Photonics Driving Economic Growth in Europe - Photonics21

2. Photonics Research and Innovation Challenges
This is an indispensable step for bringing inexpen-
sive, multi-spectral/hyper-spectral measurement
systems into production lines. To this end, account
must be taken of the specific spectral and sens-
ing properties of the new sources, sensors and
other optical components in the EIR. While most
of today’s measurement techniques rely on vis-
ible light and silicon sensors, the great challenge
is to develop a new generation of measurement
systems fully exploiting the combination of spatial
information with multi-spectral data.
Complete integrated photonic microsystems
Photonics has profited enormously from the adop-
tion of planar fabrication and integration tech-
niques developed for micro- and nanotechnology.
Precise concurrent production of a number of
photo nic components in one fabrication step (for
example using injection moulding or other low-cost
replication techniques) results in products that do
not require costly post-production alignment procedures,
and thus achieves much lower fabrication
costs. However, optical instruments working in the
MIR spectral domain are still so expensive that it is
not yet necessary to adopt the established integration
techniques known from the visible spectral
range. Since the mechanical tolerances are more
relaxed in the MIR spectral range than in the visible,
advanced low-cost additive manufacturing techniques
might be employed, offering novel opportunities
for the European manufacturers of integrated
photonic microsystems.
The goal is to develop precise yet low-cost fabrication
methods for the production of small and large
quantities of complete, readily aligned photonic
microsystems operating in the EIR spectral range.
Comprehensive photonic solutions for highimpact
applications
The ultimate goal of any research action within the
framework of Horizon 2020 must be an innovative
response to highly relevant socio-economic
challenges. For the present case, this implies that
complete multi-band photonic sensing solutions
must be developed, providing for a safer and more
secure society, through full utilisation of the as yet
largely unexploited potential of the EIR spectral
range. For this reason, there are two important
problem domains that must not be neglected:
1. The main applications addressed are in the area
of food/air/water/environmental safety and security,
requiring affordable, simple yet reliable
examination of gaseous, liquid and solid samples.
Therefore, sample preparation is an important
part in the development of comprehensive
photonic solutions. If the concentration of the
sought analytes is too low, it must be increased,
for example through chromatographic methods,
so that the optical measurement process
generates sufficient signal. Hence, the development
of accompanying consumables such as
microfluidic, gas diffusion, and convection and
optofluidic cells must be an integral part of the
overall system development.
2. A central part of most EIR fingerprint measurements
is the comparison of measured spectral data
with the contents of a reference library. Much
care and effort must be devoted to ensuring the
availability of such a library, either through direct
measurements or from compilations of available
resources. This can then be used to provide a
stable, efficient and dependable algorithms for
the reliable determination of the constituents
and their concentration in an analysed sample.
Photonics technologies
are used to provide airport
security. © Fotolia
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