Development of White LEDs Using Nanophosphor-InP Blends
Investigating Organization
Sandia National Laboratories
Principal Investigator(s)
Lauren Shea Rohwer
Subcontractor
None
Funding Source
Building Technologies Program/NETL
Award
DOE Share: $599,757
Contract Period
09/18/06 - 06/01/08
This objective is to develop blends of oxide nanophosphors and semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) in encapsulants to produce high conversion efficiency white-emitting blends with a variety of correlated color temperatures and good color rendering index. The ultimate goal of this research is to produce white LEDs containing encapsulated nanophosphor-QD blends that are superior to LEDs made with QDs or traditional phosphors alone.
The approach is to select from the best available phosphors those that can be synthesized in nanoscale form. Several oxide phosphors with high quantum yield (QY) and strong absorption in the near-UV/blue spectral region were targeted. The main challenge was to synthesize these phosphors as nanoparticles, and maintain their high QY at the nanoscale.