SUFN Lighting
Research Interview
The most important line in three interviews: this technology makes no claim of shortening the axial length.
The technical parameters of health lighting live in the white papers; the limits of the technology usually do not. Limits come from what the research team is willing to say publicly — including what it does not do. Below are the key questions and answers from three interviews, drawn from the speakers' own on-camera statements.
SUFN × CIK Rare-EarthAcademician Zhang Hongjie's groupCo-produced with Light Research Market
The two speakers
| Speaker | Role | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Wang Chaowei | Chairman of CIK Rare-Earth; member of Academician Zhang Hongjie's research group; core member of the Mingmou Spring Rain research team | the mechanism behind axial control, its limits and how quality is enforced |
| Yao Yi | Founder of Light Research Market; Secretary-General of the Health Lighting Committee | how the research becomes a product and a standard |
Key questions
QCan this technology shorten the axial length of a child's eye?
- No. The speaker rules the claim out explicitly. He is direct about it: “this technology does not have that function.”
- What the technology does is restrain rapid axial growth — keeping the eye from growing further than it should. That is prevention, not treatment. Products claiming to shorten the axial length are solving a different problem from the one this research addresses.
- No SUFN product page claims axial shortening or myopia correction.
QThen how is eye-care lighting actually defined?
- Not by how bright the light is, and not by what colour it is, but by how much energy each band delivers into the eye. The technical term is spectral power distribution: visible light (380–780 nm) is cut into bands of a fixed width, each with a defined energy value.
- That spectral power distribution is what the monkey study measured. At product stage, ceiling lights, street lights and desk lamps are all re-checked against the same metric before they reach the market.
QHow does a rare-earth light source differ from an ordinary LED?
- An ordinary LED bead combines a semiconductor and a phosphor. Rare earths are used in that phosphor. An eye-care spectrum needs specific rare-earth materials, a specific formulation and specific process conditions; CIK uses its own.
- Three consequences: light efficacy is 20% or more above comparable products; there are specific wavelengths other products do not contain; and by varying the rare-earth blend, a defined spectral energy curve can be locked in.
QDoes a low colour temperature mean a light is eye-friendly?
- No. Two misconceptions circulate: that any low colour temperature slows axial growth, and that a warm white light makes people drowsy and harms attention. The speaker corrects both.
- Attention depends on two factors — colour temperature and illuminance. In trials, 2800K paired with 500 lux or above kept people alert; no drowsiness appeared.
- The next development target is 3300K and above: high colour temperature while keeping the eye-friendly spectral characteristics.
QHow can a buyer tell whether a product really uses this technology?
- There is no matching industry standard yet. CIK Rare-Earth applies its own: the the light recipe (technical disclosure document), issued as a technical disclosure document by the Kunming Institute of Zoology. A product must meet that document before it goes to market.
- CIK does not make complete luminaires; it licenses the light source technology. A customer's finished luminaire is brought back for verification of its spectral energy values — ceiling lights, street lights and desk lamps alike, both at prototype stage and once the design is frozen.
- Brands and specific models using the technology are licensed and verifiable on the product's own website; every product carries an authorisation code. The team also buys licensed products on the open market and spot-checks batches. A product that fails is treated as irresponsible towards children.
QWhat are the actual school figures?
- 118 schools are using the technology, covering 12,000 students; the subset followed in the study is 4,000+ students. The two figures measure different things — students in use versus the research sample.
- Between September 2021 and October 2022, myopia growth in classrooms using the eye-care light source was 5.8% against 8.8% in control classrooms — a difference of 3 percentage points. Deployment has reached over a hundred thousand luminaires.
QWhat promotional limits does the team set for itself?
- The speaker describes firm internal limits on promotion, giving two: “no exaggerated promotion” and “no exaggeration of the product's efficacy claims”. His phrasing is “a good technology must not be turned into a gimmick”.
- Axial-control products are documented accordingly: a preventive intervention, making no claim of shortening the axial length or correcting myopia.
QWhen does axial growth matter most?
- Most myopia is caused by excessive axial growth. From birth to age 4–6 the eye draws down its hyperopic reserve (the eye starts short); by 6–7 vision normalises; Asian eyes finish developing at 24.
- Before age 12–13 axial change is relatively rapid and that is the critical window for control — which is why schools are the main place to validate it.
QWhat comes next?
- CIK positions itself as “a supplier of the technology”, providing technical support to all luminaire manufacturers so the technology reaches everyday products.
- The current focus is eye health, in desk lamps, household ceiling lights and street lights. Next the light source technology is planned for displays — laptops, desktops, monitors, interactive teaching panels, phones and tablets — plus functional spectra for sleep and mood. SUFN and CIK Rare-Earth signed their strategic agreement in April 2026.
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