Finnish researchers say LED cooling could remove the need for heat sinks for high-power devices

Finnish recipients of a €2million ERC Starting Grant earlier this year for research in the field of thermophotonics, have published a paper in Nature Photonics showing how heating LEDs from room temperature to 615K increases their emission power fourfold.

Thermophotonics is the study of phenomena in which both electricity and heat are used to generate light energy. Paper co-authors Jani Oksanen and Jukka Tulkki at the School of Science, Aalto University in Finland, say their findings suggest that thermophotonics could remove the need for heat sinks for high-power devices.

The research group's work uses LED structures for cooling and heat transfer. Making use of thermophotonic phenomena is possible when the photons emitted by a LED receive energy from the electricity supplied to the LED and also obtain heat from the system.

'Thermophotonics: LEDs feed on waste heat' by Jani Oksanen and Jukka Tulkki; Nature Photonics 9, 782"“784 (2015)

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Thanks to the great diversity of the semiconductor industry, we are always chasing new markets and developing a range of exciting technologies.

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