Dowa Holdings Co Ltd subsidiary Dowa Electronic Materials Co Ltd of Tokyo, Japan has developed a deep ultraviolet LED chip with dimensions of 1mm × 1mm and what is claimed to be the industry’s highest output power of 75mW at a peak wavelength of 280nm. The firm has prepared for mass production, with capacity equivalent to 1 million LED chips per month.
Since deep UV emitters with a wavelength of 280nm have high efficiency for disinfection, replacing conventional mercury lamps with such LEDs enables equipment to be smaller and mercury-free. Together with other advantages such as power saving, the firm expects the product to find new smart applications.
Combining a high-quality aluminium nitride (AlN) template with what is claimed to be unique crystal growth technology, Dowa Electronic Materials began to mass produce deep ultraviolet LED chips in 2010. It has since continued to serve potential customers and emerging applications while improving its performance. Most recently, the firm has achieved output of 75mW at the 280nm wavelength due to better luminous efficiency, applying improved crystal growth technology together with an LED chip design that has been optimized in dimensions and structure.
Dowa says that the new products can provide light source manufacturers with greater flexibility in selection of package formats, such as lamps and chip-on-board (COB). Meanwhile, by supplying not only chips but also some finished products such as various kinds of the surface-mount device (SMD) and conventional TO-can packages, Dowa Electronic Materials says that it can flexibly meet the diverse requirements of customers. Manufacturing subsidiary Dowa Semiconductor Akita Co Ltd will continue to bolster performance and productivity while expanding production capacity to meet demand.