Industry pulse under the epidemic situation: deep ultraviolet LED, a predictable emerging industry

Beijing, February 13 (Ling Jiwei) the outbreak of the outbreak, some of the usual vertical categories are not concerned about rapidly popular. Masks, goggles, disinfectant water and other materials related to epidemic prevention and control have become popular goods. Through this epidemic, the whole society has enhanced health awareness, and the status of disinfection and cleaning industry in protecting people's life and health has undoubtedly been improved. Among them, ultraviolet sterilization, as a means of disinfection and protection, has quietly accelerated the pace of growth due to the epidemic situation.

In order to prevent and control the epidemic situation, how to play a role in UV lamp, what direction will the UV sterilization technology evolve in the future, and what puzzles will the application level of UV sterilization face? In response to these problems, the reporter recently interviewed a number of experts and industry insiders.

Fight "epidemic": ultraviolet rays can effectively inactivate coronavirus

Ultraviolet disinfection is an old and effective method. Sun drying quilt is the most primitive use of ultraviolet to remove mites, disinfection and sterilization.

During the SARS period, experts from the Institute for viral disease control and prevention of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention found that the SARS virus could be killed by irradiating the coronavirus with the intensity of more than 90 μ w / cm2 for 30 minutes. The novel coronavirus novel coronavirus is sensitive to ultraviolet radiation in the treatment plan for pneumonia (trial version fifth). Recent studies have found novel coronavirus associated with SARS coronavirus. Therefore, in theory, scientific and rational use of UV can effectively inactivate coronavirus.

Li Jinmin, director of the State Key Laboratory for semiconductor lighting joint innovation and a researcher at the Institute of semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that the principle of ultraviolet disinfection and sterilization is to use high-energy ultraviolet light to break the double helix of DNA, so as to inactivate bacteria and viruses.

It is understood that compared with chemical sterilization, the advantage of ultraviolet radiation is that the sterilization efficiency is high, the inactivation is generally completed in a few seconds, and no other chemical pollutants are produced. Because of its convenient operation and being suitable for all spaces, UV germicidal lamp has become a hot item in the major e-commerce platforms. In the front-line medical and health institutions, it is also an important sterilization equipment.

Taking Wuhan, where the epidemic is more serious, local medical institutions need more UV lamps. On January 28, xinnuofei (China) donated 930 sets of ultraviolet disinfection lamps to Wuhan huoshenshan hospital to help prevent and control the epidemic. On January 31, OSRAM China donated more than 500 sets of UV sterilization lamps to the first, fourth and fifth hospitals in Wuhan. These professional UV sterilization lamps can not only eliminate the virus in the hospital room, but also greatly reduce the daily disinfection work of nurses, so that nurses can set aside more time to take care of patients.

Xinnuofei (China) told reporters that not only in hospitals, ultraviolet germicidal lamps can also inactivate microorganisms. The ultraviolet water purification system can be installed in the family to purify water. The air purifier equipped with ultraviolet lamp can treat the floating bacteria in the air harmlessly.

Deep UV LED, a predictable emerging industry

It is necessary to meet certain requirements for effective sterilization by ultraviolet rays. Attention should be paid to the wavelength, dose and time of ultraviolet light source, Li said. That is to say, it must be UVC wave band with wavelength below 280nm. Different bacteria and viruses must meet certain irradiation dose and time, otherwise it can not be inactivated.

According to Yan Jianchang, a researcher at the Institute of semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, according to the wavelength division, the ultraviolet band can be divided into UVA, UVB and UVC. "UVC is a band with the shortest wavelength and the highest energy. In fact, the most effective band for sterilization is UVC, which is called deep ultraviolet." He said.

At present, mercury lamp is widely used in civil and industrial fields. Due to the significant impact of mercury on human society and environment, the Minamata convention, which limits the use and emission of mercury, has officially entered into force. The production and use of traditional mercury lamps will be restricted, prohibited and gradually withdrawn from the market. It is an important challenge to develop a new environment-friendly and efficient UV light source. Deep ultraviolet LED based on GaN wide band gap semiconductor material becomes the best choice for this new application. This all solid-state light source has the advantages of small size, high efficiency and long life. The chip module only the size of thumb cover can emit ultraviolet light stronger than mercury lamp.

Li Jinmin believes that the application of deep ultraviolet LED instead of traditional mercury lamp in disinfection and sterilization is similar to the application of white LED in lighting instead of traditional light source, which will form a huge emerging industry.

Over the past decade, China's semiconductor lighting industry has developed vigorously, forming a huge industrial scale of more than 800 billion yuan. If deep ultraviolet LED replaces mercury lamp, it means that in the next decade, deep ultraviolet industry will develop into a new trillion industry like LED lighting.

"Through this epidemic situation, people will attach great importance to UV LED, especially to people's public health safety, which provides a good development opportunity for UV deep UV LED." Li Jinmin said.

From the current application point of view, deep UV LED is widely used in water purification, air purification, biological detection and other civil fields. In addition, the application of ultraviolet light source is far more than sterilization and disinfection, and has broad prospects in many emerging fields such as biochemical detection, sterilization and medical treatment, polymer solidification and industrial photocatalysis.

Based on the huge application potential of deep ultraviolet, Yan Jianchang firmly believes that it is possible for deep ultraviolet led to develop into a new trillion industry different from LED lighting. He said that due to the advantages of small size and portability, environmental safety and easy design, the application scope of deep UV LED is more likely to be extended to portable disinfection electronic products, such as mother and baby sterilizer, elevator handrail sterilizer, built-in UV germicidal lamp in mini washing machine and sweeping robot.

Deep UV LED technology innovation is still on the way

Although the prospect is bright, it is undeniable that deep UV LED is still in the early stage of development, and the light power, light efficiency and life are still unsatisfactory. Uvc-led products need to be further improved and mature.

Yan Jianchang believes that the primary technical bottleneck of deep ultraviolet LED industry lies in the extension, and it needs the support of special MOCVD equipment for deep ultraviolet. "The 1700 MOCVD devices currently used for blue LED epitaxy in China are not suitable for deep UV LEDs." He said that deep UV LED technology still faces many challenges from core materials to device technology, and the breakthrough and progress of industrialization technology are the foundation of market development.

Although the industrialization of deep UV LED is facing various challenges, the technology has been advancing.

In May last year, the world's first mass production line with an annual output of 30 million high-power UV LED chips was officially put into production in Zhongke Lu'an, realizing large-scale industrialization of LED chip technology and localization of core devices.

Sanan optoelectronics has been involved in the field of deep ultraviolet UVC since 2014. Aiming at the known effective sterilization band, it has developed a variety of UVC chips and UVC LED products with small, medium, large and ultra-high power. Reporters learned from the novel coronavirus, hoping to cooperate with the major scientific research institutions and institutions to provide effective bactericidal bands UVC LED for the epidemic.

With the development of technology, interdisciplinary and application integration, new application fields are constantly emerging, and the standards also need to be improved. "The existing UV standards are based on the traditional mercury lamp. At present, a series of standards from test to application are urgently needed for UV LED light sources." Yan Jianchang said.

In the aspect of deep ultraviolet disinfection, standardization really faces a series of challenges. For example, ultraviolet mercury lamp sterilization is mainly at 253.7nm, while UVC led wavelength is mainly distributed in 260-280nm, which brings a series of differences for the solution of subsequent applications.

The reporter learned from the national semiconductor lighting engineering R & D and industry alliance that, in order to fill the gap of standardization, the Standardization Committee of the alliance took advantage of the group standard's rapid response to market demand, carried out research on measurement, standard and detection, actively arranged the standardization system, compiled the report on the standardization system of ultraviolet LED, and launched the technology and response of ultraviolet LED In terms of terms and definitions, UV LED sterilization technology report, the future will gradually build a new standardization system to match the scale market of UVC led.

The novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic has popularized the public's awareness of UV disinfection, and will undoubtedly promote the development of UV LED industry. At present, the industry is convinced that the industry is facing rapid development opportunities. In the future, the development of deep UV LED industry needs the unity and cooperation of upstream and downstream parties, so as to make this "cake" bigger.