An Estimation Method for the Efficiency of Light-Emitting Diode (LED) Devices

With the emergence of new color-mixing LED systems based on LED devices of different color temperatures, the need for a new modeling technique for LED systems with nonidentical LED devices becomes imminent. This paper presents a modeling tech- nique for LED systems with LED arrays comprising nonidenti- cal LED devices that have nonidentical optical-thermal-electrical properties. Based on a general 3-D photo-electro-thermal LED node model, LED devices of different kinds can be arranged in var- ious array forms according to their system construction and design. By linking the system matrix to the correlated-color-temperature prediction, the proposed modeling technique provides an accu- rate prediction of the temperature distribution, luminous flux, and correlated color temperature of the LED systems. The tempera- ture distribution and light output of the LED systems have been measured using an infrared imaging system and a spectrophoto- colorimeter with an integrating sphere. The modeling technique has been successfully demonstrated and experimentally verified on several LED systems comprising nonidentical LED devices. It is particularly useful as a modeling tool to study new color-mixing LED systems based on different types of LED devices. Index Terms—Correlated color temperature (CCT), light- emitting diodes (LED), lighting system, nonidentical LEDs, photo- electro-thermal (PET), thermal model.

The fabrication of supramolecular light-harvesting systems (LHS) with sequential energy transfer is of significance in utilizing light energy. In this study, we report the non-covalent self-assembly of a sequential LHS by pillar[5]arene-based host-guest interaction in water and its applications in white light-emitting diode (LED) device and latent fingerprint imaging. The host-guest complex WP5 G self-assembles into nanoparticles in water and shows enhanced aggregation-induced emission (AIE) effect. The nanoparticles can be further used to construct sequential LHS with fluorescent dyes 4,7-di(2-thienyl)-benzo[2,1,3]thiadiazole (DBT) and sulforhodamine 101 (SR101). Impressively, the system shows white-light emission when the molar ratio of WP5 G/DBT/SR101 is 1100/2/16. The material can be coated on a LED bulb to achieve white-light emission. In addition, the sequential LHS exhibit multicolor fluorescence including red emission, which have been successfully applied to high-resolution imaging of latent fingerprints. Therefore, we demonstrated a general strategy for the construction of sequential LHS in water based on macrocyclic host-guest interaction and explored its multi-functional applications in white-light LED device and imaging of latent fingerprints, which will promote future development and application of supramolecular LHSs.

We report on a numerical study of the characteristics of p-GaN/n-ZnO light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with p-NiO and n-ZnSe interlayers, and on LED design optimization which includes bandgap engineering, thickness and doping of constituent layers. The current-voltage dependences of investigated LEDs show a threshold voltage of 3.1 V, 5.4 V and 5.6 V for LED devices without and with the presence of p-NiO and n-ZnSe interlayers, respectively. It is found that p-NiO, n-ZnSe and n-ZnO interlayers act as an electron blocking layer, active media layer, and electron transport layer, respectively. It is established that the insertion of both p-NiO and n-ZnSe interlayers leads to the enhancement of charge carrier-confinement in the active region and to the significant increase of internal quantum efficiency (IQE) of the LED device up to 82%, which is comparable with IQE values in order to obtain better AlGaN- and InGaN-based LEDs. It is found that the efficiency of LED devices at 100 A cm−2 is equal to 0.024, 0.09 and 16.4% of external quantum efficiency (EQE), 1.3 × 10−4, 1.6 × 10−4, and 6.4 lm W−1 of PE, and 1.3 × 10−4, 2.9 × 10−4, and 12 cd A−1 of CE for p-GaN/n-ZnO, p-GaN/p-NiO/n-ZnO, and p-GaN/p-NiO/n-ZnSe/n-ZnO LED devices, respectively.

With a long experience in optoelectronics, CEA-LETI has focused on Light Emitting Diode (LED) lighting since 2006. Today, all the technical challenges in the implementation of GaN LED based solid state lighting (SSL) are addressed at CEA-LETI who is now an RandD player throughout the entire value chain of LED lighting. The SSL Line at CEA-LETI first deals with the simulation of the active structures and LED devices. Then the growth is addressed in particular 2D growth on 200 mm silicon substrates. Then, technological steps are developed for the fabrication of LED dies with innovative architectures. For instance, Versatile LED Array Devices are currently being developed with a dedicated μLED technology. The objective in this case is to achieve monolithical LED arrays reported and interconnected through a silicon submount. In addition to the required bonding and 3D integration technologies, new solutions for LED chip packaging, thermal management of LED lamps and luminaires are also addressed. LETI is also active in Smart Lighting concepts which offer the possibility of new application fields for SSL technologies. An example is the recent development at CEA LETI of Visible Light Communication Technology also called LiFi. With this technology, we demonstrated a transmission rate up to 10 Mb/s and real time HD-Video transmission.

Derating of the working current level does not work for improving GaN-based light-emitting diode (LED) devices' reliability. The present work demonstrates that it is not the levels but the specific components of the applied electrical currents weighing more on LEDs' degradation. Existing defects are sources for tunneling currents and Shockley-Read-Hall (SRH) non-radiative recombination current, and the component of tunneling currents and SRH non-radiative recombination current in the applied electrical current will in turn induce fast increase of defect density. The current component from electron tunneling to deep levels in the vicinity of mixed/screw dislocations will affect more on LEDs' degradation than other components, such as heavy-hole tunneling via intermediate state. In a whole, the overflow leakage current from the active region and Auger recombination currents in the applied electrical current will generate positive effects to alleviate LEDs' degradation.

In this study, the growth of GaN-films-based light emitting diodes(LEDs), have been clearly demonstrated on wet-etching patterned sapphire substrate (PSS) and conventional LEDs. The wet-etching PSS LED device showed a significantly higher performance than the conventional LED device. The wet-etching PSS LED device exhibited a leakage current of 9 mA under a bias of 8 V, an external quantum efficiency and output powers of 35.09 % and19.23 mW under 20 mA injection current as compared to 12 mA, 27.23%, and 15.02 mW of the conventional LED device.

Improving the efficiency of light-emitting diode based on a thiophene polymer containing a cyano group

Core-shell nanowires offer great potential to enhance the efficiency of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and expand the attainable wavelength range of LEDs over the whole visible spectrum. Additionally, nanowire (NW) LEDs can offer both improved light extraction and emission enhancement if the diameter of the wires is not larger than half the emission wavelength (λ/2). However, AlGaInP nanowire LEDs have so far failed to match the high efficiencies of traditional planar technologies, and the parameters limiting the efficiency remain unidentified. In this work, we show by experimental and theoretical studies that the small nanowire dimensions required for efficient light extraction and emission enhancement facilitate significant loss currents, which result in a low efficiency in radial NW LEDs in particular. To this end, we fabricate AlGaInP core-shell nanowire LEDs where the nanowire diameter is roughly equal to λ/2, and we find that both a large loss current and a large contact resistance are present in the samples. To investigate the significant loss current observed in the experiments in more detail, we carry out device simulations accounting for the full 3D nanowire geometry. According to the simulations, the low efficiency of radial AlGaInP nanowire LEDs can be explained by a substantial hole leakage to the outer barrier layer due to the small layer thicknesses and the close proximity of the shell contact. Using further simulations, we propose modifications to the epitaxial structure to eliminate such leakage currents and to increase the efficiency to near unity without sacrificing the λ/2 upper limit of the nanowire diameter. To gain a better insight of the device physics, we introduce an optical output measurement technique to estimate an ideality factor that is only dependent on the quasi-Fermi level separation in the LED. The results show ideality factors in the range of 1-2 around the maximum LED efficiency even in the presence of a very large voltage loss, indicating that the technique is especially attractive for measuring nanowire LEDs at an early stage of development before electrical contacts have been optimized. The presented results and characterization techniques form a basis of how to simultaneously optimize the electrical and optical efficiency of core-shell nanowire LEDs, paving the way to nanowire light emitters that make true use of larger-than-unity Purcell factors and the consequently enhanced spontaneous emission.

This study presents the development of a high power (15 W) chip on board (COB) type package with multiarray module for 200 W light emitting diode (LED) lamp system. The LED device is COB package that is mounted directly on the metal PCB to reduce thermal resistance from the chip to PCB. Numerical simulation was performed to investigate the maximum junction temperature of the LED package by using the computational fluid dynamics solver, FLOTHERM V.9·2. The simulation result was compared to the experimental data. The influences of various operational conditions such as dissipation power, the number of chip arrays and the orientation of heat sink on the junction temperature were discussed. Efficient methodologies of reducing the junction temperature were also proposed in this study. This paper presents a simple algorithm to predict the thermal resistance/junction temperature of the high power LED module. The results provide useful information for the optimum design of the heat sink and the development of multiarray modules.

Filling the cyan gap toward full-visible-spectrum LED lighting with Ca2LaHf2Al3O12:Ce3+ broadband green phosphor

This paper presents a dynamic photo-electro-thermal theory for LED systems. In addition to photometric, electrical and thermal aspects, this theory incorporates the time domain into the generalized equations. A dynamic model for a general LED system is developed for system analysis. This theory highlights the fact that the luminous output of an LED system will decrease with time from the initial operation to the steady-state due to the rising temperature of the heatsink and the LED devices. The essential thermal time constants involved in the LED systems are explained. The time factor is critical in understanding how much the luminous output will decrease with time and is essential to the optimal designs of LED systems that are operated continuously (e.g general lighting) or momentarily (e.g. traffic lights). Experiments on several LED systems at different time frames have been conducted and the practical measurements confirm the validity of this theory.

Lead halide emitters hold great promise for next-generation light-emitting diodes (LEDs), but their heavy metal toxicity poses major barriers to commercialization. Therefore, developing efficient lead-free metal halide LEDs is highly desirable but remains a big challenge. Here, we report solution-processed lead-free antimony halide–based LEDs with an external quantum efficiency of 22% and a current efficiency of 55.84 candelas per ampere. The exceptional device performance is achieved through a binary host-guest architecture using a zero-dimensional organic-inorganic antimony(III) halide, which exhibits bright emission with a near-unity photoluminescence quantum yield. Optical and photophysical studies combined with theoretical calculations reveal the mechanism underlying its highly efficient self-trapped exciton emission. Efficient LEDs were achieved by doping (AylPPh3)2SbCl5 into a binary host system, which improved film morphology, enhanced charge carrier mobility, and achieved better carrier balance. These enhancements resulted in substantially superior device performance compared to nondoped LEDs with (AylPPh3)2SbCl5 as a neat emissive layer.

In this study, a novel patterned sapphire substrate (PSS) was used to obtain mesa-type light-emitting diodes (LED), which can efficiently reduce the threading dislocation densities. Silicon nitride (Si3N4) was used as a barrier to form the PSS, replacing the commonly used silicon dioxide (SiO2). The refractive index of Si3N4 is 2.02, which falls between those of sapphire (1.78) and GaN (2.4), so it can be used as a gradient refractive index (GRI) material, enhancing the light extraction efficiency (LEE) of light-emitting diodes. The simulation and experimental results obtained indicate that the LEE is enhanced compared with the conventional PSS-LED. After re-growing, we observed that an air void exists on the top of the textured Si3N4 layer due to GaN epitaxial lateral overgrowth (ELOG). Temperature-dependent PL was used to estimate the internal quantum efficiency (IQE) of the PSS-LED and that of the PSS-LED with the Si3N4 embedded air void (PSA-LED). The IQE of the PSA-LED is 4.56 times higher than that of the PSS-LED. Then, a TracePro optical simulation was used to prove that the air voids will affect the final luminous efficiency. The luminous efficiency of the four different structures considered is ranked as Si3N4 (PSN-LED) > PSA-LED > PSS-LED with SiO2 (PSO-LED) > PSS-LED. Finally, we fabricated LED devices with different thickness of the Si3N4 barrier. The device shows the best luminance–current–voltage (LIV) performance when the Si3N4 thickness is 220 nm.

청색 발광다이오드(LED) InGaN/GaN의 방사 피크 파장에 따른 LED 소자의 성능 저하를 광학적 및 전기적 특성을 고려하여 조사하였다. 방사 피크 파장이 437~452 nm인 LED 소자에 전류를 각각 60 mA, 75 mA, 그리고 90 mA로 구동하여 장시간 동안 스트레스를 주었다. 형광체의 유무에 따라서 LED 소자의 광 감쇠 특성을 관측하였다. 형광체가 없는 소자의 광 감쇠 특성은 피크 파장이 단파장일수록 급속하게 떨어진다. 형광체가 있는 소자는 형광체가 없는 것보다 감쇠 특성이 둔감해진다. 전기적 특성은 방사 피크 파장에 의존하지 않고, 스트레스 시간에 따른 LED의 내부 저항이 서서히 증가하는 현상으로 나타난다. 피크 파장에 따른 외형변화는 동일 전류 조건에서 단파장일 때 열화현상이 심하게 발생한다. 이는 청색 발광다이오드에서 발생한 빛의 파장이 단파장영역으로 갈수록 칩 외의 재료에서 단파장 광 흡수가 증가하여 열화현상이 가속화되는 것으로 분석된다. 따라서 LED 소자의 장수명을 얻기 위해서는 청색 칩의 방사 피크 파장과 소자재료의 광 열화해석이 중요하다. The dependance of degradation on the blue-peak wavelength is investigated with the blue light-emitting diode (LED) of InGaN/GaN with respect to the optical and the electrical characteristics of the devices. The LED devices emitting the blue-peak wavelength ranging from 437 nm to 452 nm is prepared to be stressed for a long aging time with three different currents of 60 mA, 75 mA and 90 mA, respectively. The degradation of optical intensity is observed with and without phosphor in the devices. The device without phosphor has been degraded significantly as the wavelength of blue-peak is decreased while the optical intensity of LED device with phosphor become less sensitive than that of device without phosphor. The electrical property does not depend on the emission peak wavelength. However, the series-resistance of LED device is slowly increased as the aging time is increased. The deformation of device is observed severely the short wavelength of blue-peak even with the same current since the short wavelength is absorbed substantially at the materials of device during the aging time. Consequently, in order to enhance the lifetime of LED devices, it is important to understand the optical degradation property of the materials against the specific wavelengths emitted from the blue chip.

This paper is on a novel use of lighting or signaling devices constructed by light-emitting diodes (LEDs) as a positioning beacon. The idea is that the surface of the LED lighting device is divided into regions and used to show different visual patterns that are not noticeable by the human eye due to the high-frequency switching of the LEDs. A digital camera is used as a receiver to capture a sequence of images of the LED positioning beacon transmitter. Image-processing algorithms are used to decode the location code that is encoded in the visual patterns transmitted by the LED device. This idea can be applied to any LED traffic lights or signaling devices on the road and turn them into parts of a positioning beacon system. Such a system made up of high-brightness visible LEDs can provide the function of open-space wireless broadcasting of the positioning signal. The LED signaling method, transmission protocol, camera frame rate, LED flash rate, together with an implemented system and the experimental results, are presented in this paper.