very very expensive emitters

http://www.qphotonics.com/UVCLEAN-LED-Lamps/

http://www.qphotonics.com/Deep-UV-high-power-LED-lamp-30-50mW-255nm.html

Periodically, I look at these and wonder if I could ever afford to have (built-for-me) a small 255nm UV-C flashlight...
But ignore my dreams for a moment, ignore the wavelength and anemic power output, and take a glance at the column with prices.

What practical application could a $3500 emitter or a $6000 emitter possibly have? WHO IS BUYING THESE? What are they used for? If a few grams of emitter costs $6K, what is it built into, and how much does THAT cost?

Are we certain that diamond is a poor material for building flashlights? How about smelting irony meteorites and Moon rocks brought back by the Apollo Astronauts for extraterrestrial metals (just to inflate the cost to "impossible to afford")? Don't answer that, its a joke, but I don't understand the manufacture of something that very few individuals could afford, and any industry that needs these would necessarily need to be essential and profitable. And qphotionics keeps these emitters IN STOCK. How can they afford to do that?

obvously use of led is not limited to flashlights, and lights, especially for 240nm (germicidal), it may be used in some madical reaserch devices, or biological reaserch, what is $6000 for merck, or other pharmaceutical company, penuts, just like 6 bucks for you

I could use one of those! At ~255nm peak wavelength they would be ideal for erasing EPROMs.

night.hoodie said:

What practical application could a $3500 emitter or a $6000 emitter possibly have?

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In short: specialist / niche applications. Things you can't do / do easily / too cumbersome or inefficient otherwise. And for which the cost is less important than other issues. I suspect mostly research uses of some kind...

But say an oil drilling rig has a critical part somewhere, which can be inspected quicker / easier / more reliable using these UV LEDs compared to other options. Who cares about a $6k part then, when shutting down that oil rig costs a multiple of that per hour? Obviously there exist applications like that, otherwise above company wouldn't be making/selling them. And maybe such a part has a very long life, such that per-use cost isn't actually that high (think tech specialist that runs from job to job with expensive goodies in their toolbag).

WHO IS BUYING THESE?

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http://www.qphotonics.com/OurCustomers.html

And qphotionics keeps these emitters IN STOCK. How can they afford to do that?

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You local car dealer keeps a few SUV's in stock. How can they afford to do that?

Btw diamond wouldn't be a bad choice for building flashlights: electrical isolator, good heat conductor, tough, durable, transparent, can be produced in various colors, lens & body can be 1 part, ...

alpg88 said:

obvously use of led is not limited to flashlights, and lights, especially for 240nm (germicidal), it may be used in some madical reaserch devices, or biological reaserch, what is $6000 for merck, or other pharmaceutical company, penuts, just like 6 bucks for you

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RetroTechie said:

But say an oil drilling rig has a critical part somewhere, which can be inspected quicker / easier / more reliable using these UV LEDs compared to other options. Who cares about a $6k part then, when shutting down that oil rig costs a multiple of that per hour? Obviously there exist applications like that, otherwise above company wouldn't be making/selling them. And maybe such a part has a very long life, such that per-use cost isn't actually that high (think tech specialist that runs from job to job with expensive goodies in their toolbag).

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That must be it... the clients are the industries with crazy money, and they have applications. If the application didn't make economic sense, the application probably wouldn't exist. So it doesn't matter how expensive an emitter can get (presumably in this case due to difficulty in achieving the specs), so long as there is some application that demands it.

night.hoodie said:

That must be it... the clients are the industries with crazy money, and they have applications. If the application didn't make economic sense, the application probably wouldn't exist. So it doesn't matter how expensive an emitter can get (presumably in this case due to difficulty in achieving the specs), so long as there is some application that demands it.

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The high cost is likely due in part to the small quantities being manufactured. If hundreds of millions of people suddenly demanded UV-C LEDs for some application, the price would probably come down a lot.

My first thought was semiconductor lithography; starting at ~$1B and up to do that sort of work, who cares about $6k, lol.

And after reading the link, I see Intel is on the customer listing too.

night.hoodie said:

[...] Are we certain that diamond is a poor material for building flashlights? How about smelting irony meteorites and Moon rocks brought back by the Apollo Astronauts for extraterrestrial metals (just to inflate the cost to "impossible to afford")? Don't answer that, its a joke, but I don't understand the manufacture of something that very few individuals could afford, and any industry that needs these would necessarily need to be essential and profitable. And qphotionics keeps these emitters IN STOCK. How can they afford to do that?

Click to expand...

Edit: And no flashlight builds with diamond materials for thermal applications please - poor coupling at the electron/phonon interface, that sort of thing. There is a way around that, but it's a secret. :devil:

And moon rocks, that's /another/ thing I worked on. The first batch of simulated moon soil that NASA put together after the Apollo missions. Our method of fabrication didn't work out, but it was worth trying at least.