Nitres Reports High-Efficiency LEDs

Researchers from Nitres Inc. of Westlake Village, Calif., have announced that they have developed an InGaN-based LED with a quantum efficiency of 20 percent. The near-UV/violet diode displays 405-nm emission, and has an output of 12 mW at 20 mA and an overall output of 12 percent.

Nitres will investigate the production of high-efficiency LEDs at wavelengths that better match the absorption bands of phosphors used in solid-state white-light illumination. White-light LEDs excite phosphors with UV or near-UV light and color-mix their emissions to approximate achromatic light. They have the potential for efficiencies two to three times that of incandescent bulbs and lifetimes of five to 10 years.