Silicone resin is recently used as encapsulant for high-power LED module due to its excellent thermal and optical properties. In the present investigation, finite element analysis of cure process was attempted to examine residual stress evolution behavior during silicone resin cure process which is composed of chemical curing and post-cooling. To model chemical curing of silicone, a cure kinetics equation was evaluated based on the measurement by differential scanning calorimeter. The evolutions of elastic modulus and chemical shrinkage during cure process were assumed as a function of the degree of cure to examine their effect on residual stress evolution. Finite element predictions showed how residual stress in cured silicone resin can be affected by elastic modulus and chemical shrinkage behavior. Finite element analysis is supposed to be utilized to select appropriate silicone resin or to design optimum cure process which brings about a minimum residual stress in encapsulant silicone resin.
