Ostar LEDs from Osram nominated for German Future Prize

Osram, together with the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering, is one of the four teams nominated for the German Future Prize. The award, now in its eleventh year, will be presented by Federal President Horst Köhler in December to celebrate outstanding technical, engineering and scientific achievements that have practical applications, are marketable and create jobs.

The nomination applies to thin-film chip technology and its use in the Ostar family of LEDs. The Ostar LED has been adapted for a wide range of applications, including mini-projectors and rear projection televisions, night vision equipment in automobiles and for general lighting. An Ostar version will be launched in 2008 for use in automobile headlights.

"With this new LED technology we have succeeded in producing bright and extremely efficient LEDs that have the potential to become established in general lighting applications", said Rüdiger Müller, president and CEO of Osram Opto Semiconductors. "The nomination highlights our position as a company with enormous powers of innovation in Germany."

Streubel and Illek Osram says that the Ostar LED's innovation combines several technologies - a new thin-film manufacturing process for high-power chips, a perfectly matched package platform and special optics developed in cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering.

"These technologies enable us to achieve particularly high luminances for LEDs of all colors and for infrared light," said Klaus Streubel, spokesman for the development team at Osram Opto Semiconductors.

The team nominated for the German Future Prize includes the pioneers of thin-film technology Stefan Illek and Klaus Streubel representing Osram (see photo), and Andreas Bräuer from the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering.