Working Principle of Light Emitting Diode: Electrical4U
Working Principle of Light Emitting Diode: Electrical4U
Working Principle of Light Emitting Diode: Electrical4U
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An LED is just like a normal p n junction diode, but with light-emitting properties. Its
construction and working can be explained as follows.
Working of LED
Like an ordinary diode, the LED diode works when it is forward biased. In this case, the n-type
semiconductor is heavily doped than the p-type forming the p-n junction. When it is forward
biased, the potential barrier gets reduced and the electrons and holes combine at the depletion
layer (or active layer), light or photons are emitted or radiated in all directions. A typical figure
blow showing light emission due electron-hole pair combining on forward biasing.
The explanation behind the emission of photons in an LED diode lies in the energy band theory
of solids. According to this theory, whether the electron-hole combining will give out photons or
not depends on whether the material has a direct band gap or indirect band gap. Those
semiconductor materials which have a direct band gap are the ones that emit photons. In a direct
bandgap material, the bottom of the energy level of conduction band lies directly above the
topmost energy level of the valence band on the Energy vs Momentum (wave vector ‘k’)
diagram. When electrons and hole recombine, energy E = hν corresponding to the energy gap △
(eV) is escaped in the form of light energy or photons where h is the Planck’s constant and ν is
the frequency of light.
LED is structured in such a way so that light emitted does not get reabsorbed into the material.
So it is ensured that the electron-hole recombination takes place on the surface.
The above figure shows the two different ways of structuring LED p-n junction. The p-type layer
is made thin and is grown on the n-type substrate. Metal electrodes attached on either side of the
p-n junction serve as nodes for external electrical connection. The Light emitting diode p-n
junction is encased in a dome-shaped transparent case so that light is emitted uniformly in all
directions and minimum internal reflection to take place.
The larger leg of LED represents the positive electrode or anode.
LEDs with more than 2 legs are also available such as 3, 4 and 6 pin configurations to obtain
multi-colors in the same LED package. Surface mounted LED displays are available that can be
mounted on the PCBs.
The current rating of LED is of few tens milli-amps. Hence it is necessary to connect a high
resistance in series to it. The forward voltage drop of an LED is much larger than an ordinary
diode and is around 1.5 to 3.5 volts.
LED lamps, bulbs, street lighting are becoming very popular these days because of the very high
efficiency of LEDs in terms of light output per unit input power(in milliWatts), as compared to
the incandescent bulbs. So for general purpose lightings, white light is preferred. To produce
white light with the help of LEDs, two methods are used :
1. Mixing of three primary colors RGB to produce white light. This method has high
quantum efficiency.
2. The other method is coating an LED of one color with phosphor of a different color in
order to produce white light. This method is commercially popular to manufacture LED
bulbs and lightings.
Applications of LEDs