The race and bumpy road to create the blue LED. - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: BrianHG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2024, 05:22:27 pm
content: Enjoy:

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2024, 04:23:18 am
content: Very inspiring, thanks.That inventor is like 'The little engine that could', and by that I mean the children's story about persistence.Many engineer types can't do that, over many years, as various family or health matters get in the way, along with other special stresses.I'd give a Nobel Prize to him, also!

author: Circlotron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2024, 05:16:08 am
content: Watched it a bit earlier this afternoon, coincidentally.Recommended.

author: BrianHG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2024, 05:28:58 am
content: It seems Nichia treated him like crap towards the end especially once he got it working. Somehow, this is sort of the nature of being an engineering employee in Japan even if you were the key to their future beyond their objections to even continue working on their key product. I'm glad he made it out and moved to the States where he has been given the respect he deserves. Though, I'm sure he went through a world of stress especially after he began helping Cree and that sad low 8m$ final verdict which only covered his legal fees to date.

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2024, 06:08:43 am
content: Brianhg:Thanks, again. My thoughts about SUCCESS, generally are very fluid. Not knowing much about the man's personal life, he certainly appears to have skipped the whole marriage and kids thing, working those long hours, 7 days a week. One (unpleasant) alternate background might have involved ironic aspects, like having a kid gone bad, in a wealthy house ! Or some other bunch of 'legal' troubles, like the 'rich' sometimes face.Maybe he has some eastern religious feelings that helped weather the lack of great financial rewards. I don't know, but would be interested in some sort of biography or autobiography, to really resolve what his total experience has been.He certainly had a knack for defiance, of doubters and naysayers, and that in itself is a special trait. Shit,...now I'm curious !

author: schmitt trigger
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2024, 01:27:36 pm
content: Exactly my thoughts.If this person had been working at a Silicon Valley company, at the very first disagreement with his boss he would have jumped ship, gone to a venture capital firm, and started his own company.And he would be a billionaire today.

author: richnormand
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 09, 2024, 09:06:28 pm
content: Very nicely done indeed.

author: fourfathom
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2024, 10:11:35 pm
content: Quote from: schmitt trigger on February 09, 2024, 01:27:36 pmPerhaps. While I appreciate VCs (I retired very comfortably at a young age, thanks to venture capital), but they usually have a fairly short time horizon. More likely after a few years the VC would have sold off what they could to another company. That other company would have used bits and pieces of the research and discarded the rest, probably never to get a blue LED..I was surprised that for so many years Mr. Nakamura was able to ignore the company's orders to stop working on the blue LED. Perhaps the book can explain this.

author: daqq
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 13, 2024, 07:33:52 pm
content: Fascinating response from the employer. With such an employee after his breakthrough I'd shower him with respect, money, resources, give him his own lab chock full of assistance, whatever he wants really. It's not like they couldn't afford it.

author: AndyBeez
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 13, 2024, 08:08:33 pm
content: Not forgettingQuotehttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuji_Nakamurahttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshi_AmanoHttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isamu_Akasaki

author: mawyatt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 13, 2024, 09:36:24 pm
content: Great video and story!!!IBM had a policy that when one became an IBM Fellow, they could work on anything and got a lab with staff and funding. IBM Fellows answered to no one except maybe the CEO. Because of this policy High Temperature Superconductors were invented at IBM!!!We had the misfortune of working for a major company, and after inventing the first fully integrated single chip silicon microwave receiver, were told by the CTO that he saw no value in wireless technology!! This after seeing a wireless thermostat (major company product line) demo in early 90Best,

author: BrianHG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 13, 2024, 10:42:47 pm
content: Quote from: fourfathom on February 09, 2024, 10:11:35 pmI'm about to seek VC funding for a project of mine where I have been recently awarded 2 patents, but the time scale of fitness technology means I need a few years of funding before profits will kick in. I'm in it for the long run, not interested in selling out or retiring.I really need a partner with 'deep pockets', or a partner who will get money through a large group of multiple investors.

author: iMo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 13, 2024, 10:55:36 pm
content: Quote from: schmitt trigger on February 09, 2024, 01:27:36 pmQuote from: daqq on February 13, 2024, 07:33:52 pmFound on the web:"Loyalty is one of the cardinal virtues of the Japanese culture. You are loyal to your family, your company, whatever group you belong to. So you can imagine what happens if you betray your group: you will be a kind of outcast. Something no Japanese can live with easily.."

author: BrianHG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 14, 2024, 01:04:37 am
content: Quote from: quince on February 13, 2024, 11:24:11 pmYou obviously don't understand the meaning of 'Deep Pockets'.No lottery here in Canada can guarantee me 100m$ USD I require, and that's first round. I may require a second.I think the largest Canadian lottery occasionally hits 50m$ USD, and that will still not get me access and the notoriety I want within key specific industry insiders.

author: BrianHG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 14, 2024, 01:43:35 am
content: Quote from: quince on February 14, 2024, 01:23:44 amIt is an 'automated brainstem hijacking dongle', literally. And it is an annual subscription service.Not only that, but if you take a look at the another online fitness service like that of Zwift, they have just received their 5th round of funding and it was above 500m$. I dont know how a company in business for almost a decade can achieve continuous funding, basically they aren't making any serious profit or have a new strategy up their sleeve, but my patented 'automated brainstem hijacking dongle' wont have that problem. 100m$ is small potatoes as the current global online virtual fitness market is valued at 20b$ and with a CAGR or 31.5%, within a decade it will be a 200b$ market. (According to Global Newswire.) My patents expire in 18 years...

author: David Hess
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 14, 2024, 02:42:55 am
content: Quote from: iMo on February 13, 2024, 10:55:36 pmI might contrast Japanese loyalty with the West's Oath of Fealty, which requires loyalty in both directions.

author: BrianHG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 14, 2024, 06:50:59 am
content: Quote from: quince on February 14, 2024, 06:21:49 amI'm being serious, my AI workout music tech does hijack your brainstem (Yes, there is more to it than that...). I need 50 full time employees to bring a final usable product to market. On Kickstarter, there are only around around 10 successful crowd fundings above 10m$, all of which had known artists / novelists / game devs who already had an active fan base to feed from. Without that, I will never get what I need as 50 employees + facilities + international legal council + 5 additional international patents to be filed makes 10m$ seem too small as it will take 4 years before I expect to make profits and everyone needs a proper salary. I'm sorry to say open source cannot cut it, I need the equivalent of a small game-dev studio.

author: BrianHG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 14, 2024, 06:53:34 am
content: 2006 Millennium Technology Prize Winner Shuji Nakamura

author: BrianHG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 16, 2024, 08:42:49 am
content: Remember these: The blue LEDs that existed before the current InGaN blue LEDs...I remember at the time that my Volkswagen Passat car had a blue 5mm led as an indicator in it's dash board. It had a blue tinted lens. I believe it was there to indicate that the high-beams were on. Boy was it dim...

author: Zero999
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2024, 09:35:53 am
content: Beat me to it. I admit, I haven't watched the Veritasium, because I lost interest in is channel awhile ago, but just seem that one.Yes, I remember those old. expensive blue LEDs. I think I still have a few somewhere. I was fascinated by lighting when I was a child. It got me into electronics.

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2024, 09:45:35 am
content: I remember the initial excitement, and then the disappointment of getting one of the early, expensive SiC blue LEDs - I think from RS.

author: nfmax
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 17, 2024, 11:02:25 am
content: Thevery firstblue LEDs date back to 1906-07, discovered by the British engineer H J Round, one of Marconi's pioneering team, and published in a letter to Electrical World:Quote