High-Throughput Fabrication of Phosphor-In-Silica Glass via Injection Molding

Phosphor-in-silica glass (PiSG) composite is an excellent candidate for highly stable and efficient color converter in high power white light emitting diodes (wLEDs). However, the high-throughput fabrication of PiSG with different shapes is still challenging for current techniques. Here this study reports the manufacture of transparent PiSG based on YAG:Ce (Y 3 Al 5 O 12 :Ce 3+ ) using injection molding (IM) technique. In this approach, different shapes of centimeter-sized YAG:Ce-PiSG pieces are fabricated by using IM of a YAG:Ce/amorphous silica nanoparticles/thermoplastic polymer composite at low temperatures (@ 150 °C) which afterward are debound (@ 600 °C) and densified (@ 1150 °C). Interestingly, the molding time to produce YAG:Ce/silica/polymer green parts is 5 s per piece, implying the capability for high-throughput production of YAG:Ce-PiSG. Furthermore, the as-fabricated YAG:Ce-PiSG exhibits high luminescence efficiency (>91%) and high chemical/thermal stabilities. Accordingly, high power wLEDs (10 W) are fabricated using the YAG:Ce-PiSG which demonstrates high luminous efficiency of 144 lm W −1 at 50 mA, closing to that of the wLEDs fabricated by expensive YAG:Ce ceramic plate (i.e., 149 lm W −1 @ 50 mA). The work provides a facile and universal approach for industry-scale production of PiSG that can be promising for various photonic applications.