The source material for this LED is Gallium Nitride(GaN). Its quite a revolutionary semiconductor material developed first by Shuji Nakamura in the 90s at Nichia Corporation, Japan. It has a multitude of applications in different fields - optoelectronics, HF microwave communications and anti-radiation hardening for space vehicles.
These LEDs are very efficient in the sense that they consume less power and have more lumen output. And they die out gradually, unlike traditonal sources of lights like tubes/bulbs which will immediately fuse off. Which explains why they are robust alternatives for street lights, traffic signals, etc. They need less power, less maintainance and due to their solid state nature are quite tough materials.
There is an online journal of Nitride Semiconductor research not updated much now, but very useful - http://nsr.mij.mrs.org/
Check it out.
Many traffic light signals use these LEDs already across the world nowadays for less power consumption. Watch out for few in your city. I remember back in my college days that it was already being touted as a replacement for the century+ old incandescent bulb. Buzz and hype I guess but still with a lot of substance.
I experimented with Browser Ball in Chrome itself for a while and I found it very engaging. I think, it could help in teaching kids with learning disabilities to focus more. The way the ball path could be changed by repositioning new windows seems a fairly involved mental task with immediate results and a lot of cognitive delight.
But, I must add that CPU usage was full throttle... almost. Something still needs to be checked.
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I forgot to add. The blue laser which is used in Blu-ray disc players is also based on GaN.
The source material for this LED is Gallium Nitride(GaN). Its quite a revolutionary semiconductor material developed first by Shuji Nakamura in the 90s at Nichia Corporation, Japan.
It has a multitude of applications in different fields - optoelectronics, HF microwave communications and anti-radiation hardening for space vehicles.
These LEDs are very efficient in the sense that they consume less power and have more lumen output. And they die out gradually, unlike traditonal sources of lights like tubes/bulbs which will immediately fuse off. Which explains why they are robust alternatives for street lights, traffic signals, etc. They need less power, less maintainance and due to their solid state nature are quite tough materials.
Lot of research has been conducted on them. Here are couple of leading centres for GaN research -
UCSB - http://my.ece.ucsb.edu/mishra/studygane.htm
Cambridge(UK) - http://www.msm.cam.ac.uk/GaN/
There is an online journal of Nitride Semiconductor research not updated much now, but very useful -
http://nsr.mij.mrs.org/
Check it out.
Many traffic light signals use these LEDs already across the world nowadays for less power consumption. Watch out for few in your city.
I remember back in my college days that it was already being touted as a replacement for the century+ old incandescent bulb. Buzz and hype I guess but still with a lot of substance.
Cheers!
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I experimented with Browser Ball in Chrome itself for a while and I found it very engaging. I think, it could help in teaching kids with learning disabilities to focus more. The way the ball path could be changed by repositioning new windows seems a fairly involved mental task with immediate results and a lot of cognitive delight. But, I must add that CPU usage was full throttle ... almost. Something still needs to be checked.