Jun. 24, 2024
LED lighting is a type of solid-state lighting (SSL) in which a semiconductor transforms electricity to light in a small space (the diode) of about one square millimeter or less. LEDs create light by electroluminescence in a semiconductor material. Electroluminescence is the phenomenon of a material emitting light when an electric current or an electric field is passed through it.
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Instead of a filament, each LED lamp or fixture contains multiple light-emitting diodes. The light that it generates projects in one direction as opposed to 360 degrees from the source. This eliminates the need to use reflectors that are typically used with other sources of light such as fluorescent and halogen.
The story of the invention of the LED dates to some of the earliest days of wireless technology. Very little was understood about semiconductors at the time. Even less was understood about using them to emit light. LEDs have been commercially available since the s, but the birth of the LED stretches many years before this. The invention of LEDs has its roots in much earlier developments that werent even related to lighting technology. Lets take a journey back in time to explore the history of LED lights and the history of LED light bulbs.
In , electroluminescence was discovered by Henry Joseph Round who was a British radio engineer.
Early radio detectors were typically created utilizing crystals of what would later be called semiconductors. A thin wire would be placed onto the detectors surface and then a point-contact diode would be made. These were called Cats Whiskers. Round observed that when an electrical current was passed through some of the detectors, one of them emitted light. However, the light was too faint to be of much use for anything.
In , Oleg Losev, who was a Russian physicist, observed Rounds discovery regarding electrical currents and inorganic material and called it the Round Effect. In , Losev published a report that contained theories on his findings from continued studies of electroluminescence and light-emitting diodes in radio sets.
Losev continued his studies of what would later become known as semiconductor technology until . In , he would be killed in the Siege of Leningrad during World War Two. Because of this, the records of his work were mostly destroyed and they would not reemerge until the s.
In , a French physicist named Georges Destriau would first use the word electroluminescence. This came from a paper that he published about the occurrence of light being generated by Zinc Sulphide powder from the conduction of an electric current through it.
In , the development of the transistor leads to a big step forward in semiconductor physics. This made it possible to better explain the process of light emission. Because of this, new diodes were invented and developed.
In , the first green LED was created at RCA Laboratories by Rubin Braunstein and Egon Loebner.
In , Gary Pittman and James R. Biard discovered and developed the Infrared LED while working for Texas Instruments.
In , the red LED was developed by Nick Holonyak at General Electric Laboratories. It is the first of its kind on the visible wavelength.
In , IBM began to use LEDs for the first time on circuit boards in early computers. They were used as indicators on equipment. This was also around the time that LEDs began to be manufactured. One of the first companies to do this was Monsanto which was a supplier of raw semiconductor materials.
In , Hewlett Packard began to incorporate LEDs into its calculators.
In and , blue, orange, yellow, violet, and green LEDs were developed using new semiconductor materials. Also at this time, LEDs are invented that are much brighter than earlier versions. Monsanto begins to manufacture LED lights on a large scale.
In , high brightness LEDs that can be used for fiber optic applications were developed by Thomas P. Pearsall. This would improve communications technology on a global scale.
In , Walden C. Rhines and Herbert Maruska created a blue LED using Magnesium at Stafford University. The development would establish future standards for LED lighting. It would set the stage for high-brightness LEDs that could be used in other applications besides indicator lights.
From -, Shuji Nakamura along with two other colleagues (Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano), using Gallium Nitride, invented ultra-bright blue LEDs. Just afterward, using Indium Gallium Nitride, he developed high-intensity green and blue LEDs. This was a very significant development for the future of LED lighting. The ultra-bright blue LEDs laid the groundwork for later development of cost-efficient and very functional white LED lights. Fixtures and bulbs that use white LED lights are now what you see installed in residential, commercial, and manufacturing sectors in the present day. White LED lights would first appear on the market in .
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In , white LEDs for residential applications became available on the commercial market for the first time.
In , LED light efficiency reached 100 lumens per watt. This would be more efficient at the time than any other type of light (apart from high-intensity discharge (HID) lights).
By , there were LED lights being produced that could reach an efficiency of 250 lumens per watt. Nothing else could match it. By , LED lights were becoming the main source of lighting for practically all applications. Other types of lighting such as incandescent, fluorescent, and halogen were slowly being phased out.
The development of LED lighting has progressed over a 100+ year period. It began slowly, in fits and starts, but it quickly developed over the past 30 years. Even more so over the past 10 years.
Today, LED lights have a distinct advantage over other types of lighting in every way.
The advancement of LED lighting technology is still ongoing. Here are some recent developments:
Its impossible to know how far the advancement of LEDs will continue to go. What we do know is that LED lights will eventually phase out all other types of lighting. If (and until) a better lighting technology comes along, it will be our primary source of artificial light for years to come.
The history of the invention of the battery-operated LED light is a complicated one, and there were many trials and errors along the way before the mini LED lights we all know and love were invented. In this article, we will travel back in time to learn more about the first inventors of the micro LED lights sold here at Evan Designs. The micro-LED light was not invented by just one person, it took a series of inventors and a span of 55 years from the discovery of electroluminescence till the first small LED light was commercially available.
Electroluminescence is the mechanism by which hobby LED lights are able to shine. More specifically Electroluminescence is a phenomenon in which a material emits light when an electrical current is passed through it. The material in this specific example is the semiconductor inside the battery-powered pico LED lights sold by Evan Designs. This phenomenon of electroluminescence was first discovered by Henry Joseph Round in . Round applied electricity to a crystal of silicon carbide and observed a faint yellow-green light emitted from the crystal. The light produced was not bright, and thus of no use. Due to this, future research was not continued for some time. However, this first discovery that electrical current applied to specific materials produces light paved the way for future miniature LED discoveries and is the basis for all battery-operated LED lights.
A Goose Neck chip LED lamp by Evan Designs. Without Rounds discovery in , this light wouldnt be possible!
Many years later in , the first tunnel light diode was created. Working for Texas Instruments at the time, Robert Biard and Garry Pitman invented a tunnel light diode that emitted a light wavelength of 900 nm, close to infrared light on the light spectrum. While this little device did produce light, the low wavelengths of light were invisible to the human eye, and thus as a result this first micro-LED had no practical use in commercial lighting. They did however patent their work through Texas Instruments and are credited as the creators of the first infrared LED.
Just one year later in , the first small LED light that produced light detectable by the human eye was created. The inventor of this micro-LED was Nick Holonyak Jr. and for his invention, he was known as the father of the LED. His creation produced red light, the first light on the visible light spectrum. This first mini LED used Gallium Arsenide in the semiconductor and while it produced visible red light, the light wasn't all that bright. Eventually, ten years later in , a graduate student of Holonyak, using different chemicals in the semiconductor, created the first yellow micro-LED.
Red nano chip LEDs in the Knight Rider Circuit by Evan Designs. Red was the first battery-operated LED color invented. Red is also the first color on the visible light spectrum at 700 nm.
Evolving from this first single LED light in to the super bright LEDs sold today at Evan Designs was a long process. Throughout the following years, multiple inventors and companies experimented with the substrate in the semiconductor as well as with the LED design. Gallium Arsenide was used in semiconductors throughout the s to produce a marginally brighter light, but the brightest LED didnt arrive until the s. In there was a breakthrough in LED color, the invention of the brightest blue LED. Three Japanese inventors; Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano, and Shuji Nakamura experimented using Gallium Nitride in the semiconductor to make the first blue LED. This discovery paved the way to the creation of the white LED light and because of this these inventors were credited with the Nobel Peace Prize of Physics in .
Pink and Blue Chip LEDs from Evan Designs, two colors that would not be possible without discoveries from Isamu Akasaki!
Gallium Nitride is still used to make the ultra-bright LEDs we use today and the discovery of its use in the semiconductor allowed for many more colors of LEDs to be created. We hope you enjoyed this short history of the LED. Please comment below to share your thoughts on LED invention or to suggest future articles youd like to see!
By the design of white LEDs were refined to the point where many manufacturers embraced them for use in home & hobby lighting. It was at that time when Evan Designs first started selling miniature LEDs to hobbyists. At first customers who used other forms of lights in their hobbies were quick to embrace LEDs. In the decade that followed other hobbyist such as plastic modelers and cosplay found that LED could bring their interests to life.
Every year there are new Developments and Design Improvements in LEDs that are proving useful in hobby applications. The future is looking bright.
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