Influence of the Thermal Conductivity of Thermally Conductive Plastics on the Thermal Distribution of an Light-Emitting Diode Headlight for Vehicles.

Abstract

This paper investigates the thermal distribution of an LED headlight for vehicles based on the thermal conductivity of thermally conductive plastics (TCP). In general, heat dissipation structures used for LED headlights are made from metallic materials. However, headlight structures made from TCP have not been investigated. The headlights made from TCP having a various thermal conductivity were fabricated by injection molding with and without a metal plate insert. The temperature characteristics were compared and analyzed using thermal simulations and measurement. The inserted metal in TCP greatly reduced the temperature at solder point, indicating that the fast heat dissipation from the high power LED package to TCP though the inserted metal is essential. The measured temperature at solder points decreased as the thermal conductivity of TCP increased, which is well matched to the simulation results. The measured temperature at the solder point was lower than 150 °C when the thermal conductivity of the TCP was 10 W/mK.