Elphoton Solves UVC-LED Reliability's 'Achilles' Heel' in High-Humidity Environments with Chip-Level Hermetic Sealing

UVC-LED technology is being highlighted as a key technology to replace conventional mercury lamps in the fields of water, air, and surface sterilization. Its importance became even more pronounced during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, when applying UVC-LEDs to real-world applications in the engineering field, we have consistently faced a critical technical hurdle.

The primary applications for UVC-LEDs—such as water purifiers, HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) systems, and home appliances—are almost always exposed to high-temperature, high-humidity environments where bacteria can easily multiply. Ironically, this environment is the most vulnerable condition for conventional UVC-LED chip structures.

This structure is extremely vulnerable to the penetration of moisture (H₂O) and ions (ION). When moisture infiltrates the chip, a chain of failure mechanisms is triggered:

    Electrode Corrosion: Moisture acts as an electrolyte, oxidizing and corroding the metal of the P-electrode.
    Ion Migration: Metal ions from the corroded anode migrate and accumulate on the cathode. This eventually causes leakage current between the two electrodes, leading to a short circuit.
     
Due to these problems, conventional chips exhibited catastrophic performance degradation within a few hundred hours in high-temperature, high-humidity conditions (85°C / 85% RH).

Of course, the industry has tried to solve this problem using 'Package-Level Hermetic Sealing' technology. However, this method requires expensive ceramic/metal packages and sapphire windows, which sharply increases manufacturing costs, causes optical loss due to the window, and increases the package size. This has been the biggest obstacle to expanding the UVC-LED market.

Solving the Problem at the 'Chip Level' (HUV Technology)
Elphoton, Inc. has developed 'HUV,' a UVC-LED chip with a new paradigm that solves this problem by changing the structure of the chip itself, not the package.

The core technology of HUV is its 'Fish Eye' or 'Closed-Loop Electrode Structure'.

Thanks to this unique structure, when the chip is mounted on a lead frame, the outer N-pad joins with the lead frame via metal bonding, forming a perfect hermetic seal by the chip itself.