Sealed lighting units

• US 20080232105A1
• Filed: 06/25/2007
• Published: 09/25/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Current Lighting Solutions, LLC (f/k/a GE Lighting Solutions, LLC) (American Industrial Partners)
• Original Assignee: Lumination LLC
• Inventors: Gao, Chunmei, Nall, Jeffrey, Saha, Babi Koushik
• Granted Patent: US 7,687,288 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 362/267
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 2045/14844 Layers protecting the insert from injected material
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 45/14065 Positioning or centering articles in the mould
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 45/14655 connected to or mounted on a carrier, e.g. lead frame
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 45/14836 Preventing damage of inserts during injection, e.g. collapse of hollow inserts, breakage B29C45/14434 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 45/16 Making multilayered or multicoloured articles B29C45/0062 takes precedence; feeding colouring materials into the injection unit B29C45/1816
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 45/2628 with mould parts forming holes in or through the moulded article, e.g. for bearing cages
• CPC Class Codes: B29K 2995/0025 Opaque
• CPC Class Codes: B29K 2995/0026 Transparent
• CPC Class Codes: B29L 2031/747 Lightning equipment
• CPC Class Codes: F21S 4/20 with light sources held by or within elongate supports
• CPC Class Codes: F21V 15/01 Housings, e.g. material or assembling of housing parts F21V15/02 takes precedence housings forming signs or letters G09F13/04
• CPC Class Codes: F21V 21/002 making direct electrical contact, e.g. by piercing F21V21/35 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: F21V 21/0808 Adhesive means
• CPC Class Codes: F21V 31/00 Gas-tight or water-tight arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: F21Y 2115/10 Light-emitting diodes [LED]
• CPC Class Codes: G09F 13/22 electroluminescent electroluminescent light sources per se H05B33/00
• CPC Class Codes: G09F 9/33 being semiconductor devices, e.g. diodes

Abstract

A method of manufacturing a lighting module comprises: mounting one or more light emitting diode (LED) packages on a circuit board to define a lighting unit; and injection overmolding the entire lighting unit except the one or more LED packages using a single type of overmolding material. A lighting module comprises: one or more LED packages mounted on a circuit board; and an injection overmolding sealing the circuit board, the injection overmolding not having openings corresponding to piece holding pins, the injection overmolding not covering at least a light emitting portion of the one or more LED packages.

Claims

1. A manufacturing method comprising:

mounting one or more light emitting diode (LED) packages on a circuit board to define a lighting unit; and

overmolding the lighting unit using a multi-step overmolding process including;

securing the lighting unit in a mold die using first piece-holding pins to contact the lighting unit,

applying a first overmolding shot to form a first overmolding over a first portion of the lighting unit not including at least the portions of the lighting unit contacted by the first piece-holding pins,

reconfiguring the mold die by reconfiguration operations including at least extending second piece-holding pins to contact the first overmolding and retracting the first piece-holding pins, and

applying a second overmolding shot to form a second overmolding over a second portion of the lighting unit including at least the portions of the lighting unit contacted by the first piece-holding pins.

2. The manufacturing method as set forth in claim 1, wherein at least one of the securing and the reconfiguring includes sealing off at least a light emitting portion of the one or more LED packages mounted on the circuit board such that at least one of the first overmolding and the second overmolding does not cover at least the light-emitting portion of the one or more LED packages.

3. The manufacturing method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the securing and the reconfiguring includes sealing off a light emitting portion of the one or more LED packages mounted on the circuit board such that the overmolding provides underfilling of the one or more LED packages.

4. The manufacturing method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the securing includes sealing off at least a light emitting portion of the one or more LED packages mounted on the circuit board such that the first overmolding does not cover at least the light emitting portion of the one or more LED packages, the first overmolding being of an opaque material.

5. The manufacturing method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the reconfiguring includes sealing off at least a light emitting portion of the one or more LED packages mounted on the circuit board such that the second overmolding does not cover at least the light emitting portion of the one or more LED packages, the second overmolding being of an opaque material.

6. The manufacturing method as set forth in claim 1, wherein both the securing and the reconfiguring includes sealing off at least a light emitting portion of the one or more LED packages mounted on the circuit board such that neither the first overmolding nor the second overmolding covers the light-emitting portion of the one or more LED packages, both the first overmolding and the second overmolding being of opaque materials.

7. The manufacturing method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the reconfiguring further includes adjusting the injection volume between the applying of the first overmolding shot and the applying of the second overmolding shot.

8. The manufacturing method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the applying of the first overmolding shot and the applying of the second overmolding shot both apply the same type of overmolding material.

9. A manufacturing method comprising:

mounting one or more light emitting diode (LED) packages on a circuit board to define a lighting unit; and

injection overmolding the entire lighting unit except the one or more LED packages using a single type of overmolding material.

10. The manufacturing method as set forth in claim 9, wherein the injection overmolding comprises:

applying a first overmolding shot that covers most of the lighting unit except portions by which the lighting unit is held during the first overmolding shot; and

applying a second overmolding shot that covers at least the portions by which the lighting unit is held during the first overmolding shot.

11. The manufacturing method as set forth in claim 10, wherein during the first overmolding at least a light emitting portion of the one or more LED packages is sealed off from an injection volume of the first overmolding and during the second overmolding at least said light emitting portion of the one or more LED packages is sealed off from an injection volume of the second overmolding.

12. The manufacturing method as set forth in claim 10, wherein at least one of the first overmolding and the second overmolding underfills a gap between the one or more LED packages and the circuit board.

13. The manufacturing method as set forth in claim 9, wherein the injection overmolding underfills the one or more LED packages.

14. The manufacturing method as set forth in claim 9, wherein the injection overmolding comprises:

disposing an isolation cap over a light emitting portion of the one or more LED packages, said isolation cap not extending to contact the circuit board, the injection overmolding penetrating a gap between each LED package and the circuit board to underfill the LED package.

15. The manufacturing method as set forth in claim 9, wherein the injection overmolding comprises a multi-shot overmolding process in which exposed portions of the circuit board left by piece-holding pins of a first overmolding shot are sealed by a second overmolding shot.

16. The manufacturing method as set forth in claim 15, wherein each shot of the multi-shot overmolding process injects the same type of overmolding material.

17. The manufacturing method as set forth in claim 15, wherein the multi-shot overmolding process is a two-shot overmolding process.

18. A lighting module comprising:

one or more light emitting diode (LED) packages mounted on a circuit board; and

an injection overmolding sealing the circuit board, the injection overmolding not having openings corresponding to piece holding pins, the injection overmolding not covering at least a light emitting portion of the one or more LED packages.

19. The lighting module as set forth in claim 18, wherein the overmolding comprises a single type of overmolding material

20. The lighting module as set forth in claim 18, wherein the overmolding extends into a gap between each of the one or more LED packages and the circuit board to underfill each of the one or more LED packages.