Theoretical Modeling of Luminous Efficacy for High-Power White Light-Emitting Diodes

The photometric characteristics of high-power white light-emitting diode (LED) devices are investigated. A theoretical model for the luminous efficacy of high-power white LED devices and LED systems is proposed. With the proposed theoretical model, the mechanism of the luminous efficacy decrease is explained. Meanwhile, the model can be used to estimate the luminous efficacy of LEDs under general operation conditions, such as different operation temperatures and injection currents. The wide validity of the luminous efficacy model is experimentally verified through the measurements of different types of LEDs. The experimental results demonstrate a high estimation accuracy. The proposed models not only can be applied to estimate the LED photometric performance, but also is helpful for reliability research of LEDs.