How much do you know about UVC LED ?

UVC LED which is called deep ultraviolet light LED, wavelegth from 245nm to 285nm, advantages of small size, quick start, low power consumption, it opens a new application scenarios on ultraviolet sterilization and disinfection market.

We can see that UVC LED is widely used on disinfection rods, tableware disinfection, bottle disinfection, disinfection of water dispenser & air conditioner, toilet disinfection, toothbrush disinfection these scenarios, it shows great application value and potential on ultraviolet sterilization and disinfection market.

Since 2019 UVC LED prices are dropped drastically , and continuous cost down also promote market demands.

On current market, there are different powers of UVC LED, from 2mW, 10mW to 100mW. When selecting UVC LED power on application , we will priority consider sterilization effect and sterilization time. For example, a UVC LED which is 3mW and viewing angle 60 degrees can kill 99.99% E. coli on surface by a distance of 2cm.

Different products requested different optical power UVC LEDs for sterilization. For example humidifier, water dispenser, water sterilization and intelligent toilet usually use 2-4mW UVC LED; air purifier, air conditioner usually use 2-3 pieces 10mW UVC LEDs; water dispenser use about 50-100mW UVC LED.

The most suitable wavelength for sterilization is 265nm, but not 254nm. And the germicidal efficacy depends on peak wavelength and optical power. For example, germicidal efficacy of 265nm is 30% better than 275nm , and which optical power higher 30% UVC LED also germicidal efficacy higher 30%. but normally the UVC LEDs peak wavelength differences are very little from different factories, so actually optical power is the most important measurement index of germicidal efficacy.

Different application scenarios will request different demands of lifespan of UVC LEDs. The UVC LED products we can see on market Max. lifespan is about 15,000 hours, and the Mix. Lifespan is about 2,000 hours.

Most UVC LEDs are flat top which viewing angle is 120-140 degrees, and these LEDs are small power, like the flat top 3535 UVC LED power from 2 mW to 10mW. For high power UVC LEDs mostly are dome lens, viewing angle is 60-140 degrees, like dome lens 3535 UVC LED 3w, 4545 UVC LED and 6868 UVC LED. But viewing angle is not an important factor to choose UVC LED, you still can improve your design to use enough quantity UVC LED to completely cover the sterilization space you need, especially on some spaces sterilize not sensitivity, small viewing angle UVC LED is concentrate lighting on a space and make sterilization shorter time.