History of LED lights is an interesting one, and they have come a long way to illuminate in households or industrial settings!
LEDs or light emitting diodes are one of the electronic components that is no longer alien to human life today.
LED lights today are widely used for a wide variety of purposes such as day-to-day lighting in household settings to more industrial settings.
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These LED lights are widely used because of its eco-friendly and low-in-power nature. And also aside from that, its variety of colors available can clarify the shapes or letters to be displayed and more, making it suitable also for industrial settings.
LEDs also have many advantages over conventional incandescent light. So, how’s the history of LED lights? Let’s break it down together!
History of LED Lights

Maybe a lot of you have guessed that the LED light is a 21st century invention, while in reality the LED lights were created as early as 1927 and have been developing ever since.
At first, LEDs were used only for laboratory research. However, in 1962, a French scientist named Nick Holonyak discovered a way to make red LEDs using gallium arsenide.
In 1993, Japanese scientist Shuji Nakamura discovered a way to make LED lamps from gallium nitride with higher efficiency. With this innovation, the use of LED lamps has begun to spread widely in a variety of applications including domestic and highway lighting.
LED lights today have been used all over the world because of their ability to generate light without spending a lot of energy. LEDs are also very stable and durable, which makes them a popular choice for road lighting applications.
Let’s see the brief summary of the history of LED lights below!
- 1927: Oleg Lesev, a Russian inventor reports the creation of LED and publishes theories on his findings.
- 1952: Professor Kurt Lechovec tests some of Losevs theories, then he goes on to explain the first light-emitting diodes.
- 1958: The first green LED was invented by Egon Loebner and Rubin Braunstein.
- 1962: The first red LED was invented by Nick Holonyak, this also the first on the visible spectrum.
- 1964: The first LED on the early computer’s circuit board was implemented by IBM.
- 1968: Hewlett Packard (HP) starts incorporating LED into its calculators.
- 1971: Edward Miller and Jacques Pankove created the blue LED
- 1972: The first yellow LED was invented by American Electrical Engineer, M. George Craford.
- 1986: Using magnesium, Herbert Maruska and Walden C. Rhines from Stafford University build a functional blue LED. establishing the benchmark for the future of LEDs.
- 1993: Scientists Hiroshi Amano and Isamu Akaski create a high-grade gallium nitride for blue light-emitting diodes. Through this, Shuji Nakamura created the first high-brightness blue LED which quickly developed into white LEDs.
- 2002: White LED for household use becomes easily available.
- 2008: LED lights start to become popular in schools, offices and hospitals.
- 2019: LED lights are the main source of lighting, replacing the halogen and fluorescent bulbs.
Also Read: “7 Benefits of LED Lights“
So there you go the history of LED lights in one bite!
While being popular in the 21st century, who might have guessed that this invention had a long and interesting journey before being one of the most chosen lighting types.
While the LED lights are considered safer and much more energy-efficient lighting types, the safety aspects of every LED product still must be tested before entering the Indonesian market.
Nonetheless, that’s why in Indonesia, the LED must be certified by the SNI certification.
The SNI certification is a series of regulations to ensure that every product and service sold, marketed and distributed in Indonesia is within Indonesian standards.
This includes the LED lights, as to achieve the SNI certification, the LED lights must undergo a series of rigorous tests to determine its safety and also its quality.
But, not only is it for the customer’s peace of mind, the SNI certification is also quite beneficial for business owners alike.
As having an SNI certification for your LED product means that your product is already complying with Indonesian standards and regulations. Thus, you can easily gain trust from the Indonesian markets.













