SUMMARY
Lehigh University has developed a new method to achieve high performance and high efficiency Group III-Nitride LEDs and lasers. High efficiency emitters in the blue, green and red regime are important for SSL and medical applications. LEDs and lasers based on conventional technology suffer from poor performances, with one of the limitations due to low optical gain resulting in high current operation for lasers and poor efficiency for LEDs.
The staggered InGaN quantum well consists of high In-content InGaN layers and low In-content InGaN layers, forming the active regions with large transition matrix element and optical gain. The invention can be grown by standard III-V semiconductor MOCVD/MBE epitaxy and the device structures can be fabricated by utilizing the standard semiconductor processing technology.
Applications for this invention include SSL for displays and lighting and medical applications such as non-invasive photodynamic therapy and eye surgery.
Lehigh Tech ID# 122406-02
THE MARKET
The SSL market is predicted to reach $33 billion by 2013, growing annually at over 10%. This market is an umbrella market for LEDs, OLEDs, and PLEDs. LED technologies make up a majority of this market ($5.08 billion), with a growth rate of over 24%. Additionally, 22% of the United States electricity is consumed by lighting, which costs consumers over $50 billion each year. SSL technologies have the potential to reduce this consumption by up to six times less. This potential has led to increased market need, funding resources and science centers dedicated to SSL developments, such as the $46 million Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) for solid-state lighting science funded by the Department of Energy.
THE OPPORTUNITY
Lehigh University is interested in identifying an industry partner to license this technology.