Illuminate Your Life With LED!

Electroluminescence was discovered in 1907 by the British experimenter H. J. Round of Marconi Labs, using a crystal of silicon carbide and a cat's-whisker detector. Russian Oleg Vladimirovich Losev independently reported on the creation of a Light Emitting Diode (LED) in 1927. His research was distributed in Russian, German and British scientific journals, but no practical use was made of the discovery until later in the century.

Light Emitting Diodes were first used commercially as replacements for neon and incandescent lamps and for seven-segment displays. They replaced these lamps first in laboratory equipment and electronic testing equipment, then later they replaced lighting in such appliances as Radio's T.Vs, calculators, telephones and watches. Early in their usage these lights were only bright enough for use as indicators, as the light output was so small it could not illuminate a large area.

Later though developments were made as other colours became readily available and they too appeared in similar appliances and equipment. Eventually, as the materials became more technologically developed, the light output was increased, while maintaining the efficiency and the reliability to a safe and acceptable level. The invention and development of the high power white light LED lead to use for illumination.

LEDs present many advantages over incandescent light sources including lower energy consumption, longer lifetime, improved robustness, smaller size, faster switching, and greater durability and reliability. However, they are relatively expensive and require more precise current and heat management than traditional light sources. Current LED products for general lighting are more expensive to buy than fluorescent lamp sources of comparable output.

There are many application specific variations for the LED. For example: Flashing LEDs are used as attention seeking indicators without requiring external electronics, such as those you see on cyclists clothing and their bikes. Flashing LEDs resemble standard light emitting diodes but they contain an integrated multi-vibrator circuit which causes the LED to flash with an average length of approximately one second. Most flashing LEDs produce light of a single colour, but more advanced devices can flash between multiple colours and even fade through a colour sequence using RGB colour blending.

Conclusion
LED technology has advanced greatly and are becoming more widely used contemporarily due to their potential benefit on the environment. Make a small change in your life and a positive change on the environment.