LED Lights: The History
The invention of the LED is a story that dates to the early days of wireless technology. At the time, very little was known about semiconductors, and it was even less understood how they emit light. Although LEDs have been commercially available from the 1960s onwards, the origin of the LED dates back many years. The sources of LEDs are not related to lighting technology. Let’s go back in time and explore the history of LED lights as well as the history of LED light bulbs.
What is the secret to it?
LED lighting is now available almost everywhere. LED lighting is the most efficient and energy-efficient technology currently available. It is one of the fastest-developing technologies and is used in many applications. It is used in many homes, businesses, and automobiles. Its development history dates to over 100 years. Let’s first understand the current function of LED lighting before returning to its past.
LED lighting installed is a type of solid-state lighting (SSL). A semiconductor converts electricity into light in a minimal area (the diode), usually one square millimeter—the semiconductor material used to make LEDs emit light through electroluminescence. The phenomenon of a material emitting light if an electric current or field passes through it is called electroluminescence. Each LED lamp or fixture is not made up of one filament and contains multiple light-emitting devices. It projects the light in one direction rather than 360 degrees, which means that reflectors can be used in one order only, as opposed to 360 degrees from the source.
The Complete History of LED Lighting
The 1900s
Henry Joseph Round, a British radio engineer, discovered electroluminescence in 1907. The detector would then be fitted with a thin wire attached to the surface. Next, a point-contact diode was made. These were known as “Cat’s Whiskers.” Round noticed that one of the detectors emits light when an electric current is passed through it, and the light was too weak to be useful for anything.
The 1920s
Oleg Losev (a Russian physicist) observed Round’s 1921 discovery about electrical currents and called it the “Round Effect.” Losev published a 1927 report based on his continued research into electroluminescence in radio sets and light-emitting devices. Losev continued to study what would become semiconductor technology up until 1942. He would die in 1942 during the Siege of Leningrad, which was part of World War Two. His records were destroyed and would not be found until the 1950s.
The 1930s
In 1936, a French physicist, Georges Destriau, would first use the word “electroluminescence.” He published a paper about how Zinc Sulphide powder can produce light by conducting an electrical current.
The 1950s
1951 saw the breakthrough in semiconductor physics with the invention of the transistor. This enabled us to understand the process of light emitting better. New diodes were thus invented and created. In 1958, Egon Loebner and Rubin Braunstein created the first green LED at RCA Laboratories.
The 1960s
Infrared LED was invented by James R. Biard and Gary Pittman in 1961 while they were working at Texas Instruments. Nick Holonyak, a General Electric Laboratories employee, created the red LED in 1962. It is the first LED to be developed at the visible wavelength. IBM first used LEDs on early computer circuit boards in 1964. They were used to indicate equipment, which was also when LEDs were first manufactured. Monsanto, a supplier of semiconductor raw materials, was one of the first to make this happen. Hewlett Packard introduced LEDs to its calculators in 1968.
The 1970s
New semiconductor materials developed blue, yellow, violet, green, and orange LEDs in 1971 and 1972. In this period, brighter LEDs were also invented than the earlier versions, and Monsanto started to produce LED lights on a large scale. Thomas P. Pearsall developed high-brightness LEDs for fiber optic applications in 1976. This would make communications technology more global.
The 1980s
Walden C. Rhines, Herbert Maruska, and Herbert Maruska developed a blue LED with Magnesium at Stafford University in 1986. This development would set the standard for future LED lighting, opening the door to high-brightness LEDs for purposes other than indicator lights.
The 1990s
Between 1992-1995 Shuji Nakamura and two of his colleagues (Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amato) created ultra-bright blue LEDs using Gallium Nitride. He developed high-intensity blue and green LEDs using Indium Gallium Nickel shortly afterward. This was a significant step forward in LED lighting. These ultra-bright LEDs set the stage for future development of white LED lights that are more cost-effective and functional. Today, you will find white LED light bulbs and fixtures in commercial and residential settings. The first white LED lights were introduced to the market in 1995.
The 2000s
White LEDs for residential use were introduced to the commercial market in 2002. In 2006, LED light efficiency was 100 lumens per watt. This was more efficient than any other type of light, except for high-intensity (HID) lamps.
2010
In 2010, LED lights were being made that produced 250 lumens per watt, and it is unmatched. In 2019, LED lights became the primary lighting source in virtually all applications. Slowly, other types of lighting like fluorescent, incandescent, and halogen are being phased out.
Conclusion
Over 100 years, LED lighting technology has advanced. Although it started slowly and in small steps, LED lighting has rapidly developed over the last 30 years and has grown even more in the previous ten years.
LED lights are now more efficient than other lighting types in all aspects.
1) They are more efficient, which reduces energy costs.
2) They last longer. Some cases can last up to 100,000 hours.
3) Heat is almost always used up.
4) Because they do not contain mercury or toxic elements, they are very friendly to the environment. It is easy to dispose of.
5) They provide a better-quality light and last a long time.
The development of LED lighting technology continues. These are the latest developments in LED lighting technology:
1) Cars with glare reduction headlights that optimize illumination for the driver.
2) Li-Fi networks are an alternative to Wi-Fi and offer an alternative internet connection.
3) Human-centric LED lighting mimics the spectrum of the sun’s colors.
It is impossible to predict how far LED technology will advance, and we know that LED lighting will eventually replace all other types of lighting. If and until a better lighting technology is developed, LED lights will continue to be our primary artificial light source for many years.