Artificial light for tomorrow’s world

The winds of change are blowing through the artificial light market. High demands for energy efficiency and other aspects of the environment have seen light bulbs disappearing from the shelves of shops. Today’s lamps still do not meet all the requirements such as light quality, start-time and the content of mercury. The market is crying out for a worthy replacement for the traditional light bulb. Today’s best alternative is based on a white light-emitting diode (LED); it is expensive and often has a cold blue light. The leading lighting companies such as Philips, Osram and General Electric are investing heavily in new artificial light sources and it is generally agreed that the LED technique has the greatest potential.

Ecospark has developed tomorrow’s light source, the next generation of white LEDs. The company’s business idea is to offer the market cost effective LED chips with good light quality. Ecospark has applied for a patent for its LED technology, a technology that radically reduces manufacturing costs by using ZnO, a new semi-conductor material, and nano-wire technology. This new technology produces a better quality of light and increases efficiency. One unique aspect of the Ecospark LED is that it can be made on cheap substrates such as plastic and glass, this opens the door for completely new applications such as the production of large pliable LEDs that can be used inside strip lights. The LED chip supports a sustainable society not just by reducing energy consumption but also by its choice of raw materials and manufacturing process.

In 2009, Ecospark produced a series of prototypes manufactured on various substrates such as plastic and glass and successfully demonstrated the emission of a high quality white light in every case. Within the next 15 months the company will focus on producing the first generation LED chip (the light producing part of LED) in collaboration with potential customers and set up a small pilot plant for small production runs.

Ecospark has a collaboration agreement with Professor Magnus Willander’s research group at LiU in Norrköping. The agreement gives exclusive access to research results and the opportunity to patent them. The company’s dedicated development work and collaboration with Professor Willander’s research group believes that it can increase the value of its IP portfolio manifold within the next few years.

David Darby CEO