LED chip
- Updated:
- By: Kevin van Mierlo
Contents
What is an LED chip?
Definition
If you work with LED lighting a lot, you’ve probably come across the term ‘LED chips’ before. LED chips are electronic components that emit light directly. Put simply, an LED chip is a small LED panel. The LEDs are tiny and, together, create a clear beam pattern. One of the features of a diode is that it conducts current in one direction whilst blocking it in the other. A diode functions, as it were, as an electronic non-return valve. The direction in which current flows is called the forward direction, and the other direction is called the reverse direction. Even in the forward direction of a diode, current only begins to flow once the voltage across the diode has reached a certain value.
Colour
The colour emitted by the LED depends on the semiconductor material from which the LED is made and the voltage across the diode. The term RGB stands for red, green and blue. These are the colours that the RGB LED chip can mix to shape a wide range of colours. The colours that can be emitted include orange, yellow, purple and light blue. RGB technology is used in many LED strips.
When the term RGBW or RGBWW is used, this means that an additional LED chip has been added to the RGB chip. This chip is either warm white or cool white. If the chip is cool white, the ‘W’ (white) is added to RGB. The term RGBWW therefore stands for RGB plus WW (warm white). An additional chip with a warm white colour has then been added to that RGB chip. Are you interested in how colour temperature works? More information on colour temperature (Kelvin).
COB LED and SMD LED
COB is also known as ‘Chip on Board’, a technique in which the LED chips are positioned close together. This results in a neat display of the various LED light points. SMD stands for Surface Mounted Device. SMD offers high light output and is widely used. The LEDs are soldered onto a printed circuit board. SMD is becoming increasingly common because the LED chips are much smaller.
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Author
Kevin van Mierlo
Lighting expert at TRALERT® - Kevin tests lighting and finds out everything about legislation. He can tell you all about it.
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