Blue gallium-nitride LED
LED azul de nitruro de galio
- Date
- 1993 · confidence high
- Place
- Nichia, Anan, Tokushima, Japan; University of Nagoya
- Credited to
- Shuji Nakamura (Nichia); Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano (Nagoya); Nobel Prize in Physics 2014
- People
- 👤 Hiroshi Amano1960–👤 Isamu Akasaki1929–2021👤 Shūji Nakamura1954–
- Field
- Communication
What it is
A high-brightness LED in the blue part of the spectrum, thought impossible for thirty years, which combined with phosphor produces white light. It made LED lighting and colour displays possible.
Nakamura litigated against Nichia over patent compensation.
What it led to
- LED lighting, which uses a tenth of the power of incandescent bulbs
- Mobile phone and television displays, and the Blu-ray disc
- The reduction of the world's electricity consumption for lighting
Built on
- Semiconductor laser diode1962
- Visible light-emitting diode (LED)1962
- gallium nitride epitaxy
Made possible
- Blu-ray Disc2006
- LED light bulb2008-2011
- LED-backlit displays
- microLED