Abstract:
A multi chip LED lamp comprises a reflector and a plurality of LED chips mounted on a top surface of the reflector. A triple laminate board has a board layer; a circuit layer formed on the board layer; and a thermal conductor layer laminated under the board layer. A well is formed in the triple laminate board, the well sized to receive the reflector in snug fit. The multi chip LED circuit layer can be copper and the thermal conductor layer can be aluminum. A heat sink having fins can be attached to the thermal conductor layer. Material can be removed from the triple laminate board to form the well and reflector. Three or more LED chips can be mounted on the top surface of the reflector. The chips can be less than 2 mm from each other.

Description:
DISCUSSION OF RELATED ART  
       [0001]     Light emitting diodes or LED technology is almost to the point that it can provide environmental residential or office lighting. LEDs can generate bright light with low power consumption making LED DC lighting particularly suitable for DC power systems such as those installed in photovoltaic powered homes. This has a potential of saving a substantial amount of natural resources. Unfortunately, there are a few hurdles to overcome before LED lamps can replace compact fluorescent lamps.  
         [0002]     According to related art, light emitting diodes do not convert all electricity into light and therefore generate a substantial amount of heat. U.S. Pat. No. 7,008,084 issued to inventor Galli uses an integrated heat sink to dissipate heat from a high brightness LED into a lighting device. “In particular, the head assembly utilizes a receiver sleeve that includes a tail portion which surrounds the output end of the LED thereby isolating the LED and capturing both the conductive and radiant waste heat emitted by the LED to further dissipate the captured heat out of the assembly.” 
         [0003]     Other recent patents such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,966,677 provides a Lighting assembly with sufficient space around the LED element to provide airflow and thermal dissipation. U.S. Pat. No. 6,914,261 issued to inventor Ho provides an array of light emitting modules mounted on a substrate. The individual elements are arranged in an array so that they form a panel. Making elements larger, or arranging them as a panel increases cost and creates physical size limits.  
         [0004]     U.S. Pat. No. 6,561,680 provides an alternative configuration that increases the anode and cathode portions to have a larger surface area for heat dissipation. The resulting device is a large LED. Sometimes a number of smaller lamps substitute a large lamp. U.S. Pat. No. 6,864,513 provides a light emitting diode bulb having multiple LEDs mounted on a circuit layer so that each chip  21  has wires  22  mounted within an encapsulant  23 . Making a larger lamp, or connecting a large number of individual lamps also increases cost.  
         [0005]     The previous patents and related art do not show a low-cost solution to allow a high-intensity LED light that also dissipates heat. Therefore, the object of the invention is to provide a new LED device structure with normal LED chips but a better heating dissipation function to allow a high-intensity LED light. Making large elements, or large heat exchangers are environmentally unfriendly. It is a further object of the invention to make the LED lamp environmentally friendly. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0006]      FIG. 1  is a perspective view of the device.  
         [0007]      FIG. 2  is a cross section of the first embodiment.  
         [0008]      FIG. 3  is a cross section of the lamp module of the second embodiment.  
         [0009]      FIG. 4  is a cross section of the third embodiment.  
         [0010]      FIG. 5  is a top view. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0011]     The device  1  shown in  FIG. 1  is about one square inch. A preferred embodiment as shown in  FIG. 1  has a pair of power wires  19  and  20  entering the housing  14  through heat dissipation area ( 300 ) and exiting the housing  14 . The housing  14  can be modularly clipped or joined to the power wire  20  using wire piercing means that are commonly and commercially available. Modular joining allows connection along any section of power wire  20 . The heat exchangers  10  can be integrally formed to the housing  14 . The housing  14  is preferably extruded or rolled from aluminum, although a variety of metals can be used. The housing  14  has a housing cap  15  bounding each side of the housing  14  to form a rectangular or square shape. The heat exchangers  10  are shown as fins and can be arranged in a variety of shapes, configurations and sizes according to the state of the art in heat exchanger technology. The housing cap  15  also dissipates heat. The top cover  200  also called triple laminate layer of the device  1  consists of a triple layer: an electrically conductive layer  100  also called circuit layer  100 , a structural layer ( 110 ) and a Heat conductive layer ( 120 ). The electrically conductive layer  100  can be made out of copper circuits printed on a printed circuit board. The term printed circuit board is sometimes abbreviated as PCB. The PCB fits within the housing and can slide into a front and rear slot formed within the housing as seen in  FIG. 2 . The top cover  200  may further have a non-conductive protective layer covering it. The layers of the device have a hole or well  25  formed where LED chip elements  150  are mounted on the upper surface of the reflector  130 . The reflector is preferably parabolic, concave and bowl shaped.  
         [0012]     Contrary to popular thinking, the LED chips  150  should be small and mounted closely together in multiples around the middle inside surface of the parabolic reflector  130 . The chips  150  are created by ordinary chip fabrication means commonly known in the industry. Each chip  150  has an anode and cathode, but miniaturized to a degree that they are not noticeable by a casual observer. The chips will appear as small dots to a casual observer.  
         [0013]     As is well known in the art, the reflector  130  can be coated with phosphorous or other light emitting chemical to enhance lumen output efficiency. Packing the chips  150  close together minimizes material usage and heat can be mitigated through dissipation. Preferably the chips are less than 2 mm from each other. Although the chips can be about 5 mm from each other, this is not the best configuration to form a spotlight.  
         [0014]     A preferred embodiment as shown in  FIG. 2  has an electrically conductive layer  100  over a circuit board structural layer  110  over a thermal conductive layer  120 . The heat sink, or heat dissipation fin  10  is shown attached to the thermal conductive layer  120 . The thermal conductive layer is either integrally formed with the reflector  130  as shown in  FIG. 2  or is inserted into the well  25  after a through hole is drilled through the triple layer. Normally, the connecting wires  21  that provide electricity to the chip elements  150  are small and not usually noticeable. The lead wires  21  lead from the conductive layer  100  to the chip elements  150 , and bridge between the chip elements to lead back to the conductive layer  100 .  
         [0015]     The reflector shown in  FIG. 2  of the first embodiment can be produced separately but integrally formed with the triple laminate layers ( 200 ) or formed directly by drilling a depression on the triple laminate layer ( 200 ) and this depression does not pass through the entire triple laminate layer so that it can act as reflector.  
         [0016]     A second embodiment as shown in  FIG. 3  is also a preferred embodiment and has a reflector insert  130  with a flat bottom  132  and angled sides. The insert can be manufactured separately and sized to the hole  25  size. The chip elements  150  can also be mounted on the reflector insert  130 . When the reflector insert is inserted into the triple laminate layer as shown in  FIG. 2 , the reflector sidewalls  131  automatically interference fit to the thermal conductive layer  120 .  
         [0017]     As shown in  FIG. 4 , the third embodiment provides a parabolic reflector having walls that reach to the top surface of the conductive layer. The conductive layer  100  is isolated from the reflector by an annular groove or insulation  111 . The structural layer  110  is not conductive and serves only to provide structure. The top view shows a conductive layer  100  encircling six chips. A protective layer can cover the chips. The chips are mounted close to each other in a densely packed array of three, four, five, six . . . N pcs or nine chips. The anode and cathode sizes remain small providing manufacturing economy. Connection wiring  21 ,  22  may be connected in redundant connections providing a back up connection in case the main connection fails. The chips generate heat. The heat conducts through the thermal conductive reflector  130  that has integral or tight connection on a sidewall  131  that interfaces the thermal conductive layer  120 . The thermal conductive layer  120  will transfer the heat to the extruded housing ( 14 ) via the joint sidewall  131  and heat dissipation  300  or heat convective area  300 . Thus a better heat dissipation structure is ensured. The thermal conductive layer  120  can be made out of aluminum. Heat dissipation area  300  can be hollow and also act as a channel for power wiring  19 ,  20 .  
         [0018]      FIG. 2  shows a thin reflector embodiment having small clearance between the bottom of the reflector and the concave area of the reflector.  FIG. 3  shows a thick reflector embodiment that provides mechanical strength for insertion into the through hole to form the well  25 . The thin reflector embodiment is not preferred when using a manufacturing method that requires inserting the reflector into the through hole. The thin reflector embodiment should be used when the reflector  130  is integrally formed, or drilled from the triple laminate layer.  
         [0019]     For a focused beam commonly seen in a flashlight, the walls and sides  131  of the reflector can be higher than the width of the base  132 . The top of the walls  131  may be isolated from the conductive layer  100  by a small gap. The large gap shown in the drawings is mainly for illustration purposes. The conductive layer  100  is typically formed as a copper conductive circuit that is printed on an isolation board that may be made in a variety of circuit configurations.  
         [0020]     During manufacturing, the triple laminate printed circuit board is made by laminating a thermal conductive layer  120  on a board  110  and printing a conductive layer  100  on top. The circuit can be as simple as having the front potion of connecting wire  21  correspond with power wire  19 , and the back potion of connection wire  22  with power wire  20 , with a central conductive layer strip portion between  19  and  20  missing or not conductive. In this case, the connecting wire  22  bridges a positive back portion, to the chips  150 , the connecting wire  21  to the negative front portion. If the front power wire and back power wire are of different polarity, the wiring can receive a number of devices  1  in parallel configuration.  FIG. 1  shows two rows of three chips  150  in parallel. If each chip of  FIG. 1  is 4V, the total voltage would be 12V. If the LED chips are sized and matched to voltage, resistors are not necessary. Any voltage is possible. Typical lighting voltages are 3V, 6V, 12V, . . . 120V, 240V, etc. The LED chips are small and/or PCB based.  
         [0021]     After circuit printing, the triple laminate printed circuit board can either be drilled through or drilled partially through as seen in  FIG. 2 . When the board is drilled through, the reflector insert  130  is inserted from the bottom opening of the thermal conductive layer  120 . The insertion of the reflector  130  may require a tool such as a crimp tool. After reflector insertion, a wiring machine installs the connecting wire  21  for the chips  150 .  
         [0022]     The well  25  is preferably round and empty without the waterproof resin typically associated with LED lamps. Of course, a waterproof lid or some kind of protective layer can be added if necessary. Either the chips  150  or the protective lens layer can be colored, or multicolored providing a variety of color outputs.  
         [0023]     The chips  150  can be in rectangular array arrangement, but can also be formed in a circular pattern. As seen in the drawings, the reflector  130  can be of any shape, and can also be square, or rectangular. The reflector can be linearly formed as a long trough where the chips are laid in linear configuration. The linear configuration can be arranged in a single row of led chips  150 , or a double row of led chips  150 . The linear configuration can be formed as a ring or loop if long enough. The best mode currently is to have the reflector in a parabolic configuration having a circular top light opening formed as a well  25 .  
         [0024]     Therefore, while the presently preferred form of the LED device  1  has been shown and described, persons skilled in this art will readily appreciate that various additional changes and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention, as defined and differentiated by the following claims.  
       CALL OUT LIST OF ELEMENTS  
       [0000]    
       
           1  LED device  
           10  Heat Exchanger  
           14  Extruded Housing  
           15  Housing Cap  
           19  Negative Power wires  
           20  Positive Power Wires  
           21  Front Connecting Wires  
           22  Back Connecting wires  
           25  Reflector Well  
           100  Electrical Conductive Layer  
           110  Structural Layer  
           111  Insulation Layer or Gap  
           120  Heat Conductive Layer  
           130  Reflector  
           131  Reflector Side Wall  
           132  Reflector Bottom  
           150  LED  
           200  Top cover triple laminate layer  
           300  Heat convective area