(06-04-2009 11:57 AM)I45owl Wrote: Funny story.
Aren't white LED's just blue with phosphorous coating?
I just bought a new 50" Plasma (just in time for the UEFA cup and the Rice-LSU baseball super-regionals) - the new power supply has blue LED's that sit about two feet below the screen. I'm gradually migrating equipment over there and on my todo list is to obscure those lights.
Interesting new display technologies involve "quantum dots" that are supposed to make LED screens more efficient and also can produce white light for solid state use.
Quantum dots.
Let me tell you another funny story.
Back in 2003 I was doing a project for cleaning of sensitive surfaces (electronics, displays, etc). And one issue that kept coming up is
how do you tell they are clean? So an investor in the process we were using (a retired NIH researcher) comes up w/ this idea using quantum dots. Very good idea IMO, so we worked together and submitted a patent.
Anyway, I was active w/ my photocatalyst interests at that time. One other application for those (different from my main interests) was dye-sensitized solar cells. I never liked dyes (organic chemistry, yecch) but with the other work on my mind, I began to speculate of using quantum dots in the same way as the dyes. Their size and high quantum efficiency should allow them to make better cells than the the dye-sensitized ones.
Yes, others have had that idea, and have made progress.
Fast forward to 2008. I work for a well known consulting company that is trying to leverage their S&T manpower to win new business. One opportunity is to pitch new ideas to GM. (Yes, that GM). So, I suggest that they consider quantum dot-sensitized solar cells on vehicles...
as the paint. No obtrusive silicon panels, lots of surface area, easier integration into production lines.
Feedback I get from my co-worker is that they raised eyebrows at that one. They liked it.
The punchline?
http://editorial.autos.msn.com/article.a...arresearch