Light emitting diodes (LEDs) are becoming a viable alternative to conventional light sources in many applications. Light-emitting diodes are semiconductor illumination devices formed by using semiconductor materials. The semiconductor have many advantages, including small volume, a low driving voltage, rapid response speed, resistance to shock, and long life, and also can meet the light, thin, and miniaturization needs of various apparatuses. Since the LED has the advantages of small size, vibration resistance, suitability for mass production, and ease of fabrication as a tiny device or an array device, it has been widely applied in display apparatus and indicating lamps used in information, communication, and consumer electronic products. Compared with a common incandescent light, a LED light bulb has the advantages of low power consumption, long device lifetime, no idling time, and quick response speed. LEDs produce less heat, operate for a longer life, are less prone to failure in high vibration environments, and consume less power. LED lighting bulbs can be used in different locations without thermal management constraints. As already introduced, incandescent lamps generate large amounts of heat for an equivalent amount of generated light as compared to other sources. This results in very high bulb-wall temperatures typically in excess of 250 degrees Celsius and large heat accumulations which must be dissipated properly by radiation, convection, or conduction to prevent damage or destruction to the illuminator support members, enclosure, optics or to other nearby components. Because of these advantages, it is desirable to substitute LEDs for incandescent bulbs in many applications. LED lighting systems have an advantage over traditional fluorescent lighting systems in that they can be controlled to vary both their color and brightness. Through an appropriate combination of these two parameters, subtle lighting effects such as sunrise, sunset, and mood lighting can be achieved. Because of this and other advantages, LED based lighting systems are rapidly replacing traditional fluorescent lighting systems in a number of environments, including transportation, military, commercial, and home environments. The LED light sources are not only utilized in outdoor traffic signal lamps or various outdoor displays, but are also very important components in the automotive industry.

Light emitting diode (LED) bulbs have recently been developed for use as a light source in automotive vehicle lamps. An advantage to using LEDs is that they typically have an operating life of as much as 100,000 hours before they begin to degrade. LEDs also draw less current from the vehicle's electrical system and emit more light than similarly configured or styled filament light bulbs. In the past, most automotive light sources have involved the use of incandescent bulbs. While working well and being inexpensive, these bulbs have a relatively short life and the thin filament employed was always subject to breakage due to vibration. LED light bulbs have been used for some time as the high-mount stop light in automobiles, where no particular amplification or reflection of the light is needed. These solid-state light sources have incredible life times and are not as subject to vibration failures. Nevertheless, the disadvantages of the LED bulbs are its narrower illuminating angle and difficulty in radiating light uniformly in all directions contrary to the conventional tungsten bulb. LEDs produce a different luminance, or brightness level, than incandescent bulbs given the same input current or voltage. LED is typically used in conjunction with a circuit that supplies power to the LED and that may include various circuit components, such as a current limiting resistor. LED light bulbs designed to replace vehicle incandescent bulbs have similar bases to the standard bayonet or the wedge bases.