Seoul Slug Isolation?

[RCatR]

How essential is it to isolate the seol's slug from a negative contact? Will Arctic Ceramica do the trick?

 

[Tronic]

I use a thin layer of nail polish. This work very good in my Mag LED mod.

 

[grnamin]

I use Arctic Alumina Ceramic since it works well with conducting heat away from the slug and at the same time isolates it.

 

[Curious_character]

Unless the mounting pad is electrically isolated (as it seems to be on Luxeon stars) or connected directly to the LED cathode (+) terminal (not likely), insulating the LED is essential. If you'll be running the LED at anywhere near its rated current, you should use something that's a very good thermal conductor. Arctic Silver epoxy is the best I've found. Arctic Alumina epoxy is about half as thermally conductive, but adequate. I looked into Kapton tape, but it has only about 1/50 the thermal conductivity of Arctic Silver, so isn't good to use. Whatever you use, you should use the thinnest layer possible that still provides insulation, to minimize the thermal resistance.

c_c

 

[chris_m]

A very good alternative to a layer of thermal epoxy (which is itself far better than nail polish) is an anodized heat sink. Of course if you're doing a mod you don't necessarily have this option.

 

[RCatR]

Looks like I'll be taking a crash course in home brew anodization