Nikkiso America, the San Diego, California-based subsidiary of Nikkiso Co. Ltd of Tokyo, Japan announced the general availability of 50mW deep UV LEDs. The company fabricated the DUV LEDs utilizing its well-established manufacturing process technology at the company’s fabrication facility in Japan’s Ishikawa Prefecture that includes epitaxy, wafer fab and packaging.
The VPS173 series UV LED product range provides 50mW of output compared to the previous generation that achieved 30 mW, a 70 percent increase in power level. The VPS173 reportedly demonstrated operating lifetimes exceeding 10,000 hours at 350mA drive current.
Nikkiso America VPS173 DUV LED
Initially, the company plans to ship 285 nm components in a surface mount device (SMD) configuration. The company also intends to release other products ranging from 265nm to 300 nm. Nikkiso points out that 2014 Nobel Prize winning Professors Akasaki and Amano developed the company’s proprietary AlGaN semiconductor technology that enables the highest performance and efficiency in the UV-B and UV-C portions of the spectrum.
Dennis Martin, president and CEO of Nikkiso America, stated, “UV LED technology is advancing rapidly, with extraordinary progress reported annually in optical output power, efficiency and cost. Whether the application involves curing, medical, germicidal or analytical instrumentation, deep UV LED technology offers compelling advantages over lamp-based solutions and further enables new applications.”
According to Nikkiso, the new UV LED devices offer a compact and rugged alternative to lamps, and they provide faster start-up times, consistent power over time, wavelength control, and longer operating lifetimes.
“LED replacement of lamp technology is inevitable,” Martin said, “and is therefore a very important consideration for system designers and their product roadmaps.”
