Silicon Light Illuminates the future? Canadian Startup says Yes!
Found this over on Technology Review… First we’ve heard of this, but sounds pretty interesting none the less. We will have to see how this fairs for longevity, and power consumption versus convetional LED’s used for lighting. Definately a step in the right direction if it brings down prices for consumers.
Researchers at a Canadian startup say they’ve found a way to make low-cost, white-light LEDs that could one day end our addiction to inefficient incandescent bulbs. They claim to have cracked the cost barrier for solid-state lighting by replacing the expensive semiconductors compounds traditionally used in LEDs with low-cost silicon.
“Because it’s a silicon-based system, we think [the lighting] will be affordable,” says Stephen Naor, chief executive officer of Ottawa-based Group IV Semiconductor (named after silicon’s position in the periodic table). “That’s critical, because if you don’t have affordability, then nobody is going to buy it.”
Roughly 60 percent of all lightbulbs in the world are still incandescent–and for good reason: most cost pennies to produce. However, 95 percent of the energy used by these bulbs is wasted as heat. Solid-state lighting is already widely used for specialty applications; LEDs on Christmas tree lights, for example, are based on gallium nitride semiconductors. And experts predict that this technology will be increasingly used for general lighting purposes.
Full article is here: Technology Review Article on Silicon Lighting
Posted October 10, 2006 - Filed In LED Business
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