Screen and stencil printed graphene heat spreaders on printed circuit boards for lowering of light emitting diode temperatures
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2025

Continuously higher integration levels in (opto-)electronics require new solutions and materials for thermal management of excess heat. Here we investigate the integration of graphene-based heat spreader films with printed circuit board (PCB) assembled, high-power light emitting diodes (LEDs), as used in modern automotive lighting, using industrially highly scalable screen printing and stencil printing of the graphene-based films. We compare screen/stencil printing of graphene heat spreaders on the PCBs from archetypical water- and ester-based inks and characterize the resulting graphene heat spreaders with respect to printing fidelity and resolution, film microstructure, electrical and thermal properties and their performance in lowering LED temperatures during LED operation. Importantly, we use only comparatively low graphene film curing temperatures (150 °C) that are compatible with industrial PCB/surface-mounted-device (SMD) LED integration processes. We find that screen-printed, ester-based graphene heat spreaders result in a modest reduction of LED temperature during operation of on average − 2 K with a maximum reduction of −4 K. Generally, our work establishes the feasibility of scalable screen and stencil printing for integration of graphene films with state-of-the-art PCB/SMD assemblies.

Light emitting diodes

Stencil printing

Graphene

Screen printing

Heat spreaders

Författare

Reinhard Kaindl

Joanneum Research Forschungsgesellschaft mbH

David Dergez

ZKW Elektronik GmbH

Tushar Gupta

Technische Universität Wien

Songfeng Pei

University of Chinese Academy of Sciences

Peng Xiang Hou

University of Chinese Academy of Sciences

Jinhong Du

University of Chinese Academy of Sciences

Chang Liu

University of Chinese Academy of Sciences

Bernhard Fickl

Technische Universität Wien

Martin Nastran

Technische Universität Wien

Ya Liu

Chalmers, Mikroteknologi och nanovetenskap, Elektronikmaterial

Alexander Blümel

Joanneum Research Forschungsgesellschaft mbH

Dominik Eder

Technische Universität Wien

Johan Liu

Chalmers, Mikroteknologi och nanovetenskap, Elektronikmaterial

Wencai Ren

University of Chinese Academy of Sciences

Paul Hartmann

Joanneum Research Forschungsgesellschaft mbH

Wolfgang Waldhauser

Joanneum Research Forschungsgesellschaft mbH

Dietmar Kieslinger

ZKW Elektronik GmbH

Bernhard C. Bayer

Technische Universität Wien

Universität Wien

Surface and Coatings Technology

0257-8972 (ISSN)

Vol. 517 132821

Ämneskategorier (SSIF 2025)

Annan materialteknik

DOI

10.1016/j.surfcoat.2025.132821

Mer information

Senast uppdaterat

2025-10-29