Lifetime Analysis of Commercial 3 W UV-A LED

The lifetime of ultraviolet high-power light-emitting diodes (UV HP-LEDs) is an open issue due to their high current density, high temperature, and UV radiation. This work presents a reliability study and failure analysis of three high-temperature accelerated life tests (ALTs) for 13,500 h with 3 W commercial UV LEDs of 365 nm at a nominal current in two working conditions: continuous mode and cycled mode (30 s on/30 s off). Arrhenius–Weibull parameters were evaluated, and an equation to evaluate the lifetime (B50) at any junction temperature and other relevant lifetime functions is presented. The Arrhenius activation energy was 0.13 eV for the continuous mode and 0.20 eV for the cycled mode. The lifetime at 50% survival and 30% loss of optical power as a failure definition, working at T_a = 40 °C with a multi-fin heat sink in natural convection, was over 4480 h for the continuous mode and 19,814 h for the cycled mode. The need to add forced convection for HP-LED arrays to achieve these high-reliability values is evidenced. The main source of degradation is the semiconductor device, and the second is the encapsulation silicone break.