Mankind has entered the age of brightness since Thomas Edison invented carbon-filament incandescent lamp in 1879. When we look back on the history of lighting, new light sources emerged in an endless stream, for example, fluorescent lamp, mercury lamp, high/low-voltage sodium lamp, metal halide lamp, compact fluorescent lamp, high-frequency energy-saving fluorescent lamp, microwave lamp and so on. But since the day carbon filament incandescent lamp was invented, the flaws have never been neglected by people, such as: when tungsten filament is heated, it costs too much energy. It is very fragile for lamp bulb and very easy to get an electric shock. Fluorescent lamp consumes less energy than incandescent lamp, it is very bad for eyesight and the mercury in the tube is very bad for the human body and environment. LED is a product that brings the revolution of illumination technology. It transforms electrical power into visible light. Compared with traditional lighting technology, the biggest difference is its structure and material. It has upper electrode and lower electrode where the conductor material and luminous material are in between. Furthermore, the color of light would change according to different situations.
LED is one of the solid cold light sources. It is not only much smaller, lighter and firmer, but also has lower voltage and longer serving time. Though according to the traditional definition of light effect, it seems that the effect of LED is not so good. LED’s efficiency can reach 80%-90% in the visible light area, meanwhile, it is only 10%-20% for the incandescent lamp with the same light effect. Furthermore, one single LED’s consumption is usually from 0.05w to 1w. A group of LED could be made into different kinds of shapes to meet various requirements.
As a new green product, LED is the inevitable trend of future development. It will be the age of LED illumination for 21 century.
1. Small volume
Basically, LED is a tiny chip surrounded by Epoxy Resin, so it is very small and very light.
2. Low power consumption
LED is driven by direct current and very low power consumption (single unit 0.03-0.06w). The conversion rate of electricity–light is close to 30%. Normally, the working voltage of LED is 2V-3.6V and the working electricity is 0.02A-0.003A. And it means that the power consumption is less than 0.01w, which saves 80% energy in the same illumination effect.
3. Long serving time
It is said that LED light has a long serving time. It is a solid cold light source surrounded by Epoxy Resin without any defects like filament luminous, thermal deposit and so on. With the appropriate electricity intensity and electricity voltage, it can serve 60,000 hours to 100,000 hours and it is 10 times longer than traditional light sources.
4. High brightness and low heat
LED which uses cold light technology generates lower heat than common light sources.
5. Environment friendly
LED is made by non-toxic and recycled materials. There is no ultraviolet and no infrared in its spectrum, so it is no heat, no radiation and low glare. As a classic and green luminous light source, it is a cold light source and could be in direct touch with human body.
6. Sturdy and durable
Since P-N junction is completely sealed in Epoxy Resin, there is no spare space in it, so LED is more durable and much sturdier than bulb and fluorescent lamp. And it is not easy to be damaged.
7. More colorful
LED light source has three primary colors: red, green, blue. Each primary color that has 256 grades which can be controlled by computer. Thus, technically, there are 256*256*256=167777216 colors in LED light source which achieves all kinds of dynamic changes and colorful images.
8. Advanced technology
Compared with monotonous illuminative effect of traditional light sources, LED light source is a low-voltage and digital product which successfully combines computer technology, network communication technology, image processing technology, embedded control technology and so on. Furthermore, it is a semiconductor opto-electronic device which could be online programmed, updated infinitely and changed easily.
