News

25 August 2010

 

SiC Systems wins grant to develop more efficiency green LEDs with Smart Lighting ERC

The US National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a $200,000 grant to SiC Systems Inc of Golden, CO, USA to partner with the Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center (ERC) in developing LEDs with increased efficiency.

The ERC was founded in 2008 by the NSF and is led by Renssealer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, NY, USA, with Boston University and The University of New Mexico as core partners, and Howard University, Morgan State University and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology as outreach and education partners.

Incorporated in July 2007, SiC Systems says that its unique ability to produce large-area, 6” silicon carbide substrates in different crystallographic orientations will be combined with the Smart Lighting ERC’s capability to develop LEDs with higher performance than those routinely available on sapphire substrates. While high-power blue gallium nitride LEDs are widely used for solid-state lighting applications, there are still significant barriers to developing efficient GaN LEDs at other wavelengths needed to achieve high-performance lighting systems with high color fidelity, says the firm.

By combining silicon carbide structures from SiC Systems with LED growth and fabrication technology under development at RPI in the research group of professor Christian Wetzel, the team aims to explore new approaches to driving GaN to higher levels of efficiency at a broader range of operating wavelengths than can be obtained currently with conventional LED growth on sapphire substrates.

The collaboration will also train and engage graduate and undergraduate researchers, at both SiC Systems and the ERC. SiC Systems anticipates that as many as 25 new jobs will be created.

The awardees acknowledge the SBIR/STTR (Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer) and ERC programs for providing the funding.

See related items:

SiC Systems completes first-round funding for 6" production

Search: SiC Systems SiC substrates Green LEDs Smart Lighting ERC

Visit: www.sicsystems.com

Visit: http://smartlighting.rpi.edu