Terahertz -"Miscellaneous Musings"

                                            

                   (graphic taken from http://thznetwork.net/wp-content/galleries/THz-Images/images/thz4.jpg)


No real news stories today regarding THz, so I thought I would cover some topics and thoughts, I haven't  covered before.

1. PLEASE SHARE YOUR COMPANY NEWS AND/OR THz STORIES WITH ME

 I'm constantly writing to University professors, and company CEO's about THz, in an effort to find some new stories, and ideas relating to THz, development and commercialization. IF YOU HAVE INFORMATION REGARDING THz, AND WOULD LIKE TO SHARE IT WITH A BROADER AUDIENCE, PLEASE SEND IT TO ME. (My email address is knudson.randy@gmail.com)

Dr. Daniel Mittleman, at Rice University, Dr. Irl Duling, at Picometrics/Advanced Photonix, and Dr. Thorsten Maly at Bridge12, have all been more than helpful in taking time to share with me, and in turn with you. As always, a big thanks to them. I'm waiting to hear from a number of other individuals, and let's hope they also want to bring greater attention, and awareness of THz to the world-at-large, by sharing with us.

If anyone in the lay community runs across a newsworthy story, send it me. I'll be sure to give you credit for the find.

2.QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS

Back in October of 2008, TeraView announced it had entered into a contract with Goodrich to develop a chemical agent detection system.
http://www.teraview.com/terahertz/news/id/1
 I followed up on this story line and in fact, Goodrich has developed it's own THz system, I assume using the TeraView technology.
 http://www.goodrich.com/Goodrich/Businesses/ISR-Systems/Products/Force-Protection-Products/Chemical-and-Biological-Protection

It's my understanding this is a continuous wave system, but it's hard to find any indication that it gained any real market acceptance, but that's just my supposition. Is Goodrich actively engaged in further development of THz? I find nothing to indicate that they are, or they aren't. If anyone reading this knows, please share it with me.

One smaller company, that has not been mentioned on this blog before, is a very interesting one to me. Zomega Terahertz Company,http://www.zomega-terahertz.com/products/index.html  has designed it's own time-domain, as well as a continuous wave THz systems.

 Many of us in the investment commmunity would like to have a better understanding of how each companies, relative systems, "stack-up" against, each other in terms of power, cost, and functionality. That is certainly one of the "goals" of this blog. 

 Here are the Zomega products:

	mini-Z THz Time Domain Spectrometers The most compact, fully integrated THz Time Domain Spectrometer, weighing in at less than 5 lbs with true turn-key operation. Produces and measures pulsed terahertz waves from 0.1 to 4.0 THz using time domain spectroscopy techniques in both transmission and reflection geometries with a waveform measurement of up to 20 Hz. Flexible enough for laboratory use and prototyping THz applications, but also designed to be integrated into larger systems requiring THz capabilities. mini-Z Product Brochure (PDF - 2.5MB) (Updated 1/23/09) >>mini-Z Identifcation Video (Windows Media) (Updated 10/28/09) >>mini-Z: On In 60 Seconds Video (Quicktime) (Updated 11/20/08) >>mini-Z Sorting Video (Quicktime) (Updated 9/12/08)
	Z-Series THz Time Domain Spectrometers Produces and measures pulsed terahertz waves from 0.1 to 3.5 THz using time domain spectroscopy techniques in both transmission and reflection geometries with a spectral resolution of 5 GHz. Flexible enough for laboratory use and prototyping THz applications, with easily extendable software provided through Labview. Z-2 Product Brochure (PDF - 2.1MB) (Updated 1/23/09)
	C-Series THz Continuous Wave Systems Our line of integrated CW transmitters and receivers operating at 0.2, 0.4 or 0.6 THz for stand-off non-destructive testing applications. We offer the C-1LT series of CW systems which have a normal incidence angle of measurement with respect to the sample, and the C-2LT which offers both normal incidence and shallow-angle pitch-catch configurations (shown left). All systems are designed to be mounted on a scanning gantry for imaging applications (sold separately). C-1LT Series Product Brochure (PDF - 4.2MB) At this point in time, the only "metric" that I can find, to make an  assessment, about the relative viability of the various THz company products, is in actual contract sales, and once again, from the objective evidence, it appears, Advanced Photonix, holds a commanding lead over all of the other companies, as demonstrated by multiple stories on this blog. IF MY IMPRESSION, IS INCORRECT, THEN WOULD SOMEONE PLEASE SHARE SOME INFORMATION TO CHALLENGE OR REFUTE THIS PERCEPTION??? Miscellaneous musings: could the Bridge12 gyrotron be used to power a time-domain system?  (This may be a ridiculous question, but it's my understanding that the drawback or principal limitation, on current THz systems is lack of power, the gyrotron appears to meet this need.) Does the gyrotron, perform  spectroscopy, is another side of this inartful, question. Dr. Maly, care to comment? when will the pharmaceutical community "wake-up", and begin using THz in it's production lines? The obvious cost savings in online detection of tainted or impure products, with resulting savings from litigation over the distribution of impure products is a no-brainer. I'm betting that the first placement of a THz unit on the factory floor occurs this calendar year. Any takers? What are the chances that the Department of Homeland Security will seek the implementation of legislation, or perhaps an administrative rule banning the sale of nuclear gauges for industrial use? Use of the nuclear material by terrorists would be the obvious reason, and of course, now that Advanced Photonix has demonstrated that it's T-Ray Gauge is a viable, (and even superior replacement for nuclear gauges), perhaps it's time for HSD to make such a ban the law. That's all the I have today. Please feel free to post your comments and insights.