Kopin Licenses Patents from North Carolina State University

TAUNTON, Mass., August 20 -- Kopin Corp., a Taunton-based maker of nano-engineered semiconductor components, announced it has licensed three patents from North Carolina State University on materials and processes that can be used to produce light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and lasers of any color across the visible spectrum, including the three primary colors needed for white LEDs.

The patents cover the process called "domain epitaxy" and the materials cubic zinc-magnesium-oxide (ZnMgO) and zinc-cadmium-oxide (ZnCdO).

"Licensing these patents further strengthens our intellectual property portfolio with an additional competitive advantage for developing high-brightness, high-efficiency LEDs," said John C. C. Fan, Kopin's founder and CEO.

The domain epitaxy is a fundamental key to the formation of thin-film heterostructures, such as TiN films on silicon with 4/3 matching, and III-nitrides (GaN) and ZnO films on sapphire with 6/7 matching. The next two patents cover the epitaxial growth of cubic ZnMgO and ZnCdO on silicon substrates to create inexpensive LEDs and for integration with microelectronic devices.

All three patents were invented by Professor Jagdish Narayan and his team at North Carolina State University.

For more information, visit: www.kopin.com