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Leds and Lasers
Leds and Lasers
LASERs
March 9, 2009 1
History
The first practical LED was invented by Nick Holonyak, Jr., in
1962 while he was at General Electric Company.
Introduction
device.
By scientific
definition, it is a
solid-state device
that controls
current without
the deficiency of
having heated
filaments.
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Principle
The essential portion of the Light Emitting Diode is the
semiconductor chip. Semiconductors can be either
intrinsic or extrinsic.
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This chip is further divided into two parts or regions which
are separated by a boundary called a junction. The p-
region is dominated by positive electric charges (holes)
and the n-region is dominated by negative electric charges
(electrons). The junction serves as a barrier to the flow of
the electrons between the p and the n-regions. This is
somewhat similar to the role of the band-gap because it
determines how much voltage is needed to be applied to
the semiconductor chip before the current can flow and the
electrons pass the junction into the p-region.
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Different Led Materials
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One way to
construct a LED
LED Device Structure is to deposit
three
semiconductor
layers on a
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Symbol
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cross section of traditional indicator led The positive
power is
connected to
How does a LED work? one side of the
LED
semiconductor
through the
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Mechanism
Band-gaps determine how much energy is needed for the
electron to jump from the valence band to the conduction
band. As an electron in the conduction band recombines
with a hole in the valence band, the electron makes a
transition to a lower-lying energy state and releases energy
in an amount equal to the band-gap energy.
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The bandgap energy, Eg is approximately equal to the
emitted photon’s energy.
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The electrons from the n-region basically flow across the
junction into the p-region. In the p-region, the electrons
are attracted to the positive charges due the mutual
Coulombic forces of attraction between opposite charges
of same magnitude. Thus “recombination” occurs.
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A LED is a
directional light
source, with the
maximum emitted
LED Radiation Patterns power in the
direction
perpendicular to the
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LED Types
There are two basic types of LED structures: edge emitters
and surface emitters.
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Edge emitters are more complex and expensive devices,
but offer high output power levels and high speed
performance. The output power is high because the
emitting spot is very small, typically 30-50 µm, allowing
good coupling efficiency to similarly sized optical fibers.
Edge emitters also have relatively narrow emission
spectra.
LED Characteristics
of the device. The
light output is quite
linearly
proportional to the
current within its
active region, so
the light output can
be precisely
modulated to send
an undistorted
signal through a
fiber optic cable.
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Led Characteristics
It does not have any moving parts, which makes the device
extremely resistant to damage due to vibration and shocks.
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