Spot phosphor concept applied to the remote phosphor configuration of a white phosphor-converted LED

Although the remote phosphor technology outperforms the conformal phosphor technology for mid-power applications, one of the limiting factors is the amount of phosphor required and its impact on the total cost. Besides, an important loss mechanisms in remote phosphor LED technology is the re-absorption of converted light. An obvious solution to this issue is enabling a light path for the converted light, such that further interactions with the phosphor element are avoided. In order to explore such a configuration, a simulation model of a phosphor element is devised and validated based on experimental data and the application of the inverse adding-doubling method. The resulting configuration, denoted as spot concept, along with a long-pass filter is shown to be a potential solution to reduce the phosphor usage. Since the moderate change in the light extraction ratio when applying the spot concept is partly attributed to the losses in the secondary optics needed to narrow the LED beam, the application of the spot concept configuration with a directional light source such as a laser diode could be a powerful combination for the enhancement of the light extraction ratio.