Days of humble light-bulb may soon be over

Washington, Jan 11 (UNI) The common household light-bulb may soon get replaced in the years to come by a newly-developed technology, researchers said.

Now researchers believe they have found a way of introducing a new generation of Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) into households that are brighter and use even less power than standard energy efficient light-bulbs.

LEDs, already used in electrical equipments such as computers and mobile phones, are several times more energy efficient than standard light-bulbs.

''By making microscopic holes on the surface of the LEDs it is possible to extract more light, thus increasing the brightness of the lights without increasing the energy consumption,'' said Faiz Rahman, the researcher at the University of Glasgow.

As yet, LEDs have not been introduced as the standard lighting in homes because the process of making the holes is very time consuming and expensive, the Science Daily reported.

''However, by using world-class facilities at the University of Glasgow we have found a way of imprinting the holes into billions of LEDs at a far greater speed, but at a much lower cost,'' Dr Rahman said.

The researchers use a technique called nano-imprint lithography to directly imprint the holes, imperceptible to the human eye, onto the LEDs allowing more of the light to escape.

LEDs not only use less power than current energy efficient light-bulbs but they are much smaller and can last for years without needing to be replaced.

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