CELTA enables Europe to take a leading role in the area of utilizing Terahertz technology

https://www.tue.nl/en/university/departments/electrical-engineering/news/13-12-2017-celta-enables-europe-to-take-a-leading-role-in-the-area-of-utilizing-terahertz-technology/#top

Industry is facing a lot of challenges. Many of those could be solved through Terahertz Photonics and Electronics for application in sensing, imaging and communications. On December 12th 15 early-stage PhD researchers from 13 different countries gathered at TU/e in the CELTA Mid-Term Review Meeting to discuss about the first application.

CELTA is the acronym for Convergence of Electronics and Photonics Technologies for Enabling Terahertz Applications. CELTA aims to produce the next generation of researchers who will enable Europe to take a leading role in the multidisciplinary area of utilizing Terahertz technology for applications involving components and complete systems for sensing, instrumentation, imaging, spectroscopy, and communications. All these technologies are keys to tackling challenges and creating solutions in a large number of focus areas relevant for the societal challenges identified in the Horizon 2020 program. To achieve this objective, CELTA is comprised of 11 leading research institutions and has assembled a comprehensive research training program for all the 15 early-stage researchers (ESRs). CELTA integrates multidisciplinary scientific expertise, complementary skills, and experience working in academia and industry to empower ESRs to work in interdisciplinary teams, integrate their activities, share expertise, and promote a vision of a converged co-design and common engineering language between electronics and photonics for Terahertz technologies. The Photonic Integration Technology Center (PITC) of TU/e is building bridges between knowledge and industry. Within the CELTA project, already 14 partner organizations take part as associate partners providing training for the PhD students as part of their industrial secondments.

CELTA will introduce the strategy of converged electronics and photonics co-design in its research program and makes a special effort on establishing a common engineering language in its training program across the electronics, photonics and applications disciplines. We believe this common engineering language and converged co-design is mandatory to make the next logical step towards efficient and innovative solutions that can reach the market. The detailed compendium of lectures on state-of-the-art technology, soft skills and entrepreneurship is accompanied by a research program that focuses on THz key technologies. CELTA ESRs will develop 3 demonstrators: beam steering technology for communication applications, a photonic vector analyzer for spectroscopy and materials characterization, and a THz imager for sensing. 

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 675683

UCD engineers secure EU funding to develop Terahertz technologies

CELTA members from European research institutes and industrial partners including UCD’s Prof John Sheridan and Dr James Ryle

http://www.engineersjournal.ie/2016/07/20/ucd-celta-eu-funding-terahertz/

As part of the ITN CELTA project, UCD researchers will receive funding to create advanced Terahertz systems, with the emphasis on making them available for commercial applications

Terahertz wavelengths, which have sizes between those of visible light and microwaves, literally allow the user to see through walls and opens the way for safer biomedical imaging. Researchers within the UCD School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (Profs Tom Brazil and John T. Sheridan) are part of a recently funded EU project with the challenging aim of developing such technologies.

The specific goal of ITN CELTA (Integrated Research Training Network on Convergence of Electronics and Photonics Technologies for Enabling Terahertz Applications) is to develop technologies and complete sub-systems for sensing, instrumentation, imaging, spectroscopy and communications utilising the Terahertz spectrum. It is the largest EU Training Network in this area.

CELTA will provide PhD degrees to a group of 15 early-stage researchers (ESRs), educating them with a set of interdisciplinary skills covering photonics, electronics and signal processing that will allow them to create advanced Terahertz systems with emphasis on making them available for commercial applications.

CELTA is co-ordinated by Prof Idelfonso Tafur Monroy from the Technical University of Denmark. The 11 beneficiaries in CELTA are leading research groups in the area of Terahertz photonics, Terahertz electronics, algorithms, signal processing and sub-Terahertz communications with strong track records of collaboration dating back more than 25 years. CELTA is supported and complemented by 14 partner organisations from industry, including four spin-offs from the CELTA consortium.

CELTA contributes to the European Research Area by helping to overcome the gap between the fragmented efforts in Europe on electronics and photonics Terahertz by introducing the strategy of converged electronics and photonics co-design in its research programme. CELTA makes a special effort on establishing a common engineering language in its training programme across the electronics, photonics and applications disciplines. This common engineering language and converged co-design is considered mandatory to make the next logical step towards efficient and innovative solutions that can reach the market.

To push forward its strategy, CELTA will integrate multidisciplinary scientific expertise, complementary skills and experience working in academia and industry, to empower ESRs to work in interdisciplinary teams so that each ESR may integrate his or her activities into one or more of the three demonstrators that will be realised by the end of the project: a Terahertz vector network analyser, an imager and a beam-steering system.

CELTA is embedded in and contributes to key research, innovation and education areas within the UCD’s School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Detailed information on the CELTA consortium, its research programme and open ESR positions can be found on www.celta-itn.eu.