White light-emitting diodes (LEDs) using (oxy)nitride phosphors

(Oxy)nitride phosphors have attracted great attention recently because they are promising luminescent materials for phosphor-converted white light-emitting diodes (LEDs). This paper reports the luminescent properties of (oxy)nitride phosphors in the system of M–Si–Al–O–N (M = Li, Ca or Sr), and optical properties of white LEDs using a GaN-based blue LED and (oxy)nitride phosphors. The phosphors show high conversion efficiency of blue light, suitable emission colours and small thermal quenching. The bichromatic white LEDs exhibit high luminous efficacy (∼55 lm W−1) and the multi-phosphor converted white LEDs show high colour rendering index (Ra = 82–95). The results indicate that (oxy)nitride phosphors demonstrate their superior suitability to use as down-conversion luminescent materials in white LEDs.