May 2, 2006, Woburn, MA--Luminus Devices, which has developed and commercialized a photonic-lattice light source, has closed approximately $38 million in new venture financing.
Participants in the round include Luminus' current investors Battery Venture Partners, Argonaut Private Equity, Stata Venture Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, DFJ-New England and Eastward Capital, plus several new investors. Luminus will use the investment to expand capacity and its PhlatLight product line.
"With this investment, our team of investors has continued to demonstrate their confidence in the direction Luminus is headed," said Udi Meirav, CEO of Luminus Devices, Inc. "We are tremendously encouraged by the level of interest in our PhlatLight technology and the opportunity this investment has afforded us to meet our customers' demand. This puts Luminus in a superb position to begin capturing the value we have been working to create since our inception."
The company's PhlatLight technology is a new type of light-emitting-diode (LED) emitter based on photonic-lattice structures. One of the biggest problems with conventional LEDs is the poor light-extraction efficiency of the high-refrective-index semiconductor light-emitting material.Many approaches to higher light-extraction efficiency are based on texturing the texture of the semiconductor; Luminus has taken this approach to the extreme by creating a photonic lattice, which has features on the order of or smaller than the wavelength of the light emitted.This structure allows for greater control of the light propagation through, and extraction from, the LED.The LED market is growing to fill needs for backlighting in displays, as well as general illumination; Luminus is aiming at this large market.
PhlatLight chipsets are currently in production. Several notable consumer electronics brands, including Samsung Electronics, have incorporated PhlatLight technology into their products and many others are designing new products based on Luminus' PhlatLight chipsets.