News: LEDs
18 December 2020
NS Nanotech taking early production pre-orders for portable personal purifier
NS Nanotech of Ann Arbor, MI, USA is taking pre-orders for its new ShortWaveLight Purifier, which is claimed to be the first portable, personal consumer product that emits far-UVC light to inactivate viruses, microbes and other pathogens on surfaces and in the user’s personal airspace.
A startup with patented technology developed at the University of Michigan and McGill University, NS Nanotech claims that its new nitride semiconductor chips are the first solid-state devices to emit far-UVC light at wavelengths ranging from 200-222nm.
Consumers can reserve a ShortWaveLight Purifier on a first-come, first-served basis with a 10% deposit on the $199 price at NS Nanotech’s ShortWaveLight e-store (www.ShortWaveLight.com). Shipments of the far-UVC air and surface purifier will begin in first-half 2021. Visitors to the 2021 virtual Consumer Technology Association CES conference in January can learn more about the new product at the NS Nanotech exhibit booth #10323.
“Our ShortWaveLight Purifier is designed as a first line of defense that lessens the viral load in the user’s personal airspace, making face masks and other interventions that much more effective,” says CEO & co-founder Seth Coe-Sullivan.
Shaped like a three-cornered pyramid about the size of a coffee mug, the ShortWaveLight Purifier emits invisible disinfecting light from a round portal on its face. Louvered vents guide the light down and out to help sanitize the user’s work surface and air just in front of the unit. Three micro-fans gently push fresh air into the user’s airspace.
NS Nanotech’s solid-state ShortWaveLight Emitter inside the unit generates invisible far-UVC light at less than 230nm, a wavelength range that researchers say can neutralize more than 99.9% of airborne coronaviruses in its path. Designed for business and consumer use at home, work, school, on receptionists’ desks, at retail check-out, on airline tray tables and many other possible locations, the portable ShortWaveLight Purifier can be used almost anywhere you can plug it in, says the firm.
“Putting the world’s first solid-state emitter of shortwave far-UVC sanitizing light into a portable personal air purifier will give individuals more control in their ongoing fight against current and future pandemics,” says Coe-Sullivan.
Several other UVC lighting suppliers recently introduced far-UVC 222nm lamps. But their products are based on an earlier generation of technology requiring the use of gas-state excimer bulbs that are large, fragile, expensive and too hot to touch, says NS Nanotech. They also require filters to block the longer UVC wavelengths, adding cost to the lamps.
The solid-state ShortWaveLight Emitter alleviates those problems, says the firm. At less than 1.5-inches square, it has the smallest form factor available for any far-UVC germicidal light, it is claimed, and easily fits inside a portable purifier. Because of its solid-state design, it runs cool. Also, it uses power efficiently, reducing costs and enabling eventual battery-powered operation, concludes the firm.
AquiSense and NS Nanotech partner
NS Nanotech’s new chip emits far-UVC light to neutralize coronavirus
