Light Output, Thermal Properties, and Reliability of Using Glass Phosphors in WLED Packages

White-light-emitting diodes (WLED) based on yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) phosphors sintered with glass (PiG) and with silicone (PiS) are compared in terms of their light properties, temperature properties and reliability.The complete YAG phosphor was doped with an encapsulant traditional WLED (PiS WLED), and the WLED was covered with PiG (PiG WLED). PiG was made by sintering glass powder and YAG phosphor at the ratio of 87:13 (%), and the correlated color temperature (CCT) was 5564 K. The CCT of the PiG WLED with the YAG doping concentration of 8.5 wt.% approximated 5649 K. The initial light output of the PiG WLED was 6.4% lower than that of the PiS WLED. Under 1008 h and 350 mA aging, PiG WLED and PiS WLED’ light output, CCT and color rendering index variation rates were all within 1%. In the saturated vapor-pressure test, no sample exhibited red ink infiltration, light nor peeling between the encapsulant and the lead-frame. Compared with that of the PiS WLED, the junction temperature of the PiG WLED reduced from 88.4 °C to 81.3 °C. Thermal resistance dropped from 37.4 °C/W to 35.6 °C/W. The PiG WLED presented a better CIE (Commission Internationale de l’Eclairage) 1931 chromaticity coordinate (x,y) concentration and thermal properties than the PiS WLED.