We’ve got lower costs for growing GaN LEDs on silicon than anyone else we know; potentially, this is an advantage that puts Britain right at the forefront of LED research
- Colin Humphreys
British manufacturer Plessey Semiconductors is racing to be the first company to make energy-efficient LEDs for home lighting at a price that consumers will pay, and they’re using a technology developed by Cambridge researchers.
In 2012, Plessey acquired technology to grow a remarkable man-made material that can emit light in every part of the colour spectrum when electricity passes through it. They recommissioned a mothballed processing plant, created new jobs and hired three researchers from the University of Cambridge. Their aim: to put energy-efficient lighting within financial reach of the consumer.
Prototypes of their light-emitting diodes (LEDs) rolled off the production line later that year, and by April 2013 the company was gearing up to fulfil its first commercial orders. In just 15 months, Plymouth-based Plessey had gone from never having made an LED to being the world’s first manufacturer of commercially available LEDs made on large-diameter silicon substrates.
Today, the company is addressing a global market that, according to a report released in 2013 by WinterGreen Research, could be worth up to $42 billion by 2019.What gives Plessey an edge over its competitors is its ability to manufacture LEDs at a fraction of their costs, thanks to a unique process developed by Professor Sir Colin Humphreys in the Cambridge Centre for Gallium Nitride.
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Image: LEDs
Credit:University of Cambridge
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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