If you’ve missed the last few LEDs Magazine newsletters, then you may not have learned that our annual Sapphire Awards program is now open for submissions. Already the program is in its seventh year — it’s unfathomable how quickly we have marked so many changes in solid-state lighting (SSL) technology driven by applications we could only imagine 20‒30 years ago.
That is the point of the Sapphire Awards program — to keep stride and recognize advances in LED and SSL enabling technologies that both forge new paths to grow SSL-related businesses and expand the application scenarios that are supported by LED innovations. Upon debuting the Awards in June 2014, our team announced that it would be “the first program in the SSL industry to focus on the LED-based market from an enabling-technology and elegance-of-design perspective.” And that remains true to this day. But as new markets grow, we look to identify trends and products that increase the profile and prospects of the LED and SSL supply chain.
Products delivering ultraviolet (UV) disinfection have been on the rise since the beginning of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. As terrible and trying as the global health crisis has been, it has kicked many companies into commercialization mode or pushed them to test and verify UV products that aid in deactivating viruses and other pathogens in the air and on surfaces. Thus, awareness of these options has increased as well.
While we have long covered such technologies, and have accepted LED-based disinfection products into the Sapphire Awards prior to 2021, this year we decided to split UV LEDs and Systems into a standalone category so that such products can be stacked against each other, rather than against packaged LEDs and modular systems intended for other lighting applications such as in the Lighting for Health and Wellbeing category. Now, don’t forget that UV LEDs and systems can achieve other objectives, such as water purification, curing, and more, so those products will also fall under this category.
The Sapphire Awards Early Bird discount will end on Monday, Mar. 1, so take advantage and enter now. The final entry closing is Apr. 1.
Outside of the Sapphire Awards, UV is still a timely topic. I wanted to let you know that we also have two upcoming webcasts from very different and knowledgeable speakers. On Mar. 11, Mean Well product manager and engineer extraordinaire Kai Li will put the LED driver into context for safe, optimal operation of UV-C systems. And on Mar. 23, consultant Mike Krames, who wrote one of the articles linked above, will explain the challenges of germicidal UV-C systems, differences between traditional mercury lamp sources and UV LEDs, and forecast the potential of LEDs in germicidal operation versus legacy lamps.
You can register for both webcasts at the links above, and per usual, they will be available on demand after the live event dates.
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