Bridgelux has announced that it has broken its own target performance levels for commercial grade LEDs printed on silicon substrates.
The Californian company says it has achieved efficiencies as high as 160 lumens per watt for cool-colour temperature LEDs and 125 lumens per watt for warm-colour temperature LEDs.
Dr.Steve Lester from Bridgelux said:"The performance levels that we announced today are the highest Lm/W values yet published for GaN-on-Si and rival the best commercial LEDs grown on sapphire or silicon carbide(SiC)."
The news is significant for the lighting industry because it could seriously reduce the cost of LED manufacturing.By Bridgelux's calculations,the chip efficiencies in the trial would equate to end-user LED bulbs with an efficiency of 85 lumens per watt.
The company also claims there is a potential 75 per cent improvement in cost when comparing silicon wafers with current LED manufacturing costs.
Bill Watkins,Bridgelux CEO,said:"This key innovation is a game-changer for the industry,delivering dramatic reductions in the up-front capital investment required for solid state lighting and thereby significantly increasing the rate of market adoption."
The company aims to make the technology available to the market within the next two years.
