Violeds Can Kill 99 Percent Of COVID In Under A Second
KR Biotech has verified the sterilisation results of Seoul Viosys and SETi Violeds UV LED technology
UV LED technology firms Sensor Electronic Technology, Inc (SETi) and Seoul Viosys, subsidiaries of Seoul Semiconductor, have announced that their Violeds technology can quickly and effectively kill 99.437 percent of SARS-CoV-2 in less than one second.
The testing was conducted in December 2020 through KR Biotech, a South Korea-based research institute specialising in sterilisation testing of the new coronavirus.
This test results demonstrate that Violeds UV LED technology could be an effective method to disinfect airborne viruses, water systems, as well as areas where COVID-19 patients were housed, including hospital rooms.
After exposing SARS-CoV-2 to the Violeds UV LED module for one, three, and five seconds respectively, the research team observed the inactivation rate of virus particles at 99.437 percent in one second.
Violeds, based on compound semiconductor technology, is a safer solution for the replacement of conventional UV lamps that contain mercury, a toxic element which is released when UV lamps are broken. Because of their short lifespan of around 5,000 hours, conventional UV lamps require frequent replacement. UV LED technology has advantages in both cost and safety with a long life of up to 50,000 hours, which is more than ten times the life of conventional mercury lamps.
UV LED technology is rapidly replacing the $70 million USD UV mercury lamp market due to technology advancements including miniaturisation to less than 1mm2 as well as improved efficiency. As UV LED technology is adopted by new industries for bio-healthcare and virus disinfection, the global market for UV LEDs is expected to grow to $2.786 billion in 2025, according to Yole Développement, a leading market compound semiconductor research company.
“The COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying risk of virus variants continue. Despite vaccination with influenza vaccines, flu deaths in the US average more than 10,000 per year. As hundreds of millions of people around the world are exposed to various infectious diseases, prevention through disinfection is now an essential method for reducing infections. Due to the hazards of chemical disinfection methods, professionally designed UV LED disinfection systems represent a safer solution and may be the world standard in the future,” said an official at Seoul Viosys.
