GaN LEDs on Flexible Metal Foils

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Program:
SWITCHES
Award:
$3,146,043
Location:
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Status:
ALUMNI
Project Term:
03/10/2014 - 06/30/2019

Technology Description:

iBeam Materials is developing a scalable manufacturing method to produce low-cost gallium nitride (GaN) LED devices for use in solid-state lighting. iBeam Materials uses an ion-beam crystal-aligning process to create single-crystal-like templates on arbitrary substrates thereby eliminating the need for small rigid single-crystal substrates. This process is inexpensive, high-output, and allows for large-area deposition in particular on flexible metal foils. In using flexible substrates, in contrast to rigid single-crystal wafers, the ion-aligning process also enables roll-to-roll (R2R) processing of crystalline films. R2R processing in turn simplifies manufacturing scale-up by reducing equipment footprint and associated labor costs By fabricating the LED directly on a metal substrate, one “pre-packages” the LED with the reflector and the heat sink built-in. This significantly reduces cost, simplifies packaging and allows a pick-and-place (P&P) technology to be replaced with printing of LEDs.

Potential Impact:

If successful, iBeam Material’s GaN coating on inexpensive large area substrates could significantly reduce the manufacturing cost of GaN based LEDs used in Solid State Lighting, accelerating their widespread use.

Security:

A large fraction of US electricity (18%) is used for lighting. The widespread deployment of LED-based solid state lighting (SSL) would reduce the demand for electricity which would in turn would help reduce U.S. oil imports.

Environment:

Widespread adoption of efficient solid state lighting promises to reduce electricity consumption, resulting in fewer harmful energy-related emissions.

Economy:

Widespread adoption of efficient solid state lighting would use less energy, saving American families and business owners’ money on their power bills.

Contact

ARPA-E Program Director:
Dr. Isik Kizilyalli
Project Contact:
Dr. Vladimir Matias
Press and General Inquiries Email:
ARPA-E-Comms@hq.doe.gov
Project Contact Email:
vlado@ibeammaterials.com

Partners

Los Alamos National Laboratory
Sandia National Laboratory

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Release Date:
06/11/2013