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Comment by kokojumbo | Hacker News Reader

Yea, just look at how much redundancy in satellites and space probes we need to operate within the range of Sun's heliosphere. Outer space outside it would be even more killer to current electronics. Even if we switch to silicon carbide (which could possibly still remain harder to manufacture process) stuff it still would be a factor to consider.

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> Even if we switch to silicon carbide (which could possibly still remain harder to manufacture process)

In the 1980s I got a copy of the latest Cricklewood Electronics catalogue that had a whole page devoted to these newfangled SiC blue LEDs. Blue! Actually properly blue, too!

They were 40 quid each, and indeed the text box where it gave the price said something like "£40 - yes, really, yes these are one of the most expensive components we have ever stocked".

The inventor of the blue LED came to our school for a talk like 5 years ago. IIRC he won a Nobel prize?

He got the Nobel Prize because the blue LED + phosphor enabled the use of cheap, energy-efficient LEDs for general illumination, whereas previously LEDs had been used mostly for indicator lights.

And for the past 10 years, almost every cheap electronic device has been permanently glowing blue because of them.

EDIT: aren't modern blue LEDs based on GaN?

Yah, the first ones were a very different shade of blue and really expensive.

Silicon Carbide LEDs were the first true blue (not blue-violet) ones, but they were horribly inefficient.

Doped GaN made blue LEDs viable, and LEDs in general more available.

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