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General-purpose input/output

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In electronics , a lead ( / ˈ l iː d / ) or pin is an electrical connector consisting of a length of wire or a metal pad ( surface-mount technology ) that is designed to connect two locations electrically . Leads are used for many purposes, including: transfer of power; testing of an electrical circuit to see if it is working, using a test light or a multimeter ; transmitting information, as when the leads from an electrocardiograph are attached to a person's body to transmit information about their heart rhythm; and sometimes to act as a heatsink . The tiny leads coming off through-hole electronic components are also often called pins ; in ball grid array packages, they are in form of small spheres, and are therefore called "balls" .

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65-424: A general-purpose input/output ( GPIO ) is an uncommitted digital signal pin on an integrated circuit or electronic circuit (e.g. MCUs / MPUs ) board which may be used as an input or output, or both, and is controllable by software. GPIOs have no predefined purpose and are unused by default. If used, the purpose and behavior of a GPIO is defined and implemented by the designer of higher assembly-level circuitry:

130-480: A bit banging communication interface. For example, two GPIOs may be used to implement a serial communication bus such as Inter-Integrated Circuit ( I²C ), and four GPIOs can be used to implement a Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) bus; these are usually used to facilitate serial communication with ICs and other devices which have compatible serial interfaces, such as sensors (e.g., temperature sensors, pressure sensors, accelerometers ) and motor controllers . Taken to

195-663: A parallel communication bus, and various GPIO expander ICs, which interface GPIOs to serial communication buses such as I²C and SMBus . An example of the latter is the Realtek ALC260 IC, which provides eight GPIOs along with its main function of audio codec . Microcontroller ICs usually include GPIOs. Depending on the application, a microcontroller's GPIOs may comprise its primary interface to external circuitry or they may be just one type of I/O used among several, such as analog signal I/O, counter/timer, and serial communication. In some ICs, particularly microcontrollers,

260-401: A GPIO may be used to control high-power devices such as lights, solenoids, heaters, and motors (e.g., fans and blowers). Similarly, an input buffer, relay or opto-isolator is often used to translate an otherwise incompatible signal (e.g., high voltage) to the logic levels required by a GPIO. Integrated circuit GPIOs are commonly used to control or monitor other circuitry (including other ICs) on

325-723: A GPIO pin may be capable of other functions than GPIO. Often in such cases it is necessary to configure the pin to operate as a GPIO (vis-à-vis its other functions) in addition to configuring the GPIO's behavior. Some microcontroller devices (e.g., Microchip dsPIC33 family) incorporate internal signal routing circuitry that allows GPIOs to be programmatically mapped to device pins. Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA) extend this ability by allowing GPIO pin mapping, instantiation and architecture to be programmatically controlled. Many circuit boards expose board-level GPIOs to external circuitry through integrated electrical connectors. Usually, each such GPIO

390-563: A GaAs p-n junction light emitter and an electrically isolated semiconductor photodetector. On August 8, 1962, Biard and Pittman filed a patent titled "Semiconductor Radiant Diode" based on their findings, which described a zinc-diffused p–n junction LED with a spaced cathode contact to allow for efficient emission of infrared light under forward bias . After establishing the priority of their work based on engineering notebooks predating submissions from G.E. Labs, RCA Research Labs, IBM Research Labs, Bell Labs , and Lincoln Lab at MIT ,

455-417: A board. Examples of this include enabling and disabling the operation of (or power to) other circuitry, reading the states of on-board switches and configuration shunts, and driving light-emitting diode (LED) status indicators. In the latter case, a GPIO can, in many cases, supply enough output current to directly power an LED without using an intermediate buffer. Multiple GPIOs are sometimes used together as

520-657: A current source of a battery or a pulse generator and with a comparison to a variant, pure, crystal in 1953. Rubin Braunstein of the Radio Corporation of America reported on infrared emission from gallium arsenide (GaAs) and other semiconductor alloys in 1955. Braunstein observed infrared emission generated by simple diode structures using gallium antimonide (GaSb), GaAs, indium phosphide (InP), and silicon-germanium (SiGe) alloys at room temperature and at 77  kelvins . In 1957, Braunstein further demonstrated that

585-554: A glass window or lens to let the light out. Modern indicator LEDs are packed in transparent molded plastic cases, tubular or rectangular in shape, and often tinted to match the device color. Infrared devices may be dyed, to block visible light. More complex packages have been adapted for efficient heat dissipation in high-power LEDs . Surface-mounted LEDs further reduce the package size. LEDs intended for use with fiber optics cables may be provided with an optical connector. The first blue -violet LED, using magnesium-doped gallium nitride

650-450: A group to either input or output. In others, each pin can be set up to accept or source different logic voltages, with configurable drive strengths and pull ups/downs . Input and output voltages are usually, but not always, limited to the supply voltage of the device with the GPIOs, and may be damaged by greater voltages. A GPIO pin's state may be exposed to the software developer through one of

715-568: A longer lifetime, improved physical robustness, smaller sizes, and faster switching. In exchange for these generally favorable attributes, disadvantages of LEDs include electrical limitations to low voltage and generally to DC (not AC) power, the inability to provide steady illumination from a pulsing DC or an AC electrical supply source, and a lesser maximum operating temperature and storage temperature. LEDs are transducers of electricity into light. They operate in reverse of photodiodes , which convert light into electricity. Electroluminescence as

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780-481: A loudspeaker. Intercepting the beam stopped the music. We had a great deal of fun playing with this setup." In September 1961, while working at Texas Instruments in Dallas , Texas , James R. Biard and Gary Pittman discovered near-infrared (900 nm) light emission from a tunnel diode they had constructed on a GaAs substrate. By October 1961, they had demonstrated efficient light emission and signal coupling between

845-557: A method for producing high-brightness blue LEDs using a new two-step process in 1991. In 2015, a US court ruled that three Taiwanese companies had infringed Moustakas's prior patent, and ordered them to pay licensing fees of not less than US$ 13 million. Two years later, in 1993, high-brightness blue LEDs were demonstrated by Shuji Nakamura of Nichia Corporation using a gallium nitride (GaN) growth process. These LEDs had efficiencies of 10%. In parallel, Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano of Nagoya University were working on developing

910-628: A number of different interfaces, such as a memory-mapped I/O peripheral, or through dedicated IO port instructions. Some GPIOs have 5 V tolerant inputs: even when the device has a low supply voltage (such as 2 V), the device can accept 5 V without damage. A GPIO port is a group of GPIO pins (often 8 pins, but it may be less) arranged in a group and controlled as a group. GPIO abilities may include: Pin (electronics) Many electrical components such as capacitors , resistors , and inductors have only two leads, while some integrated circuits can have several hundred or even more than

975-514: A phenomenon was discovered in 1907 by the English experimenter Henry Joseph Round of Marconi Labs , using a crystal of silicon carbide and a cat's-whisker detector . Russian inventor Oleg Losev reported the creation of the first LED in 1927. His research was distributed in Soviet, German and British scientific journals, but no practical use was made of the discovery for several decades, partly due to

1040-567: A phosphor-silicon mixture on the LED using techniques such as jet dispensing, and allowing the solvents to evaporate, the LEDs are often tested, and placed on tapes for SMT placement equipment for use in LED light bulb production. Some "remote phosphor" LED light bulbs use a single plastic cover with YAG phosphor for one or several blue LEDs, instead of using phosphor coatings on single-chip white LEDs. Ce:YAG phosphors and epoxy in LEDs can degrade with use, and

1105-503: A red light-emitting diode. GaAsP was the basis for the first wave of commercial LEDs emitting visible light. It was mass produced by the Monsanto and Hewlett-Packard companies and used widely for displays in calculators and wrist watches. M. George Craford , a former graduate student of Holonyak, invented the first yellow LED and improved the brightness of red and red-orange LEDs by a factor of ten in 1972. In 1976, T. P. Pearsall designed

1170-412: A thousand for the largest ball grid array packages. Integrated circuit pins often either bend under the package body like a letter "J" (J-lead) or come out, down, and form a flat foot for securing to the board (S-lead or gull-lead). Most kinds of integrated circuit packaging are made by placing a silicon chip on a lead frame , wire bonding the chip to the metal leads of the lead frame, and covering

1235-934: A wide variety of consumer electronics. The first visible-light LEDs were of low intensity and limited to red. Early LEDs were often used as indicator lamps, replacing small incandescent bulbs , and in seven-segment displays . Later developments produced LEDs available in visible , ultraviolet (UV), and infrared wavelengths with high, low, or intermediate light output, for instance, white LEDs suitable for room and outdoor lighting. LEDs have also given rise to new types of displays and sensors, while their high switching rates are useful in advanced communications technology with applications as diverse as aviation lighting , fairy lights , strip lights , automotive headlamps , advertising, general lighting , traffic signals , camera flashes, lighted wallpaper , horticultural grow lights , and medical devices. LEDs have many advantages over incandescent light sources, including lower power consumption,

1300-799: Is accessible via a dedicated connector pin. Like IC-based GPIOs, some boards merely include GPIOs as a convenient, auxiliary resource that augments the board's primary function, whereas in other boards the GPIOs are the central, primary function of the board. Some boards, which are classified usually as multi-function I/O boards, are a combination of both; such boards provide GPIOs along with other types of general-purpose I/O. GPIOs are also found on embedded controller boards and Single board computers such as Arduino , BeagleBone , and Raspberry Pi . Board-level GPIOs are often given abilities which IC-based GPIOs usually lack. For example, Schmitt-trigger inputs, high-current output drivers, optical isolators , or combinations of these, may be used to buffer and condition

1365-550: Is difficult but desirable since it takes advantage of existing semiconductor manufacturing infrastructure. It allows for the wafer-level packaging of LED dies resulting in extremely small LED packages. GaN is often deposited using metalorganic vapour-phase epitaxy (MOCVD), and it also uses lift-off . Even though white light can be created using individual red, green and blue LEDs, this results in poor color rendering , since only three narrow bands of wavelengths of light are being emitted. The attainment of high efficiency blue LEDs

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1430-486: Is difficult on silicon , while others, like the University of Cambridge, choose a multi-layer structure, in order to reduce (crystal) lattice mismatch and different thermal expansion ratios, to avoid cracking of the LED chip at high temperatures (e.g. during manufacturing), reduce heat generation and increase luminous efficiency. Sapphire substrate patterning can be carried out with nanoimprint lithography . GaN-on-Si

1495-790: Is more apparent with higher concentrations of Ce:YAG in phosphor-silicone mixtures, because the Ce:YAG decomposes with use. The output of LEDs can shift to yellow over time due to degradation of the silicone. There are several variants of Ce:YAG, and manufacturers in many cases do not reveal the exact composition of their Ce:YAG offerings. Several other phosphors are available for phosphor-converted LEDs to produce several colors such as red, which uses nitrosilicate phosphors, and many other kinds of phosphor materials exist for LEDs such as phosphors based on oxides, oxynitrides, oxyhalides, halides, nitrides, sulfides, quantum dots, and inorganic-organic hybrid semiconductors. A single LED can have several phosphors at

1560-599: Is perceived as white light, with improved color rendering compared to wavelengths from the blue LED/YAG phosphor combination. The first white LEDs were expensive and inefficient. The light output then increased exponentially . The latest research and development has been propagated by Japanese manufacturers such as Panasonic and Nichia , and by Korean and Chinese manufacturers such as Samsung , Solstice, Kingsun, Hoyol and others. This trend in increased output has been called Haitz's law after Roland Haitz. Light output and efficiency of blue and near-ultraviolet LEDs rose and

1625-451: Is to use individual LEDs that emit three primary colors —red, green and blue—and then mix all the colors to form white light. The other is to use a phosphor material to convert monochromatic light from a blue or UV LED to broad-spectrum white light, similar to a fluorescent lamp . The yellow phosphor is cerium -doped YAG crystals suspended in the package or coated on the LED. This YAG phosphor causes white LEDs to appear yellow when off, and

1690-911: The Nobel Prize in Physics in 2014 for "the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes, which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources." In 1995, Alberto Barbieri at the Cardiff University Laboratory (GB) investigated the efficiency and reliability of high-brightness LEDs and demonstrated a "transparent contact" LED using indium tin oxide (ITO) on (AlGaInP/GaAs). In 2001 and 2002, processes for growing gallium nitride (GaN) LEDs on silicon were successfully demonstrated. In January 2012, Osram demonstrated high-power InGaN LEDs grown on silicon substrates commercially, and GaN-on-silicon LEDs are in production at Plessey Semiconductors . As of 2017, some manufacturers are using SiC as

1755-544: The U.S. patent office issued the two inventors the patent for the GaAs infrared light-emitting diode (U.S. Patent US3293513 ), the first practical LED. Immediately after filing the patent, Texas Instruments (TI) began a project to manufacture infrared diodes. In October 1962, TI announced the first commercial LED product (the SNX-100), which employed a pure GaAs crystal to emit an 890 nm light output. In October 1963, TI announced

1820-457: The human eye as a pure ( saturated ) color. Also unlike most lasers, its radiation is not spatially coherent , so it cannot approach the very high intensity characteristic of lasers . By selection of different semiconductor materials , single-color LEDs can be made that emit light in a narrow band of wavelengths from near-infrared through the visible spectrum and into the ultraviolet range. The required operating voltages of LEDs increase as

1885-451: The 3-subpixel model for digital displays. The technology uses a gallium nitride semiconductor that emits light of different frequencies modulated by voltage changes. A prototype display achieved a resolution of 6,800 PPI or 3k x 1.5k pixels. In a light-emitting diode, the recombination of electrons and electron holes in a semiconductor produces light (be it infrared, visible or UV), a process called " electroluminescence ". The wavelength of

1950-621: The GPIO signals and to protect board circuitry. Also, higher-level functions are sometimes implemented, such as input debounce , input signal edge detection, and pulse-width modulation (PWM) output. GPIOs are used in a diverse variety of applications, limited only by the electrical and timing specifications of the GPIO interface and the ability of software to interact with GPIOs in a sufficiently timely manner. GPIOs usually employ standard logic levels and cannot supply significant current to output loads. When followed by an appropriate high-current output buffer (or mechanical or solid-state relay),

2015-797: The blending of the colors. Since LEDs have slightly different emission patterns, the color balance may change depending on the angle of view, even if the RGB sources are in a single package, so RGB diodes are seldom used to produce white lighting. Nonetheless, this method has many applications because of the flexibility of mixing different colors, and in principle, this mechanism also has higher quantum efficiency in producing white light. There are several types of multicolor white LEDs: di- , tri- , and tetrachromatic white LEDs. Several key factors that play among these different methods include color stability, color rendering capability, and luminous efficacy. Often, higher efficiency means lower color rendering, presenting

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2080-544: The chip with plastic. The metal leads protruding from the plastic are then either "cut long" and bent to form through-hole pins, or "cut short" and bent to form surface-mount leads. Such lead frames are used for surface mount packages with leads – such as Small Outline Integrated Circuit Quad Flat Package  – and for through-hole packages such as dual in-line package  – and even for so-called "leadless" or "no‑lead" packages  – such as Quad Flat No‑leads package . The lead frame (and therefore

2145-451: The circuit board designer in the case of integrated circuit GPIOs, or system integrator in the case of board-level GPIOs. Integrated circuit (IC) GPIOs are implemented in a variety of ways. Some ICs provide GPIOs as a primary function whereas others include GPIOs as a convenient "accessory" to some other primary function. Examples of the former include the Intel 8255 , which interfaces 24 GPIOs to

2210-1083: The cladding and quantum well layers for ultraviolet LEDs, but these devices have not yet reached the level of efficiency and technological maturity of InGaN/GaN blue/green devices. If unalloyed GaN is used in this case to form the active quantum well layers, the device emits near-ultraviolet light with a peak wavelength centred around 365 nm. Green LEDs manufactured from the InGaN/GaN system are far more efficient and brighter than green LEDs produced with non-nitride material systems, but practical devices still exhibit efficiency too low for high-brightness applications. With AlGaN and AlGaInN , even shorter wavelengths are achievable. Near-UV emitters at wavelengths around 360–395 nm are already cheap and often encountered, for example, as black light lamp replacements for inspection of anti- counterfeiting UV watermarks in documents and bank notes, and for UV curing . Substantially more expensive, shorter-wavelength diodes are commercially available for wavelengths down to 240 nm. As

2275-417: The cost of reliable devices fell. This led to relatively high-power white-light LEDs for illumination, which are replacing incandescent and fluorescent lighting. Experimental white LEDs were demonstrated in 2014 to produce 303 lumens per watt of electricity (lm/W); some can last up to 100,000 hours. Commercially available LEDs have an efficiency of up to 223 lm/W as of 2018. A previous record of 135 lm/W

2340-476: The effective magnitude of the process control signal. For example, when controlling light intensity, the light may be dimmed by reducing the GPIO duty cycle. Some analog processes require an analog control voltage. In such cases, it may be feasible to connect a GPIO, which is operated as a PWM output, to an RC filter to create a simple, low cost digital-to-analog converter . GPIO interfaces vary widely. In some cases, they are simple—a group of pins that can switch as

2405-539: The emitted wavelengths become shorter (higher energy, red to blue), because of their increasing semiconductor band gap. Blue LEDs have an active region consisting of one or more InGaN quantum wells sandwiched between thicker layers of GaN, called cladding layers. By varying the relative In/Ga fraction in the InGaN quantum wells, the light emission can in theory be varied from violet to amber. Aluminium gallium nitride (AlGaN) of varying Al/Ga fraction can be used to manufacture

2470-426: The extreme, this method may be used to implement an entire parallel bus, thus allowing communication with bus-oriented ICs or circuit boards. Although GPIOs are fundamentally digital in nature, they are often used to control analog processes. For example, a GPIO may be used to control motor speed, light intensity, or temperature. Usually, this is done via PWM, in which the duty cycle of the GPIO output signal determines

2535-491: The field of luminescence with research on radium . Hungarian Zoltán Bay together with György Szigeti patenting a lighting device in Hungary in 1939 based on silicon carbide, with an option on boron carbide, that emitted white, yellowish white, or greenish white depending on impurities present. Kurt Lehovec , Carl Accardo, and Edward Jamgochian explained these first LEDs in 1951 using an apparatus employing SiC crystals with

2600-602: The first commercial hemispherical LED, the SNX-110. In the 1960s, several laboratories focused on LEDs that would emit visible light. A particularly important device was demonstrated by Nick Holonyak on October 9, 1962, while he was working for General Electric in Syracuse, New York . The device used the semiconducting alloy gallium phosphide arsenide (GaAsP). It was the first semiconductor laser to emit visible light, albeit at low temperatures. At room temperature it still functioned as

2665-518: The first commercially available blue LED, based on the indirect bandgap semiconductor, silicon carbide (SiC). SiC LEDs had very low efficiency, no more than about 0.03%, but did emit in the blue portion of the visible light spectrum. In the late 1980s, key breakthroughs in GaN epitaxial growth and p-type doping ushered in the modern era of GaN-based optoelectronic devices. Building upon this foundation, Theodore Moustakas at Boston University patented

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2730-721: The first high-brightness, high-efficiency LEDs for optical fiber telecommunications by inventing new semiconductor materials specifically adapted to optical fiber transmission wavelengths. Until 1968, visible and infrared LEDs were extremely costly, on the order of US$ 200 per unit, and so had little practical use. The first commercial visible-wavelength LEDs used GaAsP semiconductors and were commonly used as replacements for incandescent and neon indicator lamps , and in seven-segment displays , first in expensive equipment such as laboratory and electronics test equipment, then later in such appliances as calculators, TVs, radios, telephones, as well as watches. The Hewlett-Packard company (HP)

2795-512: The form of photons . The color of the light (corresponding to the energy of the photons) is determined by the energy required for electrons to cross the band gap of the semiconductor. White light is obtained by using multiple semiconductors or a layer of light-emitting phosphor on the semiconductor device. Appearing as practical electronic components in 1962, the earliest LEDs emitted low-intensity infrared (IR) light. Infrared LEDs are used in remote-control circuits, such as those used with

2860-448: The frequency of the signals being passed through the device and the inductance and capacitance of the device, the leads can cause substantial variation in the properties of components in radio frequency circuits. Light-emitting diode A light-emitting diode ( LED ) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes , releasing energy in

2925-407: The important GaN deposition on sapphire substrates and the demonstration of p-type doping of GaN. This new development revolutionized LED lighting, making high-power blue light sources practical, leading to the development of technologies like Blu-ray . Nakamura was awarded the 2006 Millennium Technology Prize for his invention. Nakamura, Hiroshi Amano , and Isamu Akasaki were awarded

2990-417: The light depends on the energy band gap of the semiconductors used. Since these materials have a high index of refraction, design features of the devices such as special optical coatings and die shape are required to efficiently emit light. Unlike a laser , the light emitted from an LED is neither spectrally coherent nor even highly monochromatic . Its spectrum is sufficiently narrow that it appears to

3055-420: The light produced is engineered to suit the human eye. Because of metamerism , it is possible to have quite different spectra that appear white. The appearance of objects illuminated by that light may vary as the spectrum varies. This is the issue of color rendition, quite separate from color temperature. An orange or cyan object could appear with the wrong color and much darker as the LED or phosphor does not emit

3120-445: The phosphors, the Ce:YAG phosphor converts blue light to green and red (yellow) light, and the PFS phosphor converts blue light to red light. The color, emission spectrum or color temperature of white phosphor converted and other phosphor converted LEDs can be controlled by changing the concentration of several phosphors that form a phosphor blend used in an LED package. The 'whiteness' of

3185-599: The photosensitivity of microorganisms approximately matches the absorption spectrum of DNA , with a peak at about 260 nm, UV LED emitting at 250–270 nm are expected in prospective disinfection and sterilization devices. Recent research has shown that commercially available UVA LEDs (365 nm) are already effective disinfection and sterilization devices. UV-C wavelengths were obtained in laboratories using aluminium nitride (210 nm), boron nitride (215 nm) and diamond (235 nm). There are two primary ways of producing white light-emitting diodes. One

3250-400: The physical construction of the leads. The leads are often metal connections that run from the rest of the circuit to the materials that each component is made of. This design results in a very small capacitance between the ends of the leads where they connect to the device and very small inductances and resistances along each lead. Because the impedance of each component is a function of

3315-403: The pins, if any, formed from that lead frame) are occasionally made from Invar or similar alloys, due to their low coefficient of thermal expansion . For many circuit designs it can be assumed that the leads do not contribute to the electrical effects of individual components. However, this assumption begins to break down at higher frequencies and at very small scales. These effects come from

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3380-421: The rudimentary devices could be used for non-radio communication across a short distance. As noted by Kroemer Braunstein "…had set up a simple optical communications link: Music emerging from a record player was used via suitable electronics to modulate the forward current of a GaAs diode. The emitted light was detected by a PbS diode some distance away. This signal was fed into an audio amplifier and played back by

3445-480: The same time. Some LEDs use phosphors made of glass-ceramic or composite phosphor/glass materials. Alternatively, the LED chips themselves can be coated with a thin coating of phosphor-containing material, called a conformal coating. The temperature of the phosphor during operation and how it is applied limits the size of an LED die. Wafer-level packaged white LEDs allow for extremely small LEDs. In 2024, QPixel introduced as polychromatic LED that could replace

3510-408: The space between the crystals allow some blue light to pass through in LEDs with partial phosphor conversion. Alternatively, white LEDs may use other phosphors like manganese(IV)-doped potassium fluorosilicate (PFS) or other engineered phosphors. PFS assists in red light generation, and is used in conjunction with conventional Ce:YAG phosphor. In LEDs with PFS phosphor, some blue light passes through

3575-547: The subsequent device Pankove and Miller built, the first actual gallium nitride light-emitting diode, emitted green light. In 1974 the U.S. Patent Office awarded Maruska, Rhines, and Stanford professor David Stevenson a patent for their work in 1972 (U.S. Patent US3819974 A ). Today, magnesium-doping of gallium nitride remains the basis for all commercial blue LEDs and laser diodes . In the early 1970s, these devices were too dim for practical use, and research into gallium nitride devices slowed. In August 1989, Cree introduced

3640-474: The substrate for LED production, but sapphire is more common, as it has the most similar properties to that of gallium nitride, reducing the need for patterning the sapphire wafer (patterned wafers are known as epi wafers). Samsung , the University of Cambridge , and Toshiba are performing research into GaN on Si LEDs. Toshiba has stopped research, possibly due to low yields. Some opt for epitaxy , which

3705-569: The team at Fairchild led by optoelectronics pioneer Thomas Brandt to achieve the needed cost reductions. LED producers have continued to use these methods as of about 2009. The early red LEDs were bright enough for use as indicators, as the light output was not enough to illuminate an area. Readouts in calculators were so small that plastic lenses were built over each digit to make them legible. Later, other colors became widely available and appeared in appliances and equipment. Early LEDs were packaged in metal cases similar to those of transistors, with

3770-461: The very inefficient light-producing properties of silicon carbide, the semiconductor Losev used. In 1936, Georges Destriau observed that electroluminescence could be produced when zinc sulphide (ZnS) powder is suspended in an insulator and an alternating electrical field is applied to it. In his publications, Destriau often referred to luminescence as Losev-Light. Destriau worked in the laboratories of Madame Marie Curie , also an early pioneer in

3835-532: The wavelength it reflects. The best color rendition LEDs use a mix of phosphors, resulting in less efficiency and better color rendering. The first white light-emitting diodes (LEDs) were offered for sale in the autumn of 1996. Nichia made some of the first white LEDs which were based on blue LEDs with Ce:YAG phosphor. Ce:YAG is often grown using the Czochralski method . Mixing red, green, and blue sources to produce white light needs electronic circuits to control

3900-618: Was achieved by Nichia in 2010. Compared to incandescent bulbs, this is a huge increase in electrical efficiency, and even though LEDs are more expensive to purchase, overall lifetime cost is significantly cheaper than that of incandescent bulbs. The LED chip is encapsulated inside a small, plastic, white mold although sometimes an LED package can incorporate a reflector. It can be encapsulated using resin ( polyurethane -based), silicone, or epoxy containing (powdered) Cerium-doped YAG phosphor particles. The viscosity of phosphor-silicon mixtures must be carefully controlled. After application of

3965-415: Was engaged in research and development (R&D) on practical LEDs between 1962 and 1968, by a research team under Howard C. Borden, Gerald P. Pighini at HP Associates and HP Labs . During this time HP collaborated with Monsanto Company on developing the first usable LED products. The first usable LED products were HP's LED display and Monsanto's LED indicator lamp , both launched in 1968. Monsanto

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4030-433: Was made at Stanford University in 1972 by Herb Maruska and Wally Rhines , doctoral students in materials science and engineering. At the time Maruska was on leave from RCA Laboratories , where he collaborated with Jacques Pankove on related work. In 1971, the year after Maruska left for Stanford, his RCA colleagues Pankove and Ed Miller demonstrated the first blue electroluminescence from zinc-doped gallium nitride, though

4095-443: Was quickly followed by the development of the first white LED . In this device a Y 3 Al 5 O 12 :Ce (known as " YAG " or Ce:YAG phosphor) cerium -doped phosphor coating produces yellow light through fluorescence . The combination of that yellow with remaining blue light appears white to the eye. Using different phosphors produces green and red light through fluorescence. The resulting mixture of red, green and blue

4160-567: Was the first intelligent LED display, and was a revolution in digital display technology, replacing the Nixie tube and becoming the basis for later LED displays. In the 1970s, commercially successful LED devices at less than five cents each were produced by Fairchild Optoelectronics. These devices employed compound semiconductor chips fabricated with the planar process (developed by Jean Hoerni , ). The combination of planar processing for chip fabrication and innovative packaging methods enabled

4225-479: Was the first organization to mass-produce visible LEDs, using Gallium arsenide phosphide (GaAsP) in 1968 to produce red LEDs suitable for indicators. Monsanto had previously offered to supply HP with GaAsP, but HP decided to grow its own GaAsP. In February 1969, Hewlett-Packard introduced the HP Model 5082-7000 Numeric Indicator, the first LED device to use integrated circuit (integrated LED circuit ) technology. It

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