SBIR Phase II: Novel Compositions for Narrow Bandwidth Light Emitting Diode Phosphors

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is the development of a novel phosphor material system that drives up to a 20% improvement in energy efficiency of phosphor-converted LEDs (pcLEDs) over current state-of-the-art phosphor material systems in nearly all pcLED applications. The market for LED phosphors in 2012 was roughly $500 million and is expected to reach $1.2 billion by 2016. The 20% improvement in the packaged LED efficiency will also trigger a cascade of tangible impacts at the end-product system level such as using fewer LEDs, increasing efficacy (lumens per watt) and mobile device battery life, reducing electronic driver complexity, reducing heat, a thinner form factor, and a far more brilliant color gamut. The anticipated results from this grant will satisfy the 2020 goals for down-converting materials laid out in the U.S. Department of Energy's 2013 Multi-Year Program Plan, bringing these efficacy and efficiency goals and standards to market four years ahead of schedule. This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project aims to further develop a novel and proprietary phosphor material system for use in phosphor-converted light-emitting diode (pcLED) applications that will improve pcLED efficacy up to 20%. In display backlighting, 20-40% of the light emitted by the state-of-the-art phosphors miss the sweet spot of the display's color filters resulting in unused light and wasted energy. Similarly, in general lighting approximately 15% of the emitted light falls outside the visible spectrum, again resulting in wasted energy. The technology developed is a phosphor material utilizing a novel chemistry that exhibits a narrow light emission spectrum to increase LED brightness and energy efficiency by 10-20% in display backlighting and up to 15% in general lighting applications. Prototype materials have been synthesized that exhibit a narrow emission peak at target wavelengths, and the next steps include optimization and characterization of the most effective compositions. The anticipated results of this project are narrow-band phosphor materials that exhibit performance and reliability characteristics commensurate with industry standards.