Novel fabrication of light-emitting diodes (LEDs)
Bruce Clemens, Materials Science and Engineering; James Harris, Electrical Engineering
Blue-light-emitting diodes (LEDs) form the basis for solid-state lighting technology, which has recently started to play a very important role in energy efficiency given that LED lighting is about 4.3 times more energy-efficient than standard fluorescent lamps. Lighting constitutes approximately 20–30% of total electricity consumption in industrial economies. Thus worldwide electricity consumption and carbon emissions can be drastically reduced if the adoption of solid-state lighting technology is increased. Reductions in LED pricing will assist in increasing adoption and lighting access worldwide.
This project seeks to reduce the manufacturing cost of LEDs by using a novel fabrication technique that could create a lower-cost, highly scalable method for growth of high-quality group III-nitride thin films, in contrast to the Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) method predominantly used in the industry. Project goals include developing process guidelines for the growth of high-quality thin films, followed by the fabrication of the films into LED devices.
Awarded 2016