NICK HOLONYAK, JR.
RUSS DUPUIS
GEORGE CRAFORD
Holonyak created the world’s first visible red LED in 1962 while working at General Electric.
Although most researchers at the time were trying to make light-emitters from gallium arsenide, which produces infra-red light, Holonyak made his visible LED from an unconventional
mixture of gallium, arsenide, and phosphide (GaAsP)—an alloy that underpins all high-brightness LEDs made today.
While at Monsanto in the early 1970s, Craford invented the first yellow LED and significantly
increased the brightness of red LEDs by adding nitrogen to Holonyak’s GaAsP LED technology. Later at Hewlett-Packard, Craford’s team pioneered the development of another new LED
technology (AlInGaP), which led to applications in traffic lights and automobiles. At Philips
Lumileds Lighting Company, Craford oversaw the development of the first high-power white
LEDs, which are widely used today in general lighting, car headlights, and cell phone flash.
A researcher at Rockwell International, Dupuis developed and refined a process called
metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) in 1977, which enabled production of
high-brightness LEDs. Dupuis’ MOCVD growth technology is the basis of virtually all production of high-brightness LEDs, laser diodes, solar cells, and high-speed optoelectronic (light
controlling) devices. Today, Dupuis is an engineering faculty member at Georgia Tech.
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