LED technology has changed the way we interact with our world and our devices. From the tiny indicator lights on our electronic devices to huge displays in public places, LED technology has become ubiquitous in our daily lives. The advantages of this technology, such as higher energy efficiency, increased brightness, and longevity of LED displays make it a practical choice for a wide range of applications. This is why they are found in almost every device we use, from cars, screens, smart appliances, billboards, and televisions, so if you are curious to know what LED screens are, what types of LED screens are available, and how they work, then this post is for you. Because in this post, we are going to take you through everything you need to know about LED lights.


So, without wasting any more of your time, let's dive into it.

What is LED?

LED stands for light-emitting diode, and in its most basic form, it's a semiconductor material that lights up, or emits light as light passes through it—just as the first two words in its name suggest. The third word, “diode” in LED acronym, allows current to flow in one direction, and it is this feature that makes LED highly efficient, long lasting and, as a result, the preferred choice for displays.



Types of LED screens

1.Text Display LEDs
 

Just as the name suggests, LED text displays consist of a basic display that is made up of an array of LEDs and is designed to display text and alphanumeric information only. It is important to note that these types of display LEDs are pre-programmed to display certain types of text. For example, the welcome LED billboard you see in restaurants or the "We are open" / "We are closed" LED billboards you see in various stores are typical examples.

You'll notice that the LED is designed to take the shape of the texts they display; Hence, it is fixed and cannot be changed.

2. Image display LED
 

This type of LED display is often more complex than a text display, as it features two LED screens and these screens work together to display images. These types of lamps are capable of displaying text. The images and text displayed on the Image Display are static. You will often see these types of LED lights on a typical simple billboard.

3. Video display
 

These are the types of LED lights you'll find in modern billboard ads like the one in Times Square. These types of LED lights are designed by featuring many high pixel LEDs that display moving images with higher resolution.

4. Digital display
 

The only difference between a digital display and an LED display for text is that LED digital display screens are only designed to show numeric values. They give off a glowing red or orange light and that's because they're made with a seven-segment Nixie digital tube. This type of Nixie tube uses 7 segments to create all the numbers needed for the show. You will often see these types of LED lights in banks that display currency data or in digital watches.

5.LED Lattice Image Text Display
 

This kind of LED is able to display text and image data simultaneously. They consist of arrays of LEDs arranged in a series of rows and working together to display both text and images. It is capable of displaying animated text, but the displayed images tend to be static. You will often notice that these types of LED lights are used to display a variety of text that tends to move. These types of LED lights are used in airports to display gate information and flight details; They are used in concerts to communicate information to the audience, for example, the name of the artist performing; They are used in stadiums to display statistics, and even on some billboards.

The difference between LED retina display text and text display is that LED retina display can display dynamic text while text display can only display static text.

LED display technologies

1.Edge-Light LED (ELED)
 

Just like the names suggest, this edge-lit LED display features LED lights located at the periphery of the screen, oriented towards the center of the screen. These LED strips are placed either on the sides, the bottom, or all around the LCD screen. The way LED technology works is simple; What happens is that the light from the LED strips at the edges of the device shines into a light guide, then the light guide directs that light into a diffuser, and the diffuser finally spreads the light evenly and uniformly across the screen to produce the desired image with no bright spots.

This LED technology has been around for ages, and is now found in most budget-friendly LED screens.

2. Direct-Lit LED
 

Direct LED is an upgrade of ELED technology. With direct lighting, LEDs are placed behind the LCD screen to illuminate the screen. The LEDs are placed horizontally in a grid pattern from end to end of the screen. This arrangement of the LEDs ensures that the light shines evenly across the screen. However, it should be noted that the light is passed through a diffuser that also diffuses the light uniformly across the screen.

Due to the multitude of LEDs and the uniform arrangement of LEDs used in this technology, they tend to produce brighter images and provide greater contrast than ELED screens. And while displays with this type of technology are quite affordable, we would like to highlight that they tend to be more expensive than ELED displays.

3-Full-Array
 

The next type of LED technology used in displays is full array. Full Array LEDs are another type of backlit LEDs - just like direct lighting - however, the difference with this is that more LEDs are used compared to direct lighting technology, these LEDs cover the entire back of the screen, Provide better brightness and color contrast. One feature that distinguishes full arrays, however, is that the LEDs used are grouped into different individually controllable zones to provide powerful contrast control that automatically adjusts the light output of specific areas of the screen, creating deeper blacks and brighter highlights. Brighter-- This is known as local dimming.

4. RGB
 

RGB stands for Red-Green-Blue, and this type of LED is often used to produce aesthetically pleasing and colorful highlights. If you are a fan of games or decorations, you have probably seen RGB LED.

The way this LED works is simple, each RGB LED has a red, green and blue component attached to one LED. Therefore, depending on the color to be displayed, the current flowing through any of the red, green, or blue components varies, and as a result, each color component is either duller or brighter. For example, to produce a purple color, the current flowing through the red and blue components is increased, while the current flowing through the green component is decreased, and as a result, a purple color is achieved.

So, the ability to control the illumination of any of the three color components of RGB LEDs is the reason why this type of LED can produce different colors and almost all colors.

4.Organic LED (OLED)
 

If you have noticed, the first three technologies we covered in this section consist of a display (LCD) and an LED, and what the LED does is produce light for the LCD. Well, OLEDs take a different path such that with OLEDs, the screen itself produces its own light when current is passed through it; Therefore, no backlight is needed. Basically, how this works is that the screen is like a TFT toughened glass panel that has certain organic compounds like Polyfluorene, or Triphenylamine embedded in it, and when current is passed through, they emit light.

Due to the absence of backlighting, OLED screens tend to be thinner than the first three types presented and featured in this section. Not only that, but OLEDs have an infinite contrast ratio and this is because the brightness of each pixel can be controlled independently. Besides, OLEDs are known to be more color accurate, have faster response time with unlimited viewing angle than their predecessors.

5.Quantum Dot LED (QLED)
 

QLED is a typical LCD-LED with quantum dot technology. Therefore, the previous LCD-LED screens consisted of a blue LED backlight, and then this blue light was filtered through a layer consisting of phosphor gas, converting the blue light into white. This white light then passes through different RGB pixels to produce color images on the screen. Well, the problem with this process was that the resulting image contains the colors: red, white, and black are pale and affect the overall image quality.

Well, to solve this problem, developers have brought in quantum dots, and basically, with QLED, the phosphor filter screen is replaced by red and green quantum dots. These quantum dots do not act as filters but rather emit their own light, and when blue light from the LED backlight passes through them, the mixture produces pure white light, which is then sent to sub-pixels to produce images. Note that a mixture of red, green, and blue produces white, which is why it happens.

This process makes QLEDs produce more vibrant colors with great contrast and lower operating power consumption.

6.mini-LED
 

The idea of the LED mini is based on the idea of QLED. Essentially, it features the same technology as QLED, with the only difference being that the LEDs in the backlight are much smaller and numerous; Hence the name. Because there are many LEDs, they can be divided into more zones to provide more control over black levels and more contrast compared to QLED TV.

7. Micro-LED
 

The last type of LED on our list is micro-LED and this technology is a variation and upgrade of OLED. Unlike OLED which uses organic materials to produce light, mini LEDs use inorganic materials such as Gallium Nitride to produce their light. Due to the use of inorganic materials, this type of display tends to produce brighter images for less.