Novel Materials & Coatings for Efficient White Down-Converting Light Emitting Diodes

This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project involves the development of photoluminescent phosphors and coating materials for ultraviolet light emitting diodes that will make possible a white light emitting diode having high color purity, efficiency and lifetime far exceeding those of current state of the art. The white light emitting diode light will be produced by down-converting the ultraviolet amplitude emission from light emitting diodes using an efficient mixture of several photo-luminescent phosphors. The materials will be optically coupled to light emitting diode dies using a newly developed selective deposition process (electrophoretic) that is currently being patented jointly by PhosphorTech and Agilent Technologies. Improved solid state & phosphor material technologies are expected to result in dramatic changes in the lighting industry over the next several years. This new white light source would change the way we live, and the way we consume energy. The worldwide amount of electricity consumed by lighting would decrease by more than 50%, and total worldwide consumption of electricity would decrease by more than 10%. The global savings would be more than 1,000TWh/yr of electricity at a value of about US$100B/year, along with the approximately 200 million tons of carbon emissions created during the generation of that electricity. Moreover, more than 125GW of electrical generating capacity would be freed for other uses or would not need to be created, a savings of over US$50B of construction cost. Finally, the impact on the environment will be dramatic, resulting in the elimination of one of the main sources of mercury pollution