CHINA–LED makers are attempting to lengthen life cycles by creating new products that would increase the illumination efficiency of LEDs from 70 lm/W to at least 100 lm/W. In addition, they are looking at alternative materials such as aluminum PCB substrates and soft silicone rubber pads as a method to improve heatsink designs.
Currently, flux densities are limited within the heatsink design, and many suppliers are releasing short-lived, high-brightness or long-life, low-flux models with lesser heat to dispel. In natural convection heatsink architecture, aluminum PCB substrates are good heat conductors and insulators, and in performance-to-cost, they are a grade higher than regular metal core substrates. Soft silicone rubber heat conductive pads can replace silicone grease, commonly used in high-end heatsinks.