Ambient Lighting Design Utilizing RGB LEDs
Ambient Lighting Design Utilizing RGB LEDs
com
Application Note
Valid for:
MULTILED® (LRTB GVSG)
Abstract
In recent years tunable color applications for automotive
interior lighting has become a major market trend. Therefore,
OSRAM Opto Semiconductors offers MULTILED® RGB LEDs
for flexible lighting solutions.
This application note describes the advantages and challenges
of utilizing RGB LEDs for ambient lighting control. Besides
pointing out practical challenges, preferred solutions for RGB
LEDs are outlined and discussed to assist customers with
engineering design solutions.
Table of contents
A. Advantages of RGB LEDs .......................................................................................2
B. RGB LED design .....................................................................................................3
C. Challenges in driving RGB LEDs ............................................................................4
Temperature drifts ..............................................................................................4
Current fluctuations ............................................................................................6
Binning size .........................................................................................................7
Single bin versus calibration ...............................................................................8
Lifetime degradation ...........................................................................................9
D. Solutions for color control ....................................................................................10
Calibration .........................................................................................................11
Color and brightness stabilization over temperature ........................................11
Thermal management .......................................................................................11
E. Sylvania ColorCalculator .......................................................................................14
F. Example for color mixing .......................................................................................14
G. Summary ..............................................................................................................16
RGB chips + +
Sunlight
6500K
One package combining chips of 3 Package with one chip (blue) and
different colors (red, green, blue) a convertor (yellow)
Multi-color capacity Single-color
Tunable color White color
Low CRI High CRI
Figure 2: MULTILED®
Temperature drifts
Temperature variations have an impact on the spectrum of the LED. Therefore,
the temperature dependence of the LED parameters are evaluated in the
temperature range from - 40 °C to + 120 °C (TJ).
For the LED chips, an increase in temperature leads to an expansion of the
crystal lattice. This results in an increase in the lattice constant and a smaller
band gap energy. The band gap energy has an inverse correlation with the
emission wavelength of the semiconductor material. Thus, an increase in
temperature results in a shift towards a longer emission wavelength and a
reduced forward voltage VF. Figure 3 shows the data sheet curves for the
dominant wavelength for all colors.
This effect needs to be taken into account in a color correction algorithm in order
to achieve good color accuracy.
As the temperature of the LED increases, the dominant emission wavelength for
all three dies increases (see Figure 3). The blue and green spectra shift into the
region of increased eye sensitivity, whereas the red spectrum shifts towards
decreased luminous eye sensitivity (Figure 4). This effect contributes to the
overall behavior of intensity versus temperature. The other effect is the reduced
electron hole recombination with increasing temperature.
T T T
Normalized
intensity
Photopic response
curve
Blue LED
Green LED
Red LED
T Temperature increase
Figure 5 shows the intensity versus temperature behavior for all three chips used
in the LRTB GVSG LED. The luminous intensity of red InGaAlP LEDs significantly
decreases with increasing LED operating temperatures. For blue and green
InGaN LEDs the decrease in luminous intensity is less pronounced. If the
application shows a temperature gradient between the LEDs, this can result in
visible color variations.
For temperature control, it is recommended to monitor the temperature of the
LED solder joint. Temperature information can be utilized to compensate for
shifts in LED parameters and correctly hit desired color targets. Please refer to
the chapter “Solutions for color control” for a detailed description.
Current fluctuations
Forward current plays an additional role in color consistency. LEDs do not follow
a perfectly linear relationship between forward current and luminous intensity, an
effect called LED droop. The details on the curves can be found in the data sheet.
In addition there is also a dependency of the dominant wavelength of the LED
chip on the forward current. Figure 6 shows the details for different colors. For
red there is hardly any color shift as a function of current, whereas blue and green
show a reduction of the dominant wavelength with increasing forward current.
Green shows a larger effect than blue. Taking these current density effects into
account is very complex and therefore it is recommended to drive each LED chip
with a constant current source and using pulse width modulation (PWM) to
adjust the individual brightness of each chip. This approach will result in better
color control. Please refer to the chapter “Solutions for color control” for a
detailed explanation.
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
-2
-4
-6
-8
Forward current /mA
Binning size
The color and intensity of all three dies in the RGB package determine the
achievable color of the LED. The range of colors available in a system is called
color gamut.
Tight chromaticity binning enables customers to improve the overall color gamut
of their system. The number of selected color bins influences the size of the
common color gamut achievable with that LED binning group. This is illustrated
in Figure 7, where a small selection of color bins allows for more saturated color
options and a larger gamut than in the case of all the color bins combined. Tight
binning also ensures that products can attain desired color target points,
particularly those set by the end customer to maintain color homogeneity.
To improve color consistency, OSRAM Opto Semiconductors provides
extremely tight intensity and color binning. For example the MULTILED
LRTB GVSG has 22 color bins and 31 intensity bins. Each reel that is delivered
will have only one color bin and one intensity bin for each die in the RGB LED.
While binning significantly reduces possible color distribution, it does not
remove color inconsistencies completely. Figure 8 shows that an RGB LED
without temperature control will not consistently hit the desired color target, even
for single color and brightness bins. Thus, tightening manufacturing tolerances
alone will not improve the color precision of RGB LEDs.
0.8
0.4
All bins
0.2
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
Figure 8: Color point and distribution for a single color and brightness bin, but without
calibration and temperature control
Color 2, 3 4, 5, 6 M, N, O
Lifetime degradation
An LEDs performance diminishes over time due to environment and aging. While
OSRAM Opto Semiconductors does recommend specific operating conditions
to maximize LED lifetime, LED output degradation over continued use is a natural
process. While the gradual dimming of one die is quite tolerable for single color
LEDs, the effects are compounded in RGB LEDs.
Package aging is a factor that needs to be considered for color accurate RGB
LED applications. Package aging is mainly driven by the reduction in reflectivity
(“also known as browning”) of the LED cavity material. This aging effect is mainly
caused by high operating temperatures in combination with high levels of short
wavelength (blue light) irradiation. For more details on aging please refer to the
application note “Reliability and lifetime of LEDs”.
For an RGB LED, package aging will start in the vicinity of the blue LED die.
Therefore, the blue intensity will decrease first while red and green will decrease
more slowly over a longer time period. In order to estimate the effect of package
aging it is important to take an exemplary mission profile of the application into
account. Table 3 shows an exemplary mission profile that is relevant for an
automotive interior RGB application. This mission profile can be converted into
equivalent operating hours under reliability test conditions. In this example, the
test conditions TA test= 85 °C and IF test= 40 mA are applied, which result in
TJ test= 132 °C. The corresponding models used for this conversion are based
on the Arrhenius model.
Profile TAmbient TLED [Tj] “On” time profile AF “On” time test
6% - 40 °C 1 °C 480 h 465.84 1h
1% 80 °C 121 °C 80 h 1.40 57 h
8,000 h 1,392 h
For this mission profile, the 8,000 hours lifetime corresponds to ~ 1,400 hours
under reliability test conditions (85 °C ambient temperature @ 40 mA driving
current for blue). The intensity reduction for blue is the best indicator for package
degradation and will be used for a worst case assessment of package aging. The
reliability test results, which are shown in Figure D, serves as an example for the
package aging process. The intensity distribution after 1400 hours ranges
between 95 % and 100 % of the initial brightness with an average intensity
degradation of about 2.5 % which will not be visible to the eye. On the other
hand the eye is very sensitive to color differences and therefore color accuracy
is a much better indicator when considering package aging effects for RGB
applications.
Figure 10: Lifetime degradation of the LRTB GVSG for the blue chip exemplary
LRTB GVSG (Blue)
T = 85 °C / 40 mA; Blue chip 100 % DC operation during test (worst case)
1392 h
„On“ time test*
IV [%] = 95 %
Typical color accuracy requirements for an RGB applications are ± 0.01 in u’v’.
For a worst case estimate on package aging, we assume a 5 % reduction in the
blue intensity and no intensity reduction in the red and green. Of course if the
intensity of all colors would decrease at the same rate there would be no impact
in color but just on intensity. Targeting a typical white point leads to a maximum
color difference of 0.003 (u’v’) between the two extreme LEDs (95 % versus
100 % intensity) which is well below the requirement of 0.01. Additionally, in a
real world application, the blue LED die will not always be driven constantly at
full power over the whole lifetime. From the data above it can be clearly
concluded that for an automotive interior application based on the LRTB GVSG
it is not necessary to take package aging into account and feed it into a
compensation algorithm.
Calibration
Many RGB modules can undergo a calibration procedure to maximize LED color
and brightness consistency. Either populated on an open PCB, or integrated into
the final product, the module is pre-programmed with the LED’s initial properties.
During normal operation, the module utilizes this stored information and adjusts
the driving conditions based on temperature measurement to hit the desired
color and intensity target.
Application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) are available in many form factors
and are integrated with a microprocessor, constant current controllers and on-
board memory. They can be passively (generic) calibrated with the RGB LED’s
performance information, including wavelength and intensity from prior
measurements. In order to achieve good color accuracy, active calibration with
the measured LED parameters on PCB, at the default driving conditions, needs
to be incorporated. While requiring a more complex production setup, active
calibration does not require prior LED performance information. Calibration
improves the module´s color accuracy, and allows for a more relaxed LED
binning selection (see Figure 9).
Thermal management
Thermal management is important to stabilize the LED´s output. The LED´s p-n
junction temperature (Tj) represents one of the major factors which influence the
lifetime and the reliability of LEDs. Lower the junction temperatures result in
higher expected lifetimes. The maximum allowed value for Tj can be found in the
product data sheet. Detailed information on this topic is provided in the
application notes “Package related thermal resistance of LEDs” and “The
thermal measurement point of LEDs”.
Determining the junction temperature of RGB LEDs is challenging because the
direct thermal measurement of the p-n junction is almost impossible. The
measurement point and estimated junction temperature depend on the RGB
LEDs mode of operation. In general, the junction temperature can be
Figure 11: Boundary conditions of the thermal simulation of the junction temperatures
TJ
Simulation model: Boundary conditions:
• Ambient temperature Tamb = 20 °C
MULTILED LRTB GVSG • Still air
• Conjugate heat transfer
• Steady state solution
• Conjugate heat transfer
Solder pad
A = 16 mm²
Single sided FR4 PCB
t = 1.6 mm
35 μm Copper
Conditions:
—27.7
—20
—28.3
—20
E. Sylvania ColorCalculator
OSRAM Opto Semiconductors offers a free tool for its customers, the Sylvania
ColorCalculator. This software allows the user to import spectra of multiple LED
dies and mix them at specified output levels to calculate the final color point.
Additionally, if LED spectrum and a desired chromaticity point are specified, the
ColorCalculator can determine the required die intensities to generate that
desired color target. Individual filters can be uploaded to simulate the
transmission curves of the materials used for the application system.
For information on the Sylvania ColorCalculator and the download link, please
visit here.
C xi 1 – C xi – C yi
, with Yi = Ii, X i = Y i -------- and Z i = Y i ---------------------------------
C yi C yi
R
x = G
B
TX XG XB
det T Y Y G Y B
TZ ZG ZB
det A 1
R = ------------------ = -------------------------------------------
det A
XR XG XB
d et Y R Y G Y B
ZR ZG ZB
XR T X XB
det Y R T Y Y B
ZR T Z ZB
det A 2
G = ------------------ = --------------------------------------
det A
XR XG XB
det Y R Y G Y B
ZR ZG ZB
XR XG TX
det Y R Y G TY
ZR ZG TZ
det A 3
B = ------------------ = --------------------------------------
det A
XR XG XB
det Y R Y G Y B
ZR ZG ZB
a 11 a 12 a 13
det a 21 a 22 a 23 = a11• a22 • a33 + a12 • a23 • a31 + a13 • a21 • a32
a 31 a 32 a 33 - (a12 • a21 • a33) - (a13 • a22 • a31) - (a23 • a32 • a11)
G. Summary
RGB LEDs enable ambient light solutions that offer very large color gamut as well
as color tunability. The challenges of tight color control over all operating
conditions can be overcome by using suitable connective algorithms and LED
driving schemes.
www.ledlightforyou.com
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