LEDs face Fipel challenge

ORIGINAL: Electronics Weekly

By Alun Williams - Electronics Weekly.com

December 4, 2012

Fipel (field-induced polymer electroluminescent) lighting could challenge LEDs and fluorescent lighting, writes David Manners. First production is expected next year.

Wake Forest University physics professor David Carroll is pictured above working with graduate student Greg Smith on new FIPEL lighting technology.

Invented by David Carroll, Professor of Physics at Wake Forest University, North Carolina, Fipels use three layers of light-emitting polymer which contain traces of nanomaterials which glow when a current is applied.

Fipels can be made in any shape with any tint to the white light, says Dr Carroll, who says he's made one which has lasted ten years.

Fipels contain no mercury or caustic chemicals.

Carroll says he has an industrial partner which will be manufacturing Fipel lighting next year.

"People often complain that fluorescent lights bother their eyes, and the hum from the fluorescent tubes irritates anyone sitting at a desk underneath them," said David Carroll, professor of physics and director of the Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials. "The new lights we have created can cure both of those problems and more."