Comments on: An LED that can go 80 years on a battery charge?

The micro LED--which is significantly smaller than conventional LEDs--requires only a few billionths of an amp to operate.

[wrlee]

How bright?

It is hard to guage the relavence of this news if we do not know how bright the light was.

[Pleun Maaskant]

Visibility (with minimal power input)

The main characteristic of the Tyndall device is ?visibility?: the Tyndall light source yields visible light at an input power of just 30 nW.

The light can be discerned with unaided eye under normal room light conditions at a distance of about 1 meter from the source.

A coin battery (CR1620: 16 mm diameter x 2 mm high) has a typical energy content of 7 mA.hour at 3V.

The energy stored in such a battery would cover the power requirement of the prototype light source over 700,000 hours (80 years).

The light source has a high internal conversion efficiency from electricity into light, coupled with low leakage current. Additionally, this light source has the unique feature that it directs the light efficiently towards the viewer, without the need for encapsulants or external optics.

[fokwp]

Finally, a world I can live in!

"One idea floating around the lab is to embed these tiny devices into shoes or tickets to prevent counterfeiting."

So this means that we - or at least our children - will eventually live in a world that's free of counterfeit shoes. After that, let's go after global warming!

[hardchemist]

There is no 80 year battery :)

The longest life battery currently available only puts out continuous
power for maybe 10 years tops, assuming a friendly environment.
There is no 80 year battery....

But the point is well taken: the little LEDs could run for 80 years on
the total amp-hours of a typical coin cell, mathematically speaking.

[moonskin]

Actually....

That is a misnomer, they don't have a consumer battery that lasts that long. In the medical field they have tested a new type of battery for pacemakers and other implanted devices that have been estimated to run for approximately 40 years.

[bexamous]

jgfh

"The longest life battery currently available only puts out continuous
power for maybe 10 years tops, assuming a friendly environment.
There is no 80 year battery...."

Maybe 10 years?
http://products.panasonic-industrial.com/datasheets/en/Panasonic_Lithium_Handbook_Part1.pdf

After 10 years it'll have 90% capacity still. You can get lithium batteries that will only discharge 0.5% per year. Not rated for 80 years but that's because who really is testing for this?

I see no evidience that 80 years is impossible. And 'maybe 10 years' is obviously wrong. Definitley 10 years at the current rates the article speaks of.

[fred dunn]

LED TV, no more OLED, LCD, Plasma, DLP

If they could get it bright enough then silicon will beat OLED in reliability and MTBF.
As small as those pixels are I would say that it would make a fantastic TV source.
No more backlights or plasma to wear out. LED's are factors quicker than LCD. This really looks promising if they can manufacturr large panels in the familiar HDTV matrix and resolutions.