A thermal analysis of the operation of microscale, inorganic light-emitting diodes

An analytical model is developed to study the thermal properties of microscale, inorganic light-emitting diodes (μ-ILEDs) with ultra-thin geometries and layouts. The predicted surface and μ-ILED temperatures agree well with experiments and finite-element simulations. A simple scaling law is obtained for the normalized μ-ILED temperature versus the normalized μ-ILED size. This study provides a theory to guide the design of layouts that minimize adverse thermal effects on the performance of μ-ILEDs not only for solid-state lighting but also for applications integrating μ-ILED devices on complex/soft substrate as are currently of interest in optogenetics and other emerging areas in biology.