The use of both Terahertz and Mid-Wave Infrared scanning with artificial intelligence software to interpret and identify different types of black plastics. Current sorting technology cannot sort black or very dark colored plastics as they have very similar features, and therefore cannot be recycled. To solve this problem a new technique must be established. Each polymer material that interacts with terahertz and MWIR rays have a unique spectral signature.

Terahertz spectroscopy for material imaging/sensing and characterization has received a great deal of attention over the past decade. Terahertz (THz) electromagnetic waves have frequencies in the range of 1012 Hz. Terahertz spectroscopy and imaging has many applications ranging from security, communication, food production, quality control for pharmaceutical industries, and cancer diagnosis. In the heart of every terahertz spectroscopy imaging system, there is terahertz transmitter and receiver pair antennas.

The employment of THz radiation, i.e. radiation with frequencies falling between the microwaves and infrared domains, is arousing an ever-increasing interest in the last decade. Thanks to its invaluable features, such as transparency to the most part of the materials, negligible ionizing energy and availability of high frequency carriers, this technology is penetrating in lots of areas, spanning from medical care and homeland security to cultural heritage and telecommunication systems. However, the lack of reliable devices devoted to THz wave handling still has to be properly addressed.

In this project, we plan to address the specific application and problem that TeTechS Inc is facing at this stage of its product development of photoconductive antennas, which is using its photoconductive antennas for characterizing performance of quantum cascade lasers (QCL) in time-domain measurement setup by demonstrating the capability of its proprietary terahertz sensor technology to be used by researchers in University to characterize QCL and in industry for building terahertz spectrometers with high signal and bandwidth.

Already the material of choice for electronics for decades, silicon has now emerged as the premier material in photonics and terahertz, offering cost-effective solutions for several applications. In this project, we plan to address the specific problem that TeTechS Inc is facing at this stage of its product development project, which is developing a silicon-based CMOS compatible platform for THz generation and integrate it with a sensor for bio-sensing applications.

In this project, we plan to address the specific problem that TeTechS Inc is facing at this stage of its product development project, which is collecting a complete set of measurement data for an array of organic materials with different levels of purity and demonstrate the capability of its proprietary terahertz sensing techniques to qualify and quantify purity and integrity of organic LED (OLED) materials with the level of precision required in OLED deposition and material purification processes.