GE Scientists Employ Jet-Engine Cooling Technology in Prototype LED Bulb

GE’s patented “dual cool jets” technology solves thermal challenges, enables lamp design that’s half the size and weight of a 600-lumen LED downlight available today
GE Global Research (Niskayuna, NY), the technology-evelopment arm for the General Electric Co., GE Lighting, and the University of Maryland, as part of a two-year, solid-state lighting program with the U.S. Department of Energy, is announcing the successful demonstration of a 1,500-lumen LED bulb (a standard 100W halogen PAR38 bulb produces 1,500 lumens) that addresses key barriers to more widespread adoption of LED bulbs for general lighting.
John Strainic, GE Lighting’s global product general manager, said, “We’re taking swings at issues such as higher light-output options, thermal management, and bulb size and weight. This kicks open the door to the solid-state age that is upon us.”
This LED-technology achievement was announced during a future of lighting symposium that GE hosted at its Global Research headquarters in Niskayuna, NY.
As part of the DOE project, GE and the research team of Professors Bongtae Han and Avram Bar-Cohen at the University of Maryland’s A. James Clark School of Engineering have developed and demonstrated novel cooling technologies that effectively manage the heat and promote lower system costs by reducing the number of LED chips required, when compared to conventional cooling technologies.
Mehmet Arik, a mechanical engineer at GE Global Research and principal investigator on the LED project, says, “This is a revolutionary cooling technology has the potential to help us take LED-lighting performance and efficiency to new heights. Through further research and improvements, we may be able to increase performance without compromising the efficiency or lifetime of an LED bulb.”
GE’s cooling solution is based on technology the company now uses in its Aviation and Energy businesses. GE dual cool jets are very small, micro-fluidic, bellows-type devices that provide high-velocity jets of air, which impinge on the LED heat sink. These jets of air increase the heat-transfer rate to more than 10 times that of natural convection. The improved cooling enables LED operation at high drive currents without losses in efficiency or lifetime. For a given lumen output, the dual cool jets’ improved thermal management reduces the necessary LED chip count. This, in turn, can dramatically lower the cost of the lamp. In addition to performance and cost advantages, this cooling technology enables reductions in LED lamp size and weight.