KrCl^* Far UV-C Microplasma Flat Lamp: Prevention of Airborne Transmission of Pathogens with Human Safety

A noble far UV-C radiation (typically at the wavelength range of 200-230 nm) has been introduced with a significant commercial and scientific interest because of its higher efficacy in inactivating airborne pathogens (including COVID-19 coronaviruses). Furthermore, the far UV-C wavelength has been known (reported) not to induce essentially any damage to skin or eyes even during the exposure against the treatment by the conventional germicidal lamp.

A compact, flat lamp comprising large arrays of microcavity plasmas, capable of efficiently generating far UV-C (222 nm) photons from the B-X transition of KrCl^* excimer, has been developed. Microplasmas are non-equilibrium, low-temperature plasma sources with higher power loading in the individual microcavities, thereby enabling them to form KrCl* excimer molecules efficiently. The array of these individual microcavities devices also exhibits higher angular radiation distribution up to 180 degrees.   

In this paper, a far UV-C microplasma lamp with a flat form factor will be discussed for its performance to prevent airborne transmission of the virus by continuous viral density reduction in an indoor space.