The term LED stands for Light Emitting Diode. Modern electronics relies heavily upon LED light bulbs. For instance, LEDs transmit information from remote controls, are used in traffic lights, digital LED clocks, flashlights, and to form images on jumbo television screens.
LED light bulbs are miniature bulbs that do not use filaments to produce light. Therefore, the life of an LED is much longer than that of a regular incandescent bulb, because there is no filament to burn out. Incandescent bulbs also tend to be much larger in size due to the filament, which must be housed in a vacuum inside the bulb. LED light bulbs last as long as a standard transistor used in modern electronics, and are lit purely by the movement of electrons in a semiconductor material such as aluminum gallium arsenide and silicone carbide. This effect is a form of electroluminescence
The simplicity and long life of the LED make its use very desirable for various technological applications. LED light bulbs are housed in a durable plastic rather than glass and perhaps most importantly, are much more efficient. In traditional incandescent bulbs heat is generated when activating the filament to produce light. This causes energy to be wasted on the production of heat rather than the production of light. In order to produce the same amount of light as an LED, an incandescent bulb would have to work even harder.
Recent developments in LED technology and mass production has drastically lowered the price of LEDs. Currently there are LED replacements for almost all common household bulbs, as well as commercial and industrial lighting such as streetlights, flourescent tubes, parking lot lighting, security lighting and decorative architectural lighting.
