Light Emitting Diode (LED)

 Luminescence is the basic principle of LED. It is a

process where energy is absorbed by a material
and then re-emitted as a visible light.
 Energy is absorbed when an electron is
promoted to an excited energy state; visible
light is emitted when it falls back to a lower
energy state.
 Direct bandgap semiconductors are capable of
emitting light efficiently. Impurities in controlled
concentrations must be added to direct
bandgap semiconductors to get luminescent
materials that emit visible light.
Light-emitting diode (LED)
 Construction and working of LED
 An LED is essentially a forward-biased PN
junction made of direct bandgap material.
 Some of the III-V semiconducting compounds
such as gallium arsenide (GaAs), indium
phosphide (InP), and alloys that are composed
of these materials are direct bandgap
semiconductors.
 When the PN junction is forward-biased,
electrons from the N region and holes from the
P region are injected into the depletion region.
 These e-h pairs on recombination release their
energy as photons of energy h = Eg
 The phenomenon of light emission from the
Electron-Hole Pair (EHP) recombination as a
result of carrier injection is called injection
electroluminescence. The recombination and
hence generation of light occurs close to the
depletion region.
 The LED packaging has to be such that the
emitted photons can escape the device
without being reabsorbed by the
semiconductor material.
 Depending on the direction of light extraction,
LEDs are called edge-emitting or surface-
emitting LEDs.
Surface-emitting LED
 In surface-emitting LEDs, optical power is
extracted from the top surface.
 P-type semiconductor layer is the top surface
of the LED.
 As the mobility of electron is high, the
recombination of the charge carrier occurs in
the P-type material close to the depletion layer.
 This top P- layer is thinned down at the centre
all along the junction so that the light has a
lesser distance to travel and can be extracted.
 For the maximum emission of light, the anode
is deposited at the edge of the P-type material.
 The cathode is made of gold film, and it is
usually placed at the bottom of the N-region.
This gold layer of cathode helps in reflecting
the light to the surface.
 Extraction efficiency can be defined as the ratio
of photons that are extracted outside the
device to that generated inside the device.
 A transparent hemispherical epoxy resin body is
fixed at the top of the device. Its refractive
index matches with the radiation generated. It
acts as a lens.
 It is used to improve the extraction efficiency. It
directs most of the radiation in all angles
upwards to emerge as a parallel beam from the
domed top. Therefore, the emitted light appears
to be the brightest at the top of the LED.
Advantages of LED
1. The brightness of light emitted by an LED
depends on the current flowing through the
LED. Hence, the brightness of the LED can be
easily controlled by varying the current. This
makes it possible to operate LED displays under
different ambient lighting conditions.
2. Light-emitting diodes consume low
energy.
3. LEDs are very cheap and readily
available.
4. LEDs are light in weight.
5. Smaller size.
6. LEDs have a longer lifetime.
7. LEDs operate very fast. They can be
turned on and off in very little time.
8. LEDs do not contain toxic material like
mercury which is used in fluorescent lamps.
9. LEDs can emit different colors of light.
1. Gallium arsenide LEDs emit red and
infrared light.
2. Gallium nitride LEDs emit bright blue
light.
3. Yttrium aluminium garnet LEDs emit
white light.
4. Aluminium gallium nitride LEDs emit
ultraviolet light.
5. Aluminium gallium phosphide LEDs emit
green light.
 Disadvantages of LED
1. LEDs need more power to operate as
compared to LCDs.
2. The luminous efficiency of LEDs is low.
Applications of LED
1. Burglar alarms systems 2. Calculators.
3. Picture phones. 4. Traffic signals.
5. Digital computers. 6. Multimeters.
7. Microprocessors. 8. Digital watches
9. Automotive heat lamps. 10. Camera flashes.
 Organic light-emitting diode (OLED)
 Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) are
made of organic molecules of low molecular
weight.
 Organic semiconductors are conductive solids
whose building blocks are
pi-bonded molecules or polymers made up
of carbon and hydrogen atoms and hetero
atoms such as nitrogen, sulphur, and oxygen.
 They exist in form of molecular crystals or
amorphous thin films.
 In general, they are electrical insulators but
become semiconducting when charges are
injected from either appropriate electrode.
 Electrons or holes can move along a polymer
chain and hence these films function as
transport layers for the charges.
 Charge carriers, therefore, need to be injected
into them from appropriate metal layers.
Construction and working of OLEDs
 The OLED comprises 5 main layers with typical
thicknesses as listed below.
1. Cathode with (~2000 Å thick Metal)
2. Emissive Layer (Electron transport layer ~ 800 Å
thick)
3. Conductive Layer (Hole transport layer ~1200 Å
thick)
4. Anode (transparent and ~1500 Å thick)
5. Substrate
 The top and bottom layers are protective glass
or plastic.
 These top and bottom layers and the electrodes
(cathode and anode) are made of transparent
materials in the case of a fully transparent
OLED.
 OLEDs work in a way similar to conventional
diodes and LEDs, but the layers of organic
molecules play the role of n-type and p-type
semiconductors.
 The highest occupied molecular orbital
(HOMO) functions as the valence band and the
lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO)
functions as the conduction band respectively.
 A potential difference is applied between the
anode and cathode.
 Electrons are injected from the cathode into
the LUMO of the emissive layer.
 This layer is made of polymers/molecules that
transport electrons efficiently. Hence it is also
called the electron transport layer (ETL).
 Generally, magnesium silver alloy, barium, and
aluminium are used as cathode materials.
 Tris aluminium (Alq3) is the most common
material for the electron transport layer (ETL)
and its electron mobility has a value of
approximately 10-6 cm2/V-1s-1 for field strength of
4x10-5 V/cm.
 The anode pulls the electrons away from the
HOMO level of the conductive layer thereby
injecting holes into the conducting layer.
 This layer made of polymers transports holes
efficiently and hence it is also called the hole
transport layer (HTL).
 Typical hole mobility achieved in the HTL
layers is in the range of 10-3-10-4 cm2/V-1s-1.
 Therefore HTL layers can be thicker when
compared to ETL layers. Anodes are generally
made of high work-function materials.
 The transparent Indium tin oxide (ITO) has
high work function, and it is used as the anode
material.
 As hole transport is faster, the holes migrate
rapidly from the HOMO layer to the ETL layer.
 The injected electrons in the LUMO and holes
in the HOMO combine to form excitons in the
ETL which then decay to produce light.
 As recombination and emission of light occur
in the ETL it is called the emissive layer.
 ETL made of Alq3 generally produces green
light.
 Other colors can be generated by suitable
dopants. Fluorescent dyes can be chosen to
obtain light emission at different wavelengths.
1. OLED produces continuous light as long as the
current keeps flowing.
2. They are used in larger displays for televisions,
computers, and billboards.
3. These displays can also be flexible.
4. An OLED emits light over the whole area that is
biased properly and therefore the pixel size is
determined by the electrode areas.