History of the LED

High school (ages 12+)
Science & Technology

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/history-of-the-led

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. Who invented History of the LED?Early 1990s by Shuji Nakamura, Hiroshi Amano, and Isamu Akasaki
2. What is the first observation of electroluminescence?1906 by Henry Joseph Round in silicon carbide
3. What is the development of first practical LED?1961 by researchers at Texas Instruments (infrared and visible red)
4. What is an LED and how was it first discovered?An LED is a tiny light that shines when electricity passes through it. In 1906, a scientist named Henry Round saw a yellowish glow from a silicon carbide diode while working on radio detectors.
5. Who found the LED again in 1927 and what did he do?In 1927, Russian scientist Oleg Losev built a working LED and called it a "light‑emitting diode." He showed it could glow, but it was still very dim and not bright enough for everyday use.

Electroluminescence: The emission of light by a substance when an electric current passes through it, a fundamental principle of LED operation.
Gallium Nitride (GaN): A semiconductor material crucial for the development of efficient blue and green LEDs.
Additive Color Mixing: Combining different colors of light (like red, green, and blue) to create other colors, including white.