LED Rail Signals: Full Hardware Realization of Apparatus with Independent Intensity by Temperature Changes

• Main Authors: Giuseppe Schirripa Spagnolo, Fabio Leccese
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-05-01
• Series: Electronics
• Subjects: light emitting diode (LEDs); LED temperature dependency; light signals; temperature control; flexible electronics
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/10/11/1291

Nowadays, signal lights are made using light-emitting diode arrays (LEDs). These devices are extremely energy efficient and have a very long lifetime. Unfortunately, especially for yellow/amber LEDs, the intensity of the light is closely related to the junction temperature. This makes it difficult to design signal lights to be used in naval, road, railway, and aeronautical sectors, capable of fully respecting national and international regulations. Furthermore, the limitations prescribed by the standards must be respected in a wide range of temperature variations. In other words, in the signaling apparatuses, a system that varies the light intensity emitted according to the operating temperature is useful/necessary. In this paper, we propose a simple and effective solution. In order to adjust the intensity of the light emitted by the LEDs, we use an LED identical to those used to emit light as a temperature sensor. The proposed system was created and tested in the laboratory. As the same device as the ones to be controlled is used as the temperature sensor, the system is very stable and easy to set up.