MIE.43 – Thermal Management of Pulsed LED Array

• Crystal Bradley
• Karolos Ghobry

Spraying Systems, Co. is a leading manufacturer of spraying technology. This includes products such as nozzles, spray guns, and tank cleaning equipment. To analyze spraying procedures, it is necessary to capture images of particles that are sprayed from the equipment. This requires the use of advanced imaging technology, which can use pulses as short as eight nanoseconds to capture images. What may enhance these images is the use of LED lights. This is because LED lights can be used to control the lighting properties of the images, along with bringing benefits known about LEDs such as long-life time and low power usage. These LEDs must power on and off at a high frequency. To achieve the high frequency pulses at sufficient light levels, the LEDs must be over currented beyond their design specifications. The drawback of this is that it will shorten the lifespan of the LEDs significantly, since the goal is to increase the current anywhere between thirty to fifty times the rated current. This shortened lifespan is caused by heat generated in the LEDs; therefore, we needed to design a heat management system for the LEDs that will also dissipate as much heat as possible. Our goal was to analyze the heat generated from the LEDs, design a suitable heat exchanger, and to determine the time the LEDs can operate before they need to be shut off. We were able to simulate this system in ANSYS and will use this model to inform our companion project and future designs. This is a joint project with ECE.30.