Shuji Nakamura Awarded the 2006 Millennium Prize

Mictian writes "University of California professor Shuji Nakamura, the japanese inventor of the bright green, white and blue GaN LEDs and a blue laser, has been awarded the 2006 Millennium Technology Prize. While blue LEDs are considered cool and thus needful things by most nerds, Nakamura adapted his blue LEDs to make a blue laser in the mid 90s. The next generation optical storage formats, HD-DVD and BluRay, are of course both based on blue laser. Also, his white LEDS need far less energy than normal incandescent lamps and can thus provide plenty of opportunity for energy-saving in the industrialized world. But probably the most significant future application for Shuji Nakamura's invention comes in the form of sterilizing drinking water, since the the water purification process can be made cheaper and more efficient with the use of ultraviolet LEDs. This can improve the lives and health of tens of millions people in developing countries."

Comments

Not to minimize his work...

[DragonWriter]

...which is phenomenal and well-deserving of the prize, but why the comparison to incandescent bulbs for large-scale energy savings? Flourescent lightss, including full-spectrum lights that produce better quality light than most incadescent bulbs, are much more efficient than incandescents, too, for their output; my understanding is that White LED lights are now somewhat more efficient even than flourescents, which is the real reason they offer a big step forward in terms of large-scale energy savings (plus, they are much easier to make very small, which is good for lots of applications where flourescent lights aren't really well suited, but that's not going to be the source of enormous energy savings.)

Re:Not to minimize his work...

[Bo'Bob'O]

I love daylight florescent lights, I use them at my desk and, to many people's surprise, in my bedroom. Once you get used to the blue, I find it much more pleasant then the yellow tint of the standard kind, especially to augment daylight. Fact is though, that even their ability to render colors properly is inferior to a plain old generic incandescent light bulb (http://www.sizes.com/units/CRI.htm). The color temperature rating on florescent and even gas discharge lamps is just an approximation of true blackbody color temperature. This is why even budget conscious retail and food chains still will have at least incandescent spot lighting, things just look better under it.

As a professional stage lighting designer looking for rich colors and as a person looking to save on cooling and power costs at home, I can't wait for LEDs to keep getting cheaper, brighter, and more efficient. Unfortunately being that white LEDs are based on phosphors in somewhat the same way as CRTs and fluorescents are, I don't think we aren't going to see the end of incandescents quite yet.

I love the white LED's

[Freaky Spook]

A few years ago I invested in a white LED headlight/torch for when I would go camping.

I got almost 2 years out of a set of 3 AAA batteries, the light itself provided excellent light at night and stayed bright up until the batteries were noticably dying.

It was one of the most practical investments I ever made.

Re:probably not...

[Nefarious Wheel]

All the new traffic lights in Victoria (Aus) are built with LED's now. You can tell the difference -- because they use the same switch gear as before, the time lag built in to the control systems to let the incandescents glow down manifests as a few milliseconds of all-lamps-off. Takes a moment to get used to it, but you're very aware of lights changing -- I think it's safer that way, myself. I think it's done with filters over those brilliant white LEDs. We also use variable speed limit signs built with switching arrays of LEDs in crowded shopping areas, used to switch speeds according to traffic conditions & time of day. So there's a good application in use today -- lowering road aggro and maybe even saving a life or two, while lowering energy costs at the same time. High-class geekery, that, and one worth the round of applause.

Re:This is the type of person...

[Beryllium Sphere(tm)]

This was a real invention, and that's indeed what the patent system is for.

The way it worked in this case was ugly, though. I won't try to describe the patent litigation over the blue LED, but it sure doesn't encourage me to go out and invent things.

Actually they don't use filters.

[skids]

One of the main reasons, other than not having to change them nearly as often, for using LEDs in traffic lights is that they are monocromatic: if you have a white light behind a colored filter, you're throwing most of your power into heating the filter. Colored lights are the one application where LEDs are already more efficient than flourescents. So much so that newer lights in remote areas can be cheaply solar powered, which in many situations saves you money when considering the cost of running electric lines from them to the grid versus the panels/battery.

And they are catching on -- we have them here in the U.S. too. By my BoTE estimate, nationwide we have about as much baseline power to save on traffic lights as it would take a midsized coal plant to generate (IIRC they have already penetrated 20% of the streetlighting market.) That's a considerable amount of energy and tax dollars we can save right there -- just a matter of getting those town officials to make the jump.

Re:This is the type of person...

[BJH]

Heh, in this case the company he worked for had patents.

He had shit-all, which is why he sued them for extra compensation.

What makes it even worse is the company actively tried to block him from continuing with the line of research that led to his breakthrough, and made the company a Metric Shitload(tm) of cash.

Just the industrialized world??

[Stavr0]

Also, his white LEDS need far less energy than normal incandescent lamps and can thus provide plenty of opportunity for energy-saving in the industrialized world.

Third world too, Dr. Dave Irvine-Halliday sent white LEDs to Nepal, India and Sri-Lanka. A whole village can be illuminated with 100W.
Light Up The World Foundation
Dr. Irvine-Halliday at Rolex Awards

Even better savings than you indicate

[blueZ3]

as the LED lamps essentially do not need to be replaced. Incandescent lamps not only use more electricity, they have a much shorter life. The city will be saving $1200 a year in electricity, plus the cost of replacing the lamps every couple of years.

I am really pleased to see these taking off--better for the environment on two fronts (longer life, lower power consumption) and nifty tech that I used to fiddle around with as a kid. Anyone else remember the books you could get at Radio Shack that had electronic projects to build? Man, I loved building LED displays.