Does changing the Voltage and the Current passing through an LED affect the result in the same way?

Question

More directly : passing electricity that is 0.5 times the amperage of the one required will make the LED half bright, right? Is it the same with halving its voltage requirement? Or will it not turn on at all if it doesn't half 100% of its required voltage?

And similarly : What kills an LED? Powering it at 25mA where it demands 20mA ? Is it the same with voltage : Does powering it at 3V when it requiers 2V kill it?

Answer 1

Forward voltage versus current: -

Below maybe 1.5 volts you might not see any residual glow from an LED with your eyes and as expected the current (Y axis) is sub 1mA. If you doubled that voltage to 3V, the current would be off-the-scale in the Y axis and, for a normal standard LED this spells the end of the road.

All LEDs have this knee voltage thing and this is why we choose to control the current through LED rather than try and control the voltage across it.

Luminous intensity versus current typical example: -

On this example (right hand graph) the luminous intensity increases linearly with current but as currents rise beyond the scope of that graph you get less payback. Here's an example showing light output versus current and, quantum efficiency versus current: -

Efficiency reaches a peak at some moderate amount of current but the payback gets less as you rise above this value. Always read the data sheet on a specific LED - the graphs above are very generic.

Answer 2

In addition to @Andy aka's excellent answer:

• Halving the amperage to an led will generally about halve its light output (but this assumes it's currently being run in a point in its current/output chart with a near-linear response curve).
• In general, changing the voltage to an LED does change the current, but without a series resistor the LED's non-linear resistance makes this very sloppy.
• Two main things (besides physical/thermal abuse) generally kill LEDs before simple aging:
  • Overcurrent - Whether due to slight overvoltage without a series resistor (VERY easy to do), pushing too much current by overvoltage with a series resistor, or too much current through a current-contol device, any time you push more than rated max current through an LED, you're damaging it.
  • Reverse Polarity Breakdown - LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) are still diodes (and NOT zener diodes), so hitting them with a reverse-polarity voltage above their reverse-breakdown threshold will generally kill them instantly!