Warm-white LED fabricated using single phosphor

22 Jan 2013
A r e s e a r c h g r o u p h a s f a b r i c a t e d w h a t i t
c l a i m s i s t h e w o r l d ' s f i r s t L E D t h a t
e m i t s w a r m - w h i t e l i g h t u s i n g a s i n g l e
p h o s p h o r .
A group of researchers at the University of Georgia, together with other
collaborators, havedeveloped a new phosphor that can be used to create
warm-white (<4000K) LED lightemission without the need for a second
phosphor.The results were reported in a paper
entitled New yellow
Ba
0.93
Eu
0.07
Al
2
O
4
phosphor for warm-white LEDs through single-emitting-
center conversion, published in the journal Light: Scienceand
Applications.
Most warm-white phosphor-converted LEDs use a combination of ablue-
emitting LED together with at least two phosphors. Thisensures there is
sufficient emission in the red part of the spectrum to provide a
correlatedcolor temperature (CCT) below 4000K.The researchers reported
a new Ba
0.93
Eu
0.07
Al
2
O
4
phosphor that has an orthorhombic latticestructure and exhibits a broad
yellow photoluminescence band with sufficient red spectralcomponent.Warm-
white emission with a CCT below 4000K and colorrendering index (CRI) above 80
were readily achievedwhen combining the Ba
0.93
Eu
0.07
Al
2
O
4
phosphor with a bluelight-emitting diode (440

470 nm)."Right now, white LEDs are mainly used in flashlights andin automotive
lamps, but they give off a bluish, cool lightthat people tend to dislike,
especially in indoor lighting,"said senior author Zhengwei Pan, an associate
professor inthe department of physics in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and
Sciences and in the College of Engineering. "Ourmaterial achieves a warm
color temperature while at thesame time giving highly accurate color
rendition, which issomething no single-phosphor-converted LED has everbeen
shown to do."Using a single phosphor removes the need to ensure that two or
more phosphors arecombined in the correct ratio. Also, each phosphor in
the mixture is likely to responddifferently to temperature variations.Pan
said that, although his team's results are promising, there is still work to
do to improvethe procedure to synthesize the phosphor. Also,
the efficiency of the new material is muchlower than that of today's
bluish-white LEDs.
About the Author
Tim Whitaker is an Editorial Consultant with
LEDs Magazine
.