Perdue U Breakthrough Could Cut LEDs’ Cost
Perdue University researchers have discovered a new way to produce LED lights that could significantly reduce their manufacturing cost. Currently, LEDs are expensive to produce, partially because they are created on a base layer of sapphire. The Perdue researchers have developed an alternative base layer of less expensive metal-coated silicon wafers. The wafers are also superior to their sapphire counterparts in heat dissipation, which could translate to increased reliability and longer lasting LED bulbs. The findings of the Perdue study will appear in this month’s Applied Physics Letters, a journal published by the American Institute of Physics.
Top photo shows Professor Timothy D. Sands (left) and graduate student Mark Oliver operate a reactor that is coating silicon wafers with gallium nitrate, the light-emitting ingredient in many LEDs. Photo credit: Purdue News Service photo/David Umberger
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