Terahertz waves, also called submillimeter waves, T-Rays, T-Waves are electromagnetic waves in the frequency band between 300 GHz and 10 THz (1THz=10^12 Hz). Wavelengths of radiation in the terahertz band range from 30 µm to 1 mm. That’s why they are also known as submillimeter waves. Terahertz radiation lies between microwaves and infrared light regions of the spectrum and it shares some properties with each of these. Like infrared light, terahertz waves can travel in a direct path from the source to the receiver, and manipulated with optical elements. On the other side, like microwave radiation, they are non-ionizing (they don’t carry enough photon energy to ionize (remove an electron) atoms or molecules) and can penetrate a wide variety of non-conducting materials. Among them there are clothes, skin, paper, cardboard, wood, plastics, ceramics etc. On the other hand, Terahertz waves cannot penetrate metal, water and liquids. These properties are making the T-Waves attractive candidates for the brand-new applications in a various fields (imaging, non-destructive testing, healthcare, security and defense…). For example, due to a non-ionizing property, Terahertz waves can penetrate some distance inside the body tissue, and as they are inoffensive for living organisms, they can be a good replacement of the X-Ray imaging. Still, we don’t see the Terahertz waves; they are naturally occurring and surrounding us in everyday life. Yet this region of spectrum remains the least explored mainly due to the technical difficulties. But recently, thanks to advances in a technology, new systems were developed to both generate and measure/detect those waves. These decisive advances are promising for a number of applications. Some interesting physical properties...
Yesterday, on Thursday October 27, things were buzzing at i2S. We had the great privilege of meeting the Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, as part of the « Factory of the Future » program launched by the New Aquitaine region. So what is New Aquitaine’s factory of the future? Initiated in February 2014, the « Factory of the Future » program now includes 290 ETIs and SMEs with over 20 employees from all over New Aquitaine (Aquitaine, Limousin, Poitou-Charentes). This program is founded on three pillars: production tools; industrial organization; and human beings in the factory (training, working conditions, and management). This ambitious program is about « making New Aquitaine a leader in French industrial renewal in the digital age and helping companies develop a new type of production that is competitive, humane and respectful of the environment « . 40 minutes to convince from the know-how to the show-how Speaking of programs, the one devised by i2S for the visit of our famous guests was intense, a winding course on the theme of « seeing what the eye cannot see ». Not easy to achieve but, as always with us, we managed it despite the troop of journalists. Pascal Thuilliez, Business Development Manager for Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, and Philippe Bayle, i2S’s great expert in image quality received the Prime Minister, Alain Rousset , the President of the New Aquitaine region, and Jean-Luc Gleize, the President of the General Council of the Gironde, in our showroom which is dedicated to the dissemination of culture and knowledge. Although i2S is a small French SME, major national institutions like libraries and archives look on us as the...
Why terahertz imaging? Today, the need for high-performance tools in numerous fields of application provides an ideal opportunity for terahertz imaging technologies, a wavelength being located in between microvawes and infrareds. With in the emerging market i2S has integrated an innovative sensor from the CEA-LETI into a camera, the TZCAM to address the markets of Non destructive testing and medical applications. The TZCAM camera integrates a 320×240 Microbolometric Detector designed by the CEA-LETI. The technology embedded into this sensor is proprietary to the CEA-LETI and sets a new worldwide reference in terms of performances. i2S has developed a dedicate imaging electronic for this sensor with dedicated signal processing The CEA/i2S solution is the best camera on the market in terms of sensitivity and acquisition performance. Compared to its competitors, it is a a piece of electronic equipment with a very low signal to noise ratio, the better to obtain the most precise dynamics. Aujourd’hui, la nécessité d’outils de haute performance dans de nombreux champs applicatifs est une occasion idéale pour les technologies de l’imagerie Térahertz, une gamme spectrale située entre les ondes radio et le rayonnement infrarouge. Ainsi, i2S a intégré le capteur du CEA-Leti dans une caméra Térahertz TZ_CAM pour adresser le marché de l’imagerie du contrôle non destructif et du médical. La caméra TZ_CAM intègre le capteur matriciel de 320×240 pixels bolométriques du CEA-Leti, une technologie innovante propriétaire du CEA-Leti reconnue comme étant à l’état de l’art international. i2S a développé son électronique avec une optimisation forte du rapport signal sur bruit afin d’obtenir les dynamiques les plus fines, permettant d’assurer une sensibilité et des performances d’acquisition au meilleur niveau...
