Can a membrane switch have an EL backlight?
Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2020 3:47 pm
Can a membrane switch have an EL backlight?
Yes, but why?
EL (Electroluminescence) <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroluminescence> is thin and provides even light flow, but . . . it requires an AC circuit which generates noise and it has a short half-life of around 3K hours. (Half life is when the EL’s brightness is half of what it is when first turned on.)
We recommend a LED which operates on DC and has a half-life of 70K hours. If there is not much room for the backlight, fiber optic or a light pipe can be used.