I’ve used UV LED’s to build a PCB exposure unit, and that was very successful, so I thought I would see if a UV LED could be used to erase an EPROM.

As experiments go, it was rather a long shot. The UV LEDs I’ve got emit UV light at a wavelength of around 400nm, and EPROMs need to be exposed to UV light at around 250nm. However UV is UV so it was worth a try.

It didn’t work :(

In the end, it had around five hours of exposure and after reading back the EPROM contents, not even one bit had changed state. Still, I suppose it’s nice to know.

I’ve created a new tech tip article on the method I use for creating double-sided PCB’s for those that are interested. It’s really not that difficult and doesn’t require any special hardware, just a little bit of patience and care. Enjoy.