Views: 0 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2025-04-03 Origin: Site
In the current era of rapid technological development, UV LED technology, with its excellent sterilization, light curing, and medical beauty applications, is sparking a wave of innovation that integrates health and technology. According to the latest data from CSA Research, as of 2024, the size of China's UV LED market has reached 2.8 billion yuan, achieving a significant year-on-year growth of 23%. This trend marks the intense competition between technology and the market, which is profoundly reshaping the industry landscape.
1.Domestic chip breakthrough battle: firmly establish a foothold in mid to low end scenarios
Through the technological breakthroughs of leading enterprises such as Sanan Optoelectronics, Zhongke Lu'an, Ma'anshan Jiesheng, and Youweixin, domestic UV LED chips have firmly taken a dominant position in the small and medium power market, forming advantages in large-scale applications. With significant cost competitiveness and adaptability upgrades, its product matrix comprehensively core scenarios such as small UV disinfection equipment and basic UV curing systems, achieving mainstream market standards in key indicators such as light power consistency and service life, and successfully building a complete industrial ecosystem.At present, the application scope has extended to more than 20 sub industries, including home appliances (refrigerators/air conditioners/washing machines/humidifiers), healthcare (mother and baby disinfection cabinets/mite removal machines/air purifiers), intelligent manufacturing (3D printing/printing curing), and environmental protection (water purification systems/industrial coatings), demonstrating strong market penetration.
As domestic UV LED chip technology continues to break through the bottleneck of high power, domestic enterprises are accelerating their efforts to seize the industrial high-end market. At the technical level, the chip power density has achieved a leapfrog upgrade: medium power chips can achieve a light output power of 30-55mW under 100mA current drive, and high-power products can even break through the 100-150mW range under 350mA drive. Among them, the 350mA level chip developed by Zhongke Lu'an achieves 268.7mW light power output (with an electro-optical conversion efficiency of 12.69%).Technological breakthroughs directly drive the application scenarios to expand into industrial depth - the high flow UV LED secondary water supply disinfection system developed by Youweixin has landed in Quanzhou; Zhongke Lu'an has launched a 10T/h or higher level high flow water sterilizer, which is applied in industrial scenarios such as ultra pure water preparation in semiconductor factories.
2.Imported chip moat: a technological barrier in the high-end field
In high-end application fields such as medical equipment and semiconductor lithography, the UV LED light source market is still dominated by Japanese, American, and Korean companies, which have formed significant competitive barriers through technological accumulation and patent barriers. Focusing on technical parameters, there is no significant difference in basic performance between domestic and foreign chips, but power maintenance rate (the duration of output power attenuation to 70% of the initial value) has become the core indicator for measuring reliability. Industry test data shows that high-end chips from Japan and South Korea exhibit a unique decay curve throughout their lifecycle - with a gradual decrease in power in the early to mid stages, and only a steep decay in the late stages. The effective working time can reach tens of thousands of hours.
The current industry standard usually takes the chip output power dropping to 70% of the initial value as the lifespan node. During this time window, Japanese and Korean chips can maintain a more stable output in the early stages of attenuation, and only experience a sudden drop in power in the later stages of their lifespan. Compared to domestic chips, although they have caught up in basic performance parameters such as optical power and energy efficiency, there is still a gap in long-term power maintenance rate.
In terms of international brand influence and patent layout, there is still a gap between domestic enterprises and Japanese and Korean leaders. It is worth noting that domestic enterprises are accelerating the improvement of their overseas intellectual property layout. The overcurrent water sterilization technology (patent CN113620374A "UV Sterilization Device") developed by Ma'anshan Jiesheng under Yuanrong Technology has successfully obtained European patent authorization (EP4147726A1) through the Paris Convention in 2024, marking a breakthrough in domestic UV LED technology in the international standard certification system.
Faced with potential patent infringement risks and high compliance costs in the European and American markets, domestic manufacturers generally adopt a cautious strategy: currently focusing on technological iteration and local market penetration, and accumulating strength to launch a comprehensive impact on the high-end field.
3.Industry Transformation: A New Pattern of Stereoscopic Competition
With the continuous iteration of UV LED technology, industry competition has shifted from single product competition to comprehensive competition in technology research and development, quality control, brand operation, and channel construction. Efficient, long-lasting, and low-energy UV LED light sources are accelerating the replacement of traditional mercury lamp light sources, sparking a green revolution in fields such as printing curing and water treatment.
In this context, China's UV LED industry is undergoing structural changes: leading enterprises are increasing industry concentration through vertical integration; Small and medium-sized enterprises focus on creating "specialized, refined, unique and new" advantages in segmented fields, and jointly build a hierarchical and collaborative innovation industrial ecosystem.
In this dual game of technology and market, domestic UV LED chips are rising with a breakthrough momentum. The profound transformation of the industry landscape is leading us towards a healthier, smarter, and greener future. Let us look forward to the glorious chapter of domestic UV LED technology in the new era!