LED production typically begins with a silicon carbide or sapphire substrate. These are expensive, have low yields, offer poor scalability and require expensive and complex processing. Our zirconium diboride buffer layer allows the use of common silicon substrates allowing scalability and reducing LED costs by up to 10 times.
Arizona Technology Enterprises (Arizona State University), USA
Primary Market: Electronics
Technology Contact: Bill Loux, Arizona Technology Enterprises
Bill Loux, Director of Business Development at Arizona Technology Enterprises (AzTE), tells TechConnect, “The market that we are trying to approach is the solid state lighting market, specifically the high brightness white LED market.” He notes that white light LEDs are poised to replace all of the incandescent and fluorescent lights. LEDs could save 3.5 quadrillion BTUs of electricity, but current LED devices are too expensive and that is the problem our solution addresses. Instead of using expensive Sapphire or Silicon Carbide substrates, AzTE’s technology uses pure silicon and a ZrB2 buffer layer. We fell this reduces the cost and allows increased scalability in production leading to a dramatic cost savings.
TechConnect also learned from Mr. Loux that they recently won a $250,000 grant from the Arizona Science Foundation to continue technology development. With this money, they have purchased new equipment that will allow us to produce 2-3inch industry ready samples. “We are currently discussing partnership opportunities with major LED manufacturers to build test LED devices with our substrates. We have several potential investors and we are seeking a management team,” notes Mr. Loux.
