13 June 2016

US DOE investing $10.5m in nine solid-state lighting R&D projects

Building on the new commitments to the Global Lighting Challenge announced in early June during the Clean Energy Ministerial, the US Department of Energy (DOE) is announcing funding for nine research and development projects that will support solid-state lighting (SSL) core technology research, product development, and manufacturing research and development. The projects aims to help to accelerate the development of high-quality light-emitting diode (LED) and organic light-emitting diode (OLED) lighting products.

"Solid-state lighting research and development has contributed to more than $2.8bn in US energy cost savings over the past 15 years, and further improvements in the technology will increase those savings even more in the years to come," says Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz. "By 2030, solid-state lighting could reduce national lighting electricity use by nearly half — which would equate to the total energy consumed by 24 million American homes today and could save American families and businesses $26bn annually," he adds.   

Today's most advanced LED products are about 10 times more energy efficient than conventional incandescent lighting and last more than 25 times longer, notes the DOE.

Department-funded R&D aims to foster technology breakthroughs to unlock new levels of SSL performance and energy savings. For example, DOE targets aim to increase the efficiency of existing LEDs by an additional 66%. LED lighting also offers new potential for advanced lighting control, including color tuning and intelligent, adaptive lighting.

In total, the nine selected projects will receive more than $10.5m and will make a cost-share contribution for a total public-private investment of over $13.5m, as they help to further reduce the cost and improve the quality of SSL products:

• Cree Inc (Durham, NC) — Developing a high-efficacy LED lighting fixture that has good color rendering as well as advanced features such as the ability to tune the color of the light;
• Columbia University (New York, NY) — Developing improved quantum dots to increase the efficiency and lower the cost of LEDs;
• GE Global Research (Niskayuna, NY) — Developing an efficient LED fixture that features interchangeable modules and allows for simplified manufacturing and customized performance specifications;
• Iowa State University (Ames, IA) — Demonstrating a method to significantly increase the light output of white OLEDs by changing their internal features;
• Lumenari, Inc. (Lexington, KY) — Developing a narrow-bandwidth red phosphor to improve the efficacy of phosphor-converted LEDs;
• Lumileds (San Jose, CA) — Improving the design of an LED to make it more efficient by using a patterned sapphire substrate (PSS) flip-chip architecture;
• North Carolina State University (Raleigh, NC) — Developing a way to get more light out of OLEDs using low-cost corrugated substrates;
• Pennsylvania State University (State College, PA) — Developing a way to better understand and predict the occurrence of short circuits in OLED lighting panels in order to reduce failure rates; and
• University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI) — Developing three innovative methods to harness the light within OLEDs.

This is the eleventh round of the department's investments in solid-state lighting core technology research and product development.  

Tags: DOE SSL funding LEDs

Visit: www.ssl.energy.gov/techroadmaps.html