Solid state lighting, the use of electron to photon conversions in semiconductors, has proven itself an extremely efficient and robust avenue for the realization of many miniature display needs. Unfortunately, due to the nature of semiconductors, only the generation of individual colors is possible. One must, therefore, design with several different materials for each color desired. Also, for higher energy light (blues) it becomes increasingly more expensive because material growth of the necessary semiconductors is a far younger science. It, therefore, becomes necessary to develop a new way to generate visible light of all colors while containing costs, and simplicity of design, to feed the blossoming need for robust and colorful displays.
Technical Details
It is known that by illuminating rare-earth doped materials, such as ytterbium, erbium, and thulium, with invisible infrared light, they re-radiate at specific visible wavelengths (colors). This process, known as frequency up-conversion, has been applied here to the above problem by researchers at UCF. By designing a device with up-converting materials in a resonant LED cavity, a versitile and efficient process that enables red, blue, and green generation from the same well established, and cost effective, infrared LED.
Benefits
- More cost efficient
- Ease of fabrication
- Highly efficient
Applications
- Cell phones
- Defense
- Head mounted displays
See related technologies:
“More Color and Brightness for Compact Displays” Technology Numbers: 31001, 31880, 31908
“Low Voltage Up-converting IR-LEDs for Battery Powered Displays” Technology Number: 31290
"Display Design Suitable for Projection Displays with an Increased Color Gamut" Technology Number: 31299
Brochure
