News

25 February 2010

 

TDI wins $600,000 award to boost solid-state lighting materials production

Oxford Instruments subsidiary Technologies and Devices International Inc (TDI) of Silver Spring, MD, USA, which develops hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) processes and techniques for the production of compound semiconductor materials including GaN, AlN, AlGaN, InN, and InGaN, has been awarded $600,000 by the USA’s Maryland Energy Administration to help to expedite broad industry adoption of energy-efficient LED lighting, and to better position Maryland to become a national leader in solid-state lighting materials and equipment manufacturing.

TDI says that the Clean Energy Economic Development Initiative award will enable it to hire three new scientists and engineers this year and put it on track to create dozens more direct and indirect high-tech jobs by 2015. It should also help to complete materials and process development and begin transferring the production technology to drive down manufacturing costs associated with LED lighting.

“This award will not only benefit TDI and Maryland, but also better position the USA to compete in the global solid-state lighting market,” believes TDI’s president Bernard Scanlan. “Governor O’Malley and his team are working to create jobs by putting Maryland on the road to benefit from emerging technologies that will create jobs, cut taxpayers’ electricity bills, and reduce US dependence on foreign oil,” he adds.

TDI’s proprietary HVPE technology has allowed it to develop CrystalFlex, a prototype high-volume, industrial-scale manufacturing reactor for free-standing gallium nitride (GaN) materials. Collaborators include the University of Maryland as well as other US researchers and manufacturers.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has identified the development of free-standing GaN substrates and their manufacture by HVPE as key technologies to enable reduced LED manufacturing costs with improved LED performance. TDI says that, upon project completion, its high-volume manufacturing equipment should permit increased US production of free-standing GaN substrates to meet growing global demand.

Federal studies have shown that 22% of all electricity consumed in the US is for lighting. The DOE forecasts that replacing incandescent light bulbs and fluorescent tubes with highly efficient LEDs would save taxpayers more than $17bn in annual energy costs and result in a 33% reduction in US electricity consumption relative to a scenario with no SSL on the market. The broad adoption of LEDs would also result in the need for 29 million fewer barrels of oil annually for electricity generation and reduce CO2 gas emissions by 155 million tons, it is reckoned.

See related items:

Oxford Instruments launches CrystalFlex HVPE reactor

Bulk GaN substrates to expand from blue lasers to lighting and power electronics

HVPE of semi-polar GaN on m-plane sapphire boosts opto device performance

Oxford Instruments acquires TDI

See: Oxford Instruments Company Profile

Search: TDI OIPT Free-standing GaN substrates HVPE SSL LEDs

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