EI 2600

INNOVATIONS AND ENTERPRENEURSHIP IN

ELECTRIC POWER ENGINEERING

PROJECT 1
THE INNOVATION PROCESS AROUND LED LIGHTS

BY
ZHONGYOU SUN

SUDHA RANI RAVINDRAN

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 Table of Content

1. Introduction ........................................................................................................... 3

2. The historical evolution of LED technologies. .................................................... 4

3. The evolution in properties and relate these to the changes in material

properties ............................................................................................................... 5

4. The key steps in the inventions of LED light sources ........................................ 6

5. An overview of the possible technologies that existed ........................................ 7

6. The market segments where LEDs have or may take over ............................... 8

7. Whether the sodium lamps that are common in street lights will be replaced

by LED? ................................................................................................................. 9

8. The Overly Dramatic Demise of the Light Bulb .............................................. 10

9. Natural pull and push in the market for LED technology .............................. 12

10. Manufacturing process of LED [7] ...................................................................... 13

11. Leaders in LED manufacturing industry [8] ...................................................... 15

12. LED Patents ......................................................................................................... 16

13. References ............................................................................................................ 17

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1. Introduction

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are promising lighting sources for general lighting
applications with the promise of being more than ten times as efficient as
incandescent lighting. Such characteristic combined with their long operating life
and reliability has made them become a potential choice for next generation of
lighting systems including automotive, emergency, backlight, indoor, and
outdoor.[1]

Lighting system is an important part of the load side in the power system. Using
efficient light bulbs will help reduce the energy demand. In this report, we will look
at different lighting technology, but mainly the evolution of LED technology. We
also discuss the potential of LED technology in lighting industry in terms of cost,
luminous quality and efficiency.

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2. The historical evolution of LED technologies.

Electroluminescence phenomenon was discovered in 1907 by the British

experimenter H. J. Round of Marconi Labs. He noticed this for the first time that
when a potential of 10volts is applied to carborundum (silicon carbide) crystal, it
emits yellowish light. Electroluminescence is the theoretical basis of the LED. In
1927, Oleg published a paper “Luminous carborundum detector and detection effect
and oscillations with crystals “. His research was distributed in Soviet, German and
British scientific journals, but no practical use was made of the discovery for several
decades.

In 1961, Gary Pittman and Bob Biard from Texas Instruments found that that
gallium-arsenide diode emits infrared light every time it is connected to current.
The same year they received patent for infrared LED. Nick Holonyak Jr., employed
in General Electric, developed in 1962 first light-emitting diode that emitted light
in the visible part of the frequency range. It was a red LED. In 1972, M. George
Craford, who was a graduate student of Holonyak, invented the first yellow LED
and a brighter red LED. Thomas P. Pearsall developed high brightness light-
emitting diode in 1976, for use with fiber optics in telecommunications. Shuji
Nakamura of Nichia Corporation made first blue LED in 1979 but it was too
expensive for commercial use until 1994. [2] In 1993 HP started to use GaP (gallium
phosphide) to provide high output green LEDs. [3] Also further developments of this
technology allowed the production of high output orange lamps. These were ideal
for use as car direction indicators - again their reliability in being turned on and off
as well as their efficiency proved to be a major improvement.

In recent years, scientists and researchers have been developing OLED (Organic
Light Emitting Diode). The light comes from organic compound films when electric
current pass through it.

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3. The evolution in properties and relate these to the
changes in material properties

The LED consists of a chip of semiconducting material doped with impurities to

create a p-n junction. LED development began with infrared and red devices made
with gallium arsenide. Advances in materials science have enabled making devices
with ever-shorter wavelengths, emitting light in a variety of colors.

Currently a multiple number of chemical structures are being developed to enhance

the reliability and performance of LEDs, and to obtain new wavelengths and colors.
With these developments LEDs are no longer referred to by their color alone, but
by their chemical names, including GaAlAs or InGaAlP.

Gallium is the first and primary element used in the development of the majority of
semiconductor LED devices. When Ga is mixed with as at 4000°F, “GaAs” is
developed. GaAs is a dark gray crystalline compound, which was used as the basis
for the production of the original semiconductor LEDs, developed almost 40 years
ago.

A discovery made in the late 1970s highlighted that adding Al to the GaAs
compound produced a red color with increased efficiency and brightness. This led
to the development of gallium aluminum arsenide "GaAlAs". This jumbling of
letters in the acronym and the material varieties has recently become even more
complicated with the introduction of new compounds, such as indium gallium
aluminum phosphide "InGaAlP. Indium "In" (atomic number 49), is a soft, silvery
white, metallic compound available in zinc and tin ores. The addition of it resulted
in an enhanced efficiency and brightness of LEDs, and increased the actual lifetime
over current materials like GaAlAs. [4]

Table1 Compound semiconductor LED materials and their production methods

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4. The key steps in the inventions of LED light sources

In 1962 while working for General Electric, Nick Holonyak, Jr., invented the first
visible-spectrum LED in the form of red diodes. Pale yellow and green diodes were
invented next. As companies continued to improve red diodes and their
manufacturing, they began appearing as indicator lights and calculator displays in
the 1970s. The invention of the blue diode in the 1990s quickly led to the discovery
of white LEDs -- researchers simply coated the blue diodes with a phosphor to make
it appear white. Shortly thereafter, researchers demonstrated white light using red,
green and blue LEDs. These breakthroughs led to LEDs being used in a variety of
applications including traffic lights, flashlights and TVs.

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5. An overview of the possible technologies that existed[5]

5.1 Incandescent light bulb

The modern incandescent light bulb, with a coiled filament of tungsten, and
commercialized in the 1920s, developed from the carbon filament lamp
introduced about 1880. Less than 3% of the input energy is converted into
usable light. Nearly all the input energy ends up as heat that, in warm climates,
must then be removed from the building by ventilation or air conditioning,
often resulting in more energy consumption.

5.2 Fluorescent lamp

Fluorescent lamps consist of a glass tube that contains mercury vapor or argon
under low pressure. Electricity flowing through the tube causes the gases to
give off ultraviolet energy. The inside of the tubes is coated with phosphors
that give off visible light when struck by ultraviolet energy. They have much
higher efficiency than incandescent lamps. For the same amount of light
generated, they typically use around one-quarter to one-third the power of an
incandescent.

5.3 Carbon arc lamp and Discharge lamp

Carbon arc lamps consist of two carbon rod electrodes in open air, supplied by
a current-limiting ballast. The electric arc is struck by touching the rods then
separating them. The ensuing arc heats the carbon tips to white heat. These
lamps have higher efficiency than filament lamps, but the carbon rods are short
lived and require constant adjustment in use.
A discharge lamp has a glass or silica envelope containing two metal electrodes
separated by a gas. Gases used include, neon, argon, xenon, sodium, metal
halide, and mercury. The core operating principle is much the same as the
carbon arc lamp.

5.4 LED lamp

Solid state LEDs have been popular as indicator lights in consumer electronics
and professional audio gear since the 1970s. In the 2000s efficacy and output
have risen to the point where LEDs are now being used in lighting applications
such as car headlights and brake lights and in flashlights and bike lights.

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6. The market segments where LEDs have or may take over

The price of the LED has dropped to such a point that this type of lighting is
becoming the economic choice for each application. LED uses fall into four major
categories: 1. Visual signals where light goes more or less directly from the source
to the human eye, to convey a message or meaning; 2. Illumination where light is
reflected from objects to give visual response of these objects; 3. Measuring and
interacting with processes involving no human vision; 4. Narrow band light sensors
where LEDs operate in a reverse-bias mode and respond to incident light, instead
of emitting light.

The low energy consumption, minimal maintenance and small size of LEDs has led
to uses as status indicators and displays on a variety of equipment and installations.
However, many vehicles now use LEDs for their rear light clusters.

With the development of high-efficiency and high-power LEDs, it has become

possible to use LEDs in lighting and illumination: LEDs are used as street lights
and in other architectural lighting, LEDs are used in aviation lighting, LEDs are
also used as a light source for DLP projectors, and to backlight LCD televisions
(referred to as LED TVs) and laptop displays.

The global LED lighting market by the automotive, general and backlight
applications such as further bifurcation. The global LED lighting market is also
divided based on end-user groups such as business, general, residential, industrial,
outdoor and construction.

The global LED lighting market is affected by the impact of new buildings and
subsequent macroeconomic conditions of new lighting equipment and other factors.
With the decline in demand for cost-effective lighting systems for society and
buildings, these factors will exacerbate the 2015-2025 global LED lighting market.

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7. Whether the sodium lamps that are common in street

lights will be replaced by LED?

At today’s prices, the 20-year life cycle cost of HPS (High Pressure Sodium) and
LED lights are basically equal when including the cost of conversion. However,
over time the life cycle cost of the LED heads is expected to become more and more
economical for the following reasons:

The power cost of HPS lights will increase and as the system ages, the annual
maintenance cost will increase; Savings from the reduced power consumption of
LED as the power cost increases. The cost to purchase LED components will
decrease and the capital cost to convert from HPS to LED is only the first year.

Due to the light color difference in Figure1, it is recommended an entire roadway

be converted from HPS to LED at the same time.
So, in the future, the sodium lamps that are common in street lights, they will be
replaced by LED.

Figure.1 Deferent street light from HPS and LED

Figure. 2 Deployment and cost for LED lights Installed 2008 – 2014[10]

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8. The Overly Dramatic Demise of the Light Bulb

In October 2007, Barack Obama’s election manifesto includes,

“I will immediately sign a law that begins to phase out all incandescent light bulbs
- a measure that will save American consumers $6 billion a year on their electric
bills.”

After two months President George W. Bush signed a bill to enforce the same “The
Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007”.

The sky didn’t fall because of the controversies over phasing out inefficient
incandescent light bulbs. Just a while ago Canada united with the United States, the
European Union, and Australia among several countries to phase out the production
and import of inefficient incandescent light bulbs. There is a boom in LED lights
due to the ban of inefficient incandescent lights. The light emitting diodes (LEDs)
have the merits as follows:

• Economical as they require 25% to 80% less amount of energy.

• 3 to 25% longer life time than other lights
• Small size (heat sink can be large) and Physically robust
• Excellent low ambient temperature operation
• Possibility to change colors
• No optical heat on radiation
• Easy disposal
• High luminous efficacy

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 The table below compares a 60 watt (W) traditional incandescent with energy
efficient bulbs that provide similar light levels.

Table 2: Comparisons between Traditional Incandescent, Halogen Incandescent, CFLs and

LEDs[6]
60W 43W 15W CFL 12W LED
Traditional Energy-Saving 60W 43W 60W 43W
Incandescent Incandescent Traditional Halogen Traditional Halogen
Energy Saved
- ~25% ~75% ~65% ~75%-80% ~72%
$ (%)
Annual *
$4.80 $3.50 $1.20 $1.00
Energy Cost
Bulb Life 1000 to 3000
1000 hours 10,000 hours 25,000 hours
hours
*Based on 2 hrs./day of usage, an electricity rate of 11 cents per kW.h, shown in U.S.
dollars.

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9. Natural pull and push in the market for LED technology

The consumers were offered compact fluorescent bulbs (CFL) as a replacement of

incandescent bulbs for domestic lightings. Many consumers had a negative
feedback about it because the light wasn't as warm as traditional incandescent bulbs.
Due to the presence of a small amount of the mercury the disposal was very
complicated and, it’s unsafe for human beings to use the CFL, especially to the
children and pregnant women. Even though the life expectancy of CFL was higher
than incandescent bulbs but it had about one-third life span of the LED. Most of
these problems were solved by the advent of LED and gained popularity among the
consumers.

The replacement of CFL with an innovative solution was the demand in the market.
Hence LED based technology was a natural pull from market side. There was an
urge in the market to develop a solution to overcome the difficulties faced by the
consumers.

In this competitive world, the goal of every company is to stand apart from the
crowd. So, they need to deliver innovative solution with high creativity and
excellent standards The LED manufacturers faces the technology challenges like
the light emitted by the LED bulbs should meet strict requirements, color, and
directionality to appear like a conventional light bulb. Besides, all of this should be
accomplished in a cost-effective manner, an especially daunting task, considering
incumbent incandescent technologies, it enjoys significant competitive advantages
in cost, scale and experience. Adding to the technology challenges facing LED
manufacturers is the fact that LED light bulbs are more complex than conventional
bulbs. LED light bulbs must contain an assortment of high performance
technologies within a small and economic package. There is a technology push
which is imposed on the companies to develop LEDs with improved quality and
meeting all the market requirements.

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10. Manufacturing process of LED [7]

10.1 Raw Materials

Diodes are usually made of two thin layers of semiconductor material; one layer
consists of excess of electrons and the other have insufficient number of electrons. For
which some specific semiconductors are used for the manufacture of LED namely
gallium arsenide (GaAs), gallium phosphide (GaP), or gallium arsenide phosphide
(GaAsP). Impurities are added later in the production process unlike imperfections they
are added intentionally for the LED to work properly. Most widely used impurities are
zinc or nitrogen, but silicon, germanium, and tellurium have also been used. It is
through the impurities that a layer either with surplus or scarcity of electrons could be
created. To complete the circuit, it is necessary to power it up. Therefore, wires should
be attached onto the substrate. Usually the LEDs are encased in transparent plastic
rather like the lucite paperweights in which objects are suspended. The changes in the
colour of LED lights are caused due to the tinted plastics by allowing excessive or less
amount of light of a specific colour to pass through.

10.2 Manufacturing Process

Manufacturing process has four main steps as below:

• Making semiconductor wafers

• Adding epitaxial layers

• Adding metal contacts

• Mounting and packaging

Making semiconductor wafers

Very first step is to make a semiconductor wafer. The raw materials Gallium,
arsenic, and/or phosphor are cleaned and combined in the chamber. To make them
stick together and to avoid the raw materials from escaping into the pressurized gas
in the chamber, they are often covered with a layer of liquid boron oxide, which
seals them off. This is known as liquid encapsulation, or the Czochralski crystal
growth method. This then gets cooled and crystallizes on the end of the rod as it is

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taken out of the chamber, forming a long, cylindrical crystal ingot (or boule) of
GaAs, GaP, or GaAsP.
Finally, the wafers are cleaned through rigorous chemical and ultrasonic process
using various solvents to remove dirt, dust, or organic matter.
Adding epitaxial layers

Here the impurities or dopants are added through the process called Liquid Phase
Epitaxy (LPE) to the semiconductor wafers. LPE makes an extraordinary uniform
layer of material that makes it a most widely used growth and doping process. To
make changes in the attributes of the diode for color or efficiency it is needed to
add some more dopants. Example, nitrogen or zinc ammonium.

Adding metal contacts

A light-sensitive and the liquid resist metal compound is deposited in drops when
the wafer spins, so it is spread evenly over the surface. Then, the areas of resist
which were exposed are washed away with developer while the unexposed areas
will cover the semiconductor layers. Once again, the photo resist is washed with
acetone and the deposited metal go through annealing process. During the
annealing process the contact metal and the semiconductor bond together
chemically so the link doesn’t break. The fabricated diodes are huge in size which
are reduced into small segments of wafer called as a die.
Mounting and packaging

Using the suitable package, the individual dies are attached. A very tiny wire made
of gold is soldered to the other lead and wire-bonded to the contact pattern of the
die’s surface. At the end the complete assembly is sealed in a plastic and the wires
and die are placed inside a mould which is shaped according to the optical requisite
of the package. The liquid plastic or epoxy is filled in the mould. The package is
completed when the epoxy is being cured.

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11. Leaders in LED manufacturing industry [8]

The top LED lights manufacturers in the world are as follows:

CREE in North Carolina, USA is a prominent multinational manufacturer of high

quality lighting-class LEDs, LED lighting, and semiconductor solutions for
wireless and power applications.

Nichia in Japan, is the world’s largest supplier of LEDs. The company in earlier
stages supported the research on gallium nitride light-emitting diodes. This turned
to success with the invention of invention of the first high brightness blue-light LED.

OSRAM headquartered in Munich, Germany has the employee population around

34,000 people in around 120 countries. They stand as the world’s second largest
producer of optoelectronic semiconductor.

Philips acquired the company “Lumileds Lighting” and named as Philips Lumileds
Lighting Company. They are one of the best developer and marketing company for
LED.

Citizen Electronics Co. Ltd headquartered in Japan, consists of 4157 employees.

Lighting LED, Compact Chip LED, Tactile switch and High-sensitivity Optical
Sensor are the main products produced by them.

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12. LED Patents

The most ideal approach to secure an innovation might be to keep it as a secret, but
keeping creations as a mystery does not enable the world to wind up noticeably
more practical. Fortunately, a solution was found to encourage creators to share
their developments with the goal that individuals will be profited from them: Patents
and published patent applications are valuable resources to students, engineers, and
researchers for learning about technology. A patent is a trade-off or copyright
between the inventor and society [9].

The patents that involve LED lighting technology describe three key components
to an LED lighting system. The three key components are the LED device
components or package, the device structure, and the heat dissipation mechanisms.

(1) U.S. Patent No. 7,213,940 teaches the basics of LED lighting technology. The
basic components of a LED light system include solid-state light emitters,
luminescent materials such as phosphors, and power supplies such as AC/DC
converters, heat dissipation mechanisms, and enclosures such as glass. The LED
lights should have longer life time compared to the other traditional lights. The
power supply or driver needs to have the maximum amount of capacity and smallest
size possible.
(2) EP 2413360 A2, a European Patent Application, gives information regarding
LED device structure, which includes a die, lead frame, and an encapsulation
material such as an epoxy. A multi-layer optoelectronic device consisting of one or
more active light emitting layers deposited over a substrate forms the die. LED lead
frames physically support the die and provides electrical and thermal conduction
paths to and from the die.
(3) U.S. Patent No. 8,476,812 describes about the Solid-State Lighting Device
with Improved Heatsink. High power solid state emitters can draw large currents,
thereby generating significant amounts of heat that must be dissipated. Heatsinks
must provide enhanced thermal performance, reduce material requirements and
enable production of various shapes to accommodate solid state lighting devices for
different applications.

Patents pave the way for people and companies to take actions, investment and risk
to invent something or to invest in an invention. Therefore, patents are the enabler
of ‘Open Innovation’ and the modern knowledge economy.

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13. References

[1]. https://engineering.purdue.edu/~ece495/Power_Electronics_Lab/LED_Basics.pdf

[2]. http://www.historyoflighting.net/light-bulb-history/history-of-led/

[3]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-emitting_diode#History

[4]. https://www.azooptics.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=1084

[5]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_light#Incandescent_light_bulb

[6].https://energy.gov/energysaver/how-energy-efficient-light-bulbs-compare-traditional-incandescents

[7]. http://www.madehow.com/Volume-1/Light-Emitting-Diode-LED.html

[8]. http://www.wlivenews.com/top-leading-best-quality-led-chip-manufacturers-in-the-world.html

[9]. http://www.irunway.com/images/pdf/iRunway%20-%20LED%20Patent%20Landscape.pdf

[10].https://thinkprogress.org/5-charts-that-illustrate-the-remarkable-led-lighting-revolution-
83ecb6c1f472/

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