Biomimetic LEDs: The Ultra Efficient Breakthrough

LEDs have a problem and it's making them less efficient than they should be but this could all change thanks to the Firefly also known as lightning bugs or gloworms these incredible insects are actually beetles they've Enchanted the human mind for centuries and it turns out that they're also the most efficient light generators in the world fireflies use a special trick that turns a small amount of light inside their bodies into a huge visible glow and now scientists have translated this magic into LED lights their research shows that compared to a standard LED their bioinspired LEDs could be over twice as efficient making LEDs last longer and shine brighter so let's see how this energy efficient engineering has been done fireflies have been around since the dinosaurs and getting light from them has fascinated people for centuries there's an ancient Chinese fable about a poor boy who was able to study at night and pass the life-changing civil service exams by hering fireflies into a silk bag to give himself a lamp to study with but now these magical creatures are helping in a more modern setting traditional LEDs or light emitting diodes are much more efficient than incandescent bulbs with around 30% efficiency compared to just 3% for incandescent bulbs the other 97% of the energy turns into heat but for LEDs the inefficiencies are a little more complicated as I started to look into this the most obvious type of efficiency for me was known as electrical efficiency it measures how much light is generated inside the LED compared to how much power it's using light extraction efficiency on the other hand measures how much light is emitted from the LED compared to how much was generated I like to think of this as how much of the generated light is able to escape the LED so that we can see the higher the extraction efficiency the brighter the light is because more photons are released instead of being bounced back inside and being reabsorbed or turned to heat these two types of efficiency combine into luminous efficacy it gives a value of how much light can be perceived by the human eye compared to the amount of electricity consumed to make it and is what goes into the Energy Efficiency ratings of light bulb this Firefly breakthrough focuses on light extraction effic efficiency which is really important for example if you've got an LED with great electrical efficiency but poor extraction efficiency you could be wasting over half the energy because the photons just can't get out so if you're improving the light extraction efficiency you're significantly reducing the amount of energy you're using to really appreciate how these bioinspired LEDs work and how they're solving these problems we need to have a quick look about how the conventional LED technology Works LEDs or light emitting diodes are tiny they emit light when an electrical current passes through them in a process called electroluminescence this is because by passing electrical current through a semiconductor it releases photons that can be seen as light this semiconductor is made from stacking layers of doped gallion based materials on top of a substrate with material and design variations dictating the LED's properties the innovation of LEDs truly revolutionized the way we illuminate our surroundings not only are they incredibly versatile and much more efficient than other methods but they are also longlasting and durable which makes them even more environmentally friendly however as we've discussed the problem with LEDs is that some of the photons generated by the semiconductor never make it out as light in other words the light extraction efficiency isn't 100% not even close it's hard to get a solid figure of the light extraction efficiency of conventional LEDs because there's so much variation however a number I've seen floating around a lot is around 40% the factors at play include the design and material quality and I've even seen this figure put as low as 2% regardless even on a good day LEDs don't seem to be emitting a lot of the light that they're producing clearly LEDs are not nearly as efficient as they could be but before seeing how researchers are solving this there's another great technology that can help you use your energy more effectively the Anor solx X1 is the perfect home energy storage system to give you and your household power Independence and become free from unwelcome power outages this Independence can also save you money by allowing you to use cheaper electricity when you need it its storm guard mode prepares for outages by charging to maximum capacity when it receives a severe weather alert and can switch into backup power in less than 20 milliseconds when you need it however you probably won't even notice as it can run high power home appliances simultaneously without any problems equipped with the thermal boosting technology BMS and Infinity power the X1 can operate flawlessly across a huge range of temperatures working in environments as low as -4° F to as high as 131° F its modular pack design supports flexibility in capacity from 5 to 180 kws and flexibility and Power from 3 to 36 KW its modular pack design also allows for expansion without adding losses and features an energy Optimizer which ensures you get the most out of your investment by minimizing capacity loss the minimalist design is only 5.9 in thick ensuring it Blends seamlessly into your home setup with Smart Energy Management you can maximize savings by utilizing green energy more effectively and thanks to anker's comprehensive app monitor Ing and optimizing your home's power usage has never been easier if you're looking for more Independence and lower energy builds check out the Anor solx X1 using my link in the description now back to these Innovative bioinspired LEDs the secret to unlocking the full potential of LEDs became clear when researchers looked closer at the surface of fireflies who create light through bioluminesence bioluminesence is what causes many natural organisms from jellyfish and fungi to Plankton and fireflies to light up more specifically it's chemoluminescence because the light comes from a chemical reaction the light is usually blue green or yellow and used for enticing mates encouraging pollination hiding from predators or attracting their next meal meeting rituals of fireflies consist of flashing patterns kind of like a morse code with lights shining visible to the naked eye at remarkable efficiencies this efficiency lies not only in how the light is generated but also in how it's emitted in other words their light extraction efficiency in traditional LEDs lens designs and diffusers play a role in shaping the light they admit lenses can focus or spread light whilst diffusers help soften and evenly distribute the illumination but a lot of light gets lost in refractions or internal Reflections because of the differences in densities between the layers of materials inside the device and also of the air outside this is why a lot of the light never makes it out of the led the photons bounce around and can be lost or reabsorbed generating heat in the process so what makes fireflies so much better at extracting this light researchers studying fireflies High light extraction efficiencies discovered that a big part of this is down to the asymmetrical surfaces inside the their lanterns which is the organ that produces the light although modern LEDs do sometimes use textured surfaces to increase extraction efficiency it's this unexpected pattern of jagged ridges that really enhances the glow by changing how photons move within and are emitted from the lantern in fireflies light is emitted through the lanterns outer covering called the cuticle as photons try to pass between the two different densities of the cuticle and the air they can easily get reflected back into the body and just like standard LEDs make the glow less bright but if like certain fireflies there is a special cuticle surface structure with irregular and tilted shapes more photons can pass through providing a brighter glow these structures increased overall surface area giving the photons a better chance of passing through these asymmetrical structure structures also tackle a phenomenon known as total internal reflection this is where light hits the boundary at a steep angle and bounces back rather than escaping asymmetrical or non-uniform structures disrupt this pattern by introducing Randomness in a variety of angles and surfaces this variation decreases the chance of light being trapped by increasing the likelihood that it will hit the surface at angles that allow it to escape this use of Randomness kind of reminds me of a genetic algorithm which employs a level of Randomness to prevent it getting stuck at a bad solution these asymmetrical structures can actually be used in different places of the LED's construction to help photons escape and be seen as visible light one group of researchers have created an overlay for existing LEDs mimicking the Firefly's asymmetrical Surface by doing this they saw that it increased the light extraction efficiency by 55% another group showed how using similar structures in the sapphire LED substrate which sits under the semiconductors boosted extraction efficiency to 90% which they say is the highest reported so far for LEDs the lead researchers of this record-breaking study went on to file a patent for their amazing Firefly inspired technology which was granted in 2020 so real LED lights with these features are something to to look out for the researchers also found that these surfaces could be easily manufactured this is done by cutting the sapphire substrate at an angle meaning that mass manufacturing of this could be feasible but one problem that Ultra efficient brighter LEDs could cause is light pollution ironically fireflies could be contributing to something that will make their lives more difficult but this problem isn't inherently due to the technology it's down to how we use it the idea is that we'll use the increas efficiency of these lights to reduce power needs and not just end up using more of them because they're brighter or cheaper to run LED efficiencies are really an example of how you can be doing one step really efficiently but if the next step is inefficient it really unwinds a lot of the progress It's a good reminder of how different parts of the Energy Efficiency ecosystem need to work together to lower emissions with energy efficient engineering if you've enjoyed this video please subscribe it's free and helps me bring more of these videos on the amazing energy efficient engineering happening in our world you might also like a recent video I did on a lightweight hydrogen fuel cell and if you've got any other topics you'd like me to cover please leave them in the comments below thanks for watching

Channel: Ziroth

Views: 159,472

Keywords: Science, Engineering, STEM, Electric, Zero, Tesla, News, Research, EV, Battery, led, light, efficiency

Id: 3EkWn49Zi2U

Length: 11min 44sec (704 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 25 2024