Kopin Harnesses Nanotechnology to Achieve Efficiency Breakthrough in
Solid-State Lighting Company's new NanoPocket(TM) semiconductor process,
revealed in prestigious scientific journal, produces ultra energy-efficient LED
lights
TAUNTON, Mass., Jul 29, 2002 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Kopin Corp. (NASDAQ: KOPN) for
the first time has harnessed nanotechnology to produce light-emitting diodes
(LEDs), yielding blue LEDs that are smaller than a grain of sand but are ultra
efficient solid state light sources. The technical breakthrough is revealed and
published in the July 29 edition of the prestigious Applied Physics Letters.
Using a new patent-pending process that creates "NanoPockets(TM)" and other
improvements, Kopin has developed a way to produce blue LED chips as bright as
those commercially available and yet can be driven by much lower voltage.
Kopin's new CyberLite(TM) blue LED chips require less than 2.9 volts of
electricity (for 20 milliamperes current) - significantly lower than 3.3 volts
for commercially available LEDs - and yet have 100 millicandela brightness.
"Getting below 3 volts has been a scientific hurdle for nearly a decade," said
Kopin Founder and Chairman Dr. John C.C. Fan. "It took a new way of thinking to
overcome this challenge. With further development, we can approach the holy
grail of using these solid-state sources for general lighting."
The blue CyberLite can be combined with a yellow phosphor to create a white LED.
These blue and white CyberLites are ideal for compact portable light-using
devices, such as wireless phones, games, camcorders, cameras, laptops and PDAs,
which operate on battery power.
"Today's CyberLites announcement is significant because Kopin has cleverly
integrated nanotechnology into the semiconductor process to create LEDs that are
extremely low voltage and ultra bright," said Bob Steele, director of
optoelectronics at Strategies Unlimited, a market research firm.
"With CyberLites, we've taken a very important first step in the
commercialization of nanotechnology," said Fan. "The next step is achieving mass
production. Although this is always the toughest part, as we did with our HBT
Transistors and CyberDisplay(TM) technologies, we believe we can move CyberLites
into large-volume production for the mass market. We have already begun shipping
evaluation samples of CyberLites to prospective customers towards this goal."
Kopin selected LED lighting as its next innovation based on its Wafer
Engineering Process(TM) because it has synergies with its current III-V and
CyberDisplays products, and because the high-brightness LED market is already
large at $1.2 billion today and expected to grow rapidly reaching more than $3
billion by 2005, according to Strategies Unlimited.
Wafer Engineering Process and Nanotechnology
When different semiconductor materials are combined, natural "defects" occur at
the atomic level. Kopin's patented and proprietary Wafer Engineering Process
significantly reduces the number of defects and enables the creation of products
using advanced semiconductor materials. Kopin commercialized this process and
created several unique products, including HBT transistors and CyberDisplays,
which today are mass-produced and are leaders in their product categories.
Kopin's CyberLites are fabricated on gallium nitride compounds grown on low-cost
aluminum oxide (sapphire) substrates by the same process, organometallic
chemical vapor deposition, that Kopin uses for volume production of its HBT
transistor wafers. In addition to high brightness and low voltage, CyberLites
have achieved ESD resistance of over 4000 volts while resistance of commercially
available LEDs is 2000 volts or lower. High ESD resistance is critical for
industrial applications such as in automobiles.
"Kopin took the Wafer Engineering Process one step further in creating
CyberLites. Realizing that defects cannot be completely eliminated, Kopin
provided confinements for production of light away from the defects, and inside
these NanoPockets," said Professor Jagdish Narayan of North Carolina State
University, a co-author of the Applied Physics Letters paper, and Distinguished
University Professor and Director of National Science Foundation Center of
Advanced Materials and Smart Structures.
"The concept of using nanostructures to enhance the efficiency of LEDs is very
novel, and should be effective if these nanostructures are spaced less than the
separation of material defects such as dislocations. These reported
nanostructures (NanoPockets) not only possess this important feature, but also
it is impressive that these structures are naturally formed as a result of
internal strains. The Kopin and North Carolina University teams of material
scientists are world renowned, and it is a credit to them that they achieved
such important advances," said Professor Stephen Pearton, Chair Professor at the
University of Florida, Gainesville.
According to figures cited by the president of the Optoelectronics Industry
Development Association (July 18, 2001):
-- Significant adoption of solid state lighting over the next 20
years could reduce global electricity usage for lighting by 50
percent and reduce total global electricity consumption by 10
percent.
-- If solid state lighting could garner a significant share of
the general lighting market, the United States could avoid 276
metric tons of carbon emissions by 2020.
"LEDs use solid state technology to perform more work using a fraction of the
energy current lighting does," U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham told the
United States Energy Association on June 12. "The time has come to take the next
step toward solid-state lighting. Inorganic light emitting diode is to
florescent lamps what transistors were to vacuum tubes, or what the automobile
was to the horse and buggy."
Widely deployed LED lighting could significantly reduce greenhouse gas
emissions, energy costs and the world's consumption of oil, gas and nuclear
power while making possible new inventive ways of illuminating rooms, buildings
and products.
About Kopin
Founded in 1984, Kopin (NASDAQ: KOPN) is pioneering the use of the Wafer
Engineering Process(TM) in consumer, communications and military technology. The
company supplies the world's largest electronics manufacturers and government
agencies with breakthrough semiconductor products - from dime-sized
microdisplays to ultra-efficient transistors to solid-state LED lighting - that
enhance the delivery and presentation of voice, video and data. Kopin technology
is currently used in one-quarter of the world's cell phones and nearly one-third
of the world's camcorders and is the microdisplay standard for the U.S.
military. For more information, please visit Kopin's Web site at www.kopin.com.
CyberDisplays, CyberLites, Wafer Engineering and NanoPockets are trademarks of
Kopin Corporation.
CONTACT: Beaupre & Co. Public Relations
Jeff Aubin, 603/559-5838
jaubin@beaupre.com
or
Kopin Corporation
Richard Sneider, 508/824-6696
rsneider@kopin.com
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