How do LEDs work?

Light emitting diodes, commonly called LEDs perform many different jobs and are found in all types of devices. Among other things, they form the numbers on digital clocks, transmit information from remote controls, light up watches and tell you when your appliances are turned on. Collected together, they can form images on a jumbo television screen or illuminate a traffic light, and more recently, as an efficient solution to home and office area lighting.

Unlike ordinary incandescent bulbs, they don’t have a filament that will quickly vibrate and eventually burn out, and they don’t get especially hot. LEDs produce light from electricity moving from one type of semi-conductor crystal to another type of crystal within the LED. These tiny crystals of semi-conductor material are at the heart of an LED and they are surrounded by a miniature reflector, and this in conjunction with the LED’s lens assembly forms the emitted light into the desired beam pattern.

The job of supplying regulated power to the LEDs is the function of a specialized power supply that both regulates the power to the LED array and also may perform other control functions such as dimming, day sensing, and LED color selection. The special type of power supply used for controlling LEDs is generally known as an LED ‘Driver’. A much higher percentage of the electrical power is going directly to generating light instead of heat, which reduces electricity consumption.

Other then being more efficient, LEDs have several advantages over conventional incandescent lamps. LEDs can be fashioned to produce any color of desired light, and by combining colors from several LEDs you can produce any color in the visual spectrum. LEDs are fully encapsulated in plastic and have no moving parts, which makes them a lot more durable. They also fit more easily into modern electronic circuits.