The covid-19 epidemic made "disinfection" a frequent word, and 75% alcohol, 84 disinfectants, and hand sanitizer were once in short supply.As a new disinfection method, deep ultraviolet LED has become a hot spot.

"Uv is a widely recognized method in the prevention and control of covid-19, and the application prospect of deep uv LED in public health is also widely concerned."Wu ling, director of the national semiconductor engineering research and development and industry alliance, told the science and technology daily in a recent interview.Ultraviolet sterilization technology has a history of more than 100 years.It is understood that, in addition to the vacuum ultraviolet, deep ultraviolet is the shortest wavelength in the ultraviolet band, the highest energy of a band, with direct sterilization disinfection capacity, mainly used in water and air purification, sterilization and biological detection and other aspects.Li jinmin, director of the state key laboratory of semiconductor joint innovation, said that most of the deep ultraviolet light sources for disinfection and sterilization applications in the civil and industrial fields are mercury lamps.Due to the impact of mercury on human society and the environment, starting this year, the international minamata convention on mercury use and emissions will come into force, and the production and use of traditional mercury lamps will be restricted, banned and gradually withdrawn from the market.It is an important challenge to develop a new environmental protection and efficient ultraviolet light source."Deep ultraviolet leds based on gallium nitride third-generation semiconductor materials are the perfect choice for this new application. This all-solid-state source is small, efficient, and long-life. A thumb-cap-sized chip module alone can produce ultraviolet light stronger than mercury lamps.""Said li.It is understood that the Chinese center for disease control and prevention virus disease prevention and control in the SARS period found that the use of intensity of more than 90 W/cm2 (microwatt/square cm) of ultraviolet radiation coronavirus 30 minutes, can kill the SARS virus."Novel coronavirus infected pneumonia treatment scheme (trial sixth edition)", it is pointed out that novel coronavirus is sensitive to ultraviolet light.Wu said that in the prevention and control of the outbreak, there are roughly three types of deep ultraviolet LED products are widely used: surface sterilization equipment, such as multi-functional sterilizer;Portable living sterilizer, such as portable sterilizer, sterilizer box, etc.Deep ultraviolet LED air sterilization and purification products, such as humidifier, dehumidifier, wall mounted ultraviolet disinfection and sterilization."These applications allow the industry to explore more application scenarios and product design directions."Ms wu said.Li said that the replacement of mercury lamps with deep ultraviolet leds would mean that in the next decade, the deep ultraviolet industry will grow into a new trillion LED industry.But both challenges and opportunities exist.Deep ultraviolet LED is a technology developed at the beginning of this century, and it is still in the early stage of product introduction.Product application and promotion is limited by the sterilization effect is not intuitive, and the replacement of existing low-pressure mercury lamp products by the technical development stage, it is not easy to popularize.Li pointed out that deep ultraviolet LED technology still faces many challenges from core materials to device technology, and technological breakthroughs and advances are the foundation of market development.Wu ling believes that the current urgent need to make up for the lack of standards.Existing uv standards are based on traditional mercury lamps, and uv LED light sources are in urgent need of a range of standards from testing to application."To fill the blank of the standardized field, the league committee for standardization play the advantages of group standard rapid response to market demand, has carried out the measurement, standards, testing and other aspects of the research, the active layout standardization system, write the uv LED standardization system report, launched the" uv LED technology and application of terms and definitions, the ultraviolet sterilization technology LED report, the future will gradually build matching uv LED the market demand of standardization system."Wu Ling said.As the head of the industry alliance, wu ling stressed that only the unity and cooperation of the upstream and downstream of the industry can make the "cake" of deep ultraviolet LED bigger.In addition to improving the technical standard system, we will continue to increase the efforts of "industry-university-research-application" collaborative technology research in all links of the industry in the future, break through the source of the deep ultraviolet LED industry, continuously improve the performance and reliability of products, gradually meet the needs of various applications, and solve the basic technical bottleneck of industrial development.(Reprint source：science and technology daily)