Research Tracker

The objective of this project to develop and commercialize white and amber OLED lighting solutions that are uniquely tailored to the health care industry, ranging from hospital to senior assisted living centers. This project will include five main deliverables: 1) Voice of customer (VOC) exploration with hospital and healthcare personnel including nurses, facilities and other medical staff to identify lighting applications in which OLED would provide unique value. 2) Tuning amber OLED panels, if necessary for large scale production specifically for healthcare, 3) Designing and fabricating OLED fixture prototypes based on VOC 4) obtaining feedback from medical staff on prototypes including performance and effects on workflow, patients or other concerns and define launch product 5) establishing path for full commercialization of product(s).

NYSERDA has been a strong supporter of ASSIST since its inception in 2002. This has helped New York State to remain on the cutting edge of this quickly advancing technology. To continue to help to prepare New York State manufacturers, consumers, lighting specifiers and decision-makers for the solid-state lighting market, the LRC is seeking to continue NYSERDA's membership in ASSIST and is seeking funding from NYSERDA to support the continued development of metrics and standardized measurement methods for LEDs, LED systems, and LED luminaires.

This project takes a different approach to achieving white electroluminescence, which involves the use of a combination of fluorescent and phosphorescent emitters. These hybrid fluorescent/phosphorescent WOLEDs will give markedly improved cell efficacy and lifetime.

The Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships will demonstrate advanced lighting controls (ALCs), which turn off or dim lights when they are not in use, in 10 buildings in order to address barriers to ALC adoption. Installing ALC systems in all commercial buildings would save approximately 1,053 TBtu of energy or $10.4 billion/year.

NextEnergywill reduce market barriers to adoption of lighting controls solution to spur market adoption. This will be achieved through demonstrations, consumer education, and utility incentive adjustment. NextEnergy and partners will train over 100 contractors in advanced lighting controls and simplified installation methods and develop a model for streamlined incentives for lighting controls.

Working with project partners from the Seattle Lighting Design Laboratory, the Lighting Research Center (LRC) will identify a suitable outdoor lighting installation in a parking lot and conduct evaluations of energy and power use, visual responses of people in and approaching the outdoor location, and subjective ratings of safety and personal security while viewing and occupying the location. The design of the lighting installation will utilize published research on the spectral sensitivity of the human visual system for scene brightness perception and on the relationships between scene brightness and perception of safety and security previously published by the LRC project team. The proposed project will consist of a full-scale outdoor lighting demonstration at a parking lot facility within BPA service territory. The demonstration will be based on a proposed specification method for maximizing perceptions of safety and security of occupants, taking advantage of the differential spectral (color) sensitivity of the human visual system for brightness perception at nighttime light levels. Sensations of brightness are in turn strongly related to perceptions of personal safety and security in outdoor locations. It is anticipated that using white light sources such as a lighting emitting diode (LED) illumination in place of conventional high pressure sodium (HPS) illumination energy savings of 40-50% will be possible while maintaining perceptions of brightness, safety, and security.

The Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic will create a prototype office desktop lighting control. The device will be a combination of a motion sensor, photosensor, manual dimmer or switch, and wireless transmitter. It will sit either directly on a desk surface or be mounted to the top of a computer monitor, and will control the lighting in private or open offices. It will be paired with a receiver that will control the luminaire(s) that are nearby.

Lumileds, LLC will reduce LED manufacturing costs by eliminating some of the complex processes associated with current flip-chip technology and enabling lower-cost packaging methods. This project looks to address the needs of the indoor and outdoor illumination markets, which demand the most competitive Lm/W and Lm/$ characteristics in small footprint components.

In this project, the Lighting Research Center (LRC) of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will expand on preliminary studies it has already completed into LED reliability to develop a cost-effective, accelerated test method for LED Lighting products that will allow accurate projection of system life for any given environmental temperature and use pattern.

Project will develop the mechanical and electrical OLED integration technologies to enable large area ceiling or wall mounted fixtures to be fabricated. These OLED array fixtures will provide contiguous panels of light with minimal gaps between OLED sections and very low profile to be readily mounted on walls, ceiling or office furniture components. The project will focus on innovations in the following areas to integrate OLED into effective products and applications: A power and wiring architecture that efficiently down converts voltage level, conforms to safety standards, and facilitates OLED fixture installation. "Thin and compact" constant current driver architecture to complement the OLED panel construction "Thin and compact" mechanical and electrical connection scheme to combine an array of panels to attain a contiguous light source

Under this project, OLEDWorks will develop the quality and reliability system for a high efficiency white OLED light product (greater than 60 lumens per watt) that will serve as platform for a wide variety of lighting applications and solutions. The project will develop the fundamental platforms for process robustness, end of line reliability, and part tracking required for manufacturing scale commercialization, and market adoption of white lighting panels. The focus of the process development is reliability and overall quality of affordable OLED lighting products. Processes that will be developed and delivered include manufacturing process robustness for product reliability and quality control reliability testing strategy, product grading or binning, end of the line test at high throughput, packaging and shipping strategy, and product traceability.

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor will develop innovative methods to outcouple the light within OLED devices in order to increase external quantum efficiency. This will be accomplished through nanoscale texturing beneath the anode outside the active region, fabricating sub-anode gratings along with microlens arrays, and top emitting structures with a sub-anode grid coupled with a reflective mirror at the base.

Iowa State University will demonstrate a way to increase the outcoupling of simple white OLEDs while maintaining a high color rendering index, by disrupting the internal waveguiding, using a unique and innovative corrugation pattern.

Brookhaven National Laboratory will evaluate a DC system directly-coupled to a solar energy system that enables the use of DC power directly for office lighting. This system will use equipment developed by Nextek Power Systems and will being installed in a Suffolk County office buildings. BNL will document the energy savings and value propositions available from this type of system compared to a conventional DC to AC lighting system powered a solar photovoltaic system. This work will provide information that can be used to determine the value propositions for installing this type of system at larger scale in buildings throughout New York State.

This project will design and develop innovative LED lighting solutions for three key general illumination product categories. These solutions are a best-in-class medium, screw-base replacement lamp, linear tubular light emitting diode (TLED) replacement lamps and spectrally optimized, dedicated LED luminaires. Product design requirements will be based on consumer light quality and functional performance preferences determined through a series of unique laboratory-based consumer preference and product characterization studies

This project will design and develop innovative LED lighting solutions for three key general illumination product categories. These solutions are a best-in-class medium, screw-base replacement lamp, linear tubular light emitting diode (TLED) replacement lamps and spectrally optimized, dedicated LED luminaires. Product design requirements will be based on consumer light quality and functional performance preferences determined through a series of unique laboratory-based consumer preference and product characterization studies

Columbia University will use an inexpensive and widely tunable library of quantum dot (QD) synthesis reagents along with automated high-throughput synthesis and analysis tools to grade the alloy composition of QD heterostructures, in order to provide stable and efficient narrow-band red down-converters for LEDs.

Cree, Inc. will incorporate a high-efficacy LED light engine into a demonstration luminaire, with concurrent advancements in LED light engines, optics, and sensors integrated to result in high efficacy as well as additional features such as spectral tuning.

Arizona State University is demonstrating an efficient and stable white organic light diode (WOLED) using a single emitter on a planar glass substrate. By simplifying the device fabrication process, increasing the robustness of materials, and providing cost-effective emitter materials, Arizona State University will help reduce the overall manufacturering costs of WOLEDs.

This project will address the fundamental challenges for green LEDs by a combination of innovations in epitaxial growth and layer design, advanced processes including tunnel junctions, and advanced materials characterization.

The objectives of this project are to: 1) Develop, evaluate, and down-select a set of component technologies that will enable highly efficient and uniform large area white OLED lighting panels at low cost, 2) Integrate the selected subset of technology elements to demonstrate the required panel level performance targets of 80 lm/W with 85% brightness uniformity at 2000-3000 cd/m2 for a large area OLED panel at least 100 cm2 in size 3) Demonstrate scalability of the low-cost technologies and 4) Demonstrate an OLED luminaire using the high-performance OLED panels delivering more than 2000 lumens at greater than 65 lm/W.

Lumileds, LLC will develop a high-efficacy, high-power LED emitter enabled by patterned sapphire substrate flip-chip architecture, die development to include novel contact design, phosphors with reduced bandwidth, and new optical materials for light extraction from the die.

OLEDWorks will develop the cost-effective and scalable manufacturing methods needed to produce a high-performance, large-area OLED lighting panel and luminaire system. This work will help develop and integrate the cost effective manufacturing technologies necessary to achieve the DOE performance and cost targets.

KLA-Tencor will develop, characterize, and verify a high-throughput, precision hot test tool for high-brightness light-emitting diodes (HBLEDs). The hot test tool will have an impact on the HBLED manufacturing process such that 2 quads of energy savings could be achieved at full market penetration.

Lumileds, LLC will develop an LED light engine that integrates a new low-cost, high-power chip and optimized drivers. This light engine will enable comprehensive luminaire system cost reduction.

GE Global Research will build a scalable, efficient, modular luminaire to address the integration of driver, optics, and package in a flexible integration platform that allows for simplified manufacturing to customized performance specifications.

The University of California, Santa Barbara, will identify the fundamental causes of current droop in state-of-the-art commercial LEDs. These findings will lead to development of higher-performing LED lighting technologies.

Lumileds, LLC will develop structures that will dramatically improve efficiency droop. The improvement in droop will be utilized to achieve higher performing LEDs.

This project will improve the external quantum efficiency (EQE) of amber and red aluminium gallium indium phosphide (AlGaInP)-based LEDs by developing strain-engineered cladding layers to provide enhanced carrier confinement.

OLEDWorks will reduce OLED manufacturing costs by developing innovative high-performance deposition technology. If OLD costs can be reduced to enable OLED lighting to make up 5% as large a market as LEDs by 2025, OLED lighting will save approximately 10 TWh/year.

Philips Research North America will develop an innovative LED office lighting system that integrates light delivery, optics, and controls. The office portfolio developed in this project will maximize energy efficiency and occupant health and well-being.

Philips Research North America will develop an innovative LED lighting system for patient rooms. This solution will be energy efficient and will meet all the needs of patients, caregivers, and visitors.

Sinovia Technologies will combine a barrier film technology with a nanowire transparent conduction film to make a single substrate product for OLED lighting. This technology will improve the efficiency and lower the cost of OLEDs.

This project will attempt to measure the impact of lighting on the users of an outdoor lighting space. The experiments will determine the effects of different lighting types on the melatonin levels of the participants. As different CCT light sources will be used, their differing spectral contents can be evaluated to determine the most appropriate light source for implementation in the outdoor environment.

Princeton University will integrate multiple aspects of outcoupling enhancement within one OLED structure to achieve greater than 60% outcoupling efficiency. This development will lead to higher-efficiency OLEDs.

Create a buying guide for someone who wants to purchase an easily commissioned lighting control system. What are some of the main products available, and how do they compare to each other? The Lighting Research Center (LRC) will conduct pilot testing and analysis of three selected control systems to independently verify system commissioning, operation, and compatibility with two different integral LED luminaire layoutsoffice and high bay. The LRC will also quantify system operational characteristics, commissioning, and energy savings under field conditions.

Installed LED Lighting fixtures and lamps at a number of different types of BPA facilities

The project will develop LED luminaires specifically for three applications: clean rooms, containment areas and surgical suite applications. The LED luminaires will (1) conform to DLC Qualifications and LM79/LM80/IES Handbook guidelines and produce desired levels of glare-free, uniform illumination; (2) maximize energy efficiency, heat dissipation, and integration into modern ceiling structures; and (3) develop new universally accepted standards for evaluation for LED luminaires in clean room applications and validate their performance with respect to leakage and surface contamination. The proposed work includes mechanical/electrical design, prototype creation, component procurement, tooling, production, assembly, field testing, independent lab testing and cost/sell budget development. It also includes market/sales development to create new marketing materials and training of sales force (internal support, traditional distribution and OEM), and creation of a promotional program.

The goal of the project is to provide background information to support listing mogul based lighting in the Designlights Consortium Qualified Product List to support cost-effective LED retrofits. This phase of the study will identify and document case studies.

Market characterization and testing of mogul based LED replacement lamps and systems. Goal: background information to support listing in the Designlights Consortium Qualified Product List, to support cost-effective LED retrofits (if the data supports this). Research questions include: Market characterization: what mogul based sockets are in place, by application type and wattage? National scope, for input to DLC process. Market survey: What mogul based LED replacement lamps and kits are available? Literature survey and pilot test: Do they work?

North Carolina State University will develop OLEDs fabricated on low-cost high index corrugated substrates with a semi-random periodicity to give enhancements in extraction efficiency across the entire visible spectrum, due to the extraction of the thin-film-guided and surface-plasmon modes.

RTI International will develop and demonstrate novel luminaire designs that utilize advanced classroom lighting system technology, demonstrate the benefits of dynamic lighting, and collect feedback from education stakeholders. These efforts could increase the use of next-generation lighting in schools.

PPG Industries, Inc. will develop and demonstrate manufacturing processes that will enable commercialization of a large area and low-cost "integrated substrate" for rigid OLED SSL lighting. Enabling large volume manufacturing with these new processes will grow the OLED market, leading to a potential 1.51 quads of energy savings by 2030.

Cree, Inc. will develop high-efficacy, cost-effective LED light engines for next-generation luminaires. The advancements made in this project could lead to more efficient LED lighting options.

This project will attempt to develop and demonstrate a novel fabrication process that eliminates the use of shadow masks during the OLED deposition process. The proposed system will allow blanket deposition of all organic and cathode layers everywhere on the substrate, eliminating the need for masks.

Lumenari, Inc. will develop a narrow-bandwidth red phosphor to improve phosphor-converted LED efficacy up to 28%. This will be accomplished through a combination of experimental and computational techniques to develop a novel host material for the selected emitter ion.

Los Alamos National Laboratory will develop quantum-dot down-converters to be used in LED lighting. Advancements made in this project could drive further efficiency improvements in LED lighting.

Momentive will develop next-generation LED package architectures enabled by thermally conductive composite encapsulant materials. These LED package architectures could provide more-efficient lighting options for use in U.S. buildings.

This project will develop and test the efficacy of novel light-based circadian interventions for enhancing sleep, health, alertness, performance, and quality of life in nightshift workers.

Carnegie Mellon University will develop an improved phosphor matrix to include materials that increase the thermal conductivity more than 5 times over standard matrix materials. This technology could reduce the price of light by as much as 50% - 60%.