The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded three Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants and one Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant targeting advances in solid-state lighting (SSL) technology. The SBIR/STTR program seeks to increase the participation of small businesses in federal R&D. To learn more about the DOE Office of Science SBIR/STTR program, visit http://science.energy.gov/sbir/.
- One Phase I award will explore the technical merit or feasibility of an innovative concept or technology.
- Three Phase II awards will expand on Phase I results and enable the awardees to evaluate the commercial potential of new technology.
The Phase I award is briefly described below:
SBIR Recipient: Soraa Inc.
Title: Large-Area Semipolar Ammonothermal GaN Substrates for High-Power LEDs
Summary: This project seeks to develop a new, cost-effective manufacturing technology for large-area single crystal wafers of gallium nitride, the material on which white LEDs are based, with a unique orientation. If successful, the new technology will enable fabrication of low-cost, high-efficiency LEDs.
The Phase II awards are briefly described below:
SBIR Recipient: Universal Display Corp.
Title: Thermal Management of Phosphorescent Organic Light Emitting Devices
Summary: UDC will to continue to develop advancements to their thermal management of large-area OLED light panels based on the success of the Phase I effort. They will develop various approaches to improve the thermal management including building a physical model, establishing panel-level test methods, optimizing the panel layout, and exploring novel substrates and encapsulation systems, which, when applied to their phosphorescent OLED (PHOLED) technology, will enable a record low panel operating temperature of less than 30°C at 10,000 lm/m2.
SBIR Recipient: Advanced Cooling Technologies, Inc.
Title: Dielectric Printed Circuit Board Planar Thermosyphon
Summary: Thermal management has been identified as a critical obstacle along DOE's multi-year roadmap to ensure and accelerate the development and deployment of LED lighting products. The proposed passive heat spreader will dramatically improve the thermal management of high-brightness, light-emitting diodes without imposing significant costs. The unusual thermal management approach has been successfully applied to military electronics and promises a 50% improvement in chip level heat transfer compared to conventional heat pipe designs.
STTR Recipient: Sinmat Inc.
Title: Low Cost, Scalable Manufacturing of Microlens Engineered Substrates (MLES) for Enhanced Light Extraction in OLED Devices
Summary: The project objective is to develop a novel, low-cost method to create a microlens engineered substrate that is expected to show significant enhancement in outcoupling efficiency while simultaneously reducing manufacturing cost. Over 75% improvement in extraction efficiency is claimed based on patented concepts already under development. These improvements will yield a three-fold increase in the efficiency of organic light-emitting diodes.