LED
Light-Emitting Diode
A small semiconductor device that emits light when charged with electricity. LEDs come in white as well as many colors, including non-visible light such as infrared and ultraviolet.
Bright white LEDs are commonly used for phone camera flashes and LCD display backlights. LEDs are also used for indicator/notification lights and keyboard/keypad backlights.
Some LEDs contain multiple elements and are therefore capable of multiple colors. LEDs with red, green, and blue elements are called RGB LEDs and are capable generating any color in the rainbow.
LEDs come in many sizes. The largest, high-power LEDs are used in household light bulbs, commercial light fixtures, and street lights. Smaller LEDs are used in most electronic devices that incorporate any kind of light.
The smallest LEDs are called microLEDs. They are small enough to form a line that looks like a continuous, thread-like filament, or pixels in a display.
See: microLED
Last updated Mar 12, 2020 by Rich Brome
Editor in Chief Rich became fascinated with cell phones in 1999, creating mobile web sites for phones with tiny black-and-white displays and obsessing over new phone models. Realizing a need for better info about phones, he started Phone Scoop in 2001, and has been helming the site ever since. Rich has spent two decades researching and covering every detail of the phone industry, traveling the world to tour factories, interview CEOs, and get every last spec and photo Phone Scoop readers have come to expect. As an industry veteran, Rich is a respected voice on phone technology of the past, present, and future.
