PHYSICS INVESTIGATORY PROJECT

NAME: Keval Nailesh Patel

STD: XIIth - B
TOPIC: LIGHT EMITTING DIODE (LED)
GUIDED BY: Hinal Ma`am
SCHOOL: Vibrant International Academy

Acknowledgement
In performing my investigatory project, we had to take the
help and guideline of some respected persons, who deserve
our greatest gratitude. The completion of this project gives
me much Pleasure. I would like to show our gratitude Ms.
Hinal Patel, Physics teacher of Vibrant International Academy
for giving me a good guideline for project throughout
numerous consultations. I would also like to expand our
deepest gratitude to all those who have directly and indirectly
guided me in making this project.
Many people, especially my classmates, have made valuable
comment suggestions on this proposal which gave us an
inspiration to improve my project. I would like to thank all the
peoples for their help directly and indirectly to complete my
investigatory project.

INDEX
• INTRODUCTION

• HISTORY

• TECHNOLOGY

• COLOURS AND MATERIALS

• TYPES

• CONSIDERATIONS FOR USE

• APPLICATIONS

• BIBLIOGRAPHY

INTRODUCTION
 Light-emitting diode (LED) is a two-lead semiconductor light
source. It is a basic pn-junction diode, which emits light when
activated. When a fitting voltage is applied to the
leads, electrons are able to recombine with electron
holes within the device, releasing energy in the form
of photons. This effect is called electroluminescence, and the
color of the light (corresponding to the energy of the photon) is
determined by the energy band gap of the semiconductor.

An LED is often small in area

(less than 1 mm2) and
integrated optical
components may be used to
shape its radiation pattern.
Appearing as practical
electronic components in
1962, the earliest LEDs
emitted low-intensity infrared light. Infrared LEDs are still
frequently used as transmitting elements in remote-control
circuits, such as those in remote controls for a wide variety of
consumer electronics. The first visible-light LEDs were also of
low intensity, and limited to red. Modern LEDs are available
across the visible, ultraviolet, and infrared wavelengths, with
very high brightness.
Early LEDs were often used as indicator lamps for electronic
devices, replacing small incandescent bulbs. They were soon
packaged into numeric readouts in the form of seven-segment
displays, and were commonly seen in digital clocks.
Recent developments in LEDs permit them to be used in
environmental and task lighting. LEDs have many advantages
over incandescent light sources including lower energy
consumption, longer lifetime, improved physical robustness,
smaller size, and faster switching. Light-emitting diodes are
now used in applications as diverse as aviation
lighting, automotive headlamps, advertising, general
lighting, traffic signals, and camera flashes. However, LEDs
powerful enough for room lighting are still relatively expensive,
and require more precise current and heat management than
compact fluorescent lamp sources of comparable output.
LEDs have allowed new text, video displays, and sensors to be
developed, while their high switching rates are also useful in
advanced communications technology.

HISTORY
Discoveries and early devices

Green
electroluminescence
from a point contact
on a crystal of Sic
recreates H. J.
Round's original
experiment from
1907.
Electroluminescence as a phenomenon 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
inventor Oleg Losev reported creation of the first LED in
1927. His research was distributed in Russian, German and
British scientific journals, but no practical use was made of the
discovery for several decades. 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 antimonite (GaSb),
GaAs, indium phosphide (InP), and silicon-germanium (SiGe)
alloys at room temperature and at 77 Kelvin.
In 1957, Braunstein further demonstrated that the rudimentary
devices could be used for non-radio communication across a
short distance.
The first visible-spectrum (red) LED was developed in 1962
by Jr., while working at General Electric Company. Holonyak
first reported this breakthrough in the journal Applied Physics
Letters on the December 1, 1962. 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 created the first high-
brightness, high-efficiency LEDs for optical fiber
telecommunications by inventing new semiconductor materials
specifically adapted to optical fiber transmission wavelengths.

TECHNOLOGY
The inner workings of an LED, showing circuit (top) and band
diagram (bottom)

Physics
The LED consists of a chip of semiconducting
material doped with impurities to create a p-n junction. As in
other diodes, current flows easily from the p-side, or anode, to
the n-side, or cathode, but not in the reverse direction. Charge-
carriers—electrons and holes—flow into the junction
from electrodes with different voltages. When an electron
meets a hole, it falls into a lower energy level and
releases energy in the form of a photon.
The wavelength of the light emitted, and thus its color,
depends on the band gap energy of the materials forming
the p-n junction. In silicon or germanium diodes, the electrons
and holes usually recombine by a non-radiative transition,
which produces no optical emission, because these are indirect
band gap materials. The materials used for the LED have
a direct band gap with energies corresponding to near-infrared,
visible, or near-ultraviolet light.
LED development began with infrared and red devices made
with gallium arsenide. Advances in materials science have
enabled making devices with ever-shorter wavelengths,
emitting light in a variety of colors.
LEDs are usually built on an n-type substrate, with an electrode
attached to the p-type layer deposited on its surface. P-type
substrates, while less common, occur as well. Many commercial
LEDs, especially GaN/InGaN, also use sapphire substrate.

Transition coatings
Many LED semiconductor chips are encapsulated or potted in
clear or colored molded plastic shells. The plastic shell has
three purposes:
• Mounting the semiconductor chip in devices is easier to
accomplish.
 • The tiny fragile electrical wiring is physically supported and
protected from damage.
• The plastic acts as a refractive intermediary between the
relatively high-index semiconductor and low-index open
air.
The third feature helps to boost the light emission from the
semiconductor by acting as a diffusing lens, allowing light to be
emitted at a much higher angle of incidence from the light cone
than the bare chip is able to emit alone.

Efficiency and Operational Parameters

Typical indicator LEDs are designed to operate with no more
than 30–60 mill watts (mW) of electrical power. Around
1999,Philips Lumileds introduced power LEDs capable of
continuous use at one watt. These LEDs used much larger
semiconductor die sizes to handle the large power inputs. Also,
the semiconductor dies were mounted onto metal slugs to
allow for heat removal from the LED die.
One of the key advantages of LED-based lighting sources is
high luminous efficacy. White LEDs quickly matched and
overtook the efficacy of standard incandescent lighting
systems. In 2002, Lumileds made five-watt LEDs available with
aluminous efficacy of 18–22 lumens per watt (lm/W). For
comparison, a conventional incandescent light bulb of 60–100
watts emits around 15 lm/W, and standard fluorescent
lights emit up to 100 lm/W.
As of 2012, the Lumiled catalog gives the following as the best
efficacy for each color. The watt-per-watt value is derived using
the luminosity function.

Lifetime and Failure

Solid-state devices such as LEDs are subject to very
limited wear and tear if operated at low currents and at low
temperatures. Many of the LEDs made in the 1970s and 1980s
are still in service in the early 21st century. Typical lifetimes
quoted are 25,000 to 100,000 hours, but heat and current
settings can extend or shorten this time significantly.
The most common symptom of LED failure is the gradual
lowering of light output and loss of efficiency. Sudden failures,
although rare, can occur as well. Early red LEDs were notable
for their short service life. With the development of high-power
LEDs the devices are subjected to higher junction
temperatures and higher current densities than traditional
devices. This causes stress on the material and may cause early
light-output degradation. To quantitatively classify useful
lifetime in a standardized manner it has been suggested to use
the terms L70 and L50, which is the time it will take a given LED
to reach 70% and 50% light output respectively.
LED performance is temperature dependent. LEDs used
outdoors, such as traffic signals or in-pavement signal lights,
and that are utilized in climates where the temperature within
the light fixture gets very hot, could result in low signal
intensities or even failure.

COLORS AND MATERIALS

Ultraviolet and Blue LEDs

Current bright blue LEDs are based

on the wide band
gap semiconductors GaN (gallium
nitride) and InGaN (indium gallium
nitride). They can be added to
existing red and green LEDs to
produce the impression of white
light. Modules combining the
three colors are used in big video
screens and in adjustable-color
fixtures.
The first blue-violet LED using magnesium-doped gallium nitride
was made at Stanford University in 1972 by Herb Maruska and
Wally Rhines, doctoral students in materials science and
engineering. In August 1989, Cree Inc. introduced the first
commercially available blue LED based on the indirect band
gap semiconductor, silicon carbide. 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, in 1993
high-brightness blue LEDs were demonstrated. High-brightness
blue LEDs invented by Shuji Nakamura of Nichia
Corporation using gallium nitride revolutionized LED lighting,
making high-power light sources practical. Nakamura, along
with Hiroshi Amano and Akasaki were awarded the Nobel Prize
in Physics for this work in 2014.
By the late 1990s, blue LEDs became widely available. They
have an active region consisting of one or more InGaN quantum
wells sandwiched between thicker layers of GaN, called
cladding layers. 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 nitrides containing aluminum, most
often AlGaN and AlGaInN, even shorter wavelengths are
achievable. Ultraviolet LEDs in a range of wavelengths are
becoming available on the market. Near-UV emitters at
wavelengths around 375–395 nm are already cheap and often
encountered, for example, as black light lamp replacements for
inspection of anti-counterfeiting UV watermarks in some
documents and paper currencies. Shorter-wavelength diodes,
while substantially more expensive, are commercially available
for wavelengths down to 240 nm. As 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 to be 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.

White light

There are two primary ways of

producing white light-emitting
diodes (WLEDs), LEDs that
generate high-intensity white
light. One 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, much in the same way a fluorescent light
bulb works.
There are three main methods of mixing colors to produce
white light from an LED:
• blue LED + green LED + red LED (color mixing; can be used as
backlighting for displays)
• near-UV or UV LED + RGB phosphor (an LED producing light
with a wavelength shorter than blue's is used to excite an
RGB phosphor)
• blue LED + yellow phosphor (two complementary colors
combine to form white light; more efficient than first two
methods and more commonly used)
Because of mesmerism, it is possible to have quite different
spectra that appear white. However, the appearance of objects
illuminated by that light may vary as the spectrum varies.
RGB systems

White light can be

formed by mixing
differently colored
lights; the most
common method is to
use red, green, and
blue (RGB). Hence the
method is called
multi-color white LEDs
(sometimes referred to as RGB LEDs). Because these need
electronic circuits to control the blending and diffusion of
different colors, and because the individual color LEDs typically
have slightly different emission patterns (leading to variation of
the color depending on direction) even if they are made as a
single unit, these are seldom used to produce white lighting.
Nevertheless, this method is particularly interesting in many
uses 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 multi-color white LEDs: di-, tri-,
and tetra chromatic white LEDs. Several key factors that play
among these different methods include color stability, color
rendering capability, and luminous efficacy. Often, higher
efficiency will mean lower color rendering, presenting a trade-
off between the luminous efficiency and color rendering. For
example, the dichromatic white LEDs have the best luminous
efficacy (120 lm/W), but the lowest color rendering capability.
However, although tetra chromatic white LEDs have excellent
color rendering capability, they often have poor luminous
efficiency. Trichromatic white LEDs are in between, having both
good luminous efficacy (>70 lm/W) and fair color rendering
capability.
One of the challenges is the development of more efficient
green LEDs. The theoretical maximum for green LEDs is 683
lumens per watt but as of 2010 few green LEDs exceed even
100 lumens per watt. The blue and red LEDs get closer to their
theoretical limits.
Multi-color LEDs offer not merely another means to form white
light but a new means to form light of different colors.
Most perceivable colors can be formed by mixing different
amounts of three primary colors. This allows precise dynamic
color control. As more effort is devoted to investigating this
method, multi-color LEDs should have profound influence on
the fundamental method that we use to produce and control
light color. However, before this type of LED can play a role on
the market, several technical problems must be solved. These
include that this type of LED's emission power decays
exponentially with rising temperature, resulting in a substantial
change in color stability. Such problems inhibit and may
preclude industrial use. Thus, many new package designs aimed
at solving this problem have been proposed and their results
are now being reproduced by researchers and scientists.
Correlated color temperature (CCT) dimming for LED
technology is regarded as a difficult task, since binning, age and
temperature drift effects of LEDs change the actual color value
output. Feedback loop systems are used for example with color
sensors, to actively monitor and control the color output of
multiple color mixing LEDs.

Organic Light-emitting Diodes (OLEDs)

In an organic light-emitting diode (OLED),
the electroluminescent material comprising the emissive layer
of the diode is an organic compound. The organic material is
electrically conductive due to the delocalization of pi electrons
caused by conjugation over all or part of the molecule, and the
material therefore functions as an organic semiconductor. The
organic materials can be small organic molecules in
a crystalline phase, or polymers.
 The potential advantages
of OLEDs include thin,
low-cost displays with a
low driving voltage, wide
viewing angle, and high
contrast and color
gamut. Polymer LEDs have the added benefit of
printable and flexible displays. OLEDs have been used to make
visual displays for portable electronic devices such as cell
phones, digital cameras, and MP3 players while possible future
uses include lighting and televisions.
 TYPES
The main types of LEDs are miniature, high-power devices
and custom designs such as alphanumeric or multi-color.

Miniature
These are mostly single-die LEDs used as indicators, and they
come in various sizes from 2 mm to 8 mm, through-
hole and surface mount packages. They usually do not use a
separate heat sink. Typical current ratings range from around
1 mA to above 20 mA. The small size sets a natural upper
boundary on power consumption due to heat caused by the
high current density and need for a heat sink.
Common package shapes include round, with a domed or flat
top, rectangular with a flat top (as used in bar-graph
displays), and triangular or square with a flat top. The
encapsulation may also be clear or tinted to improve
contrast and viewing angle.
There are three main categories of miniature single die LEDs:
• Low-current: typically rated for 2 mA at around 2 V
(approximately 4 mW consumption).
• Standard: 20 mA LEDs (ranging from approximately 40 mW
to 90 mW) :
 • 1.9 to 2.1 V for red, orange and yellow,
• 3.0 to 3.4 V for green and blue,
• 2.9 to 4.2 V for violet, pink, purple and white
• Ultra-high-output: 20 mA at approximately 2 V or 4–5 V,
designed for viewing in direct sunlight.
5 V and 12 V LEDs are ordinary miniature LEDs that
incorporate a suitable series resistor for direct connection to
a 5 V or 12 V supply.

Mid-range
Medium-power LEDs are often through-hole-mounted and
mostly utilized when outputs of just tens of lumens are
needed. They sometimes have the diode mounted to four
leads (two cathode leads, two anode leads) for better heat
conduction and carry an integrated lens. An example of this
is the Super flux package, from Philips Lumileds. These LEDs
are most commonly used in light panels, emergency lighting,
and automotive tail-lights. Due to the larger amount of metal
in the LED, they are able to handle higher currents (around
100 mA). The higher current allows for the higher light
output required for tail-lights and emergency lighting.

High-power
 High-power LEDs
(HPLEDs) or high-output
LEDs (HO-LEDs) can be
driven at currents from
hundreds of mA to more
than an ampere,
compared with the tens
of mA for other LEDs.
Some can emit over a
thousand lumens. LED power densities up to 300 W/cm2have
been achieved. Since overheating is destructive, the HPLEDs
must be mounted on a heat sink to allow for heat
dissipation.

AC driven LED
 LEDs have been developed
by Seoul Semiconductor
that can operate on AC
power without the need
for a DC converter. For
each half-cycle, part of the
LED emits light and part is
dark, and this is reversed
during the next half-cycle.
The efficacy of this type of HPLED is typically 40 lm/W. A
large number of LED elements in series may be able to
operate directly from line voltage. In 2009, Seoul
Semiconductor released a high DC voltage LED, named as
'Acrich MJT', capable of being driven from AC power with a
simple controlling circuit. The low-power dissipation of these
LEDs affords them more flexibility than the original AC LED
design.

Application-specific variations:
• FLASHING:
• BI-COLOR LED
• TRI-COLOR LED
• RGB
 • DECORATIVE MULTICOLOR
• ALPHANUMERIC
• DIGITAL RGB

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

Advantages
• Efficiency: LEDs emit more lumens per watt
than incandescent light bulbs. The efficiency of LED
lighting fixtures is not affected by shape and size, unlike
fluorescent light bulbs or tubes.
• Color: LEDs can emit light of an intended color without
using any color filters as traditional lighting methods need.
This is more efficient and can lower initial costs.
• Size: LEDs can be very small (smaller than 2 mm2) and are
easily attached to printed circuit boards.
• On/Off time: LEDs light up very quickly. A typical red
indicator LED will achieve full brightness in under
a microsecond. LEDs used in communications devices can
have even faster response times.
• Slow failure: LEDs mostly fail by dimming over time, rather
than the abrupt failure of incandescent bulbs.
Disadvantages
• High initial price: LEDs are currently more expensive, price
per lumen, on an initial capital cost basis, than most
conventional lighting technologies.
• Temperature dependence: LED performance largely
depends on the ambient temperature of the operating
environment – or "thermal management" properties.
Over-driving an LED in high ambient temperatures may
result in overheating the LED package, eventually leading
to device failure. An adequate heat sink is needed to
maintain long life.
• Voltage sensitivity: LEDs must be supplied with the
voltage above the threshold and a current below the
rating. This can involve series resistors or current-
regulated power supplies.
• Light quality: Most cool-white LEDs have spectra that
differ significantly from a black body radiator like the sun
or an incandescent light. The spike at 460 nm and dip at
500 nm can cause the color of objects to be perceived
differently under cool-white LED illumination than sunlight
or incandescent sources, due to metameric, red surfaces
being rendered particularly badly by typical phosphor-
based cool-white LEDs.
• Blue hazard: 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 as defined in eye safety
 specifications such as ANSI/IESNA RP-27.1–05:
Recommended Practice for Photo biological Safety for
Lamp and Lamp Systems.
• Impact on insects: LEDs are much more attractive to
insects than sodium-vapor lights, so much so that there
has been speculative concern about the possibility of
disruption to food webs.

APPLICATIONS AND USES

LED uses fall into four major categories:
• Visual signals where light goes more or less directly from
the source to the human eye, to convey a message or
meaning.
• Illumination where light is reflected from objects to give
visual response of these objects.
• Measuring and interacting with processes involving no
human vision.

Indicators and signs

 The low energy consumption, low
maintenance and small size of LEDs
has led to uses as status indicators
and displays on a variety of
equipment and installations. Large-
area LED displays are used as
stadium displays and as dynamic
decorative displays.
Thin, lightweight message displays are used at airports and
railway stations, and as destination displays for trains, buses,
trams, and ferries. One-color light is well suited for traffic
lights and signals, exit signs, emergency vehicle lighting,
ships' navigation lights or lanterns and LED-based Christmas
lights. In cold climates, LED traffic lights may remain snow
covered. Red or yellow LEDs are used in indicator and
alphanumeric displays in environments where night vision
must be retained: aircraft cockpits, submarine and ship
bridges, astronomy observatories, and in the field, e.g. night
time animal watching and military field use.

Lighting
With the development of high-efficiency and high-power
LEDs, it has become possible to use LEDs in lighting and
illumination. Replacement light bulbs have been made, as
well as dedicated fixtures and LED lamps. LEDs are used
as street lights and in other architectural lighting where color
changing is used. The mechanical robustness and long
lifetime is used in automotive lighting on cars, motorcycles,
and bicycle lights.
LED street lights are employed on poles and in parking
garages. In 2007, the Italian village Torraca was the first
place to convert its entire illumination system to LEDs.

LEDs are used in

aviation
lighting. Airbus has
used LED lighting in
their Airbus A320
Enhanced since
2007, and Boeing plans its use in the 787. LEDs are also being
used now in airport and heliport lighting. LED airport fixtures
currently include medium-intensity runway lights, runway
centerline lights, taxiway centerline and edge lights,
guidance signs, and obstruction lighting.
LEDs are also suitable for backlighting for LCD televisions and
lightweight laptop displays and light source
for DLP projectors .RGB LEDs raise the color gamut by as
much as 45%. Screens for TV and computer displays can be
made thinner using LEDs for backlighting.
The lack of IR or heat radiation makes LEDs ideal for stage
lights using banks of RGB LEDs that can easily change color
and decrease heating from traditional stage lighting, as well
as medical lighting where IR-radiation can be harmful. In
energy conservation, the lower heat output of LEDs also
means air conditioning (cooling) systems have less heat to
dispose of.
LEDs are used in mining operations, as cap lamps to provide
light for miners. Research has been done to improve LEDs for
mining, to reduce glare and to increase illumination,
reducing risk of injury for the miners.
LEDs are now used commonly in all market areas from
commercial to home use: standard lighting, AV, stage,
theatrical, architectural, and public installations, and
wherever artificial light is used.

Electronic contact lenses

Researchers have come

up with a way to place a
light-emitting diode on
a contact lens. The
research team tested
these high tech lenses
on rabbits with positive
results. In the future, computer embedded contact lenses
could be developed to work in a similar manner as Google
Glass.

Data communication and other signaling

Light can be used to transmit data and analog signals.
Assistive listening devices in many theaters and similar
spaces use arrays of infrared LEDs to send sound to listeners'
receivers. Light-emitting diodes are used to send data over
many types of fiber optic cable, from digital audio
over TOSLINK cables to the very high bandwidth fiber links
that form the internet backbone. For some time, computers
were commonly equipped with IrDA interfaces, which
allowed them to send and receive data to nearby machines
via infrared.
Sustainable lighting

Efficient lighting is needed

for sustainable architecture. In
2009, a typical 13-watt LED lamp
emitted 450 to 650 lumens, which
is equivalent to a standard 40-watt
incandescent bulb. In 2011, LEDs
have become more efficient, so
that a 6-watt LED can easily
achieve the same results. A
standard 40-watt incandescent
bulb has an expected lifespan of
1,000 hours, whereas an LED can continue to operate with
reduced efficiency for more than 50,000 hours, 50 times
longer than the incandescent bulb.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

• WWW.WIKIPEDIA.COM

• NCERT TEXTBOOK CLASS 12

• WWW.ENCYCLOPEDIA.COM

• WWW.PHYSICSRESEARCH.IN

• WWW.ALLPROJECTS.IN

• WWW.GOOGLE.COM