Lasers & Sources

Eleven new SBIR-STTR grants awarded by DOE for solid-state lighting technology

July 19, 2017

New LED and OLED technology includes improvements to substrates, structures, materials, and light-extraction optics.

The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science has awarded 10 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants and one Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant for projects targeting critical advances in solid-state lighting (SSL) technology. The 11 fiscal year 2017 grants will explore the technical merit and commercial potential of different innovative concepts or technologies that are expected to contribute to the achievement of the price and performance goals described in DOE's SSL R&D Plan.

The new SBIR/STTR recipients contributing advances to SSL are:

--Luminit, LLC (Torrance, CA) -- SBIR Phase I; selected for its development of a novel system to increase the light extraction in OLEDs by using surface patterning to reduce waveguide losses.

--OLEDWorks, LLC (Rochester, NY) -- SBIR Phase I; selected for its development of an ultrathin, curved, high-efficiency OLED light engine that will reduce the cost OLED lighting.

--Pixelligent Technologies (Baltimore, MD) -- SBIR Phase I; selected for its application of a novel and unique three-dimensional gradient index layer to increase the light-extraction efficiency of OLED devices.

--Lumisyn, LLC (Rochester, NY) -- SBIR Phase I; selected for its development of unique nanocrystal-based silicone (and yes, that's silicone, not silicon) films that will increase the efficacy of warm-white LEDs and enable custom light sources.

--OLEDWorks, LLC (Rochester, NY) -- SBIR Phase I; selected for its development of a novel substrate and encapsulation process that will reduce the cost of OLED lighting.

--SC Solutions, Inc. (Sunnyvale, CA) -- SBIR Phase I; selected for its demonstration of an innovative control technology for reducing the need to "bin" LEDs, by improving within-wafer temperature uniformity.

--MicroLink Devices, Inc. (Niles, IL) with National Renewable Energy Laboratory (Golden, CO) -- STTR Phase I; selected for engineering alternative semiconductor materials to overcome the fundamental loss mechanisms that limit LED performance.

--Lumisyn, LLC (Rochester, NY) -- SBIR Phase II; selected for its development of a novel class of high-efficiency, nontoxic nanocrystals with reduced spectral widths, for use in tunable warm-white LEDs.

--PhosphorTech Corporation (Kennesaw, GA) -- SBIR Phase II; selected for its development of high-performance hybrid inorganic downconverting material systems for high-brightness LEDs.

--Lucent Optics, Inc. (Sacramento, CA) -- SBIR Phase II; selected for its development of a novel wide-area luminaire technology that enables efficient and cost-effective combination of high-brightness LEDs and flexible light-guiding films.

--Pixelligent Technologies, LLC (Baltimore, MD) -- SBIR Phase IIB; selected for its development of an advanced, cost-effective light-extraction material for OLED lighting.

To learn more about these awards, see https://energy.gov/eere/ssl/eleven-sbir-sttr-grants-selected-award-ssl-technology-fy17

The SBIR-STTR program seeks to increase the participation of small businesses in federally sponsored innovative and novel research and development. To learn more about this program, see http://science.energy.gov/sbir

Source: DOE