Goldeneye allowed patent for color conversion

Goldeneye has been allowed a US patent for a new color conversion method for LEDs utilizing a solid luminescent element. The patent, due to be published later this month, has the application number 11/389,311.

The company, headquartered in Carlsbad, California, produces high-brightness LED light sources and is best known for its light recycling technology. In this approach, multiple LEDs are combined in a “light-recycling cavity” to enhance their individual brightness output.

The patent relates to color conversion using a solid, ceramic-based element, rather than the more conventional approach using phosphor powder. It encompasses ceramic processing techniques such as tape casting and sintering to form thin luminescent sheets for volume production.

"This technology will enable significant improvements in efficiency and color rendering as well as greatly simplifying binning requirements," says Scott Zimmerman, Vice President of Technology for Goldeneye. "It also delivers life and thermal performance that powdered phosphor approaches simply cannot match."

The “wavelength conversion chip” can be used with Goldeneye’s recycling light cavity or attached directly to any LED. The patent covers both methods of manufacture and a wide range of applications in solid-state lighting.

Goldeneye says that its next generation of LED light products will be able to use blue or ultraviolet LEDs in combination with the patented technology to produce white, yellow, green, red and a spectrum of visible colors.

“Our early work in the area of very high intensity LED sources forced us several years ago to develop a new type of wavelength conversion technology compatible with these high flux levels,” says Zimmerman. “The conversion chip will enable all of Goldeneye’s high brightness LED light products to operate at greater efficiency than in other conversion schemes.”