Bridgelux Creates Affordable LED Technology from Silicon

It is no mystery that LED is, currently, becoming more and more popular thanks to its many benefits, even though it does have some disadvantage when it comes to pricing, a drawback that one company claims to have found a way around.

Nowadays, if a new monitor or HDTV comes out, the assumptions will most likely be made immediately that LED backlights are used.

While consuming far less energy than CCFL (cold cathode fluorescent lights), they deliver a higher image clarity and brightness, among other things.

Unfortunately, LED-backlit displays are always more expensive than others, and while the recession is passing (consumers are more willing to pay more for the long-term benefits), improvements in this area are always welcome.

That said, Bridgelux, a company that has its headquarters in Livermore, issued a press release in which it claims to have built a new type of light emitting diode.

The outfit took a low-cost silicon wafer and grew gallium nitride on it, instead of doing the same to sapphire on silicon carbide substrates.

The result was a color correlated temperature of 4,730K (a very high level of brightness) coupled with an output of 125 lm/W (lumens per watt).

Overall, LED production costs could be reduced by 75 percent and practical implementations should be available within two or three years.

“Bridgelux’s achievement is a significant reflection of the strength of our leadership in Silicon materials and epitaxial process technology, said Bill Watkins, Bridgelux CEO.

“The significantly reduced cost-structures enabled by Silicon-based LED technology will continue to deliver dramatic reductions in the up-front capital investment required for solid state lighting. In as little as two to three years, even the most price-sensitive markets, such as commercial and office lighting, residential applications, and retrofit lamps will seamlessly and rapidly convert to solid state lighting.”