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。触摸屏技术是日常生活中不可或缺的一部分，应用于个人智能手机、工业和医疗设备以及公共触摸屏工作站。这些屏幕很方便，但成为有害细菌和细菌的热点。使用触摸屏可减轻COVID-19疫情的社交距离政策。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。 随后可能会有各种各样的应用，包括：银行（自动取款机），零售（杂货POS站、自动售货机、餐厅点餐站）、交通（自助检查亭、边境控制站、飞机信息娱乐系统、汽车仪表盘）、医疗设备、政府大楼、博物馆和旅游景点、艺术和娱乐（交互式信息亭）和消费电子产品（智能电话、智能手表、平板电脑、笔记本电脑、配备触摸屏的电器）。该方法的主要益处将包括以高频率消毒的速度和能力、消除通过该方法进行消毒的手工劳动的需要以及对用户的预期安全性。该SBIR第一阶段项目将证明使用离散压电换能器的超声波消毒过程的效率。因为这些元件不是透明的，所以它们可以仅通过在显示器玻璃的外围处的附接而与触摸屏集成。该配置将允许对拟定的消毒方法进行基本可行性研究。该项目将采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器玻璃表面上制造换能器。 这种配置是有益的，因为它不需要超出当前显示器玻璃产品尺寸的额外器件面积或厚度。此外，该设计不限于小的显示器形状因子，并且可以缩放到更大的显示器尺寸。薄膜压电系统在操作中是能量有效的。消毒过程将在宽范围的超声波频率和功率的特点，并说明了冠状病毒（SARS-CoV-2）和细菌（E。该奖项反映了NSF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.