Phosphors development for LED lighting

The use of phosphors by man probably started more than 2000 years ago when they were used in fireworks to modify the colour output, but real phosphor development is a 20th century phenomena starting in the 1940s, and its more recent development has most of the market demand being generated by cathode ray tubes (TVs, PC monitors, test equipment) and fluorescent lighting. However, during the last five years white LEDs have become very important lighting sources and the importance of LED phosphors for white and coloured light generation must be considered an important market driver in the future, and perhaps unfortunately, as a disruptive technology