Are UVC LEDs Driving & #039;Digital Cleaning & #039;?

Hospitals do a lot to kill microbes, but there is a gap in disinfection coverage, said Nick Connelly, application engineer for Crystal IS. “There is a missing layer of protection,” he said, pointing to high-touch surfaces and equipment in healthcare settings such as keyboards. “Consider all the devices being used, including roll-in devices and medication carts.” In addition to using a range of chemical-based disinfectants, hospitals are looking to UV light as a disinfection solution. But some of these UV-light emitting devices, such as mercury lamps, can consume a lot of power and are not environmentally safe, Connelly said, and may not be cost effective for wide use. It may also be a challenge to move devices around hospitals for disinfection in a timely manner. At BIOMEDevice San Jose 2018, Crystal IS, an Asahi Kasei company, presented an alternative: high-performance deep ultraviolet (UVC) LEDs launched in 2016 under the name Klaran. The company creates LEDs from an aluminum nitride substrate that can emit UV light in the 260-270 nm wavelength, which inactivates viruses and bacteria. “If you consider how powerful the light is at a particular wavelength, [the Klaran LEDs] are three times more powerful than that of our competitors,” Connelly said. “In 30 seconds, the LEDs can kill over 99% of C. difficile.”  Crystal IS ca...
Source: MDDI - Category: Medical Devices Authors: Tags: Sterilization Source Type: news