DOE awards seven SBIR grants for SSL technology

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded seven Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants targeting advances in solid-state lighting (SSL) technology. The SBIR program seeks to increase the participation of small businesses in federal R&D.

Five Phase I awards will explore the technical merit or feasibility of an innovative concept or technology:

Recipient: K Technology Corporation
Title: Advanced Materials for Thermal Management in III-Nitride LEDs
This research will focus on developing advanced materials that can extract heat from light emitting diodes (LEDs), enabling the LEDs to emit higher-intensity light, which will make them more viable for independent light sources such as room lighting.

Recipient: Physical Optics Corporation
Title: Microporous alumina-confined nanowire inorganic phosphor film for solid-state lighting
This project will explore a new advanced phosphor that, combined with a light-emitting diode, will create a pure white SSL device that is at least 20 percent more efficient than current devices. The advanced phosphor technology will help to create long-lived devices with fewer environmental hazards associated with both the processing and use of the devices.

Recipient: Universal Display Corporation
Title: Novel plastic substrates for very high efficiency OLED lighting
This research will explore novel plastic substrates to further increase the conversion efficiency of electrical energy into light energy for phosphorescent organic light emitting devices. Ultimately, these white solid-state devices may completely replace conventional incandescent and fluorescent lighting sources.

Recipient: Physical Optics Corporation
Title: Highly efficient OLEDs for general illumination
This project will focus on improving light extraction efficiency from organic light emitting devices (OLEDs) through development of a new device structure. Improved light extraction efficiency is needed to make OLEDs competitive with conventional lighting devices.

Recipient: Universal Display Corporation
Title: Novel high-efficiency, high-CRI phosphorescent OLED lighting containing two broad emitters
This project will demonstrate a path to novel low-cost, high-efficiency white lighting with a simple device structure that employs only two emissive phosphorescent dopants. This approach will simplify and lower the manufacturing cost of OLED lighting, and make OLEDs more efficient and cost-effective in general lighting applications.

Two Phase II awards will expand on Phase I results and enable awardees to evaluate the commercial potential of new technology:

Recipient: Fairfield Crystal Technology, LLC
Title: Novel growth technique for large diameter AlN single crystal substrates
This project will focus on development and commercialization of aluminum nitride single crystal substrates that enable the fabrication of highly efficient light emitting devices for solid-state lighting. Inadequate substrates currently hamper the development of high efficiency, high brightness LEDs for general lighting.

Recipient: Universal Display Corporation
Title: High recombination efficiency white OLEDs
This project will utilize novel organic light emitting diode (OLED) fabrication techniques developed in Phase 1, and focus on enhancing the power efficiency and operational stability of phosphorescent OLEDs through improvements in the recombination efficiency of electrons and holes in the OLED emissive layer.