Scientists and engineers at the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Hsinchu, Taiwan, have developed a new type of thermal analyzer: The In-Line Compact Thermal Analyzer, or ICTA. Said to be the most powerful, cost-efficient, and high-performance LED thermal analyzer, the ICTA reduces LED testing time by more than 90%. Since heat is the major cause of early LED bulb failure, the ability to rapidly characterize bulb components' heat transfer characteristics — in-line, during manufacture — can improve bulb lifespan, as well as production yield, performance, and packaging.
The technology embodied in the ICTA prototype developed by ITRI (bottom) is currently being used by MPI Corp. to develop production testers (top).
Traditional methods for measuring the thermal performance of LED systems are time consuming; they can only measure six components per hour, and so have been relegated to off-line, lab-only use. In contrast, the ICTA can offer measurement speeds of 12,000 LED components per hour, reducing the test time for thermal resistance to 0.3 s — 2,000 times faster than previously.
In addition, the ICTA can be used to test power semiconductor devices to pinpoint the cause of thermally induced stress, enabling innovative package design and material property identification or facilitating lifespan estimation. Commercialization of ICTA is currently underway, with ITRI’s technology licensed non-exclusively to MPI Corp. (mpi.com.tw). For more information, contact ITRI at +886-3-582-0100, or through its website, https://2014w.itri.org.tw/eng/index.aspx.
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