LED’s open the way to new applications and markets in various different fields with a broad spectrum of requirements.
LED lighting has been revolutionary and perception of it as the leading commercially available lighting technology is transforming the lighting industry rapidly. One of its most important traits is its high reliability – whereby a lifetime of more than 50,000 hours can be reached.
But LED lights do fail, and understanding the possible reasons for potential failure is important before you adopt them in your home or workspaces. This article (titled “LED Failure Modes and Methods for Analysis”) provides an interesting and detailed analysis from a state of the art study of LED-Failures.
Some of the possible causes identified are:
Poor workmanship in manufacturing and un-favourable operational conditions may reduce the reliability significantly
A catastrophic defect like a sudden failure can be caused due to electrical overload resulting in a serious damage of the epitaxy layer.
Mechanical or thermal stress (overheating), as well as a reaction with outgassing materials can cause failures in the internal construction of an LED