New Blue Phosphor for High Heat Applications

Brief Description

UC Santa Barbara researchers have created the very first monolithic and transparent blue-emitting phosphor that takes UV light and transforms it into blue light.

Background

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are rapidly replacing traditional incandescent and fluorescent lighting. Laser diodes (LDs) also have a significant impact on the lighting market and offer increased peak efficiencies at higher increased operating currents than LEDs. Currently, both LEDs and LDs are being investigated as sources to generate white light using inorganic phosphors.

Description

UC Santa Barbara researchers have created the very first monolithic and transparent blue-emitting phosphor that takes UV light and transforms it into blue light. By using spark plasma sintering (SPS), one can create non-encapsulating monolithic phosphors in only 30 minutes, much faster than currently practiced techniques. Due to the monolithic characteristic and the elimination of encapsulating materials, this blue-emitting phosphor technology is perfectly suited to improve upon LEDs and LDs. Since this is the only monolithic blue-emitting phosphor technology able to handle the high heat of LEDs and LDs it proves quite promising for the next generation of lighting.

Advantages

• Maintains a stable temperature of 70° C
•  Faster than current techniques, taking less than an hour to prepare the phosphor powder into dense translucent samples
•  Allows for reflection or transmission depending on sample thickness
•  Ability to withstand high heat from LEDs and LDs
• Superior performance compared to a phosphor in silicone

Applications

• Warm or cool light
• General lighting
• Visible light communication (VLC)
• Any application here conversion or filtering of UV light is required
• Preparation or synthesis of translucent samples
• UV light filter due to decrease of phosphor self-heating

Patent Status