“… Princeton University researchers have developed a new method to increase the brightness, efficiency and clarity of LEDs, which are widely used on smartphones and portable electronics as well as becoming increasingly common in lighting.
Using a new nanoscale structure, the researchers, led by electrical engineering professor Stephen Chou, increased the brightness and efficiency of LEDs made of organic materials (flexible carbon-based sheets) by 57 percent. The researchers also report their method should yield similar improvements in LEDs made in inorganic (silicon-based) materials used most commonly today.
The method also improves the picture clarity of LED displays by 400 percent, compared with conventional approaches. In an article published online August 19 in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, the researchers describe … inventing a technique that manipulates light on a scale smaller than a single wavelength….
Cool. I have to read up on organic LEDs now. WRT the PlaCSH structure, I’m real impressed by the results but, I get the impression that light will be coming out mostly perpindicular to the die and that might not help reflectors flashlights but asphericals will benefit.
One thing I’m watching for the “obsolescent/obsolete” rate of change is how much light vs. heat we get.
I know some emitters have a connection point for a temperature readout — never seen it used by anyone.
Do any flashlights have a sensor alongside the battery to read the temperature? Any easy way to do that?
(I’ve seen lots of little addon temperature sensors for computers — just a wire with a flat thermos…omething on the end, and a little LED screen, and a button cell battery — so figured there ought to be a way to do this. Never saw it done.
This is why I watch the question and want to keep track as we get more light for less heat — I don’t know how old the info is, but figure it’s approximately right anyhow. It doesn’t show whatever addon effect there is by repeatedly heating a cell — nor whether heating during discharge is any different from heating during charging.
(that’s from Lithium Battery Failures )
I’m sure there’s also a corresponding change in battery design/structure/components, but I don’t know whether they’re getting any better at tolerating heat cycling.
So this is just —- oh, wow, this stuff sure changes fast.
And the rate of change is getting faster too.
““If we can get green light by squeezing the electrons in this wire down to a nanometer, then we can get other colors by tailoring the width of the wire,” said Kioupakis. A wider wire should yield yellow, orange or red. A narrower wire, indigo or violet.
That bodes well for creating more natural-looking light from LEDs. By mixing red, green and blue LEDs engineers can fine tune white light to warmer, more pleasing hues. This “direct” method isn’t practical today because green LEDs are not as efficient as their blue and red counterparts. Instead, most white lighting today comes from blue LED light passed through a phosphor, a solution similar to fluorescent lighting and not a lot more efficient. Direct LED lights would not only be more efficient, but the color of light they produce could be dynamically tuned ….”
All these breakthroughs are great, but they are meaningless until they are mass produced in a consumer product which is very rare, probably more the 99.99% of breakthroughs end up on a shelf never to be seen or heard from again.
What if it’s mass produced already, but we just didn’t know it was useful?
Nature Communications, today:
“… Quasi-random nanostructures are being considered for many photon management applications but their use has been limited by their costly fabrication. Here, Smith et al. show that the quasi-random patterns on Blu-ray movie discs are already near-optimized for light-trapping applications in solar cells.”
25 Nov 2014
doi: 10.1038/ncomms6517
SolidEnergy High-Density Battery Module for Project Ara Announced
Anybody know anyone at MIT? Pitch the idea of a BLF Special Flashlight designed to accept one or more of their new cells — it’ll be an odd shape, maybe palm-sized….
Some variation of thermoplastic supposedly can be a highly efficient radiator (high emissivity) — able to get rid of heat by radiating it away.
The trick is to bond the outside layer of thermoplastic to an inner core of aluminum (or some other metal) that has high conductivity to draw heat away from the source and carry it out to the radiator material.
And for that bonding of two dissimilar materials, they’re using — lasers: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1875389213000709
Thermal Joining of Thermoplastic Metal Hybrids by Means Of Mono- and Polychromatic Radiation ☆
doi:10.1016/j.phpro.2013.03.056
So many things are developing so rapidly that we humans can’t keep up with the changes. By the time an idea hits the market it’s already “outdated” but that alone doesn’t render it obsolete._ If it’s still working for you adequately then it’s not obsolete at all._ I have a lot of old stuff that isn’t glamorous but it does it’s job well and oftentimes does it more reliably or for longer than the new stuff does
Yes, let’s see the new technology and if it’s a real winner then the market will embrace it and the world benefit. Just don’t buy into thinking it will last; tomorrow’s ideas are already overtaking today’s.
New phosphors coming, though it may take a year or so.
Several new chemical compounds described here, for those curious about what may be coming
(just one article among many)
I’m starting to imagine that we’ll be 3D-printing our own special phosphor combinations eventually, if the chemicals being found useful will become available.
Because what’s available commercially is a compromise that we might be able to improve on ……
Its one thing to A develop a theory , another to prove the theory , then another to make a working prototype …
And then to develop manufacturing techniques that produce a known quality …
