UW Researchers Create World's Thinnest LED

Researchers at the University of Washington (UW) have demonstrated electroluminescence in a flexible, mechanically strong construct of the semiconductor tungsten selenide only three atoms thick.

The researchers harvested single sheets of tungsten selenide (WSe₂) using adhesive tape, a technique invented for the production of graphene. They used a support and dielectric layer of boron nitride on a base of silicon dioxide on silicon to come up with the thinnest possible LED.

Diagram showing the layers of the almost two-dimensional LED.

The LEDs now used in most consumer electronics are rigid and are hundreds to thousands of times as thick as the material being developed at UW -- which the team characterizes as 1/10,000^th the thickness of a human hair.

Existing inorganic LEDs are not appropriate for use in bendable, foldable applications such as electronic devices and displays integrated into clothing. Organic light-emitting diodes are the usual candidates for such applications, but the techniques being pioneered at UW can produce devices that are not only much thinner -- and stackable -- but also far more versatile.

Read the rest of the story at EE Times.

— Keith Dawson , Editor-in-Chief, All LED Lighting