[Laser] led txr - LED Microsurgery ????

[laser]

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----- Original Message ----- 
From: <stuart.wisher at talktalk.net>
To: <laser at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Friday, October 29, 2010 2:53 PM
Subject: [Laser] led txr

> The LED in question is the golden dragon 1W led. You need to do a bit of
> "micro-surgery" and cut through the lead to the anti-parallel protection
> diode in the led that prevents its use in this application (you can see
> the gold lead to be cut set in the silicon gel), then I have found an
> enhancement at 43V reverse bias.
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^^^ Could you give us a bit more info on finding and cutting the lead in
question and what you used to cut it?  This might be obvious if I had a
device in front of me but without one to look at I have a few questions.

I assume the diode is there to prevent reverse voltage breakdown and with
that in mind, do you have any idea how much reverse voltage the device will
take before it shorts?  Or does the series current limiting resistor prevent
damaging the device if the reverse bias voltage is set too high?  What I'm
getting at is when experimenting does one have to be careful to never exceed
a specific voltage or when the device suddenly stops working can the voltage
be decreased and the device start working again (wishful thinking!!!).

Mouser (in the USA) is now listing the LR W5SM-HYJY-1-Z as 6,966 in stock.
$2.85 each or $2.62 each in quantities of 10.  Is that the device you are
talking about doing the surgery on or am I confused?

A closeup photo showing the wire in question would go a long way but that
might be difficult without a macro lens on the camera.  I have a
photo-microscope here and could take such a photo but I don't have a device!
I haven't been able to find any on-line photos showing sufficient detail to
locate the wire in question.  When I try to bring up the data sheet on
Mouser I get a blank page.

If I know for sure that LR W5SM-HYJY-1-Z is the correct device, I should be
able to order a few and take some micro-photographs of the internal
structure.

The link to the mouser page is long but I'll attempt to post it here.  My 
guess is it will be truncated and you will need to paste it back together in 
order to get it to load:
http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/OSRAM-Opto-Semiconductors/LR-W5SM-HYJY-1-Z/?qs=4doZMDdbB2Utt3GhuHY6Ew%3D%3D

If you end up getting a page asking for a part number type in:

LR-W5SM-HYJY-1-Z

and that should get you to the same page.