Novel graphene heat spreaders for the thermal management of micro-LED arrays for optical communication

Abstract

We report on the 3D modeling and simulation of Graphene heat spreaders for the thermal management of InGaN/GaN micro LED array for visible lambda multi-channel communications. Multiple Graphene quilts were used to create extra heat escape channels for efficient heat dissipation. An array comprises of ten-chips on sapphire substrate and two district packages were considered as a control and test accordingly. The two-test designs consisting of one-quilt per device, and multi-quilts per device, respectively were modeled using ANSYS13™ and on-chip steady-state thermal analysis technique. Results were used to evaluate chips temperature for their operation power levels. Comparative study was also performed for the heat dissipation related improvements for the case of Graphene when introduced heat spreaders. A temperature drop of ~8 °C for one-quilt and 15 °C for multi-quilt chips was achieved for 5mW powers, respectively. We conclude that implementation of Graphene heat spreaders in micro-LED arrays has significant effects on devices heat management and thermal stability. This work also shows the potential of the 2D carbon structures in photonics and electronics manufacturing industry.