C Jany Highly sensitive broadband terahertz cameras for biology laboratories

Highly sensitive broadband terahertz cameras for biology laboratories

Clement Jany, Elisa Bandello, Salvador Silva, Hani Sherry TiHive Technologies, Grenoble, FRANCE

Abstract— In this communication, we present two terahertz cameras particularly suited for biology laboratories. The cameras come with 2 sensor flavors of up to 32x32 pixels with a sensitivity better than -35 dBm, and a bandwidth ranging from 100 GHz up to 2 THz. It is bundled with a dedicated software application featuring live visualization of the terahertz beam with beam alignment and beam quality metrics. Moreover, it allows raw frames recording of up to 500 fps thanks to its high speed ethernet connectivity. The camera made by TiHive Technologies is commercially available for numerous laboratory and industrial applications.

I. INTRODUCTION erahertz is a key frequency band for biology applications since it can reveal very specific tissue properties such as the presence and quantity of water, T the classification of tissues, and the detection of cancerous cells. Utility has been shown not to limit itself to monitoring and detection, but also to include the interaction and interruption of biological processes thanks to this frequency band’s specific properties. Consequently, a growing number of biology labs are equipping themselves with terahertz instruments. Research in these fields is sustained by the fast improvement of terahertz sources’ output power, sensors’ sensitivity, and as importantly improvements to the form factor and large-scale deployment capacity of such systems.

Today, research progress would greatly benefit from a multipixel imaging and sensing camera that would not be limited to low acquisitions rates with mediocre sensitivity. In addition, plug and play operation of a compact camera would be a substantial gain. Finally, a simple tool for helping scientist and operators with beam alignment and profiling would save a significant amount of time while ensuring precise, reliable measurement.

TiHive technologies proposes a terahertz camera fitting the above-mentioned laboratories’ needs and that is both very compact and very sensitive in the 0.1-2 THz range. Its key features are detailed in the next section.

Fig. 1. TiHive’s Compact THz Camera

II. TERAHERTZ CAMERA MAIN FEATURES

The terahertz camera presented by TiHive Technologies is available in a very compact 6x6x6 cm3 format and comes with its viewing and recording software application. It is available in two different flavors: the 0.85 THz camera equipped with a 32x32 pixel sensor, with a nominal sensitivity better than -35 dBm (~300 nW) at 0.85 THz (with a sensitivity ranging from around 100 GHz up to 2 THz). The 0.3 THz flavor embeds a 13x13 pixel sensor with a nominal sensitivity better than -40 dBm (100 nW) at 0.3 THz (with a sensitivity ranging from below 100 GHz up to 1 THz). It only takes a standard 12V supply, an ethernet connection, and switches on in seconds. Thanks to its patented sensor technology, it does not trade sensitivity against acquisition rates and can provide up to 500 fps (frames per second) at the nominal very high sensitivity.

A software application has been developed and tested that allows live viewing of any terahertz beam as well as recording in several file format. The camera and its associated software are designed for acquisition of large amount of data at high data rates. Specific post-processing using the camera raw data will help getting the most out of your terahertz data.

Fig. 2. TiHive’s Terahertz viewing and recording application

Live beam viewing comes in 1, 2 or 3 dimensions with customizable scales and beam statistics that makes beam alignment and profiling as simple as “Hello”. III. SUMMARY

TiHive technology has presented its terahertz camera and the associated software. It is designed to embrace the main challenges faced by biology labs using terahertz instruments. It stands out by its performance, compactness, and ease of use. Request a demo and talk to our experts at www.tihive.com.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 947166.

REFERENCES

[1] Siegel, Peter H « Terahertz Technology in Biology and Medicine,”IEE Transactions on microwave Theory and Techniques, Vol 52, No 10, October 2004.

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