VerLASE Awarded Further Patents in US and Japan for Using 2D Materials in Light Sources
Bridgewater, NJ (PRWEB) January 06, 2017 -- VerLASE Technologies announced today that the U.S. Patent Office had awarded it US Patent No. 9,525,150, and the Japan Patent Office awarded Patent No. 6027970, both further extending the Company’s patent portfolio on the use of 2D semiconductor materials as the active, light emitting layer in LEDs, laser diodes and other optoelectronic devices.
The technology enables low cost, novel electroluminescent devices, which can be tailored to directly emit in any color in the visible, or in a mixed combination for white light at a desired color temperature, without phosphors or other color converting media. It can challenge OLEDs in applications requiring smaller pixel sizes such as micro-displays for augmented and virtual reality applications, where OLEDs have difficulty getting sufficient brightness with small pixels. Other applications include smaller displays of all kinds, ranging from wearables to smartphones and tablets, offering a practical way around some of the technical and cost hurdles pacing broader adoption of OLEDs.
Semiconducting 2D materials like Graphene have captured a great deal of attention for their potential use in many applications. Such materials can be grown in crystalline layers weakly bound to each other, like sheets in a ream of paper, then be cleaved or exfoliated into extremely thin layers. VerLASE has been investigating photoluminescent Quantum Wells (QWs) made of such 2D materials as Gallium Selenide, Gallium Sulfide, Tungsten Disulfide, among others, which can be made into highly efficient down converting phosphors free of cadmium or other heavy metals.
The Company previously won a broad patent (US 9,035,344) covering use of such 2D semiconductor materials as phosphors, analogous to Quantum Dots (QDs) but as QWs in a “flat” or 2D aspect, which can also take the form of nano-platelets (NPLs), and extended the work in a second patent (US 9,269,854) to the use of such 2D materials as electroluminescent layers in active devices. The newly issued patents solidify VerLASE's IP for 2D materials in such applications.
Independent research around the world points to the advantages of 2D materials in a wide range of applications. QWs of 2D semiconductor materials offer similar optical advantages as QDs with narrower spectral characteristics, better colors and color saturation, but can be more efficient and offer much better thermal characteristics for better stability in many lighting, projector and display applications.
It can also be easier to work with such 2D materials in depositing the other layers needed to make active devices. The active layers can be exfoliated sheets of controlled thickness with the other layers necessary to make them into devices added through chemical processes, or grown directly on an appropriate substrate. Depending on the specific chemistries used, such 2D semiconductors can even be grown directly on silicon, enabling use of available silicon chip making infrastructure for low costs.
“The unique attributes of 2D materials enable low cost electroluminescent devices, fulfilling the original QD vision with inorganic QWs,” explained Ajay Jain, VerLASE’s Chief Technical Officer and inventor of the technology, adding that same basic 2D semiconductor materials can also be used as Gain Media in lasers and other high value electro-optical devices.
VerLASE Technologies LLC spun out of Versatilis LLC (http://www.versatls.com) in 2013 with an investment by Wakley Limited, a Hong Kong based private investment group. Founded by George Powch (CEO) and Ajay Jain (CTO), it operates virtually with partners around the world, focused on technology development for VCSELs, microLEDs, and optoelectronic devices involving novel materials, structures and processes, and extending novel 2D layered materials technology developed by Versatilis, in part with the help of numerous Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Awards from Government Agencies including DOE, DARPA, ONR and ARL.
George Powch, VerLASE Technologies LLC, http://www.verlase.com, +1 (802) 343-1800, [email protected]
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