Deep ultraviolet LED medical research and development into new hot spots

Deep ultraviolet light refers to light waves with wavelengths between 100 nanometers and 280 nanometers, and has significant application value in fields such as sterilization, medical treatment, biochemical detection, high-density information storage, and secure communication. Compared with a mercury lamp ultraviolet light source, a deep ultraviolet light emitting diode (LED) based on aluminum gallium nitride (AlGaN) material has merits such as firmness, energy saving, long life, and mercury-free environmental protection, and is gradually infiltrating the traditional application field of the mercury lamp. At the same time, the unique advantages of deep UV LEDs have inspired many new consumer electronics applications, such as white goods disinfection modules, portable water purification systems, mobile phone sterilizers, etc., thereby demonstrating a broad market prospect and becoming a semiconductor lighting LED. After that, the global LED research and investment hot spots.

The research report shows that the future LED market may be divided into two parts, one part is the visible light LED for general lighting, and the other is a deep ultraviolet LED featuring high-tech innovation. Compared with visible light LEDs, the luminous efficiency and light output power of deep ultraviolet LEDs are generally low. Zhang Yun, a researcher at the Institute of Semiconductors at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, believes that fundamentally improving the performance bottleneck of low AlN and AlGaN materials with low dislocation densities should be fundamentally improved. With doping technology, design LED device structures with high quantum efficiency and high light extraction efficiency, and develop high-reliability chip preparation processes and optical bead packaging technologies.

As an important research and development institution for aluminum nitride germanium-based deep ultraviolet LEDs, the Semiconductor Lighting Research and Development Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences supports the epitaxial growth and doping of aluminum gallium nitride materials and deep ultraviolet LED chips under the support of the National 863 Program. The preparation process has accumulated many years of experience in R&D. At present, deep ultraviolet LED chip series with emission wavelengths from 260 nm to 300 nm has been successfully realized, and it has already possessed industrial mass production capacity.

Researchers published a paper in Applied Physics Letters that nano-patterned substrates made using nano-sphere technology not only improved material quality, but also improved light extraction efficiency. At a current of 20 mA, the 280 nm deep ultraviolet LED has an optical output power of more than 3 mW, and the external quantum efficiency and optical output power are increased by nearly one time compared to the conventional planar substrate. They also optimized the packaging process so that the packaged deep UV LED light beads achieved an output power of more than 4 milliwatts. In 2013, the deep ultraviolet LED key materials and device preparation technology of the Institute of Semiconductors of Chinese Academy of Sciences was identified as the leading domestic and international advanced.