High brightness LEDs for general lighting applications using the new ThinGaN™-technology

During the last years GaN-technology has proven to fulfill the requirements of solid state lighting. Lighting requirements are mainly driven by brightness, operation voltage and lifetime. Brigthness is determined by internal efficiency as well as extraction efficiency whereas the ohmic losses determining the operating voltage are dominated by series resistance and contact resistance. Both, brightness and voltage, strongly depend on the device structure as well as the chip design. SiC based [1, 2] as well as Sapphire based LEDs [3] have proven their capability for high brightness devices, still suffering from various compromises such as cost, ESD-stability, high series resistance etc. Recently OSRAM-OS has demonstrated its newly developed product line based on the so called ThinGaN(TM) technology, a true thinfilm approach that overcomes most of the compromises mentioned. The technology allows highest brightness levels at lowest operating voltage, is scalable and supports all wavelengths. The devices act as true surface en-titters with a lambertian emission pattern.