Happy Birthday(s) LEDs!… But what does it mean? Tom Griffiths – Publisher October 9, 2012

 

October 9, 2012…October 9, 2012 marked the 50th birthday of the visible LED, accomplished by Dr. Nick Holonyak, Jr. at General Electric. Dr. Holonyak's invention was a the first practical visible semiconductor-alloy laser, accomplished with a blend gallium-arsenide-phosphate (GaAsP… quite an appropriate acronym), in parallel with Jim Hall's efforts with GaAs that resulted in the infrared semiconductor laser. Holonyak had a simple goal relative to Hall's laser effort… Nick wanted to see what was going on. (GE put out a quick write up, including an interview with Dr. Holonyak here). Of course, red alone wasn't going to cut it, and notably, on July 7, 1972, Herb Maruska the first blue/violet LED emitting at 430nm, and bright enough to be seen in a well-lit room. So happy belated 40th to the blue LED as well.

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