Osram leads German consortium aiming at high-power UV LEDs

Osram Opto Semiconductors said it is leading a government backed consortium to develop what Osram described as a high-power, mass-market ultraviolet (UV) LED chip.

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Ultraviolet light is used in a wide variety of applications such as curing (drying), disinfection, production, medicine, and the life sciences. Conventional non-LED sources such as mercury vapor lamps come with certain potential hazards. And many of the UV LED chips already on the market don’t yet economically emit at certain useful wavelengths, although we recently reported on a UV LED breakthrough announced by LG Innotek.

“The partners have made it their goal to provide high-power UV LEDs to cover a wide variety of applications,” Osram said. “These LEDs will eventually replace conventional UV light sources, which often contain toxic mercury.”

Osram said the new high-power chips “are also likely to open up new areas of application.”

UV is an emerging field for LED makers. Suppliers include RayVio, Nikkiso, Vital Vio, Sensor Electronic Technology, and the aforementioned LG Innotek, among others.

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The Osram-led consortium is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). It hopes to develop a prototype by 2020 operating from around the 250-nm wavelength to around 310 nm, which spans parts of the UV-B and UV-C spectrums.