DOE publishes solid-state lighting workshop report

April 29, 2005
The US Department of Energy (DOE) has published the Summary Report from the Solid-State Lighting (SSL) Workshop which was held on February 3-4 in San Diego, California.

A PDF copy of the report may be downloaded from the publications section the Department's SSL website.

The workshop was attended by 170 participants, including scientists and business leaders from industry, universities, research institutions, trade associations and the national laboratories. The primary goals of this workshop were to:

- Communicate DOE's vision for support of SSL technology applied to general illumination applications
- Update the R&D community on a range of possible government funding opportunities related to SSL
- Communicate current successes and challenges for SSL from an industry perspective
- Discuss and prioritize the SSL R&D topics to ensure a focused, quality research agenda.

The top five priorities for LED Product Development identified by participants were: Optical coupling and modeling; Manufactured materials; LED packages and packaging materials; Electronics development; and Thermal design.

For Core Technology Research, the following were prioritized; High-efficiency semiconductor materials; Device approaches, structures and systems; Phosphors and conversion materials; Large-area substrates, buffer layers and wafer research; and Strategies for improved light extraction and manipulation.

The input from this workshop is one of the sources used by DOE in the development of future solicitations in SSL. The tasks specified in last year's solicitations were influenced by the contributions from participants at the previous program planning workshop held in November 2003 in Crystal City, Virginia.

Jim Brodrick, program manager, said, “Many thanks to the 2005 workshop participants for their continued effort to develop and introduce new, energy-efficient lighting technology. The expertise and cooperation of such a wide range of participants helps to ensure that the US remains at the forefront of global developments in SSL technology.”