The incredible power of blue LEDs

In the 1970s and 80s, though, LEDs were routinely dismissed as ineffective. “There’s no way that this little dinky toy light is going to do anything useful – that was the attitude at the time,” says Paul Scheidt, senior product marketing manager at Cree LED, a major manufacturer of the devices. These expensive and weakly emitting light sources were fine for a tiny red indicator light or an infrared TV remote, maybe, but little else.