The program's goal is to develop LEDs operating below 275nm for use in water sterilization and numerous other applications of interest to the Department of Defense. The development will take place at the company's facility in Green Island, New York. It will run in parallel with the company’s recently announced effort to produce large diameter AlN substrates. “DARPA selected us for this award based upon the performance of our existing 265nm LEDs that leverage our proprietary aluminum nitride (AlN) substrate technology.” said Dr. Steven Berger, CEO of Crystal IS. “With the tremendous help provided by DARPA, we believe we will accelerate the development cycle and bring bright, efficient, and long lifetime UVC LEDs to market sooner.”

“To make the project as successful as possible we have assembled a group of expert collaborators," said Dr. Leo Schowalter, CTO and founder of Crystal IS.   “These include industrial and university partners and a Cooperative Research Agreement with the Army Research Laboratory, administered by Dr. Wraback.  Combined with our own resources this truly represents a world class team."