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Customers start designing far-UVC air and surface disinfection applications....
Ann Arbor, MI, May 14 , 2021—NS Nanotech announced it has started shipping semiconductor-based far-UVC light-emitter prototypes with the launch of an Evaluation Kit Program for customers designing applications for human-safe disinfection with ultraviolet light. The pre-production evaluation kits include custom-built far-UVC ShortWaveLight™ Emitters designed for use in a broad range of potential new air and surface disinfection applications.
NS Nanotech Evaluation Kits include the far-UVC ShortWaveLight™ Emitter,
cables, power supplies, and documentation.
“Shipping our first evaluation kits is a significant milestone in development of the world’s first solid-state semiconductor-based far-UVC light emitter,” said Seth Coe-Sullivan, NS Nanotech co-founder and CEO. “Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, manufacturers of UVC disinfection solutions have been racing to deliver far-UVC light sources that could be used in occupied spaces. NS Nanotech’s ShortWaveLight™ Emitter is the first solid-state, semiconductor-based far-UVC light source that can be optimized for disinfection of air and surfaces in enclosed, poorly ventilated spaces where viral loads tend to build to dangerous levels.”
A Breakthrough in Ultraviolet Disinfection
Invisible UVC light has long been used in hospitals, starting with disinfection of air in tuberculosis wards nearly 100 years ago. Until recently, however, most UVC light sources emitted disinfecting light at 254 nanometers, which can harm human skin and eyes with symptoms akin to sunburn and snow blindness. As with sunlight, long-term exposure can also lead to cancer. Therefore, UVC disinfection was limited to cleaning surfaces at night or other times when spaces were unoccupied, or to ceiling-mounted systems that disinfected some of the air circulating in the upper room without exposing people in the room below.
But over the past several years, researchers at Columbia University, Kobe University, and elsewhere have demonstrated that a shorter wavelength of UVC light—“far-UVC” light at 230 nanometers or less—can be used more safely around humans. Its shorter wavelength means it does not penetrate skin or eyes deeply enough to cause long-term damage. At the same time, the research has shown that invisible disinfecting light emitted in this wavelength range can neutralize more than 99.9% of airborne coronaviruses in their path.
In 2020, NS Nanotech announced it had broken major barriers in semiconductor device design with the first solid-state devices to emit far-UVC light. Its new nitride semiconductors, which emit far-UVC light at wavelengths ranging from 200-to-230 nanometers, are integrated into NS Nanotech’s ShortWaveLight™ Emitter lamps, and in the ShortWaveLight™ Purifier, a portable device for consumers that deactivates viruses and other pathogens in their personal airspace.
Evaluation Kits Speed Design of UVC Disinfection Applications
The ShortWaveLight™ Evaluation Kits are for manufactures developing new far-UVC disinfection applications utilizing the ShortWaveLight™ Emitter. They include:
● A ShortWaveLight™ Emitter in an enclosed pyramid-shaped unit.
● A mechanical sample of the ShortWaveLight Emitter lamp component.
● Associated driving cables.
● Power supplies.
● Product documentation.
As further studies confirm that far-UVC disinfection is human-safe, product developers are considering potential limitless possibilities for effective disinfection of the air in public and private spaces. Constant disinfection of the air with human-safe far-UVC light should make it possible to significantly reduce the viral load anywhere people congregate. Always-on far-UVC light could make offices, airports and airplanes, trains and train stations, convention centers, buses, personal autos and ride-shares, theaters, and literally any other location where people gather less likely to spread the contagion.
Coe-Sullivan said that a limited number of custom-built ShortWaveLight™ Emitter units are being shipped to early customers starting in May. Additional pre-production units for Evaluation Kit Program customers will be available in June and July, prior to completion of production-ready units later in 2021.
About NS Nanotech
NS Nanotech’s nitride semiconductor technology draws on more than a decade of work on patented inventions by researchers at McGill University and the University of Michigan that dramatically improve the fabrication process and resulting efficiency of nano-scale light-emitting materials. In 2020, the company broke major barriers in semiconductor device design with the world’s first solid-state source of far-UVC ultraviolet light that researchers say can deactivate the SARS-CoV-2 virus and other airborne pathogens. In 2021, it will ship two products: the ShortWaveLight™ Emitter, for manufacturers designing far-UVC light sources into a range of new far-UVC air and surface disinfection products, and the ShortWaveLight™ Purifier for consumers, which neutralizes viruses in your personal airspace.