LED 101

LED’s are what is known as solid-state components. There are minimal moving parts and that is why there is little wear and tear. Capacitors are simply known as electrical devices with the function of storing and unloading electricity ‘statically’. LED systems specifically use ‘Electrolytic Capacitors’, taking advantage of their small form factor.  Electrolytes either in gel or liquid form, contain high concentrations of ions which mean that the device is able to hold a large charge or capacitance in a relatively small volume. The device comes with drawbacks where it has ‘higher leakage current’ and shorter lifetimes.

It is found that almost all LED’s fail due to electrolytic capacitor failure. Limited lifetimes in these capacitors are actually quite a prevalent occurrence in consumer electronics. It is often a pity that a small component's dysfunction causes end-consumers to replace their whole television unit with a new one.

The life of an Electrolytic Capacitor is reliant on its operation temperature. A higher temperature would decrease its life span. In fact, a rough correlation indicates for every 10°C increase in operation temperature, the device is expected to last half as long and vice versa. What physically happens is the ‘dielectric material’ inside the capacitor will slowly evaporate causing the component to eventually fail.

At kudos, we choose to use the best electrolytic capacitors from RubyCon. Their chosen models and ratings are listed on our Products Page for each and every one of our LED models, giving full transparency and pride of the component in use.

Our LED’s Chips are never ‘over-driven’ past a junction temperature of 90°C, thus we have marked 90°C as our benchmark within the circuit board.