General Knowledge

History of Light Emitting Diode (LED) -100 Years

The history of LEDs can be unknown to you. But we all know that What is LED? The LED light is the latest technology for the energy-efficient lighting system. Because, before LED we used CFL, Halogen stands and Incandescent bulb and those are much energy consumes lighting technology.

LED stands for ‘Light Emitting Diode’ and it is a semiconductor device that converts electricity into light.

An LED light is much energy efficient and it just uses approximately 85% less energy than traditional Halogen or Incandescent light. That’s means; LED is savings significant amount on your power bills. Just not only the less electric bill but LED lights also have a much longer lifespan than other types of light.

Comparison of Estimated Lifespan with LED:

LED Light has approximately 25000 to 50000 Hours of Lifespan

CFL Bulb has approximately 8000 to 15000 Hours of Lifespan

Halogen Bulb has approximately 1000 to 5000 Hours of Lifespan

And finally, Incandescent Bulb has between 1000 Hours of Lifespan

The above data is valid when the condition is good!

Last few years, LED performance has changed the lighting technology with its market. Because, Generating Electricity by using Oil, Gas, Coal is becoming expensive and it also creates a bad impact on nature. In this post, I will talk about the history of LED with the future of lighting technology.

History of LED Light:

LEDs or Light Emitting Diodes are the first growing advancing lighting technologies that are available today. LED is famous for its highly efficient, long-lasting and environmentally friendly. LED lighting technology takes more than 100 years to come to this position. In the meantime, a lot of things happened in history that you may don’t know.

LED’s History Between 1900 to 1960:

First in the year of 1907, A British experimenter in the Marconi Labs, Henry Joseph Round first time noticed that when a potential of 10V is applied to carborundum (Silicon Carbide) crystal them it emits kind of yellowish light. After that, it was first investigated and propose a working theory by Oleg Vladimirovich Losev and he was from Russia.

Then in the year of 1927, Oleg Losev published a paper “Luminous Carborundum Detector and Detection Effect and Oscillations with Crystals“. After decades there was no progress was made for different reasons.

In 1955, Rubin Braunstein was working in Radio Corporation of America and he was reported that some simple diodes emit kind of infrared light when it connected to a current.

After that in 1961 by Robert Biard and Gary Pittman from the Texas Instruments, an attempt was taken to create a laser diode. That time infrared light was beyond the visible light spectrum (Visible Spectrum is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that can be visible by the human eye) for this reason it did not affect the consumer market.

LED’s History Between 1960 to 2000:

Then in 1962, Nick Holonyack invented the first visible Red LED light using gallium arsenide phosphide as a substrate for the diode and he was a consulting engineer for GE.

Ten years later in 1972, An Electrical Engineer name M George Craford invented the first yellow LED for the Monsanto Company using again gallium arsenide phosphide in the diode. That time Monsanto Company was the first manufacture for mass production of visible Red LEDs as the indicators. Then a few years later, Fairchild Optoelectronics, started manufacturing the low cost LED devices.

Four years later in 1976, Thomas P. Pearsall invented a very high efficiency with extremely bright LED light for using in fiber telecommunications system and fiber optics system which included new semiconductor materials that optimized for optical fiber transmission wavelengths.

After the 19th century in 1994, Shuji Nakamura forms Japan invented the first Blue LED using gallium nitride. This invention quickly leads to the discovery of white. Then researchers demonstrate the white light using green, red and blue LEDs that are led to the breakthroughs in lighting technology today such as flashlights, LED traffic lights and TVs. In 2014, Shuji Nakamura was announced for the Nobel Prize in Physics together with Prof. Isamu Akasaki and Prof. Hiroshi Amano for inventing the blue light-emitting diodes.

LED’s History Between 2000 to Present:

First LEDs were not more efficient than incandescent (Emitting light as a result of being heated). Then the Department of Energy (D.O.E) worked with private industry to push white LED present technology a little bit forward to create a very high-efficiency device that packages LEDs together and it happened in the year 2000.

Between 2009 to 2011, Philips Lighting North America enters its LED bulb in the D.O.E.’s L Prize competition in the 60-watt replacement category and it was commonly used bulb size. The D.O.E. awards Philips first prize in 2011, after rigorous testing. It was a great achievement for the lighting industry.

Now a day’s LEDs have come down tremendously in its price and it is more than 85%. Now LEDs are available for $10 or less (Depending on Region). Till now it seems expensive but thanks to LEDs efficiency. LEDs are capable of covering their own costs (New Installation) after the first year of using. After that LEDs are paying for themselves many times over their ten years of lifespan which is very cost-effective.

Future of Lighting Technology using LED:

If we compare with the older lighting technology like incandescents and fluorescents bulb with LEDs then LEDs offer many advantages. Present LED bulbs are 100% efficient for energy converting into light and LEDs is up to 50% more efficient than regular compact fluorescents bulb (CFLs).

LEDs are up to 85% more efficient than the traditional incandescent bulb. LEDs can also last 2 to 5 times longer than CFLs bulb and 25 times longer than an incandescent bulb. LEDs bulb are not affected by extreme temperatures and produce a high quality of light. LEDs do not emit UV light and do not contain any hazardous materials like mercury.

How LED Work?

Modern days LED bulbs feature with “SSL” technology (Solid State Lighting). Generally, an LED is a two-lead semiconductor light source. LED is a p–n junction diode that can emit light when it’s activated. When you apply a suitable voltage to the leads then electrons are able to recombine with electron holes within the device that can release energy in the form of photons. If you want to know more about LEDs working principle then please Google it.

How Famous is LED Bulbs?

A statistic is found that, only in 2012, more than 49 million LEDs were installed across the U.S and LEDs are saving about $675 million in annual energy costs.

The United States, Department of Energy estimates that just using LED bulbs by 2025 will reduce 62% of electricity demands for lighting. LEDs will eliminate 258 million metric tons of carbon emissions.

If you have more questions, then please ask in a comment and share this post with your friends. Thanks!