Almost 1/5th of global electricity is used for lighting, accounting for c.1.9bn tons of CO2 pa. High Brightness Light Emitting Diodes (HBLEDs) are globally recognised as a highly efficient, long lasting & versatile light source, offering significant promise in the target of improved environmental & economic performance within the future energy demands for lighting. Whilst technological advancements have improved the efficiency of HBLED lighting systems, currently only 25% of the power utilised is converted into visible light, with the remaining 75% generating heat that is dissipated through the substrate on which the LED is mounted. Without efficient thermal management, increased temperature within LED chips leads to a drop in efficiency, reliability & LED lifespan & is recognized as the main cause of failure. Cambridge Nanotherm (CNL) has developed & patented a highly innovative nanoceramicaluminium substrate to addresses the demand for efficient thermal management within HBLEDs. Despite the significant breakthroughs that CNL’s substrate has made in the reduction of thermal resistance and LED working temperatures, there is scope for much larger efficiency gains. These gains are restricted, the cause of which lies in the use of epoxy resin adhesive layer used to connect the conductor layer to the nanoceramic substrate. This project seeks to explore the technical feasibility of a direct metallisation process to apply the conductor layer directly to their unique nanoceramic substrate in order to create a highly thermally efficient substrate material for the electronics industry. CNL believe the use of direct metallisation will allow them to offer a breakthrough 75% reduction in thermal resistance and increase operating temperatures to c.400°C, at a significantly lower cost than the current market offering. The project will prove this process at bench-scale & if successful, pre-production prototyping & scale up will ensue with expected market entry in 2016.

With lighting constituting in excess of 20% of all electricity consumption in the UK, Light Emitting Diodes (LED’s) as a highly efficient, long lasting & versatile light source offers significant promise as a means to achieve improved environmental & economic performance on a global scale. Despite innovation in design & materials, thermal management remains the most critical problem associated with LED’s. Currently LED’s only convert circa 25% of the power utilised into visible light with the remaining 75% turned into heat that must be effectively removed. Increased temperature within LED chips leads to a drop of efficiency, reliability & lifespan & is recognised as the main cause of failure. LEDs dissipate heat through the substrates on which they are mounted. Through the application of a highly innovative & patented substrate using nanoceramic-aluminium which has twice higher thermal conductivity than any current techniques, Cambridge Nanotherm have addressed this issue, reducing LED working temperature by 15-25°C, increasing the light efficiency by up to 20% & doubling the lifetime of LEDs. The significance of the approach is already recognised by a number of globally established LED manufacturers who are currently trialling the product. Through the scope of the current project, CNT seek to develop an effective & economic means of manufacturing the technology on a commercial scale. Due to the specific properties of CNT’s substrate, existing current ceramic coating processes are not suitable, resulting in a need to develop a bespoke coating process. With support from the TSB, CNT aim to develop a pre-production prototype of an automated manufacturing process which is based on the proprietary electrochemical process of applying a dielectric ceramic layer on Aluminium base. If successful, the resulting manufacturing process will provide a means of exploiting nanoceramic-aluminium substrates within the 11.3bn Global LED market, addressing a significant mkt need

The CEMLED project is an investigation into the amalgamation of novel thermal management substrate technology and the use of printed electronic materials to revolutionise the High Brightness LED substrate market. It aims to move manufacturing away from wasteful, subtractive manufacturing techniques towards very simple and efficient additive manufacturing technology.

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