ACCURATE MEASUREMENT OF ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT-EMITTING DIODES

We have developed a new calibration capability for 200 nm to 400 nm ultraviolet light-emitting diodes (UV LEDs) using a Type D gonio-spectroradiometer. The recently-introduced mean differential continuous pulse (M-DCP) method is used to overcome the measurement difficulty associated with the initial forward voltage, VF, anomaly of a UV LED, which makes it impossible to use VF to infer junction temperature, TJ, during pulsed operation. The new measurement facility was validated indirectly by comparing the measured total luminous flux of a white LED with that measured using the NIST’s 2.5 m absolute integrating sphere. The expanded calibration uncertainty for the total radiant flux is approximately 2 % to 3 % (k = 2) depending the wavelength of the UV LED.

Mean Differential Continuous Pulse Method for Accurate Optical Measurements of Light-Emitting Diodes and Laser Diodes

Limited sources exist for the application of germicidal ultraviolet (GUV) radiation. Ultraviolet light-emitting diodes (UV-LEDs) have significantly improved in efficiency and are becoming another viable source for GUV. We have developed a mean differential continuous pulse method (M-DCP method) for optical measurements of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and laser diodes (LDs). The new M-DCP method provides an improvement on measurement uncertainty by one order of magnitude compared to the unpublished differential continuous pulse method (DCP method). The DCP method was already a significant improvement of the continuous pulse method (CP method) commonly used in the LED industry. The new M-DCP method also makes it possible to measure UV-LEDs with high accuracy. Here, we present the DCP method, discuss the potential systematic error sources in it, and present the M-DCP method along with its reduced systematic errors. This paper also presents the results of validation measurement of LEDs using the M-DCP method and common test instruments.