September 4, 2008--Evident Technologies, Inc. and Philips Electronics (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) have signed a non-exclusive licensing agreement paving the way for commercialization of nanocrystal-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Evident Technologies intends to immediately launch a new line of low-power LED and LED-based products that use semiconductor nanocrystals as a phosphor.
"For the past eight years," says company rep Steven Wright-Mark, "Evident Technologies has been developing quantum-dot semiconductor nanomaterials intended for a wide variety of industries and applications. The company has been intentionally quiet over the past couple of years as they improved their technology and focused their efforts on three distinct categories--life sciences, military/defense, and LEDs/lighting." This agreement addresses the latter category.
Light-emitting diodes are fundamentally constrained to emit only a single color of light. The current state-of-the-art white LEDs use phosphors to convert blue LEDs into "white" or other colors. However, the underlying phosphor technology can limit the range of colors that are obtainable. Semiconductor nanocrystal technology removes these color limitations. Evident plans to immediately launch commercial LED products based on this technology.
One type of LED they are expected to launch is the single-color through-hole LED, for mounting through the substrate of a printed circuit board (PCB). The "evidot" through-hole LEDs will be available in several sizes and package types including 3 mm and 5 mm flat, round, and concave LEDs. Another LED product is the top-view surface-mount mono-color series devices, for mounting on top of a substrate or PCB.
"We are excited about this licensing agreement and leveraging our technology to bring additional colors to these light sources," said Clint Ballinger, CEO of Evident Technologies.
"We have long believed that there is a market for semiconductor nanocrystal technology and we are looking forward to the technology being commercialized," said Dave Barnes, senior IP council at Philips.
"The LED industry seems eager to embrace this technology," said Dave Duncan, COO of Evident Technologies. "Our new line of LED products will enable us to enter the retail market as well, making them the world's first consumer products based on semiconductor nanocrystals."
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