Backed by venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, and founded in 2008, with NEA and NGEN Partners over$100n in funding has been raised for Silicon Valley startup Soraa. Co-founded by Shuji Nakamura, (right) creator of both blue laser and white LED, Soraa has launched its first innovative LED.

Soraa has developed a new way to manufacturer an LED light that produces a bright, better quality light that more energy efficient, and saves more money than its competitors on the market.

The first light is a lamp to replace a halogen bulb called an MR16, (Left to right: MR16 with GU10 base and with GX5.3 base, MR11 with GU4 or GZ4 base) commonly used in recessed ceiling lights, or spot lights on products in stores and venues. Soraa is targeting commercial and industrial building owners first, before moving into the residential market.

Soraa’s LED light is also highly energy efficient. It usesabout 75% less energy than incandescent and halogen bulbs, and lasts 25 times longer than halogen bulbs. For a company buying lighting for a commercial building, Soraa light can deliver a year pay back period in energy savings claims the company.

Soraa uses the semiconductor gallium nitride (GaN) for the substrate part of the light. LEDs are usually made by putting GaN onto sapphire (Al203) or silicon carbide (SiC) substrates. Soraa however places GaN onto a GaN substrate, enabling the core of the light itself to create better uniformity.

Soraa says its combination is more cost effective and produces more light per lamp than traditional methods. Currently moving into volume commercial production at its California factory the company believes  it will be able to turn into a $400m revenue per year company.

PLESSEY BUYS CAMGaN APPROACH
In order to commercialise new technologies for the growth of gallium nitride (GaN) high-brightness light-emitting diodes (HB LEDs) on large-area silicon substrates, Plessey Semiconductors has acquired CamGaN Ltd, a University of Cambridge  spinoutoriginally formed to advance this technology. 

Plessey says the acquisition will enable it to exploit synergies with its 6-inch processing facility in Plymouth, to produce HB LEDs based on CamGaN’s proprietary 6-inch GaN-on-silicon technology.

Current HB LED fabrication technologies use silicon carbide (SiC) or sapphire substrates [or GaN substrates] that are expensive and difficult to scale up.  Plessey says its GaN-on-silicon solution offers cost reductions of the order of 80% compared to LEDs grown on SiC or sapphire by reducing scrap rates, minimises batch time, and enables the use of automated semiconductor processing equipment.

These cost reductions will be achieved while enabling outputs in excess of 150 lumens per watt later this year. Michael LeGoff, Plessey’s MD said, "HB LED lighting represents the future of domestic, architectural, medical, and automotive lighting.

"Achieving the goals of high efficiency and brightness is key to the rapid deployment of energy saving, solid state lighting. This new British technology provides cost and performance advantages that will constitute a game-changing step forward towards the replacement of incandescent and fluorescent bulbs with HB LED lamps."

Commenting on the significance of Plessey's new technology, John Ellis, Plessey's (right) chief engineer,said, "To date, the biggest technological challenge preventing the commercialisation of HB LEDs grown on large-area silicon substrates has been the large lattice mismatch between GaN and silicon.

"Plessey's new GaN-on-silicon process overcomes this challenge and our expertise combined with the intrinsic cost savings of using automated 6 inch processing equipment will position Plessey's HB LED lighting products at the forefront of the industry."

Plessey also announced its plan to release a range of products for smart lighting concepts that incorporate existing Plessey sensing and control technologies including the award winning EPIC sensor. [ Olivadoti claims its PBF biometric sensor is highly competitive to EPIC]

Smart lighting products will enable intelligent energy management, remote control, controlled dimming and automated response to ambient conditions.

Plessey's first samples of a blue LED are characterised by peak emission at 460nm. The GaN-on-silicon technology extends to other emission wavelengths such as cyan and green. Being able to achieve such high brightness at the blue end of the spectrum enables phosphors to be used to produce white light with a balanced spectrum of light emission that is better for the eye.