What's the Different from 940nm LED and 850nm LED?

IR LED can also name as infrared LED and normally it will be Through-hole IR LED and SMD IR LED type in the LED market.

Mainly the IR LED is 850nm LED or 940nm LED. Of course some other wavelength like 880nm LED, 810nm LED , 780nm LED , 980nm LED or even 1050nm LED, 1200nm LED, 1300nm LED and 1550nm LED are all available. But these are not that commom IR LED as 940nm and 850nm.

As a IR LED, what's the different from 940nm LED and 850nm LED?

As a manufacturer engaged in the production of infrared LED for more than ten years, based on the characteristics of the products and customer information feedback, we summarized some introductions as follows:

1, 850nm and 940nm are all means the peak wavelength(λP) of the LED. As you can see, obviously they got different in the wavelength.

2, Normally, the higher the wavelength value, the lower the forward voltage VF value under the same current. Under the condition of 20MA current, the VF of 850nm is about 1.35-1.55V and the VF of 940nm is about 1.10-1.25V. The VF will be different for different currents.

3, Red glow issue. 850nm LED has a red glow issue, and 940nm has no red glow issue. The so-called red glow issue refers to the visible red dot on the chip when the infrared LED is working.

In this case, if you need to hid your project in the dark night, 940nm LED will be a better choice. Some of our customers will use black lens to cover up the red glow issue, but it will still visible if you pay attention on the red burst.

4, 850nm LED will got higher and stonger radiation than 940nm LED.

5, We can see the different when we light up the 940nm LED and 850nm LED in 1.5V battery.

6, Under the same current conditions, the power consumption of the 940nm will be lower than 850nm LED due to the voltage. 940nm LED can handle higher current than 850nm LED when they got the same chip size.

Regardless of 850nm wavelength or 940nm wavelength, the size and brand of the chip are the key to purchasing costs.