SBIR Phase I:Automatic Touch Screen Disinfection (COVID-19)

这项小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段的更广泛影响/商业潜力是为任何个人和公共触摸屏显示器配备自消毒功能。触摸屏技术是个人智能手机、工业和医疗设备以及公共触摸屏站等日常生活中不可或缺的一部分。这些屏幕很方便，但却成为有害细菌的聚集地。使用触摸屏可以缓解COVID-19大流行的社会距离政策。该项目将开发一种超声波消毒方法，以减轻病原体在这些表面上的传播。一系列广泛的应用可能会随之而来，包括：银行（自动取款机）、零售（杂货POS站、自动售货机、餐厅点单站）、交通运输（自助检查亭、边境控制站、飞机信息娱乐系统、汽车仪表板）、医疗设备、政府大楼、博物馆和旅游景点、艺术和娱乐（互动亭）以及消费电子产品（智能手机、智能手表、平板电脑、笔记本电脑、配备触摸屏的电器）。这种方法的主要优点包括速度快、能够高频消毒、不需要人工消毒以及对使用者的预期安全性。这个SBIR一期项目将展示使用分立压电换能器的超声波消毒过程的效率。由于这些元素不是透明的，所以只能通过附着在显示玻璃的外围来与触摸屏集成。这种配置将允许对拟议的消毒方法进行基本可行性研究。该项目将使用一种新型薄膜压电技术，利用薄膜沉积和图案化方法在整个显示玻璃表面制造换能器。这种配置是有益的，因为它不需要超出当前显示玻璃产品尺寸的额外设备面积或厚度。此外，这种设计不局限于小的显示尺寸，可以缩放到更大的显示尺寸。薄膜压电系统在运行中是节能的。消毒过程将以宽范围的超声波频率和功率为特征，并对冠状病毒（SARS-CoV-2）和细菌（大肠杆菌）进行说明。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I is to equip any personal and public touch screen displays with self-disinfection capabilities. Touch-screen technology is an integral part of everyday life in applications such as personal smartphones, industrial and medical equipment, and public touch screen stations. These screens are convenient but become a hotspot for harmful germs and bacteria. The use of touch screens could mitigate the social distancing policies of the COVID-19 pandemic. This project will develop an ultrasonic disinfection method to mitigate the spread of pathogens across such surfaces. A wide array of applications could follow including: banks (ATMs), retail (groceries POS stations, vending machines, restaurant order stations), transportation (self-check kiosks, border control stations, plane’s infotainment systems, automotive dashboards), medical equipment, government buildings, museums and tourist attractions, art and entertainment (interactive kiosks), and consumer electronics (smartphones, smartwatches, tablets, laptops, touch screen equipped appliances). Primary benefits of the methods would include speed and ability to disinfect with high frequency, elimination of need for manual labor to disinfect by this method, and expected safety to the user. This SBIR Phase I project will demonstrate the efficiency of ultrasonic disinfection process using discrete piezoelectric transducers. Because these elements are not transparent, they could be integrated with touch screen only by attachment at the periphery of the display glass. This configuration will allow a basic feasibility study for a proposed disinfection method. The project will use a novel thin film piezoelectric technology where transducers are fabricated across an entire display glass surface using thin film deposition and patterning method. This configuration is beneficial since it would not require additional device area or thickness beyond the current display glass product dimensions. Moreover, this design is not limited to small display form-factors and could be scaled to a larger display size. A thin film piezoelectric system is energy efficient in operation. The disinfection process will be characterized at wide ranges of ultrasonic frequencies and powers, and illustrated for coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) and bacterium (E. coli).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.