Lasers & Sources

Crystal IS receives $5M DARPA award for germicidal UV LEDs

Dec. 8, 2010

Green Island, NY--Crystal IS was awarded $5 million dollars by DARPA to develop LEDs operating below 275 nm for use in water sterilization and numerous other applications.

Gail Overton

Green Island, NY--Crystal IS, developer of ultraviolet C (short wave) light-emitting diodes (UVC LEDs), announced it has been awarded $5 million dollars by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The goal of the program is the development of efficient LEDs operating below 275 nm for use in water sterilization and numerous other applications of significant interest to the Department of Defense.

"DARPA selected us for this award based upon the performance of our existing 265nm LEDs that leverage our proprietary aluminum nitride (AlN) substrate technology," said Steven Berger, CEO of Crystal IS. "With the tremendous help provided by DARPA, we believe we will accelerate the development cycle and bring bright, efficient, and long lifetime UVC LEDs to market sooner."

The development will take place at the Crystal IS facility in Green Island, NY and will run in parallel with the company’s recently announced effort to produce large diameter AlN substrates.

"To make the project as successful as possible we have assembled a group of expert collaborators," said Leo Schowalter, CTO and founder of Crystal IS. "These include industrial and university partners and a Cooperative Research Agreement with the Army Research Laboratory, administered by Dr. Wraback. Combined with our own resources this truly represents a world class team."

SOURCE: Crystal IS; www.crystal-is.com/press.cfm/newsitem/86370

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About the Author

Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)

Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.