Lumen Maintenance of Ternary Ag-Alloy Wire Bonded LED Package after Reliability Tests

In this investigation, ternary Ag-alloy wires were doped with different Pd and Au concentrations, and each wire was encapsulated in an LED package. The static and dynamic reliability were tested, and the lumen maintenance performance was examined. The static reliability tests included the sulfur test, LTSL, HTSL, and WHTSL. According to the sulfur test data, higher Pd and Au contents led to better lumen maintenance. Furthermore, the bonding wire of the LED with better lumen maintenance in the sulfur test had higher electrical resistance. The brightness decay rate of the white light LEDs was low in low-and high-temperature environments, but it was significantly higher after the WHTSL test. The dynamic reliability test after 1,000 hours of HTOL and WHTOL showed that the lumen maintenance improved with higher Pd and Au contents, indicating that doping Ag-alloy wires with sufficient amounts of Pd and Au can retard degradation due to thermal and humidity aging and oxidation reaction. Therefore, ternary Ag-Pd-Au alloy wires produced with specific drawing and annealing processes are suitable for application to mid-power white light LEDs.

Single-Grain Quartz OSL Characteristics: Testing for Correlations within and between Sites in Asia, Europe and Africa

We studied the characteristics of the optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) signal of single-grain quartz from three sites in China, Italy, and Libya, including the brightness, decay curve and dose response curve (DRC) shapes, recuperation, and reproducibility. We demonstrate the large variation in OSL behaviors for individual quartz grains of different samples from different regions, and show that recuperation, sensitivity change, and reproducibility are independent of the brightness and decay curve shape of the OSL signals. The single-grain DRCs can be divided into at least eight groups with different characteristic saturation doses (D0), and a standardized growth curve (SGC) can be established for each of the DRC groups. There is no distinctive difference in the shape of OSL decay curves among different DRC groups, but samples from different regions have a difference in the OSL sensitivities and decay shapes for different groups. Many of the quartz grains have low D0 values (30–50 Gy), and more than 99% of the grains have D0 values of <200 Gy. Our results raise caution against the dating of samples with equivalent dose values higher than 100 Gy, if there are many low-D0 and ‘saturated’ grains.

Distribution of low-power solar flares by brightness rise time

Using data from the international flare patrol for 1972–2010, we have formed an electronic database for more than 123 thousand solar flares. We determined the mean brightness rise time (flash-phase) for flare area classes and importance. We show that the mean flash phase increased with increasing area class. For brightness classes this trend is less pronounced. We have found that flares with explosive phase and flares with one brilliant point have the shortest flash phases; two-ribbon flares and flares with several intensity maxima, the longest ones. We have separated 572 cases when the brightness rise time was more than 60 min; 80 % of such ultra-long flares have a shorter brightness decay time (main phase). We have established that low-power flares in terms of developmental features do not differ from large flares. Low-power solar flares, as well as large flares, can be followed by filament activation or disappearance, and can have an explosive phase and several intensity maxima. Two-ribbon flares, white-light flares, and flares covering sunspot umbra can also have low power.

Distribution of low-power solar flares by brightness rise time

For brightness classes this trend is less pronounced. We have found that flares with explosive phase and flares with one brilliant point have the shortest flash phases; two-ribbon flares and flares with several intensity maxima, the longest ones. We have separated 572 cases when the brightness rise time was more than 60 min; 80 % of such ultra-long flares have a shorter brightness decay time (main phase). We have established that low-power flares in terms of developmental features do not differ from large flares. Low-power solar flares, as well as large flares, can be followed by filament activation or disappearance, and can have an explosive phase and several intensity maxima. Two-ribbon flares, white-light flares, and flares covering sunspot umbra can also have low power.

A bond valence analysis of electroluminescent ZnS: Cu, Cl to elucidate the aging mechanism

Brightness decay in electroluminescent (EL) phosphors is a diffusion-related phenomenon. Copper is shown to be the most easily diffusing species, although all diffusion is strongly influenced by the presence of sulfur vacancies or, to a lesser extent, halogen atoms substituting on sulfur sites. Diffusion is facile in the Cu