TeraTop – New Imaging Perspectives in Airline-Passenger Security and Crowded-Place Surveillance

Security inspection of airplane passengers without the use of radiation, hazardous or not, becomes reality thanks to the potential of terahertz passive imaging to detect weapons concealed under clothing or to analyze the contents of suspicious baggage or other objects.

Deployment of TeraTOP Imagers will greatly improve the surveillance and security of airports and other crowded places with no negative health-impact to individuals. A consortium of eight European industrial research groups and companies have started to develop a true on-chip integrated terahertz camera, a breakthrough which will allow widespread use of this safe technology.

The project’s main objective is to develop a device that has the potential to reduce the cost and improve the capability of terahertz (THz) imaging in a wide range of applications including public security. Called TeraTOP, the project will focus on potential security applications and will demonstrate a camera for detecting hidden objects. If the project can identify a sufficiently low-cost approach to producing an effective device, such technology might be more widely deployed.

Complimentary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology has recently seen a vast development effort in the higher frequency regimes of the near-infrared and the visible parts of the spectrum. The resulting technology has generated substantial business volumes – in excess of €4bn in 2009 at the component level alone. The development of an analogous capability for the THz range currently relies on exotic materials and technologies and has been impeded by the lack of devices and circuits suitable for mass production.

The consortium plans to implement a completely new type of THz sensor based on thermally isolated nanotransistors directly integrated with CMOS-SOI (silicon on insulator) readout circuitry. The THz region of the electromagnetic spectrum is attracting increasing attention from scientists around the world. Extending from the microwave to the infrared region, this non-ionizing (and therefore safe) radiation can be used to see beneath outer layers of packaging and clothing.

The key target of the project is to make breakthrough advances in the functionality, performance, cost, and size of a passive THz camera. The target technology is a room temperature real-time imaging system based on CMOS batch manufacturing processes which are suitable for mass production.

Underlying the project are several important THz related patents and patent applications submitted by two of the project partners: Technion – Israel Institute of Technology – and IBM Haifa Labs. The TeraTOP project hopes for a significant product that can be implemented rapidly on a broad scale across Europe.