When did LED color lights come out?

The emergence and development of LED color lights are closely related to the progress of LED technology. The following are the key nodes in the development of LED color lights sorted according to the timeline:

Early exploration:

• In 1907, Henry Joseph Round first observed the electroluminescence phenomenon in silicon carbide, but the yellow light emitted was too dim to be suitable for practical applications.
• Later, Bernhard Gudden and Robert Wichard tried to use yellow phosphorus extracted from zinc sulfide and copper to emit light, but it was also not widely used due to the dim light.
• In 1936, George Destiau published a report on the emission of light from zinc sulfide powder. With the application and widespread recognition of electric current, the term “electroluminescence” came into being.

The initial development of LED:

• In the 1950s, British scientists invented the first modern LED using the semiconductor gallium arsenide.
• In the 1960s, the first commercial LED was launched, which could only emit invisible infrared light, but was soon used in the fields of sensing and photoelectric detection.
• In 1968, commercially valuable red LEDs were introduced. The phosphorus doping process made LEDs more efficient, red light brighter, and even produced orange and yellow light.

The emergence of LED color lights:

• In the mid-1970s, gallium phosphide was used as a light source, and the elements In and N were introduced to enable LEDs to produce green, yellow and orange light, laying the foundation for the emergence of color LED lights.
• In 1994, Japanese scientist Hideji Nakamura developed blue LEDs using GaN substrates, which was a key step in achieving full-color LED display.
• In 1997, Japan’s Nichia Corporation developed the first white LED, which marked the entry of LEDs into the era of general lighting and provided more possibilities for the development of full-color LED lights.

Wide application of full-color LED lights:

• With the invention and continuous development of blue and white LEDs, full-color LED lights have gradually become possible. Full-color LED lamps use white (including cold white and warm white and other lighting white light), red, green, blue (R, G, B) four basic colors of LED lamp beads. Through software control, a variety of colors can be allocated and intelligent control functions can be realized.
• At present, full-color LED lamps have been widely used in indoor and outdoor lighting, decoration, display screens, stage lighting and other fields, bringing people a more colorful light environment.

In summary, although LED technology appeared as early as the 1950s, it was not until the invention of blue light LED in 1994 and the successful development of white light LED in 1997 that the technical foundation was provided for the emergence and widespread application of full-color LED lamps.