Electronic – How is an LED constructed, is it possible to build the own

ledlightoled

I wondering if it would be theoretically possible for me to build my own led or oled. I am aware that this is not very practical, I'm more interested just as an exercise. I understand the basic theory behind leds and the materials necessary, but I'm not aware of the process required.

My environment is neither. It's hack space in NYC where we build a variety of things. My budget could potentially be a few hundred dollars. I've been looking a bit into semi conductor inks thinking perhaps that is the easiest route. I was really just looking to see if anyone has attempted this.

If anyone can point me in the right direction it would be appreciated.

Thanks

Best Answer

Yes you can! And no specialistic knowledge is required.

Check out this site: Building a DIY LED from SiC

Michael Lippert writes:

The green glow of the DIY LED! At the contact point of pin and crystal greenish light is emitted.

The setup is very simple. I took a crystal of SiC and attached a clamp to it to supply it with about 20 Volts. It is important that the plus clamp is used. It is further advisable to limit the current to something around 30 mA. This will prevent the crystal from heating up too much, as the diode forward voltage will be only on the order of 9 Volts @ 30 mA. If you have no current limiter on your power supply or want to use a battery, use 12 Volts as fixed voltage and be careful not to overheat your setup. The negative lead is attached to a wire which holds a regular pin from your sowing supplies. After applying the voltage the pin should be moved across the surface forming a cat’s whisker detector. Every now and then a tiny light appears at the contact point.

Here's a photograph of the operational LED:

enter image description here

Requires: Silicon carbide (sandpaper etc), pin, wire, power supply.

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