Posted on 10/08/2014 11:39:24 AM PDT by servo1969
The 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics goes to Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura for work on blue light emitting diodes (LEDs).
Discussed by Tom Foxon and Laurence Eaves.
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
This seems like very old tech.
When Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura produced bright blue light beams from their semi-conductors in the early 1990s, they triggered a funda-mental transformation of lighting technology. Red and green diodes had been around for a long time but without blue light, white lamps could not be created. Despite considerable efforts, both in the scientific community and in industry, the blue LED had remained a challenge for three decades.
They succeeded where everyone else had failed. Akasaki worked together with Amano at the University of Nagoya, while Nakamura was employed at Nichia Chemicals, a small company in Tokushima. Their inventions were revolutionary. Incandescent light bulbs lit the 20th century; the 21st century will be lit by LED lamps.
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2014/press.html
Huh? I see tacky looking blue LED lights up at Christmas time all the time!
Nobel prizes are given for ‘very old’ anything....This was a major breakthrough at the time and is well worthy of the award
Most likely not a blue emitting LED but rather a white light LED with a blue cover....not even close to the same thing
In the article, they mention that the discovery was twenty years ago, but they are just getting the award now.
I am a big fan of LEDs - their performance numbers are so overwhelmingly superior to incandescent or flourescent lights. If their price keeps dropping (as anticipated) the older bulbs will not be able to compete on any basis, except to provide some heat when that is desired, like hatching eggs. They are not even most efficient at that.
I believe it really is blue - it has to do with the wavelength.
NO - there are true blue-emitting LEDS made from gallium nitride. GaN is a very difficult material system, that’s why it has taken a long time to get a high-efficiency blue LED.
Nobel prizes are given for ‘very old’ anything....This was a major breakthrough at the time and is well worthy of the award
...
Agreed. The technology is catching on and will only get better.
White LEDs are usually blue LEDs with a broad spectrum phosphor, although some are red, green and blue LEDs in the same package.
I’ll have a Blue Diode without you
I’ll be so blue just thinking about you
Decorations of red on a green Christmas tree
Won’t be the same diode, if you’re not here with me
Oh that White LEDs (Phosphor coated Blue LEDS) and Lithium batteries had been around in my mine and cave exploration days.
Sometimes we would stay underground for a week or more, and the logistics of having light would have been so much easier.
Not on CHristmas tree lights
You and I are in agreement. Christmas tree lights don’t use these expensive devises. The true blue LED is a Noble worthy achievement
7¢ each in 5000 quantity for a name brand at Digikey. If you are making Christmas lights you will get a lot more than 5000 at a time and go for lower quality (different brightnesses or dominant wavelengths) to get even cheaper. The days of $1 blue LEDs are past.
You might find this interesting
Sorry should have included the link
It is the addition of blue leds to red and green ones that allows a self contained composite white led to be made I think is what an earlier post is saying. Like pixels on a TV screen...
I worked on one of the very first displays that used lcd technology back in the nineties. I understand what the goal is. I also understand exactly how hard it is to actually achieve a true blue led.
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