Extra Thin LED lighting developed by Rohinni CMO Nick Smoot and his team have developed a form of what it calls Lightpaper. It’s a way to print lighting and apply it to nearly any surface, in any shape, and for any situation. It’s a kind of stunning proposition that reminds me of the first time I heard about 3-D printing.
In its current state, Lightpaper is manufactured by mixing ink and tiny LEDs together and printing them out on a conductive layer. That object is then sandwiched between two other layers and sealed. The tiny diodes are about the size of a red blood cell, and randomly dispersed on the material. When current runs through the diodes, they light
“The design process is something that can be done almost in an afternoon,” Smoot says. “We’ve had people engage with us before, and before the day is out, we have designs that can go to market, which is a pretty weird thought.”
McAlpine and his colleagues at Princeton University have mixed and matched five different materials into the first fully 3-D printed LED lights. Although other teams previously claimed the honor, McAlpine says those weren’t the real thing. “They print a breadboard of electronics, and then plug regular LEDs into it.”
The printed LEDs have five layers. On the bottom, a metal ring made of silver nanoparticles acts as a metal contact to an electrical circuit. On top of that are two polymer layers (both with really long chemical names) which together supply and shuttle electrical current to the next layer. That contains the quantum dots. The quantum dots are made of cadmium selenide nanoparticles wrapped in a zinc sulfide shell. As the electrons bump into these quantum dots, they emit orange or green light. The light is topped with a cathode layer made of eutectic gallium.
For more information refer Popular Science Article