LED technology development

The latest LED technology is only 50 years old, when the first LED bulb was made in the General Electric research laboratories. The United States and Germany are the biggest investors into this new and complex technology, and they are today’s leaders in the LED industry.

The first LED lights were red, followed by green ones in 1993, and the white LED light technology which can be used for a vast range of illumination purposes has left the confines of research laboratories only a decade ago.

Nobel Prize to the inventors of the blue LED diode!

The winners of the 2014 Nobel Prize for physics are three professors from the University of Nagoya in Japan. Back in the 90-ies, Shuji Nakamura, Hiroshi Amano and Isamu Akasaki have made diodes emitting blue light. This invention (LE-diodes) has allowed the development of the most efficient sources of white light, which are becoming a standard in lighting industry, high technology, car industry and households.

It was the blue diodes (together with red and green diodes) that allowed the mixing of colors to obtain diverse shades, which ultimately lead to the production of white and RGB sources of light, which are applied in a vast number of different devices – ranging from light fixtures with a wide range of options and common light bulbs for households to TV and mobile phone screens.

The classic light bulb has an efficiency of about 16lm/W, while the current energy efficiency record for LED light fixtures exceeds 300lm/W! If we know that lighting accounts for a quarter of the world’s electric power consumption, it is easy to grasp the importance of the discovery of this technology.
The Japanese professors were officially awarded the Nobel Prize on 10 December 2014 at the ceremony in Stockholm.

LED today

The efficiency of LED sources is literally increasing daily. Small dimensions, optics (lenses for directing the beam of light), exceptional efficiency and control of the emitted light have made the modern LED light fixtures a winner, excelling over high-pressure fluorescent and discharge lamps. Simple management and regulation, the fact that they can function without a problem at low temperatures, as well as their exceptional durability, all confirm the quality of LED lamps. In view of the toxicity of the materials used for classic light fixtures, many countries also regulate their use by law.

LED lighting is highly ecological – after the expiry of its useful life, it can be fully recycled.

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