LED Specifications
Peak Forward Current, IF(peak)

The Peak Forward Current, IF(peak), specification of an LED serves to tell you the maximum current that an LED can be fed without being damaged or destroyed.

An LED can only handle a certain amount of current before the current will prove destructive to it. If you provide more current to an LED than what is specified in the peak forward current value, you risk blowing and destroying the LED.

The peak forward current is the absolute maximum current that an LED can handle and this is only for a short period of time. The peak forward current, specified on a datasheet, can only be applied to an LED for the time period specified. This time period is either specified as a fraction of a duty cycle or as a time in milliseconds. The time that you can apply the peak forward current to an LED may be for only 0.1ms out of a duty cycle.

When examining the datasheet of an LED, read the value for the peak forward current and make sure not to exceed this rating when providing power to an LED in a circuit and not to exceed the time period specified.