DISPLAYS

LED – LIGHT EMITTING DIODES

LEDs are very widely used in today's electronics equipment and they are one of the major
display technologies in use today.
Light emitting diodes, LEDs are used for many jobs. Not only are they used as panel
indicators on everything from televisions, radios and other forms of domestic electronic and
industrial equipment, but they are also replacing more traditional technologies for lighting
applications. To accommodate all these needs, there are many different types of LED that are
available.
With organic LED technologies also being developed and introduced, LED technology is
making an even greater impact on today’s technology.
LED SYMBOL
The circuit symbol for the LED is relatively straightforward. The LED symbol comprises a
diode symbol with two arrows indicating outwards to signify that light emanated from the
diode.

Light emitting diode, LED circuit symbol Alternative light emitting diode,
LED circuit symbol

Sometimes the light emitting diode symbol may be enclosed in a circles. This symbol is not as
widely used these days but may still be seen on many circuits.

The structure of the LED package can be split into three main elements:

 Semiconductor die: This is the light emitting diode semiconductor element itself.
 Lead frame: This portion of the LED package houses the die and provides the
connection.
 Encapsulation: This surrounds the assembly and acts as protection. It is also
designed to disperse the light in the required manner.

LED TYPES

Since the introduction of the first LEDs, the technology has spawned a huge variety of
different types of LED, each with their own properties and applications.
 Traditional inorganic LEDs: This type of LED is the traditional form of diode that
has been available since the 1960s. It is manufactured from inorganic materials. Some of
the more widely used are compound semiconductors such as Aluminium gallium arsenide,
Gallium arsenide phosphide, and many more – the colour of the light is often dependent
upon the materials used.
These LEDs are typified by the small LED lamps that are used as panel indicators,
although there are very many formats for LEDs of this type. However even within the
inorganic LED category, there are many different styles of LED that can be seen and used:

 Single colour 5 mm, etc - the very traditional LED package

 Surface mount LEDs
 Bi-colour and multicolour LEDs - the types of LEDs contain several individual
LEDs that are turned on by different voltages, etc.
 Flashing LEDs - with a small time integrated into the package
 Alphanumeric LED displays

 High brightness LEDs: High brightness LEDs, HBLEDs, are a type of inorganic
LED that are starting to be used for lighting applications. This type of LED is essentially
the same as the basic inorganic LED, but has a much greater light output. To generate the
higher light output, this LED type requires to be able to handle much higher current levels
and power dissipation. Often these LEDs are mounted such that they can be mounted onto
a heat sink to remove the unwanted heat.
In view of their greater efficiency, this type of LED is being used as a replacement for
many more traditional forms of lighting. Domestic lighting along with automotive lamps
are now in widespread use. They have advantages in terms of efficiency and environmental
factors over incandescent and Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs, CFLs. The HBLEDs have
 a greater efficiency level and they also have a longer life, especially when being switched
on and off many times. However they do have a finite life, a factor that is sometimes
overlooked.
 Organic LEDs: Organic LEDs are a development of the basic idea for the light
emitting diode. This type of LED uses organic materials as the name indicates.
The traditional types of light emitting diode utilise traditional inorganic semiconductors
with varying dopant levels and they produce light from the defined PN junction - often this
is a point of light. The organic type of LED display is based on organic materials which are
manufactured in sheets and provide a diffuse area of light. Typically a very thin film of
organic material is printed onto a substrate made of glass. A semiconductor circuit is then
used to carry the electrical charges to the imprinted pixels, causing them to glow.
With LED technology improving all the time, the efficiency levels of all the different types of
LEDs is bound to improve, and their use will increase.
LED COLOURS
Traditional inorganic LEDs are available in a variety of colours. The first LEDs to be
produced were red, but since then many other colours have been introduced. Now they are
available in the following colours:
Of the colours available the blue and white LED types are more expensive than LEDs in other
colours as a result of the higher manufacture costs.
In addition to the LEDs that emit visible light, others are manufactured to emit infra-red.
These ones are often used for applications such as television remote controls where no visible
light is seen.
The colour of a light emitting diode is determined by the semiconductor material used in the
diode. Although the plastic body of the diode may appear to be coloured, this is not what
gives the diode its colour.
MULTICOLOUR LEDs
Sometimes it can be very useful to have a lamp that has more than one colour, indicating a
different colour to indicate a different state. This can be done using LEDs. There are two
sorts:
 Bi-colour LEDs : A bi-colour LED is constructed by having two LEDs in parallel
with each other in the same package, but they are wired with one external connection of the
package going to the cathode of one diode, and the anode of the other. The other lead is
-
again connected to the anode of the first diode and the cathode of the second. In this way
when a voltage is applied one way round, one LED will light, and when it is applied the
other way round, the other one will light.
 Tri-colour LEDs This type of LED has three leads enabling any combination of
LEDs to be light, i.e. the first LED, the second, or both. The most popular form of tri-
colour LED uses a red and green diode. This means that when one diode is on, then either
red or green is produced. If both are light, then the colours combine to form yellow.

THEORY
A Light emitting diode (LED) is essentially a pn junction diode. When carriers are injected
across a forward-biased junction, it emits incoherent light. Most of the commercial LEDs are
realized using a highly doped n and a p Junction.
A light emitting diode (LED) is a device which converts electrical energy to light energy.
LEDs are preferred light sources for short distance (local area) optical fiber network because
 they are inexpensive, robust and have long life (the long life of an LED is primarily due to
its being a cold device, i.e. its operating temperature being much lower than that of, say,
an incandescent lamp)
 can be modulated (i.e. switched on and off) at high speeds (this property of an LED is also
due to its being a cold device as it does not have to overcome thermal inertia)
 couple enough output power over a small area to couple to fibers (though the output
spectrum is wider than other sources such as laser diodes).

LED TECHNOLOGY: HOW A LED WORKS

The LED is a specialised form of PN junction that uses a compound junction. The
semiconductor material used for the junction must be a compound semiconductor. The
commonly used semiconductor materials including silicon and germanium are simple
elements and junction made from these materials do not emit light. Instead compound
semiconductors including gallium arsenide, gallium phosphide and indium phosphide are
compound semiconductors and junctions made from these materials do emit light.

These compound semiconductors are classified by the valence bands their constituents
occupy. For gallium arsenide, gallium has a valency of three and arsenic a valency of five and
this is what is termed a group III-V semiconductor and there are a number of other
semiconductors that fit this category. It is also possible to have semiconductors that are
formed from group III-V materials.

An LED is a p-n junction with a heavily doped n-type semiconductor(n ) and a lightly doped
p-type. The device works if it is forward biased. When a voltage is applied across the junction
to make it forward biased, current flows as in the case of any PN junction. When p- side of the
junction is connected to the positive terminal of a battery and the n side to the negative
terminal, the barrier height gets reduced and the carriers diffuse to the other side of the
junction. Holes from the p-type region and electrons from the n-type region enter the junction
and recombine like a normal diode to enable the current to flow. When this occurs energy is
released, some of which is in the form of light photons. It is found that the majority of the
light is produced from the area of the junction nearer to the P-type region. As a result the
design of the diodes is made such that this area is kept as close to the surface of the device as
possible to ensure that the minimum amount of light is absorbed in the structure.

To produce light which can be seen the junction must be optimised and the correct materials
must be chosen. Pure gallium arsenide releases energy in the infra read portion of the
spectrum. To bring the light emission into the visible red end of the spectrum aluminium is
added to the semiconductor to give aluminium gallium arsenide (AlGaAs). Phosphorus can
also be added to give red light. For other colours other materials are used. For example
gallium phoshide gives green light and aluminium indium gallium phosphide is used for
yellow and orange light. Most LEDs are based on gallium semiconductors.

Recombination of electrons and holes also takes place non-radiatively, which reduce output of
the device. The fraction of the electrons that are injected into the depletion layer which results
in photons getting produced is called the internal quantum efficiency of the LED, usually
denoted by ղ.

The power output of the device is given by P=η Nh υ = η Ih υ/e

Where I is the forward current and e is the electronic charge.

ADVANTAGES

 Efficiency: LEDs emit more lumens per watt than incandescent light bulbs. The efficiency
of LED lighting fixtures is not affected by shape and size, unlike fluorescent light bulbs or
tubes.
 Color: LEDs can emit light of an intended color without using any color filters as
traditional lighting methods need. This is more efficient and can lower initial costs.
 Size: LEDs can be very small (smaller than 2 mm2) and are easily attached to printed
circuit boards.
 On/Off time: LEDs light up very quickly. A typical red indicator LED will achieve full
brightness in under a microsecond. LEDs used in communications devices can have even
faster response times.
 Cycling: LEDs are ideal for uses subject to frequent on-off cycling, unlike incandescent
and fluorescent lamps that fail faster when cycled often, or high-intensity discharge lamps
(HID lamps) that require a long time before restarting.
 Dimming: LEDs can very easily be dimmed either by pulse-width modulation or lowering
the forward current. This pulse-width modulation is why LED lights, particularly
headlights on cars, when viewed on camera or by some people, appear to be flashing or
flickering. This is a type ofstroboscopic effect.
 Cool light: In contrast to most light sources, LEDs radiate very little heat in the form of IR
that can cause damage to sensitive objects or fabrics. Wasted energy is dispersed as heat
through the base of the LED.
 Slow failure: LEDs mostly fail by dimming over time, rather than the abrupt failure of
incandescent bulbs.
 Lifetime: LEDs can have a relatively long useful life. One report estimates 35,000 to
50,000 hours of useful life, though time to complete failure may be longer. Fluorescent
tubes typically are rated at about 10,000 to 15,000 hours, depending partly on the
conditions of use, and incandescent light bulbs at 1,000 to 2,000 hours. Several DOE
demonstrations have shown that reduced maintenance costs from this extended lifetime,
rather than energy savings, is the primary factor in determining the payback period for an
LED product.
 Shock resistance: LEDs, being solid-state components, are difficult to damage with
external shock, unlike fluorescent and incandescent bulbs, which are fragile.
 Focus: The solid package of the LED can be designed to focus its light. Incandescent and
fluorescent sources often require an external reflector to collect light and direct it in a
usable manner. For larger LED packages total internal reflection (TIR) lenses are often
used to the same effect. However, when large quantities of light are needed many light
sources are usually deployed, which are difficult to focus or collimate towards the same
target.

DISADVANTAGES
 High initial price: LEDs are currently more expensive (price per lumen) on an initial
capital cost basis, than most conventional lighting technologies.
 Temperature dependence: LED performance largely depends on the ambient temperature
of the operating environment – or "thermal management" properties. Over-driving an LED
in high ambient temperatures may result in overheating the LED package, eventually
leading to device failure. An adequate heat sink is needed to maintain long life. This is
especially important in automotive, medical, and military uses where devices must operate
over a wide range of temperatures, which require low failure rates. Toshiba has produced
LEDs with an operating temperature range of -40 to 100 °C, which suits the LEDs for both
indoor and outdoor use in applications such as lamps, ceiling lighting, street lights, and
floodlights.
 Voltage sensitivity: LEDs must be supplied with the voltage above the threshold and a
current below the rating. Current and lifetime change greatly with a small change in applied
voltage. They thus require a current-regulated supply (usually just a series resistor for
indicator LEDs).
 Light quality: Most cool-white LEDs have spectra that differ significantly from a black
body radiator like the sun or an incandescent light. The spike at 460 nm and dip at 500 nm
can cause the color of objects to be perceived differently under cool-white LED
illumination than sunlight or incandescent sources, due to metamerism, red surfaces being
rendered particularly badly by typical phosphor-based cool-white LEDs. However, the
color-rendering properties of common fluorescent lamps are often inferior to what is now
available in state-of-art white LEDs.
 Area light source: Single LEDs do not approximate a point source of light giving a
spherical light distribution, but rather a lambertiandistribution. So LEDs are difficult to
apply to uses needing a spherical light field; however, different fields of light can be
manipulated by the application of different optics or "lenses". LEDs cannot provide
divergence below a few degrees. In contrast, lasers can emit beams with divergences of 0.2
degrees or less.
 Electrical polarity: Unlike incandescent light bulbs, which illuminate regardless of the
electrical polarity, LEDs will only light with correct electrical polarity. To automatically
match source polarity to LED devices, rectifiers can be used.
 Blue hazard: There is a concern that blue LEDs and cool-white LEDs are now capable of
exceeding safe limits of the so-called blue-light hazard as defined in eye safety
specifications such as ANSI/IESNA RP-27.1–05: Recommended Practice for
Photobiological Safety for Lamp and Lamp Systems.
 Blue pollution: Because cool-white LEDs with high color temperature emit proportionally
more blue light than conventional outdoor light sources such as high-pressure sodium
vapor lamps, the strong wavelength dependence of Rayleigh scattering means that cool-
white LEDs can cause more light pollution than other light sources. The International
Dark-Sky Association discourages using white light sources with correlated color
temperature above 3,000 K.
 Efficiency droop: The efficiency of LEDs decreases as the electric current increases.
Heating also increases with higher currents which compromises the lifetime of the LED.
These effects put practical limits on the current through an LED in high power applications.
 Impact on insects: LEDs are much more attractive to insects than sodium-vapor lights, so
much so that there has been speculative concern about the possibility of disruption to food
webs.
 Use in winter conditions: Since they do not give off much heat in comparison to
traditional electrical lights, LED lights used for traffic control can have snow obscuring
them, leading to accidents.

ORGANIC LED, OLED DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY

Organic LED or OLED technology is now established and being used in many forms of
display. OLED technology is now being used for many applications from televisions to
mobile phone displays. In view of the level of performance, organic LED, OLED display
technology is being used increasingly in many areas.

ORGANIC LED OVERVIEW

Organic LED, OLED technology has many of the properties of a traditional organic LEDs. It
utilises a PN junction and light emanates from this when a current flows in the forward
direction.
The different between traditional LEDs and organic LED display technology is that OLEDs
utilise organic compounds for the PN junction rather than in-organic ones used for traditional
LED technology.
The organic LED materials include a variety of substances, including Aluminium 8-
hydroxyquinoline and diamene. However many other substances can also be used for OLED
technology.

OLED ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES

OLED technology is finding its niche in a variety of applications because it is able to provide
a number of advantages:

OLED TECHNOLOGY ADVANTAGES:

 Flexible: It is possible to make OLED displays flexible by using the right materials
and processes.
 Very thin: OLED displays can be made very thin, making them very attractive for
televisions and computer monitor applications.
 Colour capability: It is possible to fabricate OLED displays that can generate all
colours.
 Power consumption: The power consumed by an OLED display is generally less
than that of an LCD when including the backlight required. This is only true for
backgrounds that are dark, or partially dark.
 Bright images: OLED displays can provide a higher contrast ratio than that
obtainable with an LCD.
 Wide viewing angle: With many displays, the colour becomes disported and the
image less saturated as the viewing angle increases. Colours displayed by OLEDs appear
correct, even up to viewing angles approaching 90°.
 Fast response time: As LCDs depend upon charges being held in the individual
pixels, they can have a slow response time. OLEDs are very much faster. A typical OLED
can have a response time of less than 0.01ms.
 Low cost in the future: OLED fabrication are likely to be able to utilise techniques
that will enable very low cost displays to be made, although these techniques are still in
development. Current costs are high.
OLED TECHNOLOGY DISADVANTAGES:

 Moisture sensitive: Some types of OLED display can be sensitive to moisture.

 Limited life: The lifetime of some displays can be short as a result of the high
sensitivity to moisture. This has been a limiting factor in the past.
 Power consumption: Power consumption can be higher than an equivalent LCD
when white backgrounds are being viewed as the OLED needs to generate the light for this
which will consume more power. For images with a darker background power
consumption is generally less.
 Lifespan: The lifespan of the OLED displays is a major problem. Currently they are
around half that of an LCD, being around 15 000 hours.
 UV sensitivity: OLED displays can be damaged by prolonged exposure to UV light.
To avoid this a UV blocking filter is often installed over the main display, but this
increases the cost.
TYPES OF OLED TECHNOLOGY

 Passive-matrix OLED, PMOLED: PMOLEDs are one form of OLED technology

that has become a popular. The OLED display is made using strips of cathode, organic
layers and strips of anode. The anode strips are arranged so that they are perpendicular to
the cathode strips with the intersections of the cathode and anode strips making up the
individual pixels where light is emitted. The external circuitry feeds the current to selected
strips of the anode and the cathode. This determines which pixels are supplied with current
and are activated.
PMOLEDs are a form of OLED display that are easy to make. Their drawback is that they
consume more power than other types of OLED technology. This mainly arises as a result
of the need for the external circuitry. Normally PMOLED displays are used for relatively
small screens, up to around 6 or 7 centimetres diagonal and also for the display of text and
icons.
 Active-matrix OLED, AMOLED: The AMOLED is a form of OLED display
technology that incorporates more elements of the drive circuitry, making it easier to
 address individual elements as well as providing more flexibility and a greater level of
overall performance and capability. In the display, the AMOLEDs have full layers of
cathode, organic molecules and anode, but the anode layer overlays a thin film transistor,
TFT array matrix. The TFT array itself determines which pixels are activated to form the
image.

MOLEDs consume less power than PMOLEDs because the TFT array requires less power
than external circuitry, so they are more efficient for large displays. Another advantage of
AMOLED display technology is that they have a faster refresh rate and this makes them
suitable for video. AMOLEDs are typically used in applications like computer monitors,
large-screen TVs and electronic signage.

 Transparent OLEDs : Transparent OLED display utilise all transparent components.

The substrate, cathode and anode are all transparent enabling light to pass through the
whole assembly. In this way, when a transparent OLED display is turned on, it allows light
to pass in both directions. This makes this form of OLED technology ideal for applications
like head-up displays. They can use either active matrix or passive matrix technologies.
These are some of the main OLED technologies. Although more are available, these are the
most widely used forms of the technology.

OLED technology is being used increasingly because it is able to provide some significant
advantages. There are many exciting possibilities that are presenting themselves to the use of
OLED technology, and in the future its use is likely to be even more widespread and including
a wider variety of forms of display.