Why are blue LEDs so expensive?

[eyor]

Why is it that green, red, and yellow light emitting diodes cost only 1% of the price of blue light emitting diodes?
I had some cool mods I was thinking of doing but spending $20 on f@#$ing LEDs doesn't seem right! lol

 

[Renob]

Just spend the money the blue lights will make you happy

 

[Pastore]

yeah, what boner said

 

[Tominator]

<< Why are blue LEDs so expensive? >>



Because they are blue...

 

[Mday]

i picked up some white LEDs instead of blue ones. and i picked up some red LEDs too. the white LEDs cost 7 times as much as the red LEDs i got. oh, these were bright ones =) and clear when off

 

[eyor]

paul: I saw them for $5 at Radioshack.

Mday: I think the blue ones and the white ones cost about the same.

 

[Wedesdo]

i read an article a while ago.

blue LEDs are ususlly more expensive (and so should green ones) because they could only be manufactured recently, because they are more diffcult to make and require trace elements to be added in strange ways.

give me a while to dig out that article.

 

[Mday]

yeah, white ones cost about the same as blue ones

 

[eyor]

green ones seem to be most common and cost ~ $.20, I thought. I figured thats why they are there are 3 in my keyboard and one in the comp and monitor. which is actually what I wanted to replace! well... not the monitor one...

 

[Mday]

red and green are cheap.

 

[Soybomb]

Actually if you post in the case mod section at the HardOCP Hardforums someone usually will be able to get you blue leds cheaper than most other places can.....

 

[eyor]

did some research... caseetc has em for $3.sumphin, still expensive compared to green and red.

 

[BigToque]

I thought they were more expensive because you were basically paying a royalty fee to the company that created the blue LED.

 

[Doggiedog]

White LEDs are blue ones with a color filter on them.

The blue ones are expensive because they are made either of artificial sapphire or silicon carbide which are expensive to make and manufactured like semiconductors.

The red and green ones are made out of plastic.