Abstract We present a study of the light output power and the thermal impedance of 281 nm emission AlGaN based micropixel LEDs. A modular interconnected micropixel array design is presented which enables dense packing with area and power scalability. We study 5–15 μm diameter stand-alone devices and parallel-connected micropixel arrays with 5 μm interpixel gaps. A standalone 5 μm pixel emits 291 W cm⁻² at 10.2 kA cm⁻² DC-drive. A power as high as 23 mW (361 W cm⁻²) was measured at a pulsed-pump current of 800 mA (∼15 kA cm⁻²) for an interconnected array. These are the smallest and brightest DUV LEDs to date.