Red Green Blue Light-emitting Diodes Research Articles

Climatically Accelerated Material Processes Determining the Long-Term Reliability of Light-Emitting Diodes.

LEDs (Light-Emitting Diodes) are widely applied not only in decorative illumination but also in everyday lighting in buildings, flats, public areas, and automotive fields. These application areas often mean harsh environments, for example, regarding the humidity content of the surrounding air: besides outdoor and automotive illumination, even the household use cases (kitchen, bathroom, cellar) may represent extreme temperature and humidity variations (often reaching relative humidity levels close to 100%) for these devices; thus, their reliability behaviour in such circumstances should be better understood. Thermally activated processes were studied in several previous publications, but less information is available regarding high-humidity environmental tests. Moisture and temperature ageing tests with appropriate environmental parameter settings were performed as accelerated lifetime tests to investigate not only the effect of temperature but also that of humidity on the ageing and reliability of LED packages containing RGB (red green blue) chips and phosphor-converted white (pcW) LEDs. The ageing was followed not only through monitoring optical/electrical/spectral parameters but also with material analysis. Moisture-material interaction models were proposed and set up. It was found that humidity-accelerated ageing processes are more severe than expected from previous assumptions. RGB and pcW LEDs showed strongly different behaviour.

Distance and position estimation in visible light systems with RGB LEDs

In this paper, distance and position estimation problems are investigated for visible light positioning (VLP) systems with red-green-blue (RGB) light emitting diodes (LEDs). The accuracy limits on distance and position estimation are calculated in terms of the Cramér-Rao lower bound (CRLB) for three different scenarios. Scenario 1 and Scenario 2 correspond to synchronous and asynchronous systems, respectively, with known channel attenuation formulas at the receiver. In Scenario 3, a synchronous system is considered but channel attenuation formulas are not known at the receiver. The derived CRLB expressions reveal the relations among distance/position estimation accuracies in the considered scenarios and lead to intuitive explanations for the benefits of using RGB LEDs. In addition, maximum likelihood (ML) estimators are derived in all scenarios, and it is shown that they can achieve close performance to the CRLBs in some cases for sufficiently high source optical powers.

Multi-User Precoder Designs for RGB Visible Light Communication Systems.

In this paper, we design linear precoders for the downlink of a visible light communication (VLC) system that simultaneously serves multiple users. Instead of using phosphor-coated white light-emitting diodes (PWLEDs), we focus on Red-Green-Blue light-emitting diodes (RGB-LEDs) that allow modulating three separate data streams on the three primary colors of the RGB-LEDs. For this system, we design a zero-forcing (ZF) precoder that maximizes the weighted sum rate for a multilevel pulse amplitude modulation (M-PAM). The precoding design in RGB-based systems presents some challenges due to the system constraints, such as the limited power, the non-negative amplitude constraints per light-emitting diode (LED), and the need to guarantee white light emission while transmitting with RGB-LEDs. For comparison purposes, we also consider the ZF design for a PWLED-based system and evaluate the performance of both a PWLED- and an RGB-based system.

Space-time multichannel adaptive filtering scheme for VLC color cross-talk equalization.

In the emerging framework of visible light communications, the limitation of modulation bandwidth of light emitting diodes (LEDs) transmitters is counterbalanced by the use of red-green-blue (RGB) LEDs since they exhibit higher modulation bandwidth. Using RGB LEDs allows to exploit the spatial multiplexing aspects, that is obtaining parallel channels for transmission. In this context, we used at the receiver RGB-tuned photodiodes (PDs). Hence each PD can, in principle, detect only the information its tuning is matched to. The drawback of increasing spectral efficiency is the presence of cross-talk at the single PD due to the signals emitted by the remaining colors when a perfect color filtering is not applied. In this paper we consider amplitude shift keying (ASK) modulation, investigate the issue of the spatial (color) interference and we present a blind multichannel adaptive equalizer able to mitigate the temporary intersymbol interference (ISI) and also the spatial (color) ISI, this latter partially suppressed using suitable color filters. We analyze also the convergence of the adaptive algorithm and compare its performance with the literature.

Time-dependent color simulation of active-matrix liquid crystal display adopting the field sequential driving method

A time-dependent display color simulation method is proposed. For the time-dependent simulation, we applied our behavioral model of liquid crystals (LC). The model provides the transient response characteristics of the LC. The color simulation of a twisted nematic active matrix liquid crystal display (AMLCD) adopting a field sequential (FS) driving method is possible when combining the transient LC responses with periodically operating red-greenblue (RGB) light emitting diodes (LEDs). By modifying the gate start pulse of the conventional AMLCD, we created a virtual AMLCD driven by the FS method. The color performance of the panel was measured at five vertical positions, and the results showed that the RGB LEDs should be driven by a 70% duty parameter and a 50% shifting parameter to minimize line-to-line color characteristic deviations in the AMLCD panel. By using the proposed simulation method, it is possible to find the optimal FS driving condition for any display with arbitrary response characteristics to exhibit the best color performance.

Long-range high-speed visible light communication system over 100-m outdoor transmission utilizing receiver diversity technology

Visible light communication (VLC) has no doubt become a promising candidate for future wireless communications due to the increasing trends in the usage of light-emitting diodes (LEDs). In addition to indoor high-speed wireless access and positioning applications, VLC usage in outdoor scenarios, such as vehicle networks and intelligent transportation systems, are also attracting significant interest. However, the complex outdoor environment and ambient noise are the key challenges for long-range high-speed VLC outdoor applications. To improve system performance and transmission distance, we propose to use receiver diversity technology in an outdoor VLC system. Maximal ratio combining–based receiver diversity technology is utilized in two receivers to achieve the maximal signal-to-noise ratio. A 400-Mb/s VLC transmission using a phosphor-based white LED and a 1-Gb/s wavelength division multiplexing VLC transmission using a red–green–blue LED are both successfully achieved over a 100-m outdoor distance with the bit error rate below the 7% forward error correction limit of 3.8×10−3. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest data rate at 100-m outdoor VLC transmission ever achieved. The experimental results clearly prove the benefit and feasibility of receiver diversity technology for long-range high-speed outdoor VLC systems.

Air anions improve growth and mineral content of kale in plant factories

Air anions affect plant growth by stimulating various biological mechanisms. We investigated the effect of atmospheric anion concentrations on plant growth and mineral concentration in kale (Brassica oleracea var. acephala cv. TBC) plants cultivated in a plant factory. Kale seedlings grown under normal growth conditions for two weeks were transplanted to a nutrient film technique (NFT) system in a plant factory equipped with light-emitting diodes (LEDs) [red:white:blue (RWB) = 8:1:1 and red:green:blue (RGB) = 8:1:1, 181 ± 4.0 µmol·m−2·s−1, 12 h photoperiod]. Three concentrations of air anions (low, 2.9 × 105 ions·cm−3; medium, 5.4 × 105 ions·cm−3; and high, 7.8 × 105 ions·cm−3) were applied to the kale seedlings for four weeks using high voltage air anion generators. The medium and high levels of air anions increased shoot fresh weight to approximately 1.5-fold compared to the control after four weeks. Medium and high-level air anion treatments led to significantly higher leaf area than the control. The medium level of air anions improved the photosynthetic rate at four weeks of treatment although there was no significant difference between air anion treatments and the control. In addition, transpiration rate and stomatal conductance were significantly increased in the low and medium levels of air anion treatments, which likely supported biomass accumulation. Air anions also increased mineral uptake. The content of macroelements (P, K, Ca, Mg, and S) was at least 1.5-fold higher for plants exposed to RGB LEDs and 1.3-fold higher under RWB LEDs exposure. Microelements (Fe, Mn, and Zn) were increased at least 1.6- and 1.3-fold in kale shoots treated with air anions under RGB and RWB LEDs, respectively. In conclusion, air anions had a positive effect on kale growth and air anion generators could be used as a new technology for enhancing plant growth in plant factories and greenhouses.

Pyramid-shaped pixels for full-color organic emissive displays

Organic electroluminescent emissive displays are composed by pixels consisting red-green-blue (RGB) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) in a planar arrangement. When operated, these RGB LEDs are biased independently to produce the required color. In this manuscript, we describe a promising pixel structure, the pyramid-shaped pixel (PSP) for the integration of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) in full-color organic emissive displays. The RGB light-emitting diodes are constructed on the walls of the pyramid structure. When operated, the RGB LEDs emit photons through the base of the pyramid structure, hence these RGB LEDs share the same emissive area to produce the required color. The PSP structure offers the advantage of being a full color emissive pixel comprising of individual RGB OLEDs with very high resolution. In addition, pyramid pixel does not require shadow mask to pattern the organic materials during the vacuum deposition process.