Mounting support for solid-state light radiation sources and light source therefor

Technical field

The description relates to mounting supports for solid-state light radiation sources.

Various embodiments may relate to light sources using LED sources as light radiation sources.

Prior art

In the design of solid-state lighting modules such as high- flux LED modules, heat dissipation is a factor that must be taken into account in order to limit optical losses and the effects of accelerated aging.

For this reason, mounting structures based, for example, on the use of printed circuit boards (PCBs) with a high degree of thermal conductivity have been developed.

The effect of heat dissipation from the light source can be improved, particularly in the case of coupling to a heat sink, by increasing the spacing (pitch) between the radiation sources (for example, the spacing between adjacent LEDs) , re ^¬ sulting in an increase in the surface dimensions.

For other types, it is desirable for the light emitting sur ^¬ face (LES) of the source to be exclusively populated, for practical purposes, by light radiation sources (such as LEDs, possibly in a chip on board or "CoB" configuration) , with the associated drive circuitry located in another area of the board which is separate from the light emitting surface. In the case of very closely spaced arrays of light radiation sources, the area of the board available for the other compo ^¬ nents may therefore be extremely limited (as in compact mod ^¬ ules, for example) .

In order to limit the aforementioned negative effects, "bur ^¬ ied" components may be used.

This approach makes the board manufacturing process rather complicated and costly, and the components of the drive cir- cuitry are provided by the board manufacturer, resulting in limitations on the light source manufacturer' s freedom of use of the support.

For example, if different versions of the same product are to be produced, with differences in the light emission flux, CCT (correlated color temperature) or CRI (color rendering index) for example, it may be essential to develop a number of dif ^¬ ferent supports equal to the number of possible combinations of values of the drive circuitry components required to meet the various objectives outlined above.

This may result in very considerable limitations, for example if it is desired to provide balancing of chains or strings of LEDs or protection against electrostatic discharge (ESD) phe ^¬ nomena .

Object and summary

It is therefore necessary to overcome the limitations out ^¬ lined above.

Various embodiments have the purpose of meeting the aforesaid requirement.

In various embodiments, this object is achieved by means of a mounting support for solid-state light radiation sources hav ^¬ ing the characteristics claimed in the claims below.

Various embodiments may also relate to a corresponding light source.

The claims form an integral part of the technical teachings provided herein in relation to the invention.

Various embodiments enable one or more of the following ad ^¬ vantages to be obtained:

- a compact, economical structure,

- the possibility of adding components such as surface mount devices (SMDs) in areas of light sources such as LEDs which are normally available for this use (for example, those areas positioned in the vicinity of, or between, the light radia- tion sources) ,

- the possibility of providing balancing for chains or strings of LEDs in parallel, and/or integrated protection a- gainst ESD phenomena, without increasing the surface of the board and/or having to add components on one and/or the other of the faces of the board.

Brief description of the drawings

Various embodiments will now be described, purely by way of non-limiting example, with reference to the appended draw ^¬ ings, of which:

- Figure 1 is a schematic illustration of a through hole in a printed circuit board,

- Figures 2 and 3 show embodiments using a support as shown by way of example in Figure 1, and

- Figures 4 and 5 show possible details of construction of some embodiments. Detailed description

The following description illustrates various specific de ^¬ tails intended to provide a deeper understanding of various embodiments. The embodiments may be produced without one or more of the specific details, or may use other methods, com- ponents, materials, or other elements. In other cases, known structures, materials or operations are not shown or de ^¬ scribed in detail, in order to avoid obscuring various as ^¬ pects of the embodiments.

The reference to "an embodiment" in this description is in- tended to indicate that a particular configuration, structure or characteristic described in relation to the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment. Therefore, phrases such as "in an embodiment", which may be present in various parts of this description, do not necessarily refer to the same em- bodiment . Furthermore, specific formations, structures or characteristics may be combined in any suitable way in one or more embodiments.

The references used herein are provided purely for conven ^¬ ience and therefore do not define the scope of protection or the extent of the embodiments.

In the drawings, particularly in Figure 3, the reference 10 shows a mounting support that can be used to provide a solid- state light source S comprising a regular or irregular array of solid-state light radiation sources (of the LED type, for example) 12, mounted on one face 10a of the support 10.

Light radiation sources of this type are known, and it is therefore unnecessary to provide a detailed description here. The reference to LED sources, having a CoB structure for ex ^¬ ample, must therefore be considered as merely exemplifying the possibilities of using solid-state light radiation sources in a source such as the source S.

In various embodiments, the support 10 may be in the form of a small disk, in other words in the form of a portion of plate having a circular contour. The choice of this shape is not essential: various embodiments may use a support 10 hav ^¬ ing a different shape, for example a square, rectangular, po ^¬ lygonal, elliptical, mixtilinear or other shape, depending on the desired distribution of the light radiation sources 12 which are used.

The view of Figure 1 shows a portion of the board 10 which, according to a known solution for making printed circuit boards (PCBs) , includes one or more through holes 14 which extend between the opposite faces 10a, 10b of the board 10.

Holes of this type can be provided, for example, to allow the insertion of pins of the components mounted on the board in question, for example the power supply pins of light radia ^¬ tion sources such as the sources 12.

In various embodiments, holes such as the hole 14 of Figure 1 may be unplated holes (in other words, holes without metallic coating) located between conductive lines or tracks 16a, 16b extending on both faces 10a, 10b of the board 10 at either end of the through hole 14.

In various embodiments, holes such as the hole 14 of Figure 1 may be used for mounting at least one electrical component 18 of the drive circuitry of the light radiation sources 12 within the holes.

In various embodiments, components such as the component 18 visible in Figure 2 (and, at least partially, in Figures 4 and 5) may be a component using SMD technology. The component 18 can be connected to the tracks or lines 16a, 16b by known methods, for example by soldering or brazing, although this cannot be seen directly in Figures 2, 4 and 5. Various embodiments therefore use through holes such as the hole 14 of Figure 1 as mounting cavities in which electrical components 18 such as SMD components can be inserted (for example, "vertically", that is to say in a direction orthogo ^¬ nal to the general plane of extension of the board 10) .

The electrical connection of these components can be provided by means of conductive tracks or lines such as the lines or tracks 16a and 16b, made of copper for example, provided on the board 10.

Holes such as the hole 14 may be designed (in terms of the hole diameter and/or the thickness of the board, in other words the length or height of the hole 14) so as to be com ^¬ patible with the standard casings or packages of components such as SMD components (for example, 0603, 0402, etc.).

For example (the reference to these specific dimensional pa ^¬ rameters is purely by way of example) , a board FR4 with a thickness of 1.2 mm having 35 μ copper lines or tracks on both of its sides or faces 10a, 10b may be provided with one or more 0.7 mm diameter holes 14 to allow, for example, the mounting of resistors such as 0402 SMD resistors.

In various exemplary embodiments, the cross section of the hole 14 (which does not necessarily have a circular cross section) may allow adaptation to the shape and dimensions of the component 18 inserted into it.

In various embodiments, components such as resistors (or other components) can be connected by positioning them in close proximity to the light radiation sources 12, as shown schematically in Figures 4 and 5.

Thus the face 10a of the board intended to act as a light emitting surface (LES) is populated practically exclusively by the light radiation sources 12 and is left substantially free of other components. As shown by way of example in Fig ^¬ ure 3, the last-mentioned components only appear as "points" on the surface of the board, with a reduced, practically point-like footprint, and may if necessary even be covered by a source 12.

The illustration in Figure 5 may be considered to be an imaginary transparent illustration of the board 10 intended to demonstrate the possibility of electrically connecting the sources 12 by using what are known as "vias" 20, in other words conductive connections extending over the length of through holes in the board 10.

In various embodiments, connections of this type (which are both electrically and thermally conductive) may make it pos ^¬ sible to provide an additional effect by which the heat gen ^¬ erated by the sources 12 is dissipated from face 10a to face 10b of the board 10, and therefore through the mounting sup ^¬ port 10 of the sources 12, and from there toward a heat sink (such as a finned heat sink, not shown in the drawings) on which the light source S may be mounted.

Naturally, provided that the principle of the invention re ^¬ mains the same, the details of construction and the forms of embodiment may be varied to a more or less significant extent with respect to those which have been illustrated purely by way of non-limiting example, without thereby departing from the scope of protection of the invention, this scope of pro ^¬ tection being defined in the attached claims.