The EU research project GECCO with their partners from Madrid, Bristol, Lodz, as well as Osram aim at vertically oriented LEDs that can boost the light output by a factor of 10.

The European scientists expect that new three-dimensional assembly of LEDs could dramatically multiply the light output compared to today's planar devices.

Currently, LEDs are being constructed in a planar way, meaning in layers and completely flat. The more light is being required, the more wafer area has to be produced—an expensive and laborious approach.

The idea of the GECCO project is to assemble LEDs in a three-dimensional way so that actually every LED consists of a 'light emitting tower' from which the entire vertical surface is emitting light. Obviously the surface of the tower is much larger compared to the ground area of a planar LED. And in fact, it is exactly the gain of light emitting area that leads to a higher light output.

Thus, the manufacturing of an LED becomes much more cost-effective and as a result replacing ancient electric bulbs, halogen lamps as well as energy saving bulbs to LEDs is getting significantly more profitable.

The GECCO project is coordinated by Prof. Andreas Waag from the Institute of Semiconductor Technology of the Braunschweig Technical University.