Europe explores new LED production processes and optimizes light-emitting structures

At present, LED technology is mainly used to produce automobile taillights, traffic lights and displays. The cost of indoor lighting is still too high. A LED lamp equivalent to 60 watts of incandescent lighting is priced at about 30 euros in Europe. The main reason is that the sapphire substrate and the gallium nitride epitaxial layer commonly used in the production of LED lamps are expensive, and the light-emitting area is also limited.

The University of Kassel recently published a press release saying that researchers in the European nanostructured semiconductor lighting research project are developing new processes to replace sapphire substrates with low-cost silicon substrates, and then use complex nano-processes to make diameters of about 100 nanometers and heights of about 3,000. A nano-hexagonal prism is grown on a silicon substrate. Compared to traditional processes, new technologies can produce larger, more compact illuminating surfaces in the same space.

The University of Kassel's contribution to this project is mainly to optimize the structure of the hexagonal illuminating crystal columns with computer models and to make these semiconductor crystal columns emit green, blue and red light. Through the mixing of these kinds of lights, the LED can emit white light. In the prior art, in order to obtain a white light source, it is necessary to apply a fluorescent layer to the surface of the LED.

Professor Vecchiman of the University of Kassel said that the new LED lamps still need to overcome several technical obstacles from basic research to mature products. Researchers hope to launch the first demo sample by the end of 2012. The official launch of this super LED lamp is expected to be at least five years. At that time, a new type of LED lamp with the same luminous intensity as a 75-watt incandescent lamp is expected to cost no more than 5 euros, and its service life will be about 10 times that of incandescent lamps.