RedOx - Unikt rødt fosformateriale som muliggjør rimelig produksjon av LED med varmt hvitt lys.

LED (light-emitting diode) is a relatively new light technology, which compared to incandescent light bulbs is energy efficient and has a long working lifetime. Since year 2010 the LED-product sales have increased exponentially and gained market share at the expense of conventional technology across lighting segments worldwide. LED has been associated with poor brightness, cold and uncomfortable white light, while consumers demand high brightness and warm white light for industrial and home applications. This has led to slow growth in important market segments. In the past couple of years, LED emitting warm white light has been commercially available, but at a high price aimed at premium niche segments. For mass adoption, industry needs to produce significantly cheaper, high-quality LED products which emit warm white light. This could be achieved by implementing a red phosphor material with the right properties, however no suitable alternatives are readily available in the market. A team of researchers at the University of Southeastern-Norway (USN) has developed a novel fluorescent material emitting red light at high efficiency. The material is promising because it has the potential to enable industrial and cost- effective production of LED products emitting high-quality warm white light at high light intensity. The project team has been and is in dialogue with world leading producers of LED, and they confirm the need for the material.

During this FORNY project a new technology was developed, which overcomes the drawbacks of existing red phosphors for use in warm light LEDs. A novel phosphor material with high emitting efficiency was developed, with good properties in terms of electronic lifetime, internal and external quantum efficiency, and more. The technology has attracted the interest of major international players who believe that improved LED products will increase their sales worldwide. Since LED is very energy efficient compared to conventional lighting technology, this is an important factor in the realization of energy-saving buildings and the transition to a sustainable society.