I've fried my share of LED's

LED Flashlights – General Info
1

So the question I have after so much frying is, what exactly does fry in them?

I mean even those tiny gold bond wires are intact. All three of them most of the time. No burning smell either. No signs of discoloration on the phosphor too.

We pretty much know when we fry a driver. They fry stink, right? But there’s no smell whatsoever from an LED.

So what exactly are “we” frying in LED’s? Is there some something under the phosphor that’s getting whacked that we can’t see?

Inquiring minds wanna know. :smiley:

2

i assumed you were going for sunny side up or over easy

3

:smiley:

4

Shorted ESD diode - Internal ESD protection diode can shorted if LED powered reverse polarity or power surge. I have 2 nichia LEDs that happen after drive wrong polarity)
Fused bond wire - try to direct drive from high current source
shorted die semiconductor gap - I never saw it on high power leds. found some of 5mm leds

I have few chinese generic 1W LEDs that failed/fried after reflow. I suspect their bond wires broken due to thermal expansion on plastic/silicone encapsulation.

Question:
Anyone know a way to safely reflow chinese generic 1W leds & 5050 SMD leds. I tried and endup with melted / fried leds.

5

Curious no? You would think they would smell ‘cooked’.

As far as difficulty reflowing those LED’s I have no idea. Maybe a Dr. Jones knows?

6

Why do you need to reflow them? I don’t know, but the way they look and feel, probably not meant to go into an oven.

7

i’ve never had deep fried

8

:smiley: