Enhanced Cooling of LED Filament Bulbs Using an Embedded Tri-Needle/Ring Ionic Wind Device

Abstract

Improving the heat dissipation ability for light-emitting diode (LED) filament bulb is very difficult. A tri-needle/ring ionic wind generator was developed to improve the heat dissipation condition of bulbs. The operation characteristics of the ionic wind generator, such as the electrode gap, inception voltage, and discharge current with regard to the operation voltage, were studied by experiments. The ionic wind velocity within the bulb was investigated under different electrode gaps and applied voltages. The temperature drop achieved by the ionic was were tested with the consideration of many operation parameters for analysis. The experiments showed that ionic wind can provide efficient and stable cooling effect for LED filament bulbs. The temperature drop of LED junction can reach 30 °C at best. Good stability and adjustability of the ionic wind generator were demonstrated by tracing the temperature history of LED filaments in long-term tests. Finally, the light efficiency of LED filament bulbs with ionic wind cooling was studied. The experimental results showed that light efficiency was improved by 7.3% under the best cooling case. The experimental results indicate that the embedded ionic wind generator can provide an effective solution for cooling LED filament bulbs.