One of the best things about modern LEDs is all the colors they come in. It used to be that LEDs were only red or maybe yellow and orange, which is why early electronics from the 70s and 80s only had red LEDs. The color emitted from an LED has to do with what type of material they are made of. So red, for example, is made with Gallium Arsenide. Since then, scientists have experimented with many other materials and figured out how to make other colors such as green and blue, as well as violet and white. (You can see a massive table of all the different materials used to make LEDs in the wikipedia page )

When Adafruit first started making electronics in the late 90’s, we bought some 5mm blue LEDs and they were $3 each. Now you can get easily a dozen LEDs for that price. Life is good! Learn more about what makes the invention of the Blue LED so special,
Bloomberg Originals shared this video on Youtube!

Not only are small, energy efficient LEDs used in almost every piece of modern electronics, they have the greatest potential impact on energy savings globally. But LEDs didn’t have much use until the ’90s, when Japanese scientists discovered the missing link needed to complete the color spectrum: The blue LED

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