Self-biased Wide Bandgap Semiconductor Detectors for Real-time Monitoring of Environmental UV Light Index

The one-year project involves partnerships among academia including an HBCU to provide a scalable, replicable, and sustainable innovative solution to South Carolina’s resilience challenge involving harmful environmental effects of solar UV radiation. Overexposure to UV radiation is a potential biohazard as it causes sunburn, cataracts, and skin melanoma. Skin melanoma is the 7th most reported cancer site among all types of cancer diagnosed in the US with an annual rate of 230 per 100,000 persons in South Carolina. The most effective way to prevent skin melanoma is to monitor the intensity of solar UV radiation (UVI) at a local or personal level. Presently, the National Weather Service estimates the daily UVI indirectly using computational models. In this proposal, based on our breakthrough research and a new discovery of self-biased Ni/4H-SiC UV detectors, we aim to develop a direct readout UV detection system that is reliable, lightweight, and low-cost. This UV detection system can be mounted in unmanned aerial or remote controlled vehicles for calculating and mapping UVI locally and is integrable as an IoT (internet of things) device for personalized monitoring. The developed detector will offer high signal to noise ratio, hand-held operation, and low power consuming device making fast indoor and outdoor field measurements. The proposed effort will have numerous commercial applications in diversified fields such as health care, space research, and is well-aligned with the CORE SC’s Innovation Grant Mission and SC’s Science and Technology Plan: Vision 2030.