UV LED so hot, in the hands of the world's core patents?

In recent years, with the visible light field is becoming more and more mature, the researchers focus gradually transfer to the short wavelength ultraviolet light, ultraviolet light has great application value in the field of screen printing, polymer curing, environmental protection, lighting and military detection etc.. The power of ultraviolet LED light is low, fast response, high reliability, high radiation efficiency, long service life, no pollution to the environment, the advantages of compact structure, which has the potential to replace the existing ultraviolet high pressure mercury lamp, a UV light source of the next generation. Therefore, it has become one of the new research hotspots in the world. So what is the current global ultraviolet LED core patent distribution? Who is in the hands?

Patent: China accounted for up to 56%

According to the analysis of LED patent technology of UV LED Industry Patent Alliance released the "report", epitaxial chip package, from the area of patent structure, nearly 200 copies of the relevant patent related UV LED epitaxy, chip and device packaging field, the largest number of patent is China area, accounting for about 56% of the total the second is; the United States, Taiwan and Japan, South Korea has in this field have considerable advantages. And these patents, the world's patent applications accounted for about 10%, indicating that these patents, applicants are more attention, a considerable proportion of the application for the global patent layout.

Figure 1 Analysis of patent region composition

From the application trend, the report shows that from the beginning of 1998, the application of UV LED increased year by year, is currently in the stage of rapid development. This is consistent with the development of technology in this field. 1998, a InGaN/A1InGaN MQW structure of the ultraviolet LED chip in the United States Sandia National Laboratory developed by the Mary H. Crawford task force. The radiation peak wavelength of the chip is 386 nm, and the radiation power is greater than 1 mW, which opens the door to a new generation of short wavelength ultraviolet light field. Since then, many researchers are committed to this, in the quality of the epitaxial layer, P doping, ohmic contact, optical design and other key technologies have made great progress. 2014 and 2015 decline in the number of reasons for the application, it should be because many applications are still in the open stage.

Figure 2 overall trends in patent applications

Application: Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of semiconductors to win

The analysis shows that the application is the most Chinese semiconductor research Chinese Academy of Sciences, and in the first several are from China applicants, foreign applications in front of a semiconductor, NITEK, Seoul CREE, domestic applicants to enter the forefront of scientific research institutions and university more enterprises in Qingdao have Jason Wuhan Institute of opto electronic technology Co. ltd..

That Chinese in this field also mastered the core technology, in some areas and foreign enterprises or technology is leading, but China in this field of enterprise research and development ability, also has certain disparity, technical strength to be improved, can guide and encourage research combined, promote the transfer to enterprise Chinese Research Institute and the University of technology. The technical level of enterprises in this field to improve.

Figure 3 the main applicant analysis [Note: Seoul: Seoul Viosys CO., including semiconductor LTD (Wei Seoul Aoshi Co. Ltd); SEOUL OPTODEVICE CO. LTD (Seoul OPTO instrument Limited by Share Ltd)]

Domestic type: more than 80% belong to invention patent

In addition, the report shows that in the type of patent applications in the country, more than 80% belong to the invention, indicating that the content of LED in the field of ultraviolet technology is higher, the patent application to invention. And PCT application ratio is not low, accounting for 6%.

Figure 4 domestic patent type analysis

Domestic patent legal status: the right to patent 30%

Figure 5 patent legal status analysis

Analysis of the legal status of the surface, nearly half of the domestic application (46%) in the review period, the right to the patent accounted for 30%, indicating that the technology is still in the field of technology development, research and development in recent years, companies continue to increase investment. Further subdivision of different legal status of the type of patent analysis, the surface of the patent right, the invention of the majority, and PCT patents accounted for nearly 10% of the proportion.

Invalid application is mainly applied for invention and utility model. This also shows that the quality of foreign applicants to enter China's PCT application is higher, the applicant more attention.

Figure 6 patent legal status analysis

Market size: up to $270 million in 2017

According to the investigation report of the French market research firm Yole D veloppement, UV LED to 2017 market size of up to $270 million, more than the entire UV light source market 1/3, compound annual growth rates in five years can be as high as 43%, thereby forming a mercury vapor lamp and ultraviolet meet as equals of the situation. UV LED has become the new blue ocean LED industry, has attracted the interest of investors, more and more China enterprises have entered the field, but the China UV-LED companies do not grasp the core technology, especially the chip, extension and device packaging field, in light output increased U V-LED, research not only by changing the the amount of impurities, lattice defects and dislocations within the material to improve the internal quantum efficiency, at the same time, the UV-LED input power to improve the packaging technology to a more severe challenges. How to improve the core and internal packaging structure, enhance the probability of photon emission in UV-LED, improve the efficiency of light, and solve the problem of heat dissipation