Seoul Semiconductor, a leading LED maker of Korean, has signed an agreement to license its UV patent for a portable fluorescent forgery detector.

Portable fluorescent forgery detectors are mainly applied in identification of forgeries of bank notes, securities, passports, gift coupons, and ID cards by commercial banks, financial companies and small businesses that mainly transact securities. As counterfeit money raise concerns around the world, demand of the product is expected to grow substantially.

Ultraviolet (UV) mercury lamps have been generally utilized in forgery detection, but UV LEDs provide longer lifetime and better performance in durability, output power and eco-friendliness, says Seoul Semiconductor. With increasing restrictions on environmentally hazardous materials, UV lamps are being rapidly replaced by UV LED products in the market, says the company. Additionally, UV LEDs can easily identify forgery even in bright places, comparing with existing UV mercury lamps which can only detect forgery in dark conditions

The patented UV LED technology being licensed was jointly developed by Korea Minting & Security Printing Corp (KOMSCO) and Seoul Semiconductor subsidiary Seoul Optodevice Co Ltd.

About Seoul Optodevice Co Ltd
Seoul Optodevice Co Ltd was established in 2002. Besides blue- and green-emitting gallium nitride-based LED chips, Seoul Optodevice has developed and commercialized 310nm, 280nm and short-wavelength 255nm UV LED chips. The company claims to have installed the industry's first commercial production facilities for short-wavelength deep UV LEDs, with investment from Sensor Electronic Technology Inc (SETI) of Columbia, SC, USA through a strategic partnership agreed in July 2006. Seoul Optodevice claims to be the only firm to have commercialized short-wavelength deep UV LEDs so far.