What is UV radition

As we all know, UV actually includes 3 bands, from 320nm~400nm, UV-A of low frequency and long wave to 280nm~320nm, UV-B of medium frequency and medium wave, and then to 100nm~280nm, UV-C of high frequency and short wave.

Application of UV Light in Different Bands

As one of the LED market segments, UV LED can be said to be in its infancy and is expected to have high growth in the future. Corresponding to the application of UV LED, the current industrial curing demand is the largest, and the products in this field are mainly UV-A LED. The sterilization and purification market is expected to develop the fastest and most potential market in the future. In the UV band, it is UV-C that can play a role in killing.

“Potential stocks” in the LED field

Previously, TrendForce’s research report pointed out that the market size of UV-C LED disinfection is expected to have a compound annual growth rate of 30% in the ten years from 2019 to 2029.

Main application market of UVC LED

At the same time, affected by the epidemic, the UV-C LED market has become more and more active. After the public realized that UV-C has a killing effect, a batch of demand broke out on the consumer side in a short period of time. Industry insiders also found that the market is developing faster than Other markets in LED technology are faster.

At present, due to the effective prevention and control of the epidemic, the UV-C LED market tends to return to calm. Fan Ga, the market manager of the lighting business of ams Osram in Greater China, said when looking at this trend: “I think this is a process, and everyone can calm down. Looking at this issue again，the focus of industry personnel will not focus on pure consumer items in the future, such as disinfection bags, but turn to more professional fields such as water disinfection, surface disinfection, and air disinfection.”

Why choose UV-C LEDs?

If we only look at efficiency, UV-C LEDs are still at a disadvantage compared to mercury-injected quartz lamps. At present, the ultraviolet luminous efficiency of mercury-injected quartz lamps is basically more than 20%, almost between 25% and 30%. However, the current UV-C LED is limited by epitaxial materials, and the highest UV luminous efficiency that can be achieved is only 6%.

Compared with UV-C mercury-injected quartz lamps, what are the advantages of UV-C LEDs in other aspects?

First of all, in terms of structure, on the one hand, the structure of the LED is more sturdy and not fragile; on the other hand, the quartz lamp tube is generally a fixed shape lamp tube with a certain length. The LED package is not limited by this condition, and it is more conducive to applications in any shape.

Second, it is mercury-free. With the entry into force of the “Minamata Convention”, from the perspective of the general trend, mercury-free is definitely a very important selling point for future application products.

Again, in terms of wavelength, UV-C LED can be infinitely close to the peak wavelength of 265nm, which has the best killing effect, but the quartz lamp cannot be selected flexibly. Basically, it currently emits the characteristic spectral line of the 253.7nm low-pressure mercury lamp.

Finally, in terms of life, the average life of the current lamp is about 6,500 hours, and the high-end lamp products can reach more than 10,000 hours. As for UV-C LEDs, the products currently launched by ams and Osram have an L70 of more than 10,000 hours.

Can UV-C LEDs replace mercury-injected quartz lamps in the future?

Fan Gao believes that to answer this question, we can first recall the process of replacing energy-saving lamps and fluorescent lamps with white LEDs, and the two have certain similarities.

More than ten years ago, fluorescent tubes basically dominated the entire lighting market. At that time, everyone thought that high-power gas discharge lamps, including HID, could not be replaced by LEDs. But looking back now, in fact, the replacement is only a matter of time, because the efficiency improvement and cost reduction of white LEDs are real things. “Therefore, I am still optimistic about the prospects of UV-C LEDs, but not in a hurry.

A balance of performance and price

Why are UV-C LEDs so expensive?

Mainly because the technical threshold of UV-C products is relatively high, especially in the field of epitaxial chips, the core technology is mostly in the hands of Japanese and Korean manufacturers.

It is reported that blue LED chips are mainly made of InGaN materials. If you want to achieve ultraviolet light, you need to dope with aluminum. The more aluminum is doped, the lower the wavelength will be. But at the same time, due to the problem of doping rate, the efficiency of the chip will gradually decrease, which is why many manufacturers try not to make the wavelength too short when making UV-C LEDs. From the user’s point of view, an excessively high doping rate will also make the product cost-effective. The shorter the UVC LED wavelength, the lower the light efficiency and the higher the cost.

Therefore, although in terms of wavelength selection, the industry recognizes that 265nm is the wavelength peak with the best killing effect. However, after taking into account the dimensions of epitaxial materials, light extraction efficiency and sterilization efficiency, ams Osram believes that the most cost-effective wavelength range is 265~275nm.

It is reported that around 275nm, ams Osram has launched a series of products OSLON® UV 3636 (low and medium power 3 versions), of which 2 low-power products can be used for static water purification on water dispensers; and medium-power, 42mW products , can be used for low-flow overflow water, as well as surface sterilization and other occasions.

In addition, ams Osram has also launched a 100mW high-power UV-C LED product OSLON® UV 6060 focusing on the 273nm wavelength. The efficiency of this product is 6%, so it will also become a new choice for high-flow water disinfection.

When considering market positioning, the original intention of ams Osram is to provide the market with some differentiated products and bring more choices to customers. “The differentiation we are talking about mainly refers to the output power. For example, as a low-power product, ams and Osram will increase the output power of the product, thereby helping customers to reduce the number of chips used,” Fan Ga added.

Take the low-power 4.7mW product of OSLON® UV 3636 as an example. Most of the common low-power products on the market are between 3 and 4mW. The difference between ams and Osram is that the output power is higher and the efficiency can reach about 2.6%.

If you consider the cost of the LED system, you can’t just consider the price of a single product. For example, how many materials does this system need? What is its wavelength? How much does its heat dissipation material cost?
For example, it is also low power. For example, the output power of another product is 2mW. In a fixed scenario, when the system needs 100mW, if the product needs 28 pieces, the ams Osram product will only be used. 18 are required. The corresponding reduction of these 18 LEDs is not only the cost of the LED BOM itself, but also reduces the heat dissipation materials, structural materials, etc. on the system, thereby significantly optimizing the system cost and volume.

UVC LED application expansion route

Actually, we also made our own market forecasts based on TrendForce’s report.” Whether it is price reduction or efficiency improvement, UV-C LEDs will go through a slow process like the white LED example mentioned earlier. The ultraviolet luminous efficiency will definitely continue to climb, and it is expected that in the near future, its efficiency can be increased to more than 20%, and the price will be further reduced to be close to the level of mercury lamps.

LISUN Solution:

Option 1: The handheld LMS-6000UV spectroradiometer is suitable for most factories to do basic UV testing, and can test the UV wavelength range of 200nm-400nm. It can test UV-A, UV-B, UV-C and UV total Radiant Irradiance, UV hazard irradiance, UV spectrum, Dominant Wavelength, Peak signal, Start wavelength, End wavelength. Please click here to see the LMS-6000UV Test Report.

Option 2: The UV light source test system is suitable for laboratories or customers who have high requirements for UV test accuracy. LISUN LPCE-2(LMS-9000CUV) UV Lamp Test System is used to test the UV lamp (light source) Spectrum, Radiant, Efficiency, CRI, CCT, UVA, UVB, UVC radiant and electric parameters.

 

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Tags：LMS-6000 , LPCE-2 (LMS-9000CUV)