NEWS PHOTONICS
Photonics startup Mantispectra takes chemical analysis out of the lab Who says chemical analysis needs to be performed in a laboratory, by well-trained personnel? Thanks to a photonic-chip-based spectral sensing system being commercialized by startup Mantispectra, classifying and quantifying material composition will never be easier. Paul van Gerven
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here’s only so much a farmer can tell about his crops just by looking at them. A tomato that has turned red, for example, is certainly getting closer to harvest. But when is it optimal to harvest? Dry mass, sugar content or the concentration of other tasty compounds may still be increasing, all of which will be wasted if the fruit is plucked too early. By providing farmers with an extra set of eyes, startup Mantispectra aims to solve this problem. The spinoff from Eindhoven University of Technology (TUE) is developing a portable optical sensing system that, in mere seconds, yields a wealth of information about the chemical composition of a tomato. This information wouldn’t only be useful for determining optimal harvest timing but also for optimizing growth conditions and, after harvest, quality control in the distribution chain. Of course, tomato farmers aren’t the only ones that can benefit from such a device. Not only does the technology extend to many other crops, but there are many applications outside of agriculture and food as well, such as in textile recycling, pharmaceutics and healthcare. Even consumer electronics is 14
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