Luminus Devices Inc., developer and manufacturer of PhlatLight® LEDs, yesterday announced that Doug Lawson has joined the company as General Manager of the UV Business. Lawson will be responsible for leading the strategic business unit and for developing new products to bring PhlatLight LEDs to the ultraviolet (UV) curing market, which Luminus technology provides a fast-growing approach to hardening paints, adhesives, varnishes, printing inks and a wide variety of polymer systems.

A new report from Strategies Unlimited says that increasing demand for blue-violet laser diodes, UV LEDs, and other devices will provide significant growth of advanced substrates such as GaN and AlN.

Scientists have developed a method to make lettuce darker and healthier using ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Steven Britz of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and his colleagues used low-power LEDs that exposed lettuce to ultraviolet B (UVB) light for 43 hours. The lettuce was noticeably darker than plants not exposed to the UVB. They have not quantified this effect, but the lettuce darkening increased with the intensity of the light. Darker lettuce, like spinach, is known to be more nutrient dense than its lighter counterparts, such as iceberg.

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.

UV LEDs are reportedly beginning to challenge the traditional $500M UV lamp business. The report notes that the UV lighting business is a market of about $500 million with traditional UV lamp technology. Thanks to its compactness, lower cost of ownership and environmental friendly composition, UV LEDs are expected to replace traditional lamps and also open the door to many new applications, especially portable ones.

TT electronics OPTEK Technology has developed a family of ultraviolet LEDs in the UV-A spectrum. The OUE8A Series offer an energy-efficient hermetic TO-46 metal can packaged UV LED source providing a uniform optical light pattern, high current pulse capability, ESD protection and a long operating lifespan.