Biomimetic LEDs: The Ultra Efficient Breakthrough

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The irregular edges of the firefly cuticle makes me think of a Fresnel lens.

Quite fascinating. Remember the invention of the blue L.E.D. changed the world as we know it.

Oh boy I can't wait for my eyes to be blasted out in the middle of the night when the blue light on some device randomly turns on

I always find it remarkable how much of our innovation is copying what is already there in nature and wild life and then repurposing it for our own needs.

This is game changing for so many technologies that rely on LEDs; from light bulbs to TVs and especially VR headset that require a lot of light to show enough detail. Another possible avenue for innovation this biomimetic design can have is in solar panels. Since LEDs and solar panels are designed, produced and function similarly except in the opposite direction of work, maybe it's possible to increase their efficiency in energy generation using a similar technique to this.

In Canada, Incandescent bulbs can actually be nearly 100% efficient for 6 months out of the year.

Nice side effect: Much better cooling. If the waste heat can be significantly reduced, liftime of led bulbs could be extended considerably, since most fail due to the leds cooking the drive electronics. It could also bring another leap in tiny flashlights. Those are often limited in runtime on higher levels by the temperature rise and not by the batterie. With the more efficiant leds, a significantly higher continous light output could be achived.

Commercial providers having been sandblasting their sapphire substrates for years. So this is a minor evolution. But it's worth pointing out that the refractive index changes between the firefly optic medium (n=1.4) and air (n=1) is a lot less than for sapphire (n=1.7) and gallium nitride (n=2.1). It is that much larger difference that makes internal reflections in LEDs so bad.

Just as an historic reference, the first LEDs, as a product, came out in the late 1960s. The first LEDs I bought, were in 1973, and made by Motorola. They are RED, and very dim. LEDs bright enough, and much more efficient, to replace other forms of illumination (other than just being used as indicators, or numeric displays) was caused by the GaN (gallium nitride) revolution, starting ~1993. Anything that can make LEDs even more efficient is almost unbelievable, considering how far the tech has gone, so far. For those who hobby, in electronics, LEDs will emit visible light over a much wider power range than old style incandescents. A 120V (any wattage) incandescent will barely glow with 20V applied (6:1 range). Where as an LED rated for 20mA will still output quite a bit of light well under 1mA. Still quite visible well under 100uA (0.1mA, >200:1 range).

Brighter and brighter and brighter and brighter and BLINDINGLY BRIGHTER LEDS!!!!!!!!

The front page algorithm has had a lot of misses for me but this channel is an absolute hit. Subscribed.

LEDs have come a huge way in terms of watts/lumen ratio and passed the incandescent stuff long ago but to think they can improve a lot more is exciting! They are even becoming a thing in video projectors which was a predominantly hallide lamp powered device!

So they increased the extraction efficiency by 55% to 90%, which almost doubles the total light extraction? Nice! :-)

What a simple idea. Yet so efficient.

When we move off Earth, I have a feeling that our vegetable gardens will use LED lights. Even a one percent gain in efficiency would make a big difference, so this size of effect is simply huge!

I can't wait for these more efficient LEDs to hit the markets!

Fascinating how nature again informs us to make what we make batter. (Opinion: The first ~7 minutes needed a lot of editing. Could have been 3 minutes.)

I remember when we didn't have LED's at all. 🙂 The invention of the Red LED was a really major breakthrough.