LEDs to get as cheap as incandescent bulbs with new production process?

Researchers from Florida State University believe a new formulation for LEDs could make them as cheap as incandescent bulbs. The new technology relies on an inexpensive single layer combo-organic/inorganic material formulation that can glow red, green or blue, or all three together for white. Previous designs required four or five layers.

Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at FSU, Zhibin Yu, and his collaborator, post-doctoral researcher Junqiang Li, claim the new device structure is inexpensive and highly manufacturable.

"LED researchers have only been using these new materials for about three years, even though its been used for solar panels for quite some time," professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at FSU, Zhibin Yu, told EE Times. "Other groups are working on it for LEDs, but they need several layers of materials making it expensive to process. We are first published group to use a single layer."

Today LEDs need high-temperature processing and expensive substrates to achieve their high power, but at a premium price. Organic LEDs (OLEDs) were originally processed at low-temperatures in single layers, but have since evolved to using multiple layers and amorphous silicon backplanes to achieve adequate efficiencies.

Source: EE Times