Advanced Facilities Efficient ProductionAs LED practitioners, we hope to see the accelerated popularization of UVC LED technology and this kind of products to gain more applications and a larger market share.
It is a pity that ideals are beautiful, and reality is very skinny-UVC LEDs will not be able to shake the mercury lamp market in the short term.
So, what are the "blockers" on the road ahead of UVC LED? At the TrendForce 2021 UVC LED Industry Seminar held on June 3, industry experts gathered at the Sofa Forum to answer this question in a simple way.
This sofa forum invited Yin Hui, deputy general manager of Shengpu Optoelectronics, as the host guest, Huang Xiaohui, executive general manager of Zhixin Semiconductor, Chen Yijun, sales director of Rixing Technology, Cui Lai, general manager of Xiamen Water Cestbon, Zhao Kai, vice president of Angel, Qinyuan Commercial R&D Director Ren Junqi and Yuanfang Optoelectronics Lighting Division Director Sun Jianpei served as guests of dialogue, bringing new ideas to the development of UVC LEDs from the directions of chips, testing, and applications.
What has UVC LED experienced from "difficult to find one core" to oversupply?
In 2020, affected by the epidemic, the UVC LED industry is very excited, and the state of "hard to find one core" has continued for a long time; but this year, there is a surplus of UVC LED chips. The two completely different states have a difference of less than 1 year.
Why is there such a change? Compared with 2020, is there any improvement in the performance of UVC LED chips?
Zhixin Semiconductor Huang Xiaohui said that based on the tracking and research of the market in the past year, it was found that in the first half of last year, the epidemic broke out, and UVC LED chips were in short supply; from the second half of 2020, UVC LED chips began to show an oversupply state; as of now, there has been an oversupply. The status has not improved yet. The reason for this phenomenon may be that companies stockpiled during the epidemic last year; and this year, both the original and newly established companies are increasing and expanding production, so the oversupply phenomenon continues.
In terms of chip performance, Huang Xiaohui believes that the photoelectric conversion efficiency of UVC LEDs has not changed much, and is still at the level of 2%-3%. But after a year of research, UVC LED chips have been significantly improved in stability. At the same time, various companies have made certain innovations and breakthroughs in high-power UVC LED chips. In the future, UVC LED chips will continue to advance in the direction of improving photoelectric conversion efficiency and power.
Yijun Chen said that at present, there are more than 15 domestic companies with UVC LED epitaxy business, which has doubled from 2019. The supply capacity has been greatly improved, but the market demand has not yet started. Therefore, the supply of UVC LED chips is oversupply.
In terms of performance, Chen Yijun believes that the average photoelectric conversion efficiency of UVC LED chips on the market is about 2.5%, and it is expected to increase to more than 3% in the second half of this year, and to 3.5%-4% next year.
On the other hand, the expansion of the market scale benefits from the continuous development of technology and the development and satisfaction of terminal needs. As the upstream supply side of UVC LEDs, Zhixin Semiconductor and Yixing also expressed their views on the application field of UVC LEDs.
Zhixin Semiconductor Huang Xiaohui believes that UVC LEDs can currently expand application areas from two directions.
The first is active sterilization, such as installing sterilization modules in air purifiers, air conditioners and other equipment to actively sterilize and purify the air. In addition, dynamic water sterilization is expected to be widely used in future families.
The second is the rapid elimination of high-power, such as cold chain, logistics and other markets.
Yijun Chen Yijun agrees with Huang Xiaohui's views. He said that water sterilization has become a deterministic demand and deterministic direction. In addition, adding UVC LED sterilization function to the sweeping robot will also be a major application direction of active sterilization, which is a low-cost way to create a healthy home environment.
In addition, Chen Yijun believes that the lighting field is also expected to become a major market for UVC LED sterilization. "In some special occasions, such as public places, toilets or hospitals, you can add UVC LEDs to the lighting fixtures to sterilize through air flow. You can also turn off the lighting function and turn on the UVC sterilization function when there is no one."
Cold thinking after madness: How does UVC LED reshape market confidence?
In 2020, the UVC LED market has experienced a period of crazy growth, but due to the disorderly competition of some companies, consumers are full of distrust of this technology. How does UVC LED reshape market confidence?
From the perspective of a testing equipment provider, Sun Jianpei of Yuanfang Optoelectronics explained the company's efforts to restore confidence in the UVC LED market in terms of UVC LED product testing.
She said that the measurement methods and principles of UVC LEDs are not essentially different from traditional lighting LEDs and infrared LEDs, and they can basically be referred to. Yuanfang Optoelectronics began to conduct research on semiconductor total luminous flux, total radiant flux, and spatial radiation distribution in 2000, and took the lead in the drafting and formulation of "CIE239: 2020 Optical Radiation Source Spatial Spectroradiometry". The calculation methods of important parameters such as total radiant flux and spatial radiation distribution in the 2500nm spectral range, as well as related uncertainty evaluation and calibration techniques are described in detail, including the ultraviolet radiation band.
In the measurement of total ultraviolet radiant flux (radiant power), using a distributed radiometric measurement system to measure UV LED radiant flux is currently the most accurate measurement method. At the same time, in order to reduce the cost of inspection for enterprises, Yuanfang Optoelectronics also launched an industrial-grade UV integrating sphere system for enterprises to help enterprises solve the problem of radiation flux measurement.
In terms of irradiance, many companies use UV detectors for measurement, but the UV detector's probe is affected by factors such as the wavelength response curve and the volume calibration light source, which can easily lead to large errors in the measurement results of the tested product. The measurement of the irradiance of the UV LED still needs to be tested with a special UV spectrometer, there is no detector matching error, the value traceability system is standardized and the accuracy is high, and the irradiance measurement accuracy is higher.
She concluded that in terms of reliability and accuracy, many units including China Metrology Institute and Yuanfang will be able to provide accurate testing services in the future, making the promotion of UVC LEDs justified. With the improvement of UVC LED photoelectric conversion efficiency and the decrease of cost, UVC LED will achieve greater development.
Zhixin Semiconductor Huang Xiaohui said that the main reason for consumers' lack of confidence in UVC LEDs lies in the phenomenon of fake products and shoddy products in the market. As a practitioner in the UVC LED industry, we must first have confidence in UVC products.
He believes that UVC LED has great room for improvement in terms of chips and materials, but it is precisely because of the large room for improvement that every company has the opportunity. "Everyone must first have confidence in themselves, and then do more. Good technology, better products, more innovations to make up for the market’s misunderstanding of UVC LEDs."
Yijun Chen said that the UVC LED market has moved from a blue ocean last year to a red ocean now. The number of companies investing in UVC LEDs has gradually increased. UVC LEDs are expected to achieve price declines and performance improvements in a short period of time. Among them, in terms of chips, it is expected that by the end of this year or the beginning of next year, its price will drop by more than half, and UVC LED will also develop more application scenarios, consumers will have more UVC LED products to choose from, and get more Rich experience, and then enhance the confidence in UVC LED.
Water C'estbon Cui Lai believes that the crisis of consumer trust in UVC LED products in 2020 is mainly for low-power and surface sterilization, and they are still confident in high-power medical sterilization and water sterilization. He said that large-scale terminal companies are equipped with microbiological laboratories, which have rigorous testing methods and effective experimental data for the sterilization effect of UVC LEDs. The future of UVC LEDs is still bright.
Angel Zhao Kai said that with the outbreak of the epidemic, sterilization has gradually become a rigid demand. In the future, the UVC LED industry will develop rapidly, and industry colleagues need to have confidence in this technology.
Qinyuan Ren Junqi believes that the reason why the UVC LED market appears to be fake is mainly due to the high price of real UVC LED products, which gives speculators an opportunity to produce fake and inferior products for profit.
He said that to solve this problem, the industry needs to work together, from the source to the end, to make prices more affordable, and make fakes have no profit margins. "This is not something that can be done overnight, but the trend of UVC LEDs must be cheaper and easier to use. From the conscience of water purifier manufacturers, we hope that the water you drink will become safer and safer. We make products. Health is the original intention. In the public domain, such as airports, schools and other places, we hope that good things can be applied. As long as the whole industry works together to lower the price, fake goods and crises of trust can be avoided."
From technology to market, UVC LED has many difficulties
What excites the industry is that, as representatives of terminal product manufacturers, both Angel and Qinyuan believe that the current consumer acceptance of the concept of UVC LED sterilization has reached a high level.
Among them, Angel Zhao Kai said that after years of popularization of UVC LEDs, both commercial and household customers have recognized the sterilization effect of UVC LEDs.
He believes that, driven by the epidemic, drinking water safety will become the focus of attention of the whole people in the next 3-5 years. Whether it is domestic or international, UVC LED water purifiers have a larger market.
According to reports, the export volume of Angel water purifiers is very large, currently reaching a scale of about 500,000 units/year. The outbreak of the new crown epidemic in 2020 has further promoted the market's demand for water purifiers, especially in Europe, North America, Japan and other countries and regions, and the attention to drinking water has reached an unprecedented height.
Qinyuan Ren Junqi is also optimistic about the market space of UVC LED. "In our company's water purifiers, only 10% of the products have UVC LED sterilization function, which means that, at least in Qinyuan, there is still 90% room for development of UVC LED. There are more than 2,000 water purifiers in China. Enterprises, after conversion, there is a lot of room for growth in UVC LED products."
He also mentioned that from a development perspective, the current penetration rate of water purifiers in China and around the world is relatively low, especially in countries with low levels of development. With the gradual improvement of human living standards in the future, the demand for water purifiers will continue to increase. Based on this, Ren Junqi believes that the 90% upside is only a conservative estimate, and the demand will increase in the future.
However, although consumer groups have a high acceptance of UVC LED water sterilization, in actual promotion, terminal manufacturers still face many problems.
Angel Zhao Kai explained from two aspects of household products and commercial products.
He believes that in household water purifiers, the biggest difficulty encountered by UVC LED disinfection products is cost. "The leverage relationship between product cost and selling price in the home appliance industry is very obvious. The price of UVC LED sterilization module has a great influence on the selling price of terminal products, and the high selling price affects the sales and promotion of the product." He also Said that the over-current sterilization solution is the best solution for household UVC LED products, and this solution has very strict cost requirements.
The main problems encountered by commercial water purifiers are the longevity and after-sales service. Zhao Kai said that the commercial applications of UVC LED water purifiers are in high-end occasions, and the requirements for products in such occasions will only be higher.
Take airport water sterilization as an example. At present, the lifespan of large over-current UVC LED water disinfection modules does not exceed 1000 hours, and the airport scene uses UVC LEDs for water disinfection for at least 2000 hours within a year. In this case, the airport scene needs to be replaced frequently Sterilization module.
Qinyuan Ren Junqi said that he also encountered the same problem in the process of serving customers. In addition, he also said that as a drinking fountain factory, he hopes that the UVC LED supply chain can provide real and effective experimental data to support the promotion of the product.
He believes that UVC LED has great opportunities in the commercial field, but the customers in the commercial field are very professional. He explained, "For example, large catering groups are equipped with engineering departments and technical departments to review products. These departments may understand UVC LEDs better than our water purifier manufacturers. Previously, mercury lamps were used for disinfection, but now they need to be replaced. To become a UVC LED, it needs some data to support and prove the effect of UVC LED and prove that it is better than mercury lamp in order to enter the barriers to entry. We do know that UVC LED is good, and there is hope for commercialization, but large commercial customers are Before the official use, we need to prepare all the documents to convince him, and this is more difficult."
Ren Junqi also said that in addition to the high price of civil UVC LED water purification equipment, the visualization of the sterilization effect is also a major pain point in product promotion. He said that the difference between UVC LED sterilized water and unsterilized water needs to be determined in the laboratory, and consumers cannot distinguish with the naked eye. This has become one of the choices for consumers to choose UVC LED water purification equipment. Big obstacle.
Shui Yibao Cui Lai believes that in the promotion of UVC LED sterilization modules, major manufacturers have a high degree of acceptance, but major manufacturers have stricter requirements on the cost, and hope that the price of UVC LED sterilization modules can be more substantial. The decline in order to promote in more application areas.
In terms of industry standards, Cui Lai said that the sterilization modules produced by different manufacturers have different models, and the flow rate of water in the working environment is also different. Therefore, the industry has not yet formed a unified water purification standard. At present, the sterilization module produced by C'estbon Water can reach a sterilization rate of 99.99% at a flow rate of 3L/min.
What is the prospect of UVC LED?
No way is harder to open a way. The process of technology research and development and product promotion is not easy, requiring practitioners to have a clear and calm thinking about the prospects of the industry.
Zhixin Semiconductor Huang Xiaohui believes that the overall UVC LED market is developing upwards. He explained, "If it is not compared with 2020, but compared with 2019 and 2018, in fact, UVC LED is in a very good state of development in 2021. So I am still optimistic about the future market, including China and overseas markets. "
Huang Xiaohui said that the LED industry belongs to the third-generation semiconductor aluminum-gallium-nitrogen system, and aluminum-gallium-nitrogen is a brilliant pearl of the third-generation semiconductor. Aluminum Gallium Nitride materials can be used in the development and production of many products, including radio frequency devices, power devices, etc., and UVC LEDs are only a small part of them. At present, the basis of UVC LED is relatively poor, and the market share is also small. Future development needs to focus on performance improvement. .
He expressed his views on the improvement of UVC LED performance from the perspective of chip makers.
The first is material quality. Huang Xiaohui believes that only by improving the quality of aluminum nitrogen and aluminum gallium can it be possible to improve the photoelectric conversion efficiency of UVC LEDs. In addition, improving the light absorption efficiency of packaging, chips and other materials is also an important factor.