Spire nets $750,000 to develop terahertz imager
Spire Corporation has won a $750,000 Phase II small business innovation research contract from the US Department of Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA) to develop a portable terahertz-based detection imager.
The device will contain a quantum cascade laser (QCL) source, and a detector that will be able to reveal concealed weapons and explosives by collecting the radiation reflected from people and objects.
The QCL will be fabricated by Spire's subsidiary, Bandwidth Semiconductor. According to Kurt Linden, a senior scientist at Spire, over the last year DARPA funding (see related story) has enabled the company to develop a reproducible epitaxial process for terahertz QCL growth by MOCVD on wafers up to 100 mm in diameter.
Spire has been collaborating with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Campaign for epitaxial device design, and the Submillimeter Wave Technology Laboratory at the University of Massachusetts Lowell for device measurements.
Phase I of the project identified the atmospheric windows for terahertz transmission, and selected the best candidate for the imaging system.
