D5470, ASTM-E1461, ISO-22007, and etc. In this
digital micro-mirror-display (DMD) headlamp. And the global paper, T3ster is used to do the thermal conductivity test. And
marketing percentage of LED automotive lighting will up to the test method refers to JESD-51-51. Firstly, a typical power
about 60% at around 2025. As we know, the thermal LED (Philips, H1K, 1*5, 18.2W) was selected for thermal
dissipation is a key propriety for LED automotive lighting, source. And the k-factor was test at the beginning, and then
because it will affect the lifetime of long term reliability and started the thermal resistance test of each TIMs. A typical
optical performance. Regularly, LEDs are placed on a printed TIM thickness of 0.1mm, which was controlled by a stencil
circle board (PCB) for electrical connection. Then, for high printing method, was chosen in this test procedure.
power LED, a heat sink is needed to add to the back side of
the PCB which mounted with one or more LEDs. But the
roughness and flatness of the PCB and heat sink were not so
ideal because there is about 0.1 mm gap between PCB and
heatsink. So, the interface of the both can’t achieve 0
millimeter distance. This can cause serious problems in many
applications such as industrial machinery and electronic,
automobile, or medical devices as the generated heat flux has
been significantly increasing due to the miniaturization of
devices or high power used. For a regular LED module in
automotive lighting, thermal interface material (TIM) is
necessarily key material for thermal conduct from PCB to heat Figure 1. TIM printed on the back side of PCB with
sink. The thermal resistance and other physical properties of thickness controlled by stencil printing.
TIMs are needed to be investigated immediately. In this paper, 2.2 Oil Bleed Test
we systematically researched related key properties of TIMs. Two frosted glass were used to do the test. Firstly, about
We expected that these test results and conclusions will be 0.3g TIM was placed in the center of the pre-prepared frosted
helpful in the LED automotive lamp design at present and in glass B, and two pieces stainless steel of 100μm thickness were
near future. placed at the two sides of frosted glass B. Then, frosted glass A
2. Experimental Section was covered on the TIM and was clipped at the two sides. After
TIMs have various kinds from global vendors. Normally, placed vertically at room temperature for 96 hours, the final
silicone rubber, silicon gel, and grease are the most common status of how much the oil pump out will be recorded for
statuses we met in the market. And their thermal
159
further comparison. The test procedure was shown in figure 2. network and random distribution direction might be the main
causes. For the common three kinds TIMs, greases had best
performance, and gels were the highest ones. Rational
explanation was that greases have better fluidity, and gels’
fluidity are lowest ones. Silicone rubber ones can spread well
before final condensation reaction compared with gel ones.
Without TIM, the thermal resistance is about 0.99K/W, which
can be found in figure 3. So, TIM is necessary for LED heat
dissipation from PCB to heat sink.
Table 2 Thermal resistance test results by T3ster
Rth Rth Rth
Part No. Total LED TIM
K/W K/W K/W
KE3466 1.1160 0.2313
SE4485 1.1140 0.2293
Figure 2. Oil bleed test procedure
2.3 Long Term Reliability Test LF3500 1.1400 0.2553
High accelerated lifetime test was carried out for long term TC-5351 1.1302 0.2455
reliability verification. In this test, only 6 TIMs were selected
OSR-500 1.0670 0.8847 0.1823
and tested on LED modules. After initial 0 hour test, all
modules were put in the oven at 150℃. When the time was up T-300X 1.0250 0.1403
to the test point (0/168/500/800/1100, hour), the LED TPCM-780SP 1.0150 0.1303
modules were taken out from the oven and cooled to room
temperature, then the junction temperature was tested at full GR2 1.1010 0.2163
power with thermal couple method and recorded for further Air 1.8747 0.9900
long term lifetime calculation.
3. Results and Discussion
3.1 Thermal resistance test
As we know, LEDs’ thermal behavior is more complex than
that in the case of conventional semiconductor devices which
are not aimed at emitting any kind of electro-magnetic
radiation like visible light. Thermal resistance was used to
calculate true constant quantities, as well as average
temperatures of periodic functions. Normally, however, the
current conducted through a semiconductor device and,
consequently, the power losses are time dependent parameters.
Normally, thermal resistance was obtained through the
following equation:

（1） Figure 3. Thermal resistance test results by T3ster.

Where Rthjc represents the thermal resistance from junction to 3.2 Oil bleed test
case, K/W; Tj represents junction temperature, ℃; and T c TIMs are always composited with base polymers and thermal
represents case temperature, ℃; P H is power of heat conduct filler. Polymers are usually composite with different
dissipation, W. molecular weight molecules and usually there is a normal
Consider thermal conduct equation: distribution. Low molecular polymer will pump out from the
gap during working conditions, especially at high temperature
(2) or thermal shock. Take silicone polymers for example, in a
Where λis thermal conductivity, W/m·K; A is thermal conduct certain range of molecular weight, these low molecular
surface area, m2; ΔT is Tj-Tc, ℃; δis the thickness of thermal polymers are always oil status, which will greatly affect the
conduct material, m. contact connection in electrical module, and lead to
So, Rthjc also can be written as follow: connection failure. So, we expected that the oil bleed should
be as little as possible.
(3)
From the equation (3), Rthjc has inverse ratio relationship with
the thermal conductivity λ. In our test, the δ and A were fixed
as 0.1mm and 298.8mm2 . High thermal resistance represents
low thermal conductivity. As shown in table 2, all the tested
TIMs’ thermal resistances were listed. Phase change material
TIM shows the lowest thermal resistance Rth. This can be
easily explained that phase change can remove more heat than
other ways. For GR2, a graphene base TIM, its thermal
conduct performance was not as well as graphene’s high
thermal conductivity of 5300 W/m·K. Poor heat conduct
160
 poor spread result, which will result in a thicker thickness.
According to equation (3), a thicker thickness will bring about
a high thermal resistance, which means poor thermal
conductivity.
4. Summary and Conclusion
The properties of thermal interface materials, such as thermal
resistance, oil bleed and long term reliability, etc., were
investigated systematically. The results shown that different
thermal interface material possesses small difference in
thermal resistance and temperature-time behaviors. Without
thermal interface material, the thermal resistance is about
0.99K/W, which refers to the thermal resistance of air. So,
TIM is necessary for LED heat dissipation from PCB to heat
sink. Oil bleed test results show that a higher polymerization
leads to a lower oil bleed. According to the reliability results,
oil bleed have little impact on thermal performance, and the
physical status before used have more impact on thermal
resistance value. All these properties need to be considered
comprehensively when used for LED automotive lighting.
5. Acknowledgments
Many thanks for the financial supports from the National Key
Research and Development Program of China (Grant No.
2018TFB0704100), and the authors also greatly appreciate for
the thermal resistance test support from Lumileds Shanghai
Application Development Center.
6. References
[1]. Ansorg, P., et al. Bending the Light with LCoS: ADB by
Phase-modulated RGB Laser. in 12th International
Symposium on Automotive Lighting. 2017. Darmstadt.
167-176.
[2]. Park, W., et al., High-Performance Thermal Interface
Material Based on Few-Layer Graphene Composite. J. Phys.
Chem. C, 2015. 119(47): p. 26753-26759.
[3]. BERGMAN, T.L., et al., Fundamentals of Heat and Mass
Transfer, D. Fowley, Editor. 2011, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Figure 4. Oil bleed test results of varied TIMs.

The oil bleed test results were shown in Figure 4. Greases had
the largest oil bleed among these TIMs, and rubbers are the
lowest ones. As is known to all, greases have more low
molecular polymers than rubbers. And gels had a certain
degree of polymerization, because of which lead to lower oil
bleed performance than greases.
3.3 Long term reliability test

Figure 5. Reliability test results of selected TIMs.

Thermal resistance reliability results were shown in figure 5.
Results showed that all TIMs have a relatively stable thermal
conduct performance. For long term reliability, little oil bleed
had little impact on the thermal resistance. Gel types TIMs
have worse thermal performance than grease and rubber types.
This can be also explained by that the poor fluidity lead to
161
SW207-201809072239

Threshold Voltage Instability (PBTI) of GaN-based recessed MOS-HEMTs with Fast-IV-Sweep

Method

Qing Zhu, Lixiang Chen, Bin Hou, Mei Wu, Xiaohua Ma and Yue Hao
Key Laboratory for Wide Band-Gap Semiconductor Materials and Devices,
Xidian University, Xi’an 710071, China
zhuqing_xidian@163.com, 13659201704

Abstract
Fast-IV-sweep method was used to investigate the threshold
voltage stability under positive gate stress, with the range of
stress time from 1μs to 1000s, which is more accuracy for
GaN-based recessed MOS HEMTs. Typical DC stress was
also measured as comparison. Δ VTH is caused by traps with
a broad distribution of trapping and emission time constants,
which is relate to traps at the Al2O3/GaN interface and traps
in the bulk of Al2O3 near the interface.

Introduction
GaN-based metal-oxide-semiconductor high-electronmobility Fig.1. Schematic of recessed MOS–HEMT with 15nm Al2O3 .
transistors have been extensively studied for both RF power
electronics as well as high power switching application, Hysteresis of transfer curves at Vd = 0.5V with
mainly due to greatly suppressed gate leakage and enlarged typicalDC-sweep and B1530-fast-IV-sweep are shown in
gate swing compared with the conventional Schottky-gate fig.2, respectively. In typical-DC-sweep, the transfer curve
HEMTs.[1,2] However, even state-of-the-art devices suffer shifts positively by 0.8V in the downward sweep direction,
from stress bias and stress time dependent VTH drifts induced which indicates that trapping and detrapping behavior happen
by forward gate bias stress (PBTI), for additional defects at in the transfer measurements, for the time of measuring
the III-V/dielectric interface or in the dielectric[3,4]. process is not short enough. No hysteresis is observed in
In PBTI measurements, the Vg stress is interrupted to measure transfer curves measured with B1530-fast-IV-sweep, that is to
VTH at each cycle. The threshold voltage is determined from say, fast-IVsweep can suppress trapping effect in the transfer
measured Id-Vg curves [5] or correlation between drain characteristics measurements and improve the accuracy of
current degradation and ΔVTH [6] [7]. In typical DC stress threshold voltage extraction.
measurements, the devices will recover during interruption of
stress and trapping effect happens in the transfer
measurements, which both have impact on evaluation of
stability in threshold voltage. Threshold voltage shift and
drain current degradation can be correlated by monitoring of
drain current in the linear region of transfer characteristic.
Fast transient responses of ΔVTH can also be measured with
this method. However, this method is based on the assumption
that degradation of drain current is induced only by threshold
voltage shift. Both methods have deviation in the evaluation
of threshold voltage stability.
In this paper, fast-IV-sweep method was used to investigate
the threshold voltage stability under positive gate stress, with
an Agilent 1500A with a Waveform Generator/Fast
Measurement Unit (WGFMU) parametric module. We only
need to interrupt the stress for 1 μs to measure the complete
transfer curves in the linear region. Typical DC method was
also used as comparison.

Results and Discussion

The AlGaN/GaN epitaxial layers were grown on sapphire
substrates by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition,
consisting of 3 μm un-doped GaN buffer layer, 1 nm AlN
interlayer and 20 nm Al0.3Ga0.7N barrier layer. The recess
etching depth was 15nm and 15nm Al2O3 gate dielectric was
deposition by PEALD. Gate-source spacing, gate-drain
spacing, gate length and gate width are 0.9 um, 2.6um, 0.5um
and 50um, respectively. Schematic of recessed MOS–HEMT Fig.2. Hysteresis of transfer curves at Vd=0.5V with
typical-DC-sweep (a) and B1530-fast-IV-sweep (b), respectively.
is shown in fig.1.
162
Many papers used the correlation between degradation of
drain current and ΔVTH to investigate the threshold voltage
stability, as shown in fig.3 (a). However, the degradation of
drain current is not only dependent on the threshold voltage
shift, as shown in fig.3 (b) and (c). Transfer curve shifts
positively after 1000s typical DC stress (Vgstress=Vth+9V).
The transconductance not only positively shifts but also
decreases, which indicates that the drain current degradation is
due to both threshold voltage shift and decreasing of mobility.
The mobility decreases because the remote impurity scattering
enhances after positive gate stress, considering that the barrier
layer is only 5nm under gate. [8]
Fig.3.(a) Correlation between drain current degradation and ΔVth.[6]
Transfer characteristics (b) and transconductance (c) before and after
1000s stress at Vg=VTH+9V with typical DC method.
163
Fig.4 shows the VTH versus stress- and recovery-time at
different applied gate stress with typical DC method and
fastIV-sweep method, respectively. The range of stress time is
from 1μs to 1000s with fast-IV-sweep, lager than typical DC
stress. Fast trapping components can be characterization with
fast-IV-sweep method.
Stress-recovery sequences over different gate bias show a
quasi-linear behavior on a semi-logarithmic scale indicating
uniformly distributed time constants. The slope of the
stress/recovery curves increases/decreases with increasing
gate voltage indicating a large amount of traps involved. [6]
Relaxation time dose not be controlled in typical DC stress.
Instead, the relaxation time depends on delay times between
stress and measurement combined with the integration time
used in taking transfer curves, which usually adds up to more
than 1 second.[9] As a result, PBTI under typical DC stress is
weaker than fast-IV-sweep stress, that is to say, typical DC
stress overestimate device stability.
Fig.4. VTH drift as a function of (a) stress- and (b) recovery- time at
different applied gate stress with a typical DC method and
fast-IV-sweep mehtold, respectively

Fig.5. Schematic band diagrams of metal/Al2O3/GaN/AlGaN-GaN
structure (a) at VG = 0 V (b) for electron fast trapping into
Al2O3/GaN interface at VG > 0 V, and (c) for trapped electrons
migrating gradually into unoccupied traps in the bulk of Al2O3 near
the interface..
The nearly logarithmic time evolution of VTH indicates a
broad distribution of corresponding stress and recovery time
constants. [10] In a fresh device at thermal equilibrium, the
traps below Fermi level are filled, while those above Fermi
level are empty, as shown in fig.5(a). Dominant resonant
tunneling of the injected electrons from the thin barrier layer
into the pre-existing defects at the Al2O3/GaN interface
occurs within a short duration upon forward gate stress, as
shown in figure 5(b). Subsequently, trapped electrons migrate
gradually into unoccupied traps in the bulk of Al2O3 near the
interface as mentioned above (see figure 5(c)).
Conclusion
In this paper, fast-IV-sweep method was used to investigate
the threshold voltage stability under positive gate stress, with
the range of stress time from 1μs to 1000s. PBTI under typical
DC stress is weaker than fast-IV-sweep stress and typical DC
stress overestimate device stability. Correlation between drain
current degradation and ΔVth is not suitable for PBTI
investigation of recessed MOS HEMTs, for the decreasing
mobility by remote impurity scattering under positive gate
stress. Fast-IV-sweep method is accuracy to investigate PBTI
of recessed MOS HEMTs.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by National Natural Science
Foundation of China (Grant No. 61334002 and Grant
11690042).
164
References
[1] Y. Hao, L. Yang, X. Ma, J. Ma, M. Cao, C. Pan, et al.,
"High-Performance Microwave Gate-Recessed
AlGaN/AlN/GaN MOS-HEMT With 73% Power-Added
Efficiency," Ieee Electron Device Letters, vol. 32, pp.
626-628, May 2011.
[2] M. Hua, C. Liu, S. Yang, S. Liu, K. Fu, Z. Dong, et al.,
"GaN-Based Metal-Insulator-Semiconductor
HighElectron-Mobility Transistors Using Low-Pressure
Chemical Vapor Deposition SiNx as Gate Dielectric," Ieee
Electron Device Letters, vol. 36, pp. 448-450, May 2015.
[3] S. Yang, S. Liu, Y. Lu, and K. J. Chen, "Trapping
mechanisms in insulated-gate GaN power devices:
Understanding and characterization techniques," Physica
Status Solidi a-Applications and Materials Science, vol. 214,
Mar 2017.
[4] P. Fiorenza, G. Greco, F. Iucolano, A. Patti, and F.
Roccaforte, "Slow and fast traps in metal-oxidesemiconductor
capacitors fabricated on recessed AlGaN/GaN
heterostructures," Applied Physics Letters, vol. 106, Apr 6
2015.
[5] P. Lagger, M. Reiner, D. Pogany, and C. Ostermaier,
"Comprehensive Study of the Complex Dynamics of Forward
Bias-Induced Threshold Voltage Drifts in GaN Based
MIS-HEMTs by Stress/Recovery Experiments," Ieee
Transactions on Electron Devices, vol. 61, pp. 10221030, Apr
2014.
[6] P. Lagger, C. Ostermaier, G. Pobegen, D. Pogany, and
Ieee, Towards Understanding the Origin of Threshold Voltage
Instability of AlGaN/GaN MIS-HEMTs, 2012.
[7] S. Yang, Y. Lu, H. Wang, S. Liu, C. Liu, and K. J. Chen,
"Dynamic Gate Stress-Induced V-TH Shift and Its Impact on
Dynamic R-ON in GaN MIS-HEMTs," Ieee Electron Device
Letters, vol. 37, pp. 157-160, Feb 2016.
[8] T.-H. Hung, M. Esposto, and S. Rajan, "Interfacial charge
effects on electron transport in III-Nitride metal insulator
semiconductor transistors," Applied Physics Letters, vol. 99,
Oct 17 2011.
[9] G. P. Lansbergen, K. Y. Wong, Y. S. Lin, J. L. Yu, F. J.
Yang, C. L. Tsai, et al., "Threshold Voltage Drift (PBTI) in
GaN D-MODE MISHEMTs: Characterization of Fast
Trapping Components," in 2014 Ieee International Reliability
Physics Symposium, ed, 2014.
[10] K. Zhang, M. Wu, X. Lei, W. Chen, X. Zheng, X. Ma, et
al., "Observation of threshold voltage instabilities in
AlGaN/GaN MIS HEMTs," Semiconductor Science and
Technology, vol. 29, Jul 2014.
SW207-201809171511

Analysis of pulse-driven LED junction temperature and its reliability

Nick G. M. Yang1,*, Brian Y. R. Shieh1, Trio F. Y. Zeng1, S. W. Ricky Lee1, 2 1HKUST LED-FPD Technology R&D Center,
Foshan, Guangdong, 528200, China 2Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong
Kong, China *Email: yanggm@fsldctr.org

Abstract
LEDs need to be strobed at some higher pulsed current
whenever high light output for a short duration is necessary. It
is known the higher pulse current induces the more localized
current crowding with overheating and leads to the thermal
runaway, and eventually can result in the early catastrophic
damage. In this paper, the LED light output depreciation and
the junction temperature rise are investigated to evaluate its
reliability under the pulse width modulation (PWM) driven
mode with different currents, duties and frequencies. Fig. 2 The dynamic junction temperature measurement system

Keywords: LED, Pulse width modulation, Dynamic Junction 3 Measurement of dynamic junction temperature and
temperature rise, Reliability reliability test
The medium power 2835 blue light LED was tested with a
1 Introduction nominal DC current of 120mA. Before junction temperature
While LEDs are capable of withstanding current transients rise is measured, the K Factor of LED sample with SMD
well above the maximum nominal current, there are physical packaging is measured by linear regression form 25℃ to
limits that must not be exceeded in order to avoid electrical 100℃. The junction temperature rise at room temperature
over-stress. In the field of fast growing applications such as 25℃ of LED is measured at different driving currents from
the lighting of machine vision and mobile phones, LEDs are 120 to 480mA as shown in Fig. 3.
important because of its fast response when driven by the
large pulse current. However, the induced thermal and the
current crowding in LED chip not only impact the efficacy but
also reduce its reliability.[1]~[9] The technique of
measurement of dynamic junction temperature for LED had
been demonstrated.[10] Thus the LED reliability with
different PWM duties, frequencies and currents was
investigated.

2 System Setup
The real-time monitoring system for LED light output
depreciation developed by our center, as shown in Fig 1, were
used to continuously measure the optical degradation.

Fig. 3 Junction temperature rise at current from DC 120 to

480mA.

The junction temperature rise of LED driven by PWM mode

with duty 25% and 50% at 1KHz for 480mA were shown in
Fig. 4. It is found the peak junction temperature rise reach the
steady-state after about 300 pulses. Fig. 5 shows the dynamic
junction temperature rise at beginning of test. It is found that
the fluctuation of junction temperature rise is less than 5℃.

Fig. 1 The real-time monitoring system for LED light output

depreciation system.

The LED dynamic junction temperature in PWM mode can be

measured by T3Ster, as shown in the Fig. 2.

165
 Fig. 6 Comparison of lumen depreciation between DC and
PWM frequencies between 1KHz and 10KHz for 350mA with
Fig. 4 The peak junction temperature rise of LED driven by duty=50%
PWM mode with duty 25% and 50% at 1KHz for 480mA.

Fig. 7 Comparison of light output depreciation between duty

50% and 25% for 450mA with PWM frequencies 1KHz.

Fig. 5 Dynamic junction temperature rise at beginning of test.

By using the dynamic junction temperature measurement

system, the steady-state junction temperature rise can be
obtained as shown in Table 1.
PWM Duty
25% 50%
480mA/Freq=1KHz
33.267 68.77
PWM Frequency
1KHz 10KHz
350mA/Duty=50%
38.543 29.231
Current
Fig. 8 Comparison of light output depreciation between 350
DC 350mA 480mA
and 480mA with PWM frequencies 1KHz and duty 50%.
85.94 187.507
Table 1 The steady-state junction temperature rise of
experiment

According to the Table 1, under the same duty and same

current, the higher the pulse frequency, the smaller the
junction temperatures rise. Under the same frequency and
same current, the higher the duty, the higher the junction
temperatures rise. And under the same frequency and duty, the
higher the current, the higher the junction temperature rise.
According to Table 1, using the real-time monitoring system
for LED light output depreciation, the light output
depreciation % is depicted in Fig. 6, 7 and 8. And the life time
reaches 70% depreciation (L70) is calculated for comparison
Fig. 9 Comparison of L70 with respect to junction
as shown in Fig. 9.
temperature.
166
Conclusions
The reliability of LED driven by PWM is investigated. The
result successfully shows variation of life time L70 due to the
change of dynamic junction temperature with different PWM
currents, duties and frequencies.

Acknowledgments
This study was supported by the Guangdong Provincial
Department of Science and Technology through project Grant
No. 2015B010127004 and Foshan City Department of
Science and Technology Grant No. 2016AG101402.

References

1. “The Next Big LED Testing Challenge: High Power LED

Modules,” Keithley White Paper.
2. “Reliability and Lifetime of LED,” Osram Application
Note, AN006, 2013
3. “Thermal transient Testing of LEDs for More Reliable SSL
Products by Mentor Graphics,” LpR Article, 2016.
4. “Pulsed Over‑ Current Driving of Cree XLamp LEDs
Information and Cautions,” Cree Application Note,
CLD-AP60.
5. B. J. Huang, M. S. Wu, C. W. Tang, J. W. Chen,
“Reliability test of LED driven by PWM technique,”
Proceedings of SPIE-The International Society for Optical
Engineering, August 2008.
6. Huaijiang Wen, Tongsheng Mou, “Study on measurement
of LED junction temperature and heat capacity by pulse
method,” J. Optoelectronic Component, 2010.
7. Huayong Zou, Lingyan Lu, Jiaqi Wang, Brian Shieh, S. W.
Ricky Lee, “Thermal Characterization of Multi-Chip Light
Emitting Diodes with Thermal Resistance Matrix,” SSL
China, Beijing China, 2017.
8. Quan Chen, Xiaobing Luo, Shengjun Zhou and Sheng Liu,
“Dynamic junction temperature measurement for high power
light Emitting diodes,” Review of Scientific Instruments 82,
084904 (2011).
9. Huaijiang Wen, Tongsheng Mou, “Study on measurement
of LED junction temperature and heat capacity by pulse
method,” J. Optoelectronic Component, 2010.
10. Brian Shieh, Fangyun Zeng, Nick Yang, S.W.Ricky Lee,
“Measurement of Dynamic Junction Temperature for LED
Flash Units of Camera ,” ICEPT 2018, Shanhai China.

167
SW208-201808131119
Operation behavior under extremely high injection level for GaN-based micron LED
Z.Z.Chen1, C.C.Li1, F.Jiao1,2, Q.Q.Jiao1, J.L.Zhan1, Y.B.Tao1, S.Y.Wang1, X.N.Kang1, G.Y.Zhang1,3, B.Shen1
1
State Key Laboratory for Artificial Microstructure and Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing
100871, China
2
State Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Technology, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
3
Sino Nitride Semiconductor Co., Ltd, Dongguan 523500, Guangdong, China
Abstract
In this work, we have fabricated the different diameter
micro pillar μ LEDs with different wavelength and on
different substrates. The electroluminescence (EL) spectra and
current-voltage (I-V) curves were measured. The high saturate
current density was achieved as 300 kA/cm2 for 20μm UV
LED on GaN substrate. Efficiency droop was also improved
greatly for μLEDs. Crosslight software was used to simulate
the transport and recombination processes under the high
injection level. Many-body effect was considered in the
integrated quantum drift-diffusion model. The extreme high
injection mechanism is discussed.
Introduction
Micro disk cavity has been used to obtain the low lasing
threshold for InGaAsP and AlInGaN quaternary systems
[1-3]. Naturally the micro disk was used to make the first
micro light emitting diode (LED) soon after [4-5]. Both the
internal quantum efficiency (IQE) and light extraction
efficiency (LEE) are enhanced for LED compared to the
broad one [5-6]. Recently, many groups report that the LEDs
can work well under extremely high current density (tens of
kA/cm2) [7-9]. The superior performances under the high
injection level have wide application potentials in
semiconductor lighting, visible light communication (VLC),
pumping source for organic laser, vertical cavity surface
emitter laser (VCSEL), cell manipulation, and so on [10-14].
In the early literatures, the excellent thermal dissipation
and current spreading are the causes for the high injection
performance of LEDs [7, 15-16]. However, the maximum
endured current density still increases as the size of μLEDs
reducing down below the current spreading length and
operating under low-duty pulse current. Strain relaxation in
LEDs has been attributed to the improved IQE by the
reduced quantum confined Stark effect (QCSE) [6]. Strain
relaxation seems not significant for μLEDs in the previous
work because of the spatial resolution of the
photoluminescence and Raman measurements [17]. Recently,
by cathodoluminescence (CL) and Kelvin probe force
microscopy (KPFM), we characterized the strain of the
LEDs in nm-class spatial resolution [18-19].
Strain relaxation not only advantages increasing the carrier
concentration in QWs by the reduction of QCSE, but also
abbreviates the band gap renormalization effect (BGRE) [8,
16, 20]. High injection performance for μLEDs seems clear
when considering the current spreading, strain relaxation and
BGRE. Recently, the 92 kA/cm2 is reported through tightly
lateral oxide-confined scheme [9] and more than 300 kA/cm2
are achieved in our ultraviolet (UV) μLEDs [21], which is
much larger than the threshold of the normal laser diode. The
carrier concentration in the QWs will exceed to 10 21 cm-3.
Under such injection level, the more processes should be
168
considered, such as many-body effect, plasma, hot carrier, and
so on.
In this work, the blue, green and violet LEDs are
fabricated with different diameter sizes. The freestanding GaN
substrate and sapphire substrate are used. The
electroluminescence (EL) spectra and current-voltage (I-V)
curves are measured. The many-body model is built by the
Crosslight software. The extreme high injection mechanism is
discussed.
Experiment
The epitaxial structure of the InGaN/GaN MQWs LED
was grown on sapphire substrate and freestanding GaN
substrate by metal organic chemical vapour deposition
(MOCVD). It consists of undoped GaN, Si-doped n-GaN, five
periods of GaN/InGaN MQW layers, where the In
composition is controlled by the growth temperature of InGaN
layer. The violet, blue and green LEDs are designed and
grown. Mg-doped AlGaN electron-blocking layer (EBL) and
Mg-doped p-GaN are capped on the MQW. Doping
concentrations of n-GaN and p-GaN were 5 × 101 cm−3 and 8
8
17 −3
× 10 cm respectively. Conventional photolithography and
inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etching technology were
used to obtain micron pillars with the size ranging from 300 to
10 μm. KOH solution was applied to repair etching damages
on the sidewall of our samples.
Light output power (LOP) measurements were performed
by a calibrated Si photo-detector while EL spectra were
collected by a SSP 6612 LED Multiple Parameters Tester with
a coupled spectrometer and charge coupled device (CCD)
detection system in an integrated sphere. Pulse current was
gradually applied on these μLEDs with current densities
varying from 0 to 320 kA/cm2. The pulse width is 10
microsecond, and the duty cycle is 10-0.01%. The current,
carrier distributions and spontaneous emission rate of μLEDs
were simulated by APSYS package of Crosslight software
[22], in which the many body effect, current spreading, strain
relaxation and thermal effect were taken into account.
Results and discussion
Fig.1 shows the optical and electrical properties under
different current densities for 20 μm LEDs on different
substrate. “fs” means the LED on the freestanding GaN, and
“ref” corresponds to the LED on the sapphire substrate. It is
found that the saturate current densities are more than 10
kA/cm2 for 20 μm LEDs on both GaN and sapphire substrates.
Fig.1b shows the leakage current is less than 1nA@-5V, which
means that the high saturate current injects completely into the
MQWs active layers. On the freestanding GaN, μLEDs shows
higher luminous and electrical performances than those for the
sapphire one. It is due to the high crystal quality and thermal
dissipation. The values are an order higher than the broad
LED on GaN substrate [23], which will be discussed later.
 fs-20um
1.4x104
ref-20um
Light Output Power (a.u.)
1.2x104
14.20KA/cm2
1.0x104
8.0x103
6.0x103
0.0 8.0k
J(A/cm2)
Fig.1 (a) L-J and I-V curves for 20 μm LEDs on different
substrate.
EL spectra under different current density have been
measured for these μLEDs. The peak wavelengths shows the
blueshift first and then redshift with the current density
increasing. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the
EL peaks increases monotonously. The turnover point is 17.77
kA/cm2 for freestanding μLED, which is more than that for
sapphire one. The blueshift is due to the polarization field
screening and band filling effect. The redshift corresponds to
thermal effect and the BGRE, which is discussed in our
previous work [8]. Phonon assistant recombination will lead
to the redshift and the wide FWHM of the emission.
Different diameter micron pillar μLEDs are fabricated
ranging from 10 to 300 μm, which are grown on GaN
substrate. The L-I curves show that smaller size μLEDs can
endure higher current density. Fig.2 shows that the saturate
current density increases from 20.38 to 50.24 kA/cm2 when
the pillar diameter changes from 20 to 10 μm. The mesa
diameter below 40 μm is smaller than the current spreading
length [24]. However, the saturate current density increases
significantly and the effect of efficiency droop weakens when
the diameter is reduced down to 10 μm. There should be some
other factors to explain the extremely high current density for
smaller μLEDs. The peak wavelength shows the same trend
with the above results. The turnover point also increases with
the size reduction of the μLEDs. The turnover point for the 10
μm LED is about 30.83 kA/cm2. As to the FWHM of the EL
peak, the curves are nearly overlapped at the same range of
the current density.
20.38KA/cm2
(a)
16.0k 24.0k
Fig.2 Light output power of fs-10um and fs-20um LEDs
under different current density.
(a) (b)
(b)
500um 500um
Fig.3 EL Photographs for (a) blue, (b) green μLED arrays.
The current density is set as 10A/cm2 for taken the photos
clearly.
The different emission wavelength μLEDs were fabricated
too. Fig.3 shows the EL photographs for 4*24 pixels of blue
and green 20 μm LEDs. The emission area is about 1% of the
1mm size chips. It can work well under the 200 mA direct
current, which means the current density is about 2 kA/cm2.
The efficiency droop are also measured. The value of
efficiency droop is defined as (EQEpeak-EQE200A/cm2)/EQEpeak.
The values of 20 μm LEDs for blue and green emissions are
8% and 15%, respectively. Unser the level of 200A/cm2, the
efficiency droop of the broad LEDs generally exceeds 50%.
The uniform current spreading make the hotspot on the chip
not significant. Moreover, the less strain in the QWs make the
radiation recombination more rapidly, which will reduce the
Auger recombination and carrier leakage.
The efficiency droop significantly improves when the
emssion wavelength becomes short. On the freestanding GaN
sustrates, the ultraviolet (UV) μLEDs are fabricated with the
emission wavelength is about 380 nm. The saturate current
density for the 20 μm UV LED is typically about 300 kA/cm2,
which is the highest value as our known. It is nearly three
orders higher than the broad ones. The QCSE is less
-droop is
abbreviated for blue and UV LEDs. However, the polarization
field would be screened well by the several tens or hundreds
kA/cm2. The carrier transportation and recombination
processes in these μLEDs should be considered further.
169

Fig.4 Integrated quantum drift-diffusion model
APSYS package of Crosslight software used the k.p theory
based on MQW model for wurtzite material system,
polarization charge/self consistent model, many
body/spontaneous theory for MQW, and non-equilibrium
quantum transport model [22], as shown in Fig.4. Because of
the extreme high injection density, the high carrier
concentration over 1021 cm-3 is supposed in the active QWs.
So the single electron approximate is not valid, many body
gain theory are used in the simulation.
Fig.5 Energy band diagram of conduction band for possible
paths of carrier transport and recombination [8].
At last, the energy band diagram of conduction band for
possible paths of carrier transport and recombination are
shown in Fig.5. When the high current injects into the MQWs
of μLEDs, non equilibrium carriers with excessive energy
become hot carriers in the QWs. The injection and
recombination processes make the carriers distributed in the
localized and extending states steadily after a very short time.
Electron-phonon and electron-electron scattering lead to
carrier relaxation to the states on the CB bottom as free
carriers. And then free carriers on CB bottom may also relax
to some localized states. Many-body effect plays an very
important role in the spontaneous emission.
Conclusions
In summary, different diameter micro pillar μLEDs were
fabricated with different wavelength and on different
substrates. The high saturate current density as 300 kA/cm2
was achieved for 20μm UV LED on GaN substrate. Efficiency
droop was also improved greatly for μLEDs. Many-body
effect was used in the integrated quantum drift-diffusion
model. The high injection performance for μLEDs is probably
due to the uniform current spreading, strain affected BGRE
and micro cavity effect.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by National Key Research and
Development Program under Grant No. 2017YFB0403601,
National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant
No. 61674005, National Natural Science Foundation of China
170
under Grant No. 61334009, Beijing Municipal Science &
Technology Commission under Grant No. Z161100001616010,
Science and Technology Major Project of Guangdong
Province under Grant No. 2016B010111001 and the Science
and Technology Planning Project of Henan Province under
Grant No. 161100210200.
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171
SW208-201808152133

A GaN Micro-LED Based Underwater Wireless Optical Communication Subjected to Sea Salt,
Maalox and Chlorophyll

Honglan Chen1#, Peiyao Wang1#, Xiaoyan Liu1, Suyu Yi1, Xiaolin Zhou1, Erdan Gu1, Kai Huang2, Lirong Zheng1, Ran Liu1,
Xugao Cui1*, and Pengfei Tian1*
1
Institute for Electric Light Sources, School of Information Science and Technology, Engineering Research Center of
Advanced Lighting Technology, and Academy of Engineering and Technology, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China
2
Department of Physics, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Semiconductor Materials and Applications, Xiamen University,
Xiamen, 361005, China
#
These authors contributed equally to this work.
*
Emails: pftian@fudan.edu.cn, cuixugao@fudan.edu.cn

(a) Receiver
Abstract
Tank length:2.3m
An underwater wireless optical communication (UWOC) Transmitter
system based on a 40 μm GaN micro-LED was proposed and
successfully demonstrated. The system’s performances under
sea salt, Maalox and Chlorophyll added water were studied. (b) (c)
The measurements in bit error rates (BERs) and eye diagrams Lens
show that the performances of UWOC systems degrade
significantly with increasing concentrations of added
substances in water. Maximum transmission data rates up to
933 Mbps, 790 Mbps, 800 Mbps and 910 Mbps were detected
in the systems under conditions of tap water, 0.5% sea salt, 1 Micro-LED Lens APD
ml Maalox and 0.25 ml chlorophyll in 414 L tap water,
respectively. (d)
1. Introduction

High-speed underwater wireless optical communication

(UWOC) has gained much interest for its great advantages
over acoustic communication and radio frequency (RF)
communication in oceanography investigation, sea floor
monitoring and offshore oil exploration [1-5]. Blue-green
laser diodes (LDs) and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are
usually employed as light sources of UWOC due to low light
absorption in water, which results in much higher
transmission data rates, lower link delays and lower
implementation costs [2]. However, neither LDs nor LEDs are
without flaws in serving as light sources for UWOC. LDs are
not cheap and the emitted beams may cause safety issues [1].
The commercial conventional LEDs suffer from low
modulation bandwidth when being put to application in
UWOC [1]. In comparison with LEDs and LDs, micro-LED is
more favored in UWOC for its potential advantages such as
high brightness, good reliability, low cost, high safety, high
modulation bandwidth and energy saving [1,6,7]. To date, few
reports on applications of micro-LED in UWOC can be found.
Here, we proposed a GaN micro-LED based UWOC
system and studied the system’s performances under sea salt,
Maalox and chlorophyll added water. Maximum data rates of
up to 933 Mbps, 790 Mbps, 800 Mbps and 910 Mbps were
obtained in the system under conditions of tap water, 0.5% sea
salt, 1 ml Maalox and 0.25 ml chlorophyll in 414 L tap water,
respectively. The corresponding bit error rates (BERs) were
3.75 × 10-3, 3.78 × 10-3, 3.74 × 10-3 and 3.4 × 10-3,
respectively, all below the forward error correction (FEC)
threshold of 3.8 × 10-3.
2. Experiment
172
Fig. 1. Actual pictures of (a) the transmission link, (b) the packaged micro-LED
transmitter, (c) the APD receiver and (d) schematic diagram of our UWOC
system.
The experiment setup of a GaN micro-LED based
underwater optical communication system is shown in Fig. 1.
Figs. 1(a)-(c) show the actual pictures of the transmission link,
the packaged micro-LED transmitter and the APD receiver.
The transmitter consists of a packaged blue-emitting
micro-LED array, and in this work we employed a 40 μm × 40
μm micro-LED with a maximum modulation bandwidth of
~230 MHz [6-7]. The length of the water tank is 2.3 m.
Maalox, chlorophyll, sea salt of varied concentrations were
added to water. The major elements of sea salt are chloride,
sodium, magnesium, calcium, potassium, sulfate, bicarbonate
and strontium, among which the first two account for the
largest proportions. Maalox is an over-the-counter antacid
medication, containing aluminum hydroxide (220 mg / 5 ml)
and magnesium hydroxide (195 mg / 5 ml) as primary
ingredients. Solutions of Swisse chlorophyll, a drinkable
health care product, mainly consist of purified water, sodium
magnesium chlorophyll (20 mg / ml), sodium and potassium.
During the experiment, two APDs were used at different data
rates, one with high-bandwidth 1GHz Thorlabs APD210 and (a)
the other with high-sensitivity 100 MHz Hamamatsu APD. 10
-3 FEC threshold
Fig. 1(d) shows the schematic diagram of the experimental 100MHz APD
setup for UWOC. The transmitted pseudo random binary 10
-5

sequence (PRBS) combined with DC injection current through

BER
a bias-tee was loaded to drive a 445 nm micro-LED. -7
1GHz APD
10
On-off-keying (OOK) modulation was used. The optical
signals from the blue-emitting light collimated by the
-9
transmitter lens (Tx lens) were firstly transmitted through a 10
0.05% sea salt
2.3 m water tank, and then were focused by the receiver lens 0.5% sea salt
1% sea salt
(Rx lens), and were eventually converted into electrical signal 10
-11

200 400 600 800 1000

through the APD receiver for BERs and eye diagrams tests.
Data rate (Mbps)
An Anritsu MP1800 signal quality analyzer with an error
(b)
detector module (0.1-14 Gbps) was used to measure the -3
10 FEC threshold
BERs. The eye diagrams were captured by an Agilent 86100A
wide-bandwidth oscilloscope (14 GHz).
-5
10 1GHz APD
3. Results and Discussions

BER
-7
10
Increasing amounts of Maalox, chlorophyll and sea salt
were added to 414 L tap water, respectively, and the -9
100MHz APD 1mL Maalox
10
characteristics of BER versus transmission data rate were 2mL Maalox
measured for each increment. The amounts used were 1, 2 and -11
4mL Maalox
10
4 ml Maalox, 0.025, 0.25, 2.5, 5 ml chlorophyll, 0.2, 2.08, 200 400 600 800 1000
4.14 kg sea salt in approximate 414 L water. Fig. 2 shows the Data rate (Mbps)
curves of BER versus transmission data rate in the presence of (c)
-3
different concentrations of sea salt, chlorophyll and Maalox in 10 FEC threshold
water. From Figs. 2 (a), (b) and (c), it is observed in common
that BERs sharply increased with increasing date rates. 10
-5

Moreover, data rates decreased with increasing concentrations 1GHz APD

BER

of sea salt, Maalox and chlorophyll in water. Added 10

-7

substances in water resulted in light absorption and scattering.

An increase in concentration of water impurities has -9 100MHz APD 0.025mL chlorophyll
10 0.25mL chlorophyll
considerable impacts on the scattering coefficient [8]. In Fig.
2.5mL chlorophyll
2, FEC threshold of 3.8 × 10-3 is marked in short-dash line. 5mL chlorophyll
-11
The maximum data rates of up to 933 Mbps, 790 Mbps, 800 10
200 400 600 800 1000
Mbps and 910 Mbps were detected, respectively. Data rate (Mbps)
The attenuation can be calculated as the sum of the
Fig. 2. BER versus transmission data rate in the presence of different
contributions from absorption and scattering [4,5,9,10]. The concentrations of (a) sea salt, (b) chlorophyll and (c) Maalox.
added sea salt in tap water mainly influenced the UWOC
system by inducing the impurities scattering, and thus Eye diagram measurements of our UWOC system at the
attenuated the transmitted power of the blue emitting light of data rate of 700 Mbps were performed under conditions of tap
the micro-LED [11]. Maalox attenuated the transmitted light water, 0.5% sea salt, 1 ml Maalox and 0.25 ml chlorophyll
mainly by inducing light scattering as well, which follows added water, and the results were shown in Fig. 3. The eye in
Monte Carlo simulation [3, 8-10]. Pigment in chlorophyll Fig. 3(a) without adding water impurities is relatively clearer
caused great absorbance of the blue-emitting light and the than those in Figs. 3(c)-(d). The corresponding BERs of 1.29
particles also contributed to the scattering coefficient [8]. × 10-7, 9.42 × 10-4, 3.6 × 10-4, and 1.3 × 10-6 were evaluated,
respectively. It can be concluded that the performances of
UWOC highly depend on the solution concentrations.

173
 (b) Underwater Wireless Optical Communication,” IEEE
(a)
Commun. Surv. Tutor., Vol. 19, No. 1 (2016), pp. 204-238.
17.8 mV/div

7.4 mV/div
3. F. Hanson, S. Radic, “High Bandwidth Underwater Optical
Communication,” Appl. Opt, Vol. 47, No. 2 (2008), pp.
277-283.
4. H. M. Oubei, R. T. ElAfandy, K. Park, T. K. Ng, M.
500 ps/div 500 ps/div Alouini and B. S. Ooi, “Performance Evaluation of
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13.6 mV/div
7.2 mV/div

5. Y. Zhao, A. Wang, L. Zhu, W. Lv, J. Xu, S. Li, and J.

500 ps/div 500 ps/div
Fig. 3. Eye diagrams at 700Mbps of the UWOC system in the presence of (a)
tap water, (b) 0.5% sea salt, (c) 1 ml Maalox and (d) 0.25 ml chlorophyll in
water.
4. Conclusions
An UWOC system in the presence of Maalox, chlorophyll,
and sea salt based on a micro-LED was proposed and
successfully demonstrated. High transmission data rates
confirm good performances of our UWOC systems, which
could be a promising technique for high-speed real-time
underwater data communications in different water types.
Acknowledgments
This research was sponsored by National Natural Science
Foundation of China (NSFC) (61705041 and 61571135),
Shanghai Sailing Program (17YF1429100), Shanghai
Technical Standard Program (18DZ2206000), and National
Key Research and Development Program of China
(2017YFB0403603).
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174