Light-emitting diode superior for illumination in terms of color rendering, whereas one cannot appreciate the color of red or green objects illuminated only by the yellow (and remaining blue) wavelengths from the YAG phosphor. The first white LEDs were expensive and inefficient. However, the light output of LEDs has increased exponentially, with a doubling occurring approximately every 36 months since the 1960s (similar to Moore's law). The latest research and development has been propagated by Japanese manufacturers such as Panasonic, Nichia, etc. and later by Korean and Chinese factories and investment such as: Samsung, Solstice, Kingsun, and countless others. This trend is
Superluminescent diode Superluminescent diode A superluminescent diode (SLED or SLD) is an edge-emitting semiconductor light source based on superluminescence. It combines the high power and brightness of laser diodes with the low coherence of conventional light-emitting diodes. Its emission band is 5–100 nm wide. In 1986 Dr. Gerard A. Alphonse at RCA Laboratories (now SRI International), invented the superluminescent diode. This light source was developed as a key component in the next generations of fibre optic gyroscopes, low coherence tomography for medical imaging, and external cavity tunable lasers with applications to fiber-optic communications. In 1989 the technology was transferred to GE-RCA in