Researchers develop higher-efficiency LEDs
By Nilay Patel 
posted Jan 14th 2009 5:16AM
posted Jan 14th 2009 5:16AM
Terrific-looking LED-backlit HD displays were all over CES this year, and it sounds like they're only going to get better -- scientists from Renssalaer Polytechnic Insitute and Samsung have developed a new polarization-matched LED that cranks out 18 percent more light while being 22 percent more efficient than traditional LEDs. The improved performance is due to a reduction in "efficiency droop," which causes regular LEDs to turn less power into light when fed higher currents -- the team replaced the traditional active layer of the LEDs with a new specially matched layer. No word on when any of this is coming to market, but we're holding out hope for CES 2010.
sweet. one more step towards the 24 hour laptop
For me, 24-hour is a luxury, 16-hour is more than enough. the rest 8-hour is for rechanging both me and the lappy.
Yeah. Great step. Adds 2 minutes of battery life.
Come on, you didn't believe LED eat most of the battery, did you?
@Shinigami
Your negativity amazes me.
People nowadays tends to forget the fact that Rome was not built in a day, and even Himalaya can be conquered by take one small step at a time. Look at the brighter side, it's better than no improvement at all. And it is a friendly approach to ease the burden for our mother nature.
He's got a point though, in that LED's are already very energy efficient. OLED screens in laptops and TVs will be the real improvement.
This is great news... means better color and longer lasting batteries for laptops!
Jon
http://WoodMarvels.com - Create Unique Memories
I wonder if this will significantly raise the cost of the diodes? I suppose, even if it did, that might still be offset by the fact that you'd need smaller clusters to produce the same amount of light. (if I understand correctly)
Holding hope for LED? Why? OLED should come any time now. If mega-corporations like Samsung and LG don't stop its progress........
OLED is organic and therefore has a set lifetime. LED is not and will last practically forever.
As far as I know, the real enemy of OLED Is itself-- blue colored OLED organisms have the shortest lifespans still. In comparison to the current durability of LED, that's not good-- the first OLEDS will cost a lot of money, so they better be worth it. The R&D cost a lot more than the manufacturing. They will want to recoup the R&D costs by establishing a good value to the brand, I suppose.
I love progress; it's exciting :)
sadly i keep seeing progress, but it just takes SOOO long to get to market i kind of forget about it because they already have started developing the next big thing. Not that I'm saying no more innovation, I just wish it could get to market quicker thats all.
RPI FTW!!!!!
I am happy for any increases in efficiency...Could this have significant impact on consumer (home lighting) and municipalities. e.g. lower energy bills, more balanced budgets??
Yes, this appears to be aimed at lighting applications as well as high-tech stuff.
If the 22% efficiency improvements are genuinely applicable then this would move efficiency of LEDs closer to the efficiency of CFLs. (According to Wikipedia, on average in 2008 CFL lamps are twice as efficient as LED lamps; so there's still a way to go. I don't know what a best-to-best comparison looks like, however.)
In other words there isn't a particular environmental implication to this technology in lighting, since if you want something 22% more efficient than an LED light you can plug in a cheap CFL right now and get a lot more into the bargain. But in terms of making it more feasible to move lighting technology to LEDs which might be more flexible in various ways, it's a positive development.
I hope this translates into other uses for LEDs. If they can ever make a viable incandescent replacement bulb, I'd be happy.
Will that make my eyes bleed and my skin burst in flames while standing in frond of the screen ?
efficiency... good!
This would have higher resolution than a HDTV (only 1080 lines of resolution) so I still can't understand why HDTVs cost so much.
Homojunction or heterojunction LED? I would presume heterojunction since that produces better efficiency. I wonder if this method could be adapted to LASER diodes, that could really improve the efficiency and optical power for fiber optics.
Nevermind, it actually looks like it might be heterojunction if its GalnN on both sides. This could be really useful if it could be adapted to lasers.