"Water, water, every where, And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink."

We've just begun to discuss the topic of how the solid state lighting industry will help produce reliably safe, good tasting drinking water. Leading the drive to safer water through SSL solutions is a cadre of highly innovative, caring catalysts all of whom are based in the USA. The latest progress is reported in a news story titled Deep UV LEDs Reach Major Milestone in Water Purification.

Hydro-Photon's SteriPEN product, which currently uses mercury vapor as the source, is on one end of the applications spectrum. Priced at $149, it sells well in high end catalogs. Once the power of the UV LEDs becomes adaquate enough (and levels are improving rapidly), the follow-on version will likely use about 10 UV LEDs and will undoubtedly be produced by SET (Sensor Electronic Technology Inc.) given that company is apparently well ahead of a tiny pack of potential suppliers. Most importantly, the resulting UV LED-based next gen version will likely be priced at only $49. Not only will it cost a third as much as today's product, it will be significantly smaller at about the size of a real pen. In addition, the light source will last longer.

SET has the production capability to provide everything a systems integrator like Miles Maiden, CEO and CTO of Hydro-Photon, needs once those power levels have been reached. Miles has been working very closely with Asif Khan's group at University of South Carolina (USC) and with Remis Gaska, President of SET. SET was a spinoff of Asif's USC group. Asif is one of the great GaN pioneers, having originally founded APA Optics, which if I recall correctly, was the first commercial development company of GaN based electronic devices. Asif eventually found a permanent home at USC in South Carolina and has put together a truly world class GaN group which has benefited from Asif's real commercial experience. Paul Maruska, the original inventor of the GaN on sapphire blue LED, is included in the group. (Ref: our Jan 16th article and Paul's pictorial history of GaN LEDs) who tried valiantly with Jacques Pankove to get RCA to bring GaN blue LEDs to market back in the 1960s.

So here we are today, looking forward to tomorrow. From pens, the next step will be backpacks with in-line purification systems, and eventually home and community size systems that combine solar power capabilities. Whereas relief agencies and municipal rescue efforts now truck in huge water purification mercury vapor UV systems during a disaster, they'd likely welcome smaller, less expensive UV LED based systems. Water itself can't take up less room or weigh less, but the systems that purify it certainly can. One of the added virtues of UV LED purification is that it doesn't change the taste of water the way chlorine does, but it can do everything chlorine can, and then some.

Huge water treatment plants currently operating in municipalities are on the other end of the application scale. GE's Michael Sutsko described the field extremely well at our Wide Bandgap Business Opportunities Workshop in December at CS Outlook. Those who attended or have access to the agenda can read Michael's talk, titled: Ultraviolet Disinfection and Photolytic Applications... Market Overview & Advantages of Solid State Sources. In addition to disinfection (water and air), Michael outlined other excellent opportunities for photolysis (TOC, ozone, chlorine), advanced oxidation technology, curing (inks, adhesives, dental, medical, CAM), phosphor-based white LEDs, medical (bilirubin treatment), cosmetics, sensors, and deep UV photo lithography. Michael used to work in the water purification field, so he was particularly knowledgeable and sharing about that sector. One of the application areas that he projected to be especially lucrative would be the beverage business from soft drinks to beer to bottled water. UV LEDs would not only purify the water, but high dose UV treatment could be used to remove chlorine and chloramines from incoming water.