News

8 August 2006

 

DOE awards seven SBIR grants for SSL development

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded seven Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants targeting advances in solid-state lighting (SSL) technology development. The awards are split between K Technology Corp of Langhorne, PA, Universal Display Corp of Ewing, NJ, Physical Optics Corp of Torrance, CA, and Fairfield Crystal Technology LLC of New Milford, CT, as well as being split between III-nitride and organic light-emitting diode
technology.

Five Phase I awards (to explore the technical merit or feasibility of an innovative concept or technology) include the following projects:

- "Advanced Materials for Thermal Management in III-Nitride LEDs" (K Technology Corp) will focus on developing advanced materials that can extract heat from LEDs, enabling them to emit higher-intensity light, making
them more viable for independent light sources such as room lighting.

- "Highly Efficient Organic LED for General Illumination" (Physical Optics Corp) will focus on improving light extraction efficiency from organic LEDs (OLEDs) through development of a new device structure.

- "Microporous Alumina Confined Nanowire Inorganic Phosphor Film for Solid-State Lighting" (Physical Optics Corp) will explore a new advanced phosphor that, combined with a LED, will create a pure white SSL device that is at least 20% more efficient than current devices, helping to create long-lived devices with fewer environmental hazards associated with both device processing and use.

- "Novel Plastic Substrates for Very High Efficiency OLED Lighting" (Universal Display Corp) will explore novel plastic substrates to further increase the conversion efficiency of electrical energy into light energy for phosphorescent OLEDs.

- "Novel High Efficiency High CRI Phosphorescent OLED Lighting Containing Two Broad Emitters" (Universal Display Corp) will demonstrate a path to novel low-cost, high-efficiency white lighting with a simple device structure that employs only two emissive phosphorescent dopants, simplifying and lowering the manufacturing cost of OLED lighting, and making OLEDs more efficient and cost-effective in general lighting applications.

Two Phase II awards (which will expand on Phase I results and enable awardees to evaluate the commercial potential of new technology) include:

- "High Recombination Efficiency White OLEDs" (Universal Display Corp) will use novel OLED fabrication techniques developed in Phase 1, and focus on enhancing the power efficiency and operational stability of phosphorescent
OLEDs through improvements in the recombination efficiency of electrons and holes in the OLED emissive layer.

- "Novel Growth Technique for Large Diameter AlN Single-Crystal Substrates" (Fairfield Crystal Technology LLC) will focus on development and commercialization of aluminium nitride single-crystal substrates that enable the fabrication of highly efficient LEDs for solid-state lighting.


Visit: http://www.netl.doe.gov/ssl