FIPEL - a new invention of light bulbs

It is no longer necessary to spend 90 percent of energy on light sources, the inventors of new “light bulbs” based on electroluminescent polymers promise. The name FIPEL comes from the acronym for Field-Induced Polymer Electroluminescent Technology.

"This is the first truly new invention for about 30 years with light bulbs, »says Dr. David Carroll of Wake Forest University in North Carolina, USA, where the technology is being developed. He compares it to microwave ovens, where the radiation causes water molecules in food to vibrate, heating it. The same is true of the material used in FIPEL. However, excited particles emit light energy instead of heat energy.

The device is made of several extremely thin (one hundred thousand thinner than a human hair) layers of polymer sandwiched between an aluminum electrode and a second transparent conductive layer. Connecting the electricity stimulates the polymers to glow.

FIPEL's efficiency is similar to that of LED technologyhowever, according to the inventors, it gives light with a better, more similar to normal daylight color.