The Department of Energy has just funded two projects, approximately $1 million each, to help energy efficient OLED light get mainstreamed.

Two teams led by faculty of the University of Florida’s College of Engineering recently won national funding to further the development of technology that has the potential to be used in long-lasting, energy efficient household or ambient lighting and can improve the quality of images on flat-screen monitors or televisions. 

 

The teams were awarded funding from the United States Department of Energy on March 27 to study organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs.) 

 

The funding was given to support the nation’s research into solid-state lighting, technology that uses solids to produce light instead of the vacuums or gas tubes used in incandescent or fluorescent lighting. UF, awarded at least partial funding for two projects with budgets of close to $1 million each, was given more awards than any other applicant in the Core Technology and Product Funding categories.   

 

 OLEDs are minuscule devices similar to the light-emitting diodes (LEDs) commonly used in flat screens. Neither use filament in the creation of light.

 

However, OLEDs differ from standard LEDs in that light is generated through use of an organic compound instead of inorganic material.  

 

Jiangeng Xue, an assistant professor in the materials science and engineering department at UF, and Elliot Douglas, associate professor, plan to research how to increase the amount of light OLEDs transfer to their surroundings. 

 

“We’re improving the efficiency of the device by maybe three to four times,” Xue said in an interview.

 

 The project is still in negotiation for funds. The current proposed budget totals for $1.05 million, $840,000 of which would be paid for by the Department of Energy and the rest of which would be paid for with cost-sharing by UF. 

 

 In current OLEDs, about 20 percent of the device’s light is transmitted out of the device and into the surroundings. The rest travels sideways and is absorbed by the materials. Xue and Elliot plan to change the device structure to force up to 80 percent of the light out of the front of the OLED. The innovation is a combination of a change to the device structure and an add-on to the light-emitting surface.

 

They also plan to use a thin-film encapsulation technique to improve the life of the device.         

 

“Our technology will lead to more efficient and longer lived OLED devices than what people can make now.” wrote Xue in an e-mail.   “So they’ll lead to lower electricity use, longer battery lifetime for laptops, etc.  But the fundamental ways of making OLED devices will not be significantly different, except the add-on component, which will be produced using a high throughput printing method.”

 

As the second team to earn funding from the Department of Energy, Franky So, associate professor in the department of materials science and engineering in the UF College of Engineering, and Nelson Tansu, an assistant professor in electrical and computer engineering from LeHigh University, will attempt to achieve the same goal as Xue and Elliot. However, his team will use different design methods within the OLED, such as using light scattering modes to scatter the light. 

 

Franky So said the project budget totals close to $1 million, although he did not have a breakdown of funding. He is eligible for up to $1 million in funding from the Department of Energy.