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Electrical & Electronics Engineering vocabulary · Circuits and Components

LED

Meaning in electrical & electronics engineering, with examples

/ˌɛl i ˈdi/abbreviationCore term

In electrical & electronics engineering, LED means: Short for light-emitting diode: a diode that gives off light when current flows through it in the forward direction. It needs a resistor or a driver to limit its current.

In Turkish: LED, ışık yayan diyot

How it is used

Usually pronounced as letters, 'L-E-D', though some people say 'led'. Used for indicators, displays and lighting: status LED, power LED, LED driver, LED strip. An LED turns on, blinks or flashes, or is dimmed.

Example sentences

  1. The green LED blinks twice when the device connects to the network.

  2. The LED is very dim, so check the value of the series resistor.

Common collocations

  • status LED
  • LED driver
  • LED strip
  • blinking LED
  • LED indicator
  • diodeA semiconductor component that lets current flow easily in one direction and blocks it in the other. Its two terminals are called the anode and the cathode.
  • resistorA component that limits current or divides voltage by providing a fixed amount of resistance. Its value is given in ohms and its power rating in watts.
  • PWMShort for pulse-width modulation: switching a signal on and off quickly and changing how long it stays on in each cycle (the duty cycle) to control the average power.
  • Ohm's lawThe basic rule that the current through a conductor equals the voltage across it divided by its resistance. It is usually written V = I × R.

More terms: Circuits and Components

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