GaN LED specialist Named IEEE Fellow
Mike Krames of Arkesso recognised for leadership in GaN-based device physics and its commercialisation
Mike Krames, president of Arkesso LLC (Palo Alto, CA, and Austin, TX), has been awarded the distinction of IEEE Fellow. This is in recognition for his leadership in GaN-based LED physics and its commercialisation.
Krames led technology teams at Hewlett-Packard, Lumileds, Philips, and Soraa before forming his own firm, Arkesso, in 2015. In the course of over two decades his leadership resulted in advances that would enable several LED product 'firsts', including automotive headlamps, true replacements for directional halogen lamps, and high-colour-gamut flat panel displays.
In addition to many commercial achievements, Krames' work led to fundamental improvements in the understanding of GaN-based device physics, including identifying Auger recombination as the main cause behind the otherwise mysterious 'efficiency droop' observed for LEDs at high drive currents. While at Soraa, Krames pioneered a new LED platform, GaN-on-GaN technology, which resulted in what is the world's most efficient high-power, visible-spectrum LED.
Krames is a recognised world authority on LEDs and their applications for lighting and displays. He has served on numerous roundtables and panels for the US Department of Energy and Basic Energy Sciences, and is Chair of the SPIE Photonics West Conference on Light-Emitting Diodes. Krames has over 80 peer-reviewed publications and more than 100 granted US patents, and has served on several boards of directors/advisors.
He earned a BSc degree in Electrical Engineering from University of Texas, Austin, and Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in Electrical Engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
"It's an honour to be recognised by IEEE and fellow peers, and to take a moment to acknowledge the impactful work from the fantastic teams I had the pleasure of leading over the years," said Krames.
