2014 No.55 Reporting on Today and Tomorrow’s Energy, Environmental and Industrial Technology ［Featured Article］ Illuminating the 21st Century with the Blue LED An Energy Revolution in Lighting Special Dialogue “2014’s Nobel Prize Gives Courage to Engineering Graduates” Hiroshi Amano (Professor, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University) × Kazuo Furukawa (NEDO Chairman) Contents What is an LED? An LED (Light Emitting Diode) is a type of semiconductor device composed of p-type and n-type 2014 no.55 semiconductors. When direct electrical current flows through ［Featured Article］ the junction between these two 02 types of semiconductors, part of Illuminating the electrical energy is converted st and emitted as light. The light the 21 color changes depending on the semiconductor materials used. Century In comparison to conventional incandescent bulbs and fluorescent with the Blue lamps, LEDs have distinguishing features such as smaller size, the The deployment of LEDs ability to function as a point light LED Colorful display of electronic billboards and large-scale in indoor lighting and street source, longer service life, and An Energy Revolution in lower power consumption. The displays is made possible by the development of blue LEDs. lights is progressing rapidly. NEDO “Development of Lighting market for compact LED lamps of the kind first developed around Compound Semiconductors for 2003 grew rapidly due to energy- High Efficiency Optoelectronic saving measures after the Great Light emission phenomenon observed White LED East Japan Earthquake in 2011. when voltage applied to SiC High-intensity blue created by Conversion (Light for the 21st (silicon carbide) LED created using combining Century Project)” aims for a light-emitting a blue LED improved energy conservation Yellow-green layer of InGaN and a yellow with luminous efficiency of History of LED LED (indium gallium nitride) phosphor 80-100 lm/W. Development 1879 1961 1989 1995 2002 1998-2003 2010-2014 1907 1968 1993 1996 04 Special Dialogue “2014’s Nobel Prize Award Gives Courage to Incandescent light bulb Red LED “PN junction” Green LED White LED NEDO “Fundamental Engineering Graduates” created using created using created by combining Technology Development Hiroshi Amano p-type light-emitting an ultraviolet Project of Next-generation (Professor, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University) ［Featured Article］ GaN (gallium nitride) layer of LED and an RGB High-efficiency and High- × InGaN phosphor quality Lighting” aims for Kazuo Furukawa st significantly improved (NEDO Chairman) energy conservation with Illuminating the 21 a goal of luminous 08 NEDO Project Overview efficiency over 200 lm/W. Achieving High- efficiency LED Lights Changes in Domestic Shipments of Lighting with an Efficient Method Century with the Equipment (millions of yen) for Growing GaN 700,000 LED lighting equipment Crystals In recent years LED lighting has spread rapidly! Electric-discharge lamp equipment Disaster prevention equipment Incandescent lamp equipment Blue LED 600,000 10 Special Report Fluorescent lamp equipment Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd. An Energy Revolution in Lighting As LEDs have become 500,000 Developing LED used in the backlights of Business as a Second The invention of the blue LED that won the Nobel Prize for Physics mobile phones and tablet Core Business to Follow in 2014 has led to the creation of energy-saving light bulbs to computers, the market 400,000 has become huge. Automobile Parts replace conventional incandescent bulbs and is changing the world 300,000 of household and industrial lighting. Lighting currently accounts for 12 NEDO Project Overview nearly 20% of household and office power consumption, and if the use Creating an Even More 200,000 of extremely high-efficiency LED lighting expands, it can promote Favorable Environment energy conservation on a global scale. This featured article covers the for Developing Next 100,000 Generation Power latest information on energy-saving lighting, including NEDO’s projects involved in the development of blue LEDs, as well as next-generation Electronics with 2014’s 0 Nobel Prize Award power electronics. 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Source: Japan Lighting Manufacturers Association (FY2013 data) 02 2014 no.55 03 Special Dialogue Dialogue Professor, Graduate School of In 2014, three Japanese scientists who Featured Article Engineering, Nagoya University conducted research and development in “2014’s Nobel Prize LED technology received the Nobel Prize Award Gives Courage (Director, Akasaki Research Center, Nagoya University) to Engineering for Physics. One of the three, Professor Graduates.” Hiroshi Amano of Nagoya University’s Hiroshi Amano Graduate School of Engineering, has been involved with NEDO and has worked together on a project with NEDO in the past. After receiving news that Professor Amano had won the Nobel Prize, Chairman of NEDO Kazuo Furukawa sat down with him NEDO Chairman for an in-depth conversation. They discussed the backstory of Amano’s prize-winning Kazuo Furukawa research and future developments in LED research, as well as the current situation facing university engineering departments. theoretical physics to win. As someone who also graduated in LED Research Became a Big Success engineering, I think that your winning this award gives all the Thanks to a Device Failure people working in the engineering community a great amount Furukawa: We truly want to congratulate you on receiving of courage. 2014’s Nobel Prize for Physics. First I would like to ask you Amano: I also think that it’s great that the Nobel Prize shone about the significance of receiving the Nobel Prize. In the some light on our School of Engineering. At the beginning press release that was released by the Royal Swedish Academy we didn’t have enough funding and buying materials. So our of Sciences, it says “The LED lamp holds great promise for experimental equipment was homemade. We took parts from increasing the quality of life for over 1.5 billion people around old devices and an unused rotary pump from another research the world who lack access to electricity grids: due to low power laboratory, and used them to assemble our equipment. After requirements it can be powered by cheap local solar power.” that we had to build a device to show that it could produce light Professor, what are your feelings about this? well in order to appeal to the world. At that time I conducted Amano: The image I always used to hold of the Nobel Prize demonstrations through NEDO project and this enabled my was that it was an award intended for theoretical physicists like work to gain global attention. NEDO really helped greatly. It Professors Hideki Yukawa, Toshihide Masukawa, and Makoto is truly thanks to NEDO that I have been able to attend many Kobayashi in the case of Japanese laureates. I now feel that the international conferences and present my findings and data. Professor, Graduate School of Nobel Prize has gradually started recognizing achievements Furukawa: I am very happy to hear you say that. Your Engineering, Nagoya University that are more familiar and useful to people. The energy-saving invention – inserting a buffer layer as a substrate to cause (Director, Akasaki Research Center, Nagoya University) Hiroshi Amano impact of LED is tremendous, and it is expected that about growth GaN layer – was a really innovative one for us, but 70% of the lighting in Japan will become LED by the time of was this kind of method something that you had been thinking Born in Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture. Graduated from School of Engineering, Nagoya University in 1983. Completed the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. If that happens, LEDs will result about from the beginning? doctoral coursework at Nagoya University but withdrew from studies in 1988. Received his doctoral degree in engineering in energy savings equivalent to 7% of total power generation. I Amano: No, not at first. Since we couldn’t manage to create in 1989. Became a Professor in the Faculty of Science and felt extremely lucky in a sense to have a spotlight on this kind well-formed crystals, I wondered if there might be a need to Engineering at Meijo University in 2002. Later became a Fellow at the Japan Society of Applied Physics in 2009 and then a Professor of lighting and I am truly happy about it. sandwich the crystals with something else. At that time there in Graduate School of Engineering at Nagoya University in 2010. Received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2014 based on his research Furukawa: Actually, I also thought that the Nobel Prize was another person in the same research laboratory who was on blue LEDs. Also received the Order of Culture and selected as a for Physics would be hard for people who were not in researching aluminum nitride crystals and I realized that they Person of Cultural Merit in the same year (as of November 2014). 04 2014 no.55 05 Special Dialogue “This Year’s Nobel Prize Award Gives Courage to Engineering Graduates.” were forming well, so at that point I thought that I’d try using potential of GaN is high, but unfortunately the substrate immediately fall asleep. This technology would also be useful unfortunate thing is that the majority of the doctoral students that as a buffer layer. However, aluminum nitride doesn’t technology is still inferior when compared with SiC. If we in treating people with conditions involving numbness in a have become foreign students from abroad. They return to cleanly form a single crystal unless it is created at a high don’t resolve this issue, we won’t be able to achieve reliability. limb. I have a dream of working on this together with people their countries once the doctoral program is completed, which temperature. As it happens, the kiln occasionally wouldn’t Given that power devices are used in ways that impact people’s involved in medical and physical science research.