High-speed switching of UV-C LEDs for communications and sensing applications

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Hill, Jordan and Gray, Johnathan and Zimi, Hichem and Xie, Enyuan and McKendry, Jonathan and Cheng, Chen and Sagar, Jaya and Herrnsdorf, Johannes and Rajbhandari, Sujan and Joshi, Siddarth Koduru and Oi, Daniel and Haas, Harald and Henderson, Robert and Dawson, Martin (2026) High-speed switching of UV-C LEDs for communications and sensing applications. In: 4th International Conference on UV-LED Technologies & Applications (ICULTA 2026), 2026-04-21 - 2026-04-24, Karl-Storz Visitor Center.

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Abstract

Recent years have seen a significant improvement in the availability of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) in the wavelength range 235-280 nm with output powers of a few mW or better. These UV-C LEDs are useful for a variety of applications, some of which require the LED light output to be switched on a nanosecond timescale. This presentation will focus on UV-C LED development towards two application areas, optical wireless communications (OWC) and stand-off hydrogen detection, which have overlapping requirements on the LEDs. OWC benefits from the low solar background at UV-C wavelengths and requires nanosecond switching to enable Gb/s data rates. Hydrogen is detected via Raman scattering, and UV-C operation is beneficial due to low solar background, low background from fluorescence, and increased Raman cross section. Additional range filtering using few-nanosecond time-of-flight information can improve the signal-to-noise ratio. UV-C LEDs have been shown to have modulation bandwidths of up to 0.8 GHz and are capable of delivering <5 ns optical pulses, thus serving both applications well. However, the optimal choice of LED depends on a complex balance of parameters, including device geometry, operating currents and voltages, wavelength, and specific requirements by the drive electronics. This presentation will explain key design considerations and their implications for OWC and sensing systems.

ORCID iDs

Hill, Jordan ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-0811-459X, Gray, Johnathan, Zimi, Hichem ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-7875-8034, Xie, Enyuan ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7776-8091, McKendry, Jonathan ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6379-3955, Cheng, Chen, Sagar, Jaya, Herrnsdorf, Johannes ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3856-5782, Rajbhandari, Sujan ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8742-118X, Joshi, Siddarth Koduru, Oi, Daniel ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0965-9509, Haas, Harald, Henderson, Robert and Dawson, Martin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6639-2989;
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