LIGHT EMITTING

DIODE
Made by : Gurjeet Singh ( BSc Physics - III - 1901721083028 )
 Contents
 HISTORICAL MILESTONES IN CREATION OF LEDs
 INTRODUCTION & BASICS
 CONSTRUCTION OF LEDs
 WORKING OF A LED
 HOW LEDs EMIT LIGHT ?
 TYPES OF LEDs
 APPLICATIONS OF LEDs
 BENEFITS OF LEDs
 DRAWBACKS OF LEDs
 FURTURE OF LEDs
 HISTORICAL MILESTONES IN CREATION OF
LEDs

 1907 : Henry Joseph Round discovers electrical currents applied to inorganic material
creates light. He publishes his discovery in the “Electrical World” journal. But this
emitted light very faint yellow light which was of no practical use hence so further was
conducted .
 1920 : Bernhard Gudden and Robert Wichard Pohl used Zinc Sulphide with Copper
to replicate the phenomenon. But once again, the light emitted by this material was too
faint to be of any practical use.
 1927 : Even though HJ round was the first to observe , the first person to investigate
electroluminescence and propose a fully functional theory was Russian physicist Oleg
Vladimirovich . He published his findings in a paper titled “Luminous carborundum
detector and detection effect and oscillations with crystals”
 1936 : Georges Destriau makes a breakthrough by discovering light emission in zinc sulphide.
The term “electroluminescence” is first used in a report published by Georges, on the
phenomenon of light being produced by Zinc Sulphide powder when electric current was
conducted through it.
 1947 : The electronic revolution is launched by the invention of transistors by three American
physicists : John Bardeen , William Shockley and Walter Brattain in the Bell labs. This
development made it possible to explain in greater detail the process of light emission.
 1961 : Gary Pittman and Bob Biard from Texas Instruments found that that
gallium-arsenide diode emits infrared light every time it is connected to current.
 1962 : American Engineer Nick Holonyak creates the first red luminescence
diode and enters it on the lighting market. This is the first LED with a visible
wavelength and it marks the beginning of industrially produced LED lights.
 1972 : Nick Holonyak’s graduate student M. George Craford invents the first
yellow LED and a brighter red LED.
 1976 : High brightness light-emitting diodes are invented by Thomas P. Pearsall to
be used with fiber optics in telecommunications.
 1979 / 1994 : Shuji Nakamura completes the puzzle by inventing the ultra-bright
blue LEDs using Gallium Nitride in 1979 , but were too costly to commercially use
until 1994.
 INTRODUCTION & BASICS

 WHAT IS A DIODE ?

A semiconductor device with typically two terminals that allows the flow of current in one
direction but blocks / highly resists current in the other direction.

 WHAT IS A LED ( Light Emitting Diode ) ?

LED is a semiconductor device that emits light when an electric current is passed through it.
Light is produced when the particles that carry the current (electrons & holes)combine
together within the semiconductor material.

 SYMBOL FOR LEDs :

 The main semiconductor materials used
to manufacture LEDs are:

 Indium gallium nitride (InGaN): blue, green and ultraviolet

high-brightness LEDs
 Aluminum gallium indium phosphide (AlGaInP): yellow,
orange and red high-brightness LEDs
 Aluminum gallium arsenide (AlGaAs): red and infrared LEDs
 Gallium phosphide (GaP): yellow and green LEDs
 CONSTRUCTION OF LEDs

 The semiconductor material used in LED is Gallium Arsenide

(GaAs), Gallium Phosphide (GaP) or Gallium Arsenide Phosphide
(GaAsP). Any of the above-mentioned compounds can be used for the
construction of LED, but the colour of radiated light changes with the
change in material.
A Light Emitting Diode (LED) consists of three layers: p-type semiconductors, 
n-type semiconductors and depletion layer. The p-type semiconductor and the
n-type semiconductor are separated by a depletion region or depletion layer.

p-type semiconductor : When trivalent impurities are added to the

intrinsic or pure semiconductor, a p-type semiconductor is formed. In
these , holes are majority charge carriers and free electrons are
minority charge carriers. Thus, holes carry maximum electric
 N-type semiconductor : When pentavalent impurities are added to the intrinsic
semiconductor, an n-type semiconductor is formed. In n-type semiconductor, free
electrons are the majority charge carriers and holes are the minority charge
carriers. Thus, free electrons carry most of the electric current in n-type
semiconductor.
 Depletion Layer / Region : Depletion region is a region present between the p-
type and n-type semiconductor where no mobile charge carriers are present.
This region acts as barrier to the electric current. To overcome the barrier of
depletion layer, we need to apply voltage which is greater than the barrier
potential of depletion layer.
 If the applied voltage is greater than the barrier potential of the depletion layer, the
electric current starts flowing.
 WORKING OF A LED

 Light Emitting Diode (LED) works only in forward bias condition. When Light
Emitting Diode (LED) is forward biased, the free electrons from n-side and the holes
from p-side are pushed towards the junction.
 When free electrons reach the junction or depletion region, some of the free electrons
recombine with the holes in the positive ions & are ready to accept electrons. Thus,
free electrons recombine with holes in the depletion region. In the similar way, holes
from p-side recombine with electrons in the depletion region.
 Due to recombination of free electrons and holes in the depletion region, the width
of the depletion region decreases. Hence , more charge carriers will cross the p-n
junction. Some of the charge carriers from p-side and n-side will cross the p-n
junction before they recombine in the depletion region & holes from p-type
semiconductor cross the p-n junction and recombines with free electrons in the n-
 The free electrons in the conduction band releases energy in the form of light before they recombine with
holes in the valence band.

 NOTE : In silicon and germanium diodes, most of the energy is released in the form of heat and emitted
light is too small. However, in materials like gallium arsenide and gallium phosphide the emitted photons
have sufficient energy to produce intense visible light.
 HOW LEDs EMIT LIGHT ?

 Free electrons moving across a diode can fall into empty holes from the P-
type layer. This involves a drop from the conduction band to a lower
orbital, so the electrons release energy in the form of photons. This
happens in any diode, but you can only see the photons when the diode is
composed of certain material. The atoms in a standard silicon diode, are
arranged in such a way that the electron drops a relatively short distance.
As a result, the photon's frequency is so low that it's invisible to the human
eye– it's in the infrared portion of the light spectrum.
 TYPES OF LEDs

 Traditional inorganic LEDs :  These LEDs are the

traditional form of diode that has been available
since the 1960s. It is manufactured from inorganic
materials. Some of the more widely used are
compound semiconductors such as Aluminium
gallium arsenide, Gallium arsenide phosphide, and
many more – the colour of the light is often
dependent upon the materials used.
 High brightness LEDs :   High brightness LEDs,
HBLEDs, are a type of inorganic LED that are
starting to be used for lighting applications. This
type of LED is essentially the same as the basic
inorganic LED, but has a much greater light output.
To generate the higher light output, this LED type
requires to be able to handle much higher current
levels and power dissipation. Often these LEDs are
mounted such that they can be mounted onto a
heatsink to remove the unwanted heat.
 Organic LEDs : They are a development of the basic idea for
the light emitting diode. This type of LED uses organic
materials as the name indicates.

The traditional types of light emitting diode utilise traditional

inorganic semiconductors with varying dopant levels and they
produce light from the defined PN junction. The organic type
of LED display is based on organic materials which are
manufactured in sheets and provide a diffuse area of light.
Typically a very thin film of organic material is printed onto a
substrate made of glass. A semiconductor circuit is then used to
carry the electrical charges to the imprinted pixels, causing
them to glow.
 APPLICATIONS OF LEDs

 Sensor applications
 Mobile applications
 Sign applications
 LED signals
 Illuminations
 Indicators
 SENSOR APPLICATIONS
 Medical instrumentations
 Bar-code Readers
 Colour & Money sensors
 Encoders
 Optical Switches
 SIGN APPLICATIONS
 Full colour videos
 Monochrome message boards
 Traffic / VMS
 Transportation : Passenger
information
 SIGNAL APPLICATIONS
 Traffic
 Railways
 Aviation
 Tower Lights
 Runway Lights
 Emergency Lightening
 ILLUMINATIONS & INDICATION

 INDICATION
 ILLUMINATION
 Household appliances
 Architectural lightening
 VCR / DVD / STEREO
 Signage ( channel letters )
 Toys / Games
 Machine Vision
 Instrumentation
 Retail Displays
 Security Equipment
 Emergency Lightnings
 Switches
 Flashlights
 Neon Replacements
 BENEFITS OF LEDs

 The brightness of light emitted by LED depends on the current flowing through the LED. Hence, the brightness of LED can be
easily controlled by varying the current. This makes possible to operate LED displays under different ambient lighting conditions.
 Light emitting diodes consume low energy.
 LEDs are very cheap and readily available.
 LEDs are light in weight.
 LEDs have smaller size.
 LEDs have longer lifetime.
 LEDs operates very fast, they can be turned on and off in nanoseconds.
 LEDs do not contain toxic material like mercury which is used in fluorescent lamps.
 LEDs can emit different colours of light.
 DRAWBACKS OF LEDs

 There is a concern that blue LEDs and cool-white LEDs are now capable of exceeding safe limits of the so-called
blue-light hazard.
 LEDs do not approximate a point source of light, but rather a Lambertian distribution. So LEDs are difficult to use
in applications requiring a spherical light field.
 LEDs are currently more expensive, price per lumen, on an initial capital cost basis, than most conventional
lighting technologies. The additional expense partially stems from the relatively low lumen output and the drive
circuitry and power supplies needed. 
 LEDs can cause more light pollution than other light sources , because cool-white LEDs (i.e., LEDs with high colour
temperature) emit proportionally more blue light than conventional outdoor light sources .
 LED performance largely depends on the ambient temperature of the operating environment. Over-driving the LED in
high ambient temperatures may result in overheating of the LED package, eventually leading to device failure.
 FUTURE OF LEDs

 PLEDs : Future of LEDs can be based on the semiconductors

called perovskites. In 2018, less than four years after their
discovery, the ability of perovskite LEDs (PLEDs) to produce
light from electrons already rivalled those of the best
performing OLEDs. They have a potential for cost-
effectiveness as they can be processed from solution, a low-
cost and low-tech method, which might allow perovskite-
based devices that have large areas to be made with extremely
low cost.
 Perovskite materials exhibit many interesting and intriguing
properties from both the theoretical and the application point
of view. Magnetoresistance, Ferroelectricity,
superconductivity, charge ordering , high thermopower
and the interplay of structural, magnetic and transport
properties are commonly observed features.
 TWO WAY LEDs : Devices called nanorods
are a form of LEDs that can also detect and
absorb light. They consist of a quantum dot
directly contacting two semiconductor
materials. One semiconductor allows
movement of positive charge and one allows
movement of negative charge. They can emit
light, sense light, and collect energy. The
nanorod gathers electrons while the quantum
dot shell gathers positive charges so the dot
emits light. When the voltage is switched the
opposite process occurs and the dot absorbs
light. 
 References (Links)
 https://www.shineretrofits.com/knowledge-base/lighting-learning-center/a-brief-history-of-led-lighting.html
 http://www.historyoflighting.net/light-bulb-history/history-of-led/
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-emitting_diode
 cisuvc.com/aln-technology/what-is-an-led
 https://byjus.com/physics/light-emitting-diode
 https://www.ledsmagazine.com/leds-ssl-design/materials/article/16701292/what-is-an-led
 https://www.elprocus.com/light-emitting-diode-led-working-application/#:~:text=The%20construction%20of%20LED%20
is,bottom%20region%20is%20N%2Dtype
 https://electronicscoach.com/led.html
 https://greenie-world.com/en/article/the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-led-lighting/
 https://www.rfwireless-world.com/Terminology/Advantages-and-Disadvantages-of-LED-bulb.html
 https://www.manufacturer.lighting/info/69/
 https://www.berkeys.com/2016/11/16/advantage-disadvantage-led-lights/
THANK YOU !