Prof. Patrick McCluskey and Dr. Diganta Das receive MIPS Award

With a rapid increase in the volume of plant cultivation, farmers have been turning to controlled environment agriculture (CEA) to provide quality and predictability to their operations. CEA is the use of artificial lighting, which can provide many benefits to both greenhouse production as supplemental light and indoor production and as the sole source of light. The use of artificial lights has proven to be very useful in decreasing the time required for the inductive stages, and also providing higher quality commercial plants. JumpLights, Inc designed the first-generation series of LED horticulture lights to efficiently provide light intensity in desirable wavelengths. However, the benefits of increased yields at higher light levels are offset by increased energy costs such as those from the increased need to air-condition the space. JumpLights, Inc and Prof. Patrick McCluskey have been selected to receive a Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) award for the project, “Improving Cost and Efficacy of LED Plant Lights”.

The project would develop an enhanced passive cooling and packaging design for the lighting fixture that will provide lower junction temperature and improved temperature uniformity, thereby providing an improved light intensity and uniformity for plant growth, along with longer lifetimes at greater reliability. The proposed system would decrease the thermal resistance to enhance and cool the system effectively and efficiently.

The success of the project will help meet the goals of the MIPS program i.e., to promote the commercialization of advanced technology through university/industry partnership, and to strengthen the economy of the state of Maryland.

Published July 12, 2021