NEWS REVIEW
Perovskite semiconductor shows promise for low cost LEDs
A HYBRID FORM OF PEROVSKITE - the same type of material which has recently been found to make highly effi cient solar cells - has been used to make low-cost, easily manufactured LEDs, potentially opening up a wide range of applications such as fl exible colour displays.
This class of semiconducting perovskites have generated excitement in the solar cell fi eld over the past several years, after Henry Snaith’s group at Oxford University found them to be remarkably effi cient at converting light to electricity. In two years, perovskite-based solar cells have reached effi ciencies of nearly 20 percent, a level which took conventional silicon- based solar cells 20 years to reach.
Now, researchers from the University of Cambridge, University of Oxford and the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich have demonstrated a new application for perovskite materials, using them to make high-brightness LEDs. The results are published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
Perovskite is a general term used to describe a group of materials that have a distinctive crystal structure of cuboid and diamond shapes. They have long been of interest for their superconducting and ferroelectric properties. But in the past several years, their effi ciency at converting light into electrical energy has opened up a wide range of potential applications.
The perovskites that were used to make the LEDs are known as organometal halide perovskites, and contain a mixture of lead, carbon-based ions and halogen ions known as halides. These materials dissolve well in common solvents, and assemble to form perovskite crystals when dried, making them cheap and simple to make.
“These organometal halide perovskites are remarkable semiconductors,” said Zhi-Kuang Tan, a PhD student at the University of Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory and the paper’s lead author. “We have designed the diode structure to confi ne electrical charges into a very
Plessey expands its distribution network for GaN-on-Si LEDs Plessey has announced that it has
entered into a distribution agreement with Solid State Supplies Ltd, an electronics distributor headquartered in Redditch, UK, to expand its European network with coverage in the UK and Ireland market for its GaN-on-Si LED products.
thin layer of the perovskite, which sets up conditions for the electron-hole capture process to produce light emission.”
The perovskite LEDs are made using a simple and scalable process in which a perovskite solution is prepared and spin- coated onto the substrate. This process does not require high temperature heating steps or a high vacuum, and is therefore cheap to manufacture in a large scale. In contrast, conventional methods for manufacturing LEDs make the cost prohibitive for many large-area display applications.
“The big surprise to the semiconductor community is to fi nd that such simple process methods still produce very clean semiconductor properties, without the need for the complex purifi cation procedures required for traditional semiconductors such as silicon,” said Richard Friend of the Cavendish Laboratory, who has led this programme in Cambridge.
“It’s remarkable that this material can be easily tuned to emit light in a variety of colours, which makes it extremely useful for colour displays, lighting and optical communication applications,” said Tan. “This technology could provide a lot of value to the ever growing fl at-panel display industry.”
The team is now looking to increase the effi ciency of the LEDs and to use them for diode lasers, which are used in a range of scientifi c, medical and industrial applications, such as materials processing and medical equipment. The fi rst commercially-available LED based on perovskite could be available within fi ve years.
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John Macmichael, managing director of Solid State Supplies said: “Plessey’s GaN-on-silicon technology looks set to cause major disruption in the LED lighting market. Our in-house lighting division is already geared up to support lighting and luminaire designers with these new LEDs. We look forward to a very bright future in partnership with Plessey.”
David Owen, Plessey’s regional sales director, added: “Plessey is very pleased to join forces with a distributor that has a focused lighting division already up and running, helping the signifi cant number of lighting and luminaire makers in the UK. Solid State Supplies has a strong portfolio of products to support the lighting eco system which is now enhanced by the addition of the Plessey GaN-on- silicon LED product range. This will accelerate the time to market for Plessey LEDs in this region.”
Plessey’s MaGIC (Manufactured on GaN-on-silicon I/C) High Brightness LED (HBLED) technology has won numerous awards for its innovation and ability to cut the cost of LED lighting by using standard silicon manufacturing techniques.
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