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Four-level optical design in LED lighting

Article in SPIE Newsroom · November 2011

DOI: 10.1117/2.1201111.003882

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 10.1117/2.1201111.003882

Four-level optical design in LED

lighting
Ching-Cherng Sun

A series of approaches to precisely determine the spatial and chromatic

performance of LEDs help to achieve optimal energy efficiency.

Light-emitting diodes are considered the most important light

source of the 21st century owing to advantages of energy
saving, long life, fast response, high color performance, and
environmental benefit. In particular, many applications of LEDs
as modern luminaires (lamps) for street lighting have been pro-
posed and demonstrated. Two major obstacles to widespread
use of the technology are the efficacy of LED luminaires and
their operating cost. Optical design plays a key role in achiev-
ing effective LED solid-state lighting (SSL), which in turn makes
the technology less expensive. Here, we classify optical design
for LED SSL into four levels that precisely describe the light
Figure 1. Simulation of light-extraction efficiency (LEE) for sapphire-
distribution by an LED die to a luminaire and result in a more
based and thin gallium nitride (GaN) LEDs with photon-recycling
efficient and user-friendly process.
structures in strong or weak absorption conditions. LEC: Lens encap-
The zero-level optics for LED SSL aims at increasing the
sulation.
light-extraction efficiency (LEE) or changing the emitting light
pattern at the die level. Figure 1 shows an LEE simulation for
sapphire and thin gallium nitride LEDs into which we have
introduced microstructures. In this case, the LEE enhancement is
caused by photon recycling in the LED cavity.1, 2 An alternative
means of enhancement is lens encapsulation, which involves
enlarging the cone of escaping light from the die. When the
absorption of the active layer of an LED die is as low as
200cm 1 , an appropriate microstructure with concomitant ef-
fective photon recycling in the die cavity can lead to an LEE of
90%.3 When the absorption is as strong as 10,000cm 1 , quantum
photon recycling may be helpful in increasing the efficiency.3
Additionally, specific microstructures can change the lighting
pattern of an LED, increasing directionality to 400% that of a
standard device (see Figure 2).4
The first-level optics for LED SSL is intended to precisely Figure 2. A simulation of LEDs with photon-recycling structures and
model the spatial and chromatic distribution of a light source. the results of directionality enhancement.
For spatial distribution we have proposed a modeling scheme
based on a so-called midfield model and applied it to a vari-
ety of practical LEDs (see Figure 3).5–7 For chromatic distribu- Continued on next page
tion we have demonstrated a phosphor modeling scheme (see
 10.1117/2.1201111.003882 Page 2/3

Figure 3. Midfield modeling (top) and comparison of the simulated and measured light patterns in the midfield region (bottom). The normalized
cross-correlation (NCC) between the simulated light pattern and the corresponding measurement at 1.8, 3.0, and 5.0cm is larger than 99.5%,
which is sufficient for precise optical design.

Figure 5. A butterfly-form lens applied to street lighting with two clus-

ter LEDs.

or more adjacent LEDs because the light pattern becomes dis-

torted and the illumination on the target will not be acceptable.
Figure 4. The modeling algorithm for phosphors.
Rather, based on a precise optical model, we have proposed a
butterfly lens to direct the lights by two adjacent cluster LEDs
Figure 4). The phosphor model accurately predicts the flux
to the designed illuminated area for a street light (see Figure
ratio of blue and yellow lights to enable precise simulation of
5).9 For another important application, i.e., forward lighting in
the chromatic performance of a phosphor-based LED, including
a vehicle, we have proposed incorporating a reflector into a
correlated color temperature and color-rendering index.8
light pipe and have applied it to a bicycle headlamp.10 Other
The second-level optics focuses on designing an appropriate
designs in second-level optics that we are working on in-
optical component to spread or project emitting lights to the
clude high-efficiency focal adjustable spotlights, automobile and
desired target. In contrast to point sources, LEDs are compli-
motorcycle headlamps, and ultra-large-angle street lights.
cated. For example, in practical applications such as street lights,
a donut lens is conventionally used for wide-angle illumina-
tion along the road. But this solution is not suitable for two Continued on next page

Figure 6. The calculated cavity transmittance with diffusers of various
one-shot transmittance. E: Efficiency. Rb R: The product of the one-shot
reflectance of the diffuser and reflectance of the side walls in the cavity.
T: Transmittance. T70/T60/T55: One-shot transmittance of 70/60/55%
of the diffuser.
The objective of third-level optics for LED SSL is to reduce
and even prevent glare from LED luminaires. One straight-
forward approach is to enlarge the effective emitting area of
the light source by placing LED arrays at the bottom of an
optical cavity covered with a diffuser. We recently reported
a study of the theoretical calculation as well as experimental
demonstration of the cavity efficiency with one or two diffusers
(see Figure 6).11 Surprisingly, we found that, given a proper
photon recycling structure in the cavity, the cavity transmittance
can be as high as 93%, whereas the one-shot transmittance of
the diffuser is only 70% or less. The study shows that a thin
cavity with high optical efficiency and uniformity across the exit
surface can easily be achieved using the photon-recycling tech-
nique.
In summary, we have effectively applied optical design to LED
SSL at four different levels. All the approaches are aimed at
precisely determining the spatial and chromatic performance of
an LED and increasing the optical utilization factor of an LED
luminaire to achieve optimal energy efficiency. In future work,
we will study the limit of efficacy of an LED luminaire for
various illumination applications.
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10.1117/2.1201111.003882 Page 3/3
Author Information
Ching-Cherng Sun
National Central University (NCU)
Chung-Li, Taiwan
Ching-Cherng Sun is currently a leader of NCU’s research group
in LED solid-state lighting. He also chairs the Department of Op-
tics and Photonics. His research in LED lighting includes light-
extraction analysis, optical modeling for light sources and phos-
phors, LED packages, and antiglare technology.
References
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c 2011 SPIE