One of the most important blog posts this year was the reprint of Carter Armstrong's article, "The Truth about Terahertz", http://terahertztechnology.blogspot.com/p/the-truth-about-terahertz.html, which describes the many challenges which remain inherent in the effective use of Terahertz, primarily because of atmospheric attenuation, as well as the inherent limitations of THz in penetrating some materials at all. Dr. Peter Jepsen, had this to say about the article:
"I think that this article gives a quite accurate and honest insight in the real state of matters in application-oriented THz research - there are still many wild ideas in circulation that will never work, and it's healthy for the THz community to think a little bit about how we justify our research. I do think, however, that he is too focused on applications that will never work - the real strength of THz radiation lies in my opinion in the fact that it IS a fantastic spectral region for scientific exploration - just because we cannot build T-Ray goggles to look through the clothes of our colleagues does not mean that research and innovation in the THz region is not justified. Clearly, if we cannot look through a kilometer of atmosphere, then why not look at applications that only look through centimeters of atmosphere? Then suddenly many things work again. THz spectroscopy, and in particular THz time-domain spectroscopy with ultrashort THz transients remains a very versatile tool for fundamental investigations in physics and chemistry, and niche applications in industry are being thoroughly tested, for instance by Picometrix".
At various times, this year I have felt both confused but mostly, simply amazed by the developments in THz. Back in 2008, when I started this blog, I had no idea that it would attract the number of regular readers that come by each day to check out the latest posting. The blog has had visits from 144 countries world-wide, and close to 200,000 web-views. (I didn't start keeping track of the web visits until well into the 2nd year, if you wonder why the web-counter doesn't show quite this many visits).
My goals in starting this blog was to create a location where developments in Terahertz could be tracked and stored in one location for future reference. I think this blog has done a good job in achieving this goal. More importantly, I wanted to create a location or site where lay persons could learn very basic information about THz, and I really hoped to attract commentary by some of the leaders in the field, so that both readers and I could ask questions.
I'm less satisfied, that I have achieved this last goal, and getting commentary from the scientific community has been akin to pulling teeth. There have been some notable exceptions and Dr. Daniel Mittleman at Rice University, has been a constant and steady source of information for me and readers of this blog. His recent post on TeraNano which was an exclusive to this blog, was a favorite of both readers, and myself. Thank you, Dr. Mittleman!
I also want to give a special shout-out to Dr. Gerhard Schoenthal, at Virginia Diodes, Inc, (VDI), who has been kind enough to answer some of my technical questions this year about THz. In regard to VDI, he writes:
"Virginia Diodes continues to see robust interest in mm-wave and THz test
and measurement, particularly for VNA Extension Modules up to 1.1 THz. The
applications we are seeing are still diverse, ranging from communications and
radar to spectroscopy and radio astronomy.
Best regards and happy holidays,
Gerhard"
Gerhard S. Schoenthal • Director of Operations
and Microelectronics
Virginia Diodes,
Inc. • www.vadiodes.com
979 2nd St. SE,
Suite 309 • Charlottesville, VA 22902
I really enjoy being able to provide readers of this blog with original content, and over the years in addition to Dr. Mittleman's posts, Dr. Irl Duling, Director of Terahertz development at Advanced Photonix, has been kind enough to share a number of original thoughts, and explanations to various questions I have asked. This year, I also made contact with Dr. Ken O, at UT Dallas about his exciting work in CMOS, and he made exclusive comments on the developments at UT Dallas, for readers here. Similarly, Dr. Anis Rahman, CTO at Applied Research and Phtonics, was kind enough to alert me and readers to here, to a number of timely artcles and blog posting about ARP, and THz, that were posted here earlier this month.
I would also be remiss if I failed to mention, the helpful comments I have received from Dr. Michael Martin, at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, who I believe is the editor of the Virtual Terahertz Journal, which is linked on this blog, (on the left-hand column) and also leads the Facebook Terahertz Community group, which I post frequently on.
To each of these gentlemen, I want to post a hearty thank you, and good luck to each of you in the upcoming year!
Now, I would like to turn my attention to the 10 most notable blog posts of the year.
1. - 5. CMOS enters the THz lexicon on this blog, coming in from multiple sources.
I think that the greatest buzz surrounding advances in THz was in the development of solid state THz transistors using CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor) technology. I featured no less than 24 blog posts about breakthroughs in this area, at the University of Wuppertal, in conjunction with STMicroelectronics, at the University of Texas Dallas, in conjunction with Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC), by researchers at Cornell University, at Texas Instruments, as well as at the Tel Aviv University, at Caltech, along with a recent story about similar work at TeraTop, and lastly from the Leibniz Institutes at IHP, and FBH.
I have to consider these articles and news releases to collectively cover the first five important Terahertz stories of the year. I do note that the work thus far has been in sub-terahertz range, and one reader who knows a great deal wrote me:
"Personally, I think it will be 5 to 10 years before you see the CMOS based
THz chips in anything. Obviously, that depends on what you definition of THz is.
Lower frequencies will come first and it looks like 60 to 80 GHz is
imminent."
6. Genia Photonix signs strategic partnership and development agreement with In-Q-Tel
In the heat of the summer, this story brought a tremendous amount of attention to THz, as Genia Photonix was reported by the online tech magazine Gizmodo, to have developed a new terahertz device which was purportedly so sensitive it would make all other security measures at airports moot. This THz device is supposed to be so sensitive that it can detect the presence of mere molecules of suspicious substances, and could do so all the way from a distance of 50 meters. http://terahertztechnology.blogspot.com/search?q=genia
(I have some skepticism about these claims but my efforts to get any comment from Genia were simply ignored-I guess we will learn more this year about this remarkable device).
7. Northrup Grumman & Darpa makes advances in developing solid-state THz devices using monolithic microwave intergrated circuits
Darpa appears to be taking a somewhat different avenue in it's efforts to create a sold state THz device employing MMIC technology. At present progress remains in the sub-millimeter wavelength.http://terahertztechnology.blogspot.com/search?q=darpa (Please, note that this article reports development in the 850 GHz range, which is significantly higher than what is reported in the first category above.)
8. On April 16th, 2012, I reposted the article "Viewpoint: Stimulated Near-Infrared Light Emission in Graphene" written by author Ilias Perakis,
http://terahertztechnology.blogspot.com/2012/04/viewpoint-stimulated-near-infrared.html
This article discusses the work "Femtosecond Population Inversion and Stimulated Emission of Dense Dirac Fermions in Graphene". which I reposted here:
http://terahertztechnology.blogspot.com/2012/11/manipulating-light-with-single-layer-of.html
The Perakis article continues to be a reader favorite and each week it typically continues to be the most widely read of the 849 blog posts found here.
9. Work with Graphene, continues to revolutionize Terahertz
If CMOS attracted attention this year, it was only surpassed by reader interest in developments using graphene . There were multiple articles I could mention, but only have space for a few. One of the most interesting ones was Agilent Technologies announcement it was opening a Terahertz Measurement Research Lab, in conjunction with the University of Leeds. Graphene will play an integral role as it was noted that; "In the new field of graphene, the network analyser will allow the university staff to perform on-wafer terahertz measurements of transistors, THz biosensors, magnetic storage elements, THz spin-switches and novel acoustoelectric devices. It will also be used to characterise THz passive components such as filters, waveguides, fibres and antennas."http://terahertztechnology.blogspot.com/2012/10/agilent-technologies-and-university-of.html
Dr. Daniel Mittleman's post regarding the presentations at TeraNano Japan also focused in part on the role graphene will play in THz developments in the future.
Work with graphene at NASA, ASTAR and the University of Denmark/University of Wuppertal were also equally significant.http://terahertztechnology.blogspot.com/search?q=TeraNano
10. InView obtains patents on it's compressive sensing camera,
InView, which is a spin off from Rice University announced it's patent of a compressive sensing camera, which will be high-performance, and cost effective, because they will require a much smaller number of photodiode detectors than is required in a conventional camera, and are well suited for security, surveillance and maritime navigation applications because of their unique ability to see through impairments such as fog, haze, smoke and dust.
http://terahertztechnology.blogspot.com/2012/06/inview-issued-patent-on-compressive.html
Lastly, I would be remiss in not mentioning the continuing work of Dr.'s Duling and Zimdars, at Advanced Photonix, (API), in continuing to trailblaze the way, in the actual commercialization of THz, here at the terrestrial level and in a variety of commercial applications on the factory floor.
As an investment Advanced Photonix, continues to sadly disappoint, with the stock price dropping to an all time low, of .38, a share. In response, the faithful retail investment community has taken a more proactive stance in letting Management and the Board of Directors know about their dissatisfaction.
The reality is that most startup ventures in emerging technology fail, however API appears to have turned the corner with a geometric increase in sales of their proprietary T-Gauge to a number of factories, and in a variety of settings. In July I noted that the very widely-read authoritative publication, Jane's Airport Security and Safety Review, featured a story about Advanced Photonix, anomaly detection device, which it has named the "Saf-T-Chek". In this article Dr. Duling, director of terahertz business development for API, noted that the anomaly detection system will allow TSA security personnel to discontinue the practice of physically "patting-down" passengers after initial scanning by threshold airport security systems reveals an anomaly on the person's body, which might be a concealed object, (or simply a person wearing religious headgear which can't be removed.).
The system's terahertz pulse which covers a wide bandwidth from 20 GHz, to almost 4 THz, and is capable of detecting a wide range of chemical or biological signatures, which it then compares against the library of spectroscopic signatures it has been programmed to detect.
Duling indicated that the accuracy of the detection program was very high, and that there is a low false alarm rate. The detection system is based upon proprietary algorithms written by Duling and API engineers for use in the system's internal semiconductors.
Jane's reports that at present, the system when purchased in bulk will retail at around $70,000 per unit.
Jane's article also reports that the device is relatively maintenance free, and because it uses automated software user training is very minimal, (5-10 minutes) to achieve operator proficiency.
http://terahertztechnology.blogspot.com/2012/07/june-2012-ihs-janes-airport-review.html
The uses for the Advanced Photonix new T-Gauge® system are for the process and quality control markets in industrial manufacturing. The firm has already signed several new value added resellers that should help it secure a solid market share. These agreements include one with Automation and Control Technology Inc. (ACT) and Thermo Fisher Scientific. The Homeland Security market is the wild card application for Advanced Photonix new terahertz product called the Saf-T-Chek ADS©. This next generation system for non-contact, non-imaging inspection for potential threat anomalies under clothing, is just the latest opportunity for Advanced Photonix.
As a retail investor in API, I remain hopeful that 2013 will finally see Advanced Photonix, turn the corner on profitability.
There are many other companies, and blog posting not mentioned here and if you would like to have your work mentioned please write me and share your thoughts.I do note that my efforts to communicate with many are simply ignored, leaving the lay investing world to simply speculate about the developments in this exciting technology. Thank you for reading, and have a happy and prosperous 2013!
7. Northrup Grumman & Darpa makes advances in developing solid-state THz devices using monolithic microwave intergrated circuits
Darpa appears to be taking a somewhat different avenue in it's efforts to create a sold state THz device employing MMIC technology. At present progress remains in the sub-millimeter wavelength.http://terahertztechnology.blogspot.com/search?q=darpa (Please, note that this article reports development in the 850 GHz range, which is significantly higher than what is reported in the first category above.)
8. On April 16th, 2012, I reposted the article "Viewpoint: Stimulated Near-Infrared Light Emission in Graphene" written by author Ilias Perakis,
http://terahertztechnology.blogspot.com/2012/04/viewpoint-stimulated-near-infrared.html
This article discusses the work "Femtosecond Population Inversion and Stimulated Emission of Dense Dirac Fermions in Graphene". which I reposted here:
http://terahertztechnology.blogspot.com/2012/11/manipulating-light-with-single-layer-of.html
The Perakis article continues to be a reader favorite and each week it typically continues to be the most widely read of the 849 blog posts found here.
9. Work with Graphene, continues to revolutionize Terahertz
If CMOS attracted attention this year, it was only surpassed by reader interest in developments using graphene . There were multiple articles I could mention, but only have space for a few. One of the most interesting ones was Agilent Technologies announcement it was opening a Terahertz Measurement Research Lab, in conjunction with the University of Leeds. Graphene will play an integral role as it was noted that; "In the new field of graphene, the network analyser will allow the university staff to perform on-wafer terahertz measurements of transistors, THz biosensors, magnetic storage elements, THz spin-switches and novel acoustoelectric devices. It will also be used to characterise THz passive components such as filters, waveguides, fibres and antennas."http://terahertztechnology.blogspot.com/2012/10/agilent-technologies-and-university-of.html
Dr. Daniel Mittleman's post regarding the presentations at TeraNano Japan also focused in part on the role graphene will play in THz developments in the future.
Work with graphene at NASA, ASTAR and the University of Denmark/University of Wuppertal were also equally significant.http://terahertztechnology.blogspot.com/search?q=TeraNano
10. InView obtains patents on it's compressive sensing camera,
InView, which is a spin off from Rice University announced it's patent of a compressive sensing camera, which will be high-performance, and cost effective, because they will require a much smaller number of photodiode detectors than is required in a conventional camera, and are well suited for security, surveillance and maritime navigation applications because of their unique ability to see through impairments such as fog, haze, smoke and dust.
http://terahertztechnology.blogspot.com/2012/06/inview-issued-patent-on-compressive.html
Lastly, I would be remiss in not mentioning the continuing work of Dr.'s Duling and Zimdars, at Advanced Photonix, (API), in continuing to trailblaze the way, in the actual commercialization of THz, here at the terrestrial level and in a variety of commercial applications on the factory floor.
As an investment Advanced Photonix, continues to sadly disappoint, with the stock price dropping to an all time low, of .38, a share. In response, the faithful retail investment community has taken a more proactive stance in letting Management and the Board of Directors know about their dissatisfaction.
The reality is that most startup ventures in emerging technology fail, however API appears to have turned the corner with a geometric increase in sales of their proprietary T-Gauge to a number of factories, and in a variety of settings. In July I noted that the very widely-read authoritative publication, Jane's Airport Security and Safety Review, featured a story about Advanced Photonix, anomaly detection device, which it has named the "Saf-T-Chek". In this article Dr. Duling, director of terahertz business development for API, noted that the anomaly detection system will allow TSA security personnel to discontinue the practice of physically "patting-down" passengers after initial scanning by threshold airport security systems reveals an anomaly on the person's body, which might be a concealed object, (or simply a person wearing religious headgear which can't be removed.).
The system's terahertz pulse which covers a wide bandwidth from 20 GHz, to almost 4 THz, and is capable of detecting a wide range of chemical or biological signatures, which it then compares against the library of spectroscopic signatures it has been programmed to detect.
Duling indicated that the accuracy of the detection program was very high, and that there is a low false alarm rate. The detection system is based upon proprietary algorithms written by Duling and API engineers for use in the system's internal semiconductors.
Jane's reports that at present, the system when purchased in bulk will retail at around $70,000 per unit.
Jane's article also reports that the device is relatively maintenance free, and because it uses automated software user training is very minimal, (5-10 minutes) to achieve operator proficiency.
http://terahertztechnology.blogspot.com/2012/07/june-2012-ihs-janes-airport-review.html
The uses for the Advanced Photonix new T-Gauge® system are for the process and quality control markets in industrial manufacturing. The firm has already signed several new value added resellers that should help it secure a solid market share. These agreements include one with Automation and Control Technology Inc. (ACT) and Thermo Fisher Scientific. The Homeland Security market is the wild card application for Advanced Photonix new terahertz product called the Saf-T-Chek ADS©. This next generation system for non-contact, non-imaging inspection for potential threat anomalies under clothing, is just the latest opportunity for Advanced Photonix.
As a retail investor in API, I remain hopeful that 2013 will finally see Advanced Photonix, turn the corner on profitability.
There are many other companies, and blog posting not mentioned here and if you would like to have your work mentioned please write me and share your thoughts.I do note that my efforts to communicate with many are simply ignored, leaving the lay investing world to simply speculate about the developments in this exciting technology. Thank you for reading, and have a happy and prosperous 2013!
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