FIPEL wonder-light: Where are the numbers?

Wake Forest's David Carroll (right) with PhD student Greg Smith.

Wake Forest University

Watchers of the wires have surely seen last week's news of an "entirely new light bulb" that threatens to knock out current LED and fluorescent technology.

According to the press release put out by Wake Forest University, the new lights are an experimental type of field-induced polymer electroluminescent (or FIPEL). They're said to match the efficiency of LEDs and avoid the "annoying buzz," flicker, and possibility of mercury spill posed by fluorescent lighting, all while surpassing the visual quality of both. In a video accompanying the press release, lead researcher David Carroll of Wake Forest University suggests all this will be available from a $25 light source due to hit the market in 2013.

Though the press release is careful to paint the new technology as being "based on" FIPEL technology, all the talk of new light bulbs seems to have created the impression that FIPEL itself is the breakthrough. "The new light source is called field-induced polymer electroluminescent (FIPEL) technology," the BBC reports.