Performance Evaluation of a BZ COVID-19 NALF Assay for Rapid Diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection has been a global pandemic for more than two years, and it is important to quickly and accurately diagnose and isolate patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection. The BZ COVID-19 NALF Assay could sensitively detect SARS-CoV-2 from a nasopharyngeal swab because it adopts both a loop-mediated isothermal amplification and lateral flow immunochromatography technology. In this study, a total of 389 nasopharyngeal swab samples, of which 182 were SARS-CoV-2 PCR positive and 207 were negative samples, were recruited. Compared to the Allplex™ SARS-CoV-2 Assay, the BZ COVID-19 NALF Assay showed 95.05% sensitivity and 99.03% specificity for detecting SARS-CoV-2. The concordance rate between the BZ COVID-19 NALF Assay and Allplex™ SARS-CoV-2 Assay was 97.69%. The turnaround time of the BZ COVID-19 NALF Assay is only about 40~55 min. The BZ COVID-19 NALF Assay is an accurate, easy, and quick molecular diagnostic test compared to the conventional PCR test for detection of SARS-CoV-2. In addition, the BZ COVID-19 NALF Assay is thought to be very useful in small size medical facilities or developing countries where it is difficult to operate a clinical laboratory.

Effect of AlOx protection layer on AgNWs for flexible transparent heater.

We indicated high performance and stability transparent heaters based on AlOx covered Ag nanowires. We obtained an AlOx covered Ag nanowire thin film which has a 47 ohm/sq of sheet resistance and 88.1% (substrate included) of transmittance at 600 nm on a flexible substrate. We demonstrate that the thin AlOx layer leads to increased contact area at the junction of Ag nanowires, which contributes to lower sheet resistance and improved adhesion of Ag nanowires. Furthermore, high stability and flexibility of Ag nanowire have been achieved by the AlOx layer. Finally, we fabricated a flexible transparent heater with AlOx covered Ag nanowire, and obtained a temperature of 81 °C within 40 sec at the driven voltage of 7 V with fast response and uniform temperature distribution. Therefore, the AlOx covered Ag nanowire film is a promising candidate for the application of the flexible transparent heaters.

Effect of Inductively Coupled Plasma on Multilayer Electrodes for Flexible Single-Layer Touch Screen Panels.

We investigated the effect of inductively coupled plasma (ICP) on multilayer electrodes for flexible capacitive touch sensors. We found that using ICP during Ag deposition generally increased the conductivity and transmittance of multilayer electrodes. As a result, in the case of the multilayer electrode with an ICP power of 150 W during Ag deposition, 5.7 Ω/sq of sheet resistance and 89.6% of transmittance (550 nm) have been achieved. We demonstrate that the crystallization of the ICP supplied Ag layer in multilayer electrodes leads to the smooth surface roughness of the multilayer film; the smooth surface roughness provided low light scattering. As a result, the crystallized Ag thin film by ICP improved the sheet resistance and transmittance of multilayer electrodes. Finally, we fabricated a 221 × 130 mm (active layer)-sized single-layer touch screen panel (TSP) using multilayer electrodes with ICP on a corning glass and polyethylene terephthalate flexible substrate. The single-layer TSPs show high linearity and sensitivity with multitouches.