An alternative lifetime model for white light emitting diodes under thermal-electrical stresses

The lifetime prediction using accelerated degradation test (ADT) method has become a main issue for white light emitting diodes applications. This paper proposes a novel lifetime model for light emitting diodes (LEDs) under thermal and electrical stresses, where the junction temperature and driving current are deemed the input parameters for lifetime prediction. The features of LEDs' lifetime and the law of lumen depreciation under dual stresses are combined to build the lifetime model. The adoption of thermal and electrical stresses overcomes the limitation of single stress, and junction temperature in accelerated degradation test as thermal stress is more reliable than ambient temperature in conventional ADT. Furthermore, verifying applications and cases studies are discussed to prove the practicability and generality of the proposed lifetime model. In addition, the lifetime model reveals that electrical stress is equally significant to the thermal stress in the degradation of LEDs, and therefore should not be ignored in the investigation on lumen decay of LEDs products.