Introduction

There are thousands of technological advances in our world that help thousands of people everyday. These technologies range from access to clean water all the way to keeping buildings lit at night. While these technologies are helpful to those that live in a developed country, there are many others around the world that do not have this opportunity. In underdeveloped countries, there are no lamps or lights that can be turned on to continue work inside and outside of the home. This leads to less productivity which could make or break a family. But with Light Emitting Diodes becoming more and more accessible, there is a new type of appropriate technology which could revolutionize the way that countries see light. LED lamps are being created to show countries a new way to look at light.

Defining Solid State Lighting

Solid State lighting is different because instead of using gas or filaments to illuminate, it uses organic light emitting diodes (OLED), Light Emitting Diodes (LED), and also polymer light-emitting diodes (OLED). In solid state lighting, electrons and holes are injected into a forward-biased semiconductor p-n junction; they recombine creating photons; the resulting photons are extracted from the chip; then the photons are either mixed with different-color photons from other LEDs, or are energy down-converted into a distribution of colors using phosphors or other down-conversion materials, with the colors chosen so as to create the appearance of white. The reason for the name solid state simply means that the semiconductor is a block instead of some other device like a gas tube. Unlike traditional lighting, however, SSL creates visible light with reduced heat generation or parasitic energy dissipation. In addition, its solid-state nature provides for greater resistance to shock, vibration, and wear, thereby increasing its lifespan significantly.