Shin-Etsu Chemical's High Refractive Index Silicone to Improve Performance of High-Brightness LEDs

The LimpidSi LPS-3600 Series of silicone encapsulating materials for LEDs
The LimpidSi LPS-3600 Series is a product that simultaneously realizes a high refractive index and low gas permeability, which are strong characteristics of phenyl silicone, and superior thermal stability and laser resistance, which are strong characteristics of dimethyl silicone.

The refractive index of this new product is 1.55 nd25.* This is the highest refractive index among any of the high-reliability silicone encapsulating material products on the market. With this new product, the brightness of LEDs is improved by 3% over that of conventional LEDs.

In addition, in the encapsulating method for the light-emitting device used in the LED assembly process, presently dispense processing is the mainstream method. However, Shin-Etsu Chemical projects that in the future the mold processing method, which is superior from the point-of-view of productivity, will increasingly be applied, and the company has designed this product to be suitable for mold processing. With this new product, Shin-Etsu Chemical will play a big role in the mass production of LED devices.

The LED Tiger SG Series of silicone-based mounting boards for LEDs
The LED Tiger SG Series is a silicone glass laminate used as a mounting board, which is mounted under the LED’s light-emitting device. It has superior thermal stability and laser resistance and has the characteristic that even though it is exposed for a long time under high-brightness light-emitting conditions no degradation of the LED’s brightness occurs.

The LED mounting board plays the role of a reflector that improves brightness by reflecting the light from the light-emitting device downwards to the front of the display. Epoxy glass laminates are conventionally used as materials for the mounting boards. However, epoxy has a large drawback. Because of its changes in color as a result of rising high temperatures or in the presence of strong LED light, the light’s reflection efficiency deteriorates and thus lowers the brightness of the LED.

This new product consists of a material that solves this problem, and it is an optimal product for LED lighting applications, which particularly require long-term reliability. Furthermore, because it is superior in heat resistance, it is a product that can be applied as a mounting board in such fields as power semiconductors and automotive lighting. It is also designed with an excellent dielectric constant of 3.2-grade, which will become the lowest level for a mounting board, and consequently applications in high frequency devices are also anticipated.

Shin-Etsu Chemical has introduced many LED packaging materials, starting with encapsulating materials. With the addition of the new LimpidSi LPS-3800 Series and LED Tiger SG Series to its product line, as a comprehensive supplier of LED materials, Shin-Etsu will continue in the future to also offer products that most appropriately meet the needs of the market.

LEDs are rapidly expanding in their applications from display devices such as traffic and signal lighting to LCD TV backlighting and broad general lighting applications. Silicones are the key to enabling high growth applications for high-brightness LEDs. Because of this, it is forecasted in the industry that the market size of silicone encapsulating materials for high brightness LEDs will expand from the present ¥25 billion/year to ¥35 billion/year in 2016 and the market size of mounted substrates will grow from the present ¥5 billion/year to ¥10 billion/year in 2016. Going forward, Shin-Etsu Chemical will promote sample evaluations and at the same time will set up a production system at an early stage. By capturing the vigorously growing demand for LEDs, Shin-Etsu aims to further develop its LED packaging materials business.