Seminar on "Light-Emitting Diodes for Illumination Applications"

Light-Emitting Diodes for Illumination Applications


Mike Krames (CTO, Soraa)
4:15pm, Dec 3 (Monday)
Location: Paul Allen Building (CIS)-101X

Abstract -

Light-Emitting Diode (LED) technology advancements accelerated with the introduction of GaN-based blue- and white-emitting LEDs in the 1990s and have ushered in an era of new lighting products with unprecedented luminous efficacy and the potential for substantial savings in worldwide electricity consumption. However, the very high prices associated with these new products are limiting the adoption rate and threaten to substantially reduce and/or delay the positive impact that is promised by solid state lighting. A primary reason for the high costs are the performance limitations and complicated semiconductor processing operations inherent to the utilization of foreign substrates as the materials platforms for most of today's GaN-based LEDs. In contrast, recent advancements in GaN substrate technology have provided an opportunity for products platforms based on the native substrate. This technology platform, GaN-on-GaN(tm), opens the path to new operating regimes and simplified LED architectures which enable unprecedented performance and revolutionary designs for solid-state lighting products. First generation products based on GaN-on-GaN(tm) will be described.


Speaker Bio -

Mike Krames received his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL, in 1995, under the supervision of Prof. Nick Holonyak, Jr. After graduation, he joined Hewlett-Packard Optoelectronics Division as a research engineer developing high-power visible-spectrum LEDs. He subsequently formed and ran the Advanced Laboratories for Lumileds Lighting Co., and later Philips Lumileds, in San Jose, CA. There his research focused on advanced III-nitride epitaxy, LED device technology, and luminescent materials for photon down-conversion.

Mike was involved in spearheading several technology advancements at Lumileds, including flip-chip technology (the basis for Luxeon(tm)), thin-film technology, photonic crystal LEDs, ceramic phosphors, and advancing understanding behind the "droop" mechanism in InGaN-GaN LEDs. In 2009, Mike joined the management team of Soraa as Chief Technology Officer. Mike is a senior member of IEEE and has published more than 75 papers and been granted more than 80 U.S. patents in the field of solid-state lighting and displays.