This file photo provided by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology shows the university’s building in the central city of Daejeon, 140 kilometers south of Seoul.
DAEJEON, Nov. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) said Tuesday that its researchers had developed a wearable green organic light-emitting diode (OLED) that can cure jaundice in infants.
Previously, when jaundice is treated at hospitals, breastfeeding should be stopped and the eyes of infants should be fully covered by blindfolds to prevent their retinas from being damaged by blue light.
The research team developed a high-energy green OLED with a 470-nanometer (nm) wavelength that is effective in curing jaundice on top of a wearable fabric.
The OLED features sufficient power for jaundice treatment even at low voltage, durability for more than 100 hours of operation, a low operating temperature of less than 35 Celsius degrees, and flexibility that can endure more than 1,000 bends at a 2 mm radius of curvature.
Within three hours of exposing the OLED to the serum of infants, the bilirubin level reached 12 milligrams per decilitre (mg/dL), a level indicating that the treatment of jaundice has been completed.
Compared to existing light-emitting diode (LED)-based jaundice treatment devices being used at hospitals, the newly-developed technology showed uniform and effective treatment functions.
Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
