light-emitting diode
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diode
diode (dīˈōd), two-terminal electronic device that permits current flow predominantly in only one direction. Most diodes are semiconductor devices; diode electron tubes are now used only for a few specialized applications. A diode has a low resistance to electric current in one direction and a high resistance to it in the reverse direction. This property makes a diode useful as a rectifier, which can convert alternating current (AC) into direct current (DC). An arrangement of four diodes, called a diode bridge, transforms AC into DC using both phases of the alternating current. When the voltage applied in the reverse direction exceeds a certain value, a semiconductor diode “breaks down” and conducts heavily in the direction of normally high resistance. When the reverse voltage at which breakdown occurs remains nearly constant for a wide range of currents, the phenomenon is called avalanching. A diode using this property, called a Zener diode, can be used to regulate the voltage in a circuit.
Semiconductor diodes can be designed to have a variety of characteristics. A thermistor is a special semiconductor diode whose conductivity increases with the diode temperature. A varactor, or varicap, exhibits a capacitance that is dependent upon the voltage across it. In an Esaki, or tunnel, diode, the current through the device decreases as the voltage is increased within a certain range; this property, known as negative resistance, makes it useful as an amplifier (see tunneling). Gunn diodes are negative-resistance diodes that are the basis of some microwave oscillators. Light-sensitive, or photosensitive, diodes can be used to measure illumination; the voltage drop across them depends on the amount of light that strikes them. Photodiodes, which respond to being struck by packets of light, or photons, can be used as solar cells. Schottky diodes are used in low voltage circuits and batteries. Snap diodes provide very fast voltage transitions.
A light-emitting diode (LED) produces light as current passes through it; a specialized LED, called a laser diode, emits laser light, useful for telecommunications through optical fibers. The first visible-light (red) LEDs were developed in the 1960s; these were initially used in indicator lights and alphanumeric displays. The development of green and, later and more importantly, blue LEDs made possible their use to produce white light for ordinary, energy-efficient lighting. In 2014 Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano, and Shuji Nakamura were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their development of practical blue LEDs in the 1990s. LEDs are now used in computer monitors and television screens (where they provide the backlight for liquid crystal displays), in flashlights, and in lighting. Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) are made with plastics rather than silicon and other traditional semiconductor materials. Color OLEDs are thinner, lighter, brighter, and use less power than color LEDs. They are used in small portable devices such as smartphones and digital cameras and increasingly in television and computer screens.
Light-emitting diode
A rectifying semiconductor device which converts electrical energy into electromagnetic radiation. The wavelength of the emitted radiation ranges from the near-ultraviolet to the near-infrared, that is, from about 400 to over 1500 nanometers.
Most commercial light-emitting diodes (LEDs), both visible and infrared, are fabricated from III–V semiconductors. These compounds contain elements such as gallium, indium, and aluminum from column III (or group 13) of the periodic table, as well as arsenic, phosphorus, and nitrogen from column V (or group 15) of the periodic table. There are also LED products made of II–VI (or group 12–16) semiconductors, for example ZnSe and related compounds. Taken together, these semiconductors possess the proper band-gap energies to produce radiation at all wavelengths of interest. Most of these compounds have direct band gaps and, as a consequence, are efficient in the conversion of electrical energy into radiation. With the addition of appropriate chemical impurities, called dopants, both III–V and II–VI compounds can be made p- or n-type, for the purpose of forming pn junctions. All modern-day LEDs contain pn junctions. Most of them also have heterostructures, in which the pn junctions are surrounded by semiconductor materials with larger band-gap energies. See Acceptor atom, Donor atom, Electroluminescence, Electron-hole recombination, Laser, Semiconductor, Semiconductor diode
Conventional low-power, visible LEDs are used as solid-state indicator lights in instrument panels, telephone dials, cameras, appliances, dashboards, and computer terminals, and as light sources for numeric and alphanumeric displays. Modern high-brightness, visible LED lamps are used in outdoor applications such as traffic signals, changeable message signs, large-area video displays, and automotive exterior lighting. General-purpose white lighting and multielement array printers are applications in which high-power visible LEDs may soon displace present-day technology. Infrared LEDs, when combined in a hybrid package with solid-state photodetectors, provide a unique electrically isolated optical interface in electronic circuits. Infrared LEDs are also used in optical-fiber communication systems as a low-cost, high-reliability alternative to semiconductor lasers.
Light-emitting diode
(LED)Light-Emitting Diode
(LED), a semiconductor device that converts electrical energy into the energy of optical radiation by making use of the phenomenon of injection electroluminescence in a semiconductor crystal with a p-n junction, a semiconductor heterojunction, or a metal-semiconductor contact. When a direct or alternating current flows in an LED into the semiconductor region adjacent to such a junction or contact,

excess charge carriers—electrons and holes—are injected; their recombination is accompanied by optical radiation.
LED’s emit radiation that is incoherent but has a narrower spectrum than that of thermal light sources. The radiation in the visible region is consequently perceived as monochromatic. The color of the radiation depends on the semiconductor material and its doping. Materials used in LED’s include compounds of the type AIIIBV and some other compounds; examples are GaP, GaAs, and SiC. Solid solutions are also used—for example, GaAsl-xPx, AlxGal-xAs, and Gal-xInxP. Doping impurities used in GaP include Zn and O (red light) or N (green light); in GaAs there can be used Si or else Zn and Te (infrared light). The semiconductor crystal of an LED is usually given the shape of a wafer or hemisphere.
The luminance of the radiation of most LED’s is at the level of 103 cd/m2, and in the best models reaches 105 cd/m2. The efficiency of an LED producing visible radiation ranges from 0.01 percent to a few percent. In LED’s producing infrared radiation, the crystal is given a hemispherical shape to reduce losses resulting from total internal reflection and from absorption within the crystal. To improve the directivity characteristics of the radiation, LED’s are placed in a parabolic or conical reflector. The efficiency of an LED with a crystal of hemispherical shape reaches 40 percent.
Industry produces LED’s both as discrete devices and as components of integrated circuits. Discrete LED’s that produce visible light are used as signal indicators; integrated (multielement) LED devices—such as light-emitting digital display units, profile scales, multicolor panels, and flat screens—are used in various data display systems (seeDATA DISPLAY), in digital clocks, and in calculators. Infrared LED’s find application in, for example, optical-detection-and-ranging devices, optical-communications devices, and rangefinders (see alsoOPTICAL ELECTRONICS); arrays of such LED’s are used in data input and output devices for computers. In a number of areas of application, the LED competes with a related device—the injection laser (seeSEMICONDUCTOR LASER), which generates coherent radiation and differs from the LED in the shape of the crystal and in its manner of operation.
REFERENCE
Bergh, A., and P. Dean. “Svetodiody.” Tr. In-ta inzhenerov po eleklrotekhnike i radioelektronike, 1972, vol. 60, no. 2. (Translated from English.)P. G. ELISEEV
light-emitting diode
[′līt i‚mid·iŋ ′dī‚ōd]Light-emitting diode
A rectifying semiconductor device which converts electrical energy into electromagnetic radiation. The wavelength of the emitted radiation ranges from the near-ultraviolet to the near-infrared, that is, from about 400 to over 1500 nanometers.
Most commercial light-emitting diodes (LEDs), both visible and infrared, are fabricated from III–V semiconductors. These compounds contain elements such as gallium, indium, and aluminum from column III (or group 13) of the periodic table, as well as arsenic, phosphorus, and nitrogen from column V (or group 15) of the periodic table. There are also LED products made of II–VI (or group 12–16) semiconductors, for example ZnSe and related compounds. Taken together, these semiconductors possess the proper band-gap energies to produce radiation at all wavelengths of interest. Most of these compounds have direct band gaps and, as a consequence, are efficient in the conversion of electrical energy into radiation. With the addition of appropriate chemical impurities, called dopants, both III–V and II–VI compounds can be made p- or n-type, for the purpose of forming pn junctions. All modern-day LEDs contain pn junctions. Most of them also have heterostructures, in which the pn junctions are surrounded by semiconductor materials with larger band-gap energies. See Laser, Semiconductor
Conventional low-power, visible LEDs are used as solid-state indicator lights in instrument panels, telephone dials, cameras, appliances, dashboards, and computer terminals, and as light sources for numeric and alphanumeric displays. Modern high-brightness, visible LED lamps are used in outdoor applications such as traffic signals, changeable message signs, large-area video displays, and automotive exterior lighting. General-purpose white lighting and multielement array printers are applications in which high-power visible LEDs may soon displace present-day technology. Infrared LEDs, when combined in a hybrid package with solid-state photodetectors, provide a unique electrically isolated optical interface in electronic circuits. Infrared LEDs are also used in optical-fiber communication systems as a low-cost, high-reliability alternative to semiconductor lasers.
light-emitting diode
light-emitting diode
(electronics)See also smoke-emitting diode.