Cambridge slashes cost to make LEDs with new silicon process

Researchers at Cambridge University say they've developed a new way to make Gallium Nitride—a key step in reducing the cost to produce highly efficient light-emitting diodes.

Gallium Nitride (GaN) is a man-made semiconductor that emits a bright light using little electricity. GaN has typically been grown on sapphire wafers.

But scientists at the Cambridge University Centre for Gallium Nitride have grown GaN on silicon wafers, which they say improves cost and efficiency by 50 percent. The findings could reduce the cost of an LED to one-tenth of what it is today, the university says.

Cambridge said that 20 percent of UK electricity goes to lighting, a figure that could be reduced to 5 percent using the improved GaN technology.

GaN LEDs can burn for 100,000 hours, or about 60 years of usage. The devices also carry the other benefits of LEDs: no mercury content, dimmable lighting, and instant light.

"This could well be the holy grail in terms of providing our lighting needs for the future," said Professor Colin Humphreys, lead scientist on the project, in a news release about the findings. "We are very close to achieving highly efficient, low cost white LEDs that can take the place of both traditional and currently available low-energy light bulbs."

In addition to lighting, the GaN LED technology has the potential to be used for water purification and disease control, Cambridge said.

The research was funded in part by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research
Council.

Others have studied the usage of silicon wafers in LEDs, including Danish-German technology company Hymite (see Size and power breakthrough for high brightness LEDs).

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