Overcoming High Brightness LED Manufacturing Challenges

by Pat Lamey on 07/14/10

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On the 100th anniversary of Edison’s tungsten bulb, alternative lighting methods that use less energy and reduce pollution are gaining ground. Fluorescent (FL) or compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs save energy but also have drawbacks such as unnatural color that may not be pleasing to the eye or in the case of CFL bulbs in particular, they may not fit in recessed lighting fixtures. And perhaps the most important issue, both FL and CFL bulbs contain mercury, requiring special handling for bulb disposal after use.

On the horizon is a promising new technology, Light Emitting Diode (LED) devices that can provide a good replacement. First developed in the 1960s, LEDs came primarily in colors such as red or green. More recently, High Brightness LEDs have been developed that produce white light that is effective, pleasing to the eye and can be used in general lighting situations. High Brightness LEDs are now used to light-up new laptops, are in LED LCD TVs and are even used in the daylight running lights on the latest Nissan, Audi and Porsche cars.

LEDs for lighting fixtures are not yet readably available because of manufacturing challenges. LED production needs to mature to reach the quantities required to satisfy global lighting demands. Today’s manufacturing process is still essentially an ‘art form’, which is too expensive and unpredictable to produce at an appropriate price for commercial success. Some of the challenges are in gas-phase chemistry control, chamber cleanliness, dopant profiles, particulate management, control of thermal cycles and gas flow signatures.

In order for LED lighting to become a truly mass market product, solutions to these manufacturing challenges must be identified. Fortunately, many of these solutions can be derived from equipment and "best known methods" developed for semiconductor or integrated circuit manufacturing. As these advanced techniques are adopted, the LED industry will see greater output volume from its critical production tools with more high value High Brightness LED devices being produced.

The fast-growing LED market is at an important inflection point and one that I’ve been watching closely and writing about over the past few months — as well as one that I will continue to write about in the future. I welcome your questions, thoughts and opinions on this topic. Below are my previous blogs on LEDs that you might be interested in.

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Comments

Home use LED's not quite there yet

Submitted by Al on Wed, 08/18/2010 - 12:18.

I agree with your comments, Pat. While the LED lighting is coming along, it's not quite at the mass-available home use replacement stage yet. I have been experimenting with LED lighting in my home for several months now, and so far, have found that the very high cost for "bulbs" that offer sufficient brightness are so expensive that the cost savings over CFL will never be achieved. While a CFL light that consumes 13W of power effectively replaces a 100W incandescent bulb, I have not found any LED fixture that can even come close. The best I've found, to date (Aug. 2010) is a fixture that can replace a 40-50W incandescent - but the cost of it is so high that it becomes unreasonable. The CFL lamp costs me $2.00-$3.00 (Canadian) while the brightest LED lamp I can obtain is coming in at $50.00-$75.00! Considering the wattage use is only a couple of watts less for the LED than the CFL, cost recovery is never possible. I understand the environmental impact, but we have to consider practical too. I'd gladly pay $20.00 for an LED "bulb" instead of $2.00 for a CFL, but I just can't justify $50.00!
LED lighting, though, is looking promising, and I'm very hopeful for brightness and cost breakthroughs in the next couple of years that will make this type of lighting mainstream for us consumers!
While I have implemented LED lighting in my home everywhere I can, it’s still not my main source of artificial light.

You make several good points

Submitted by Elemental LED staff on Tue, 08/03/2010 - 16:47.

You make several good points here, but the claim that "LEDs for lighting fixtures are not yet readily available..." is simply not true. LED lights for home use, not to mention for commercial applications, are available in thousands of outlets, online and in lighting stores. It's true that LED fixtures that are exactly equivalent in lumens to all other forms of lighting are pricey and hard to come by. But there are plenty of LED lights out there to get the job done, some of which are compact enough and unique enough in what they allow you to do (color-changing lights, strip lights, etc.), that they're worth the purchase price.