Imec and UGent launch Sentea
- Auteur:Ella Cai
- Relâchez le:2018-09-10
Imec and Ghent University (UGent) have formed Sentea, a spin-off from their Photonics Research Group.
An initial 1.6 million Euro in funding was raised from Fidimec, Finindus, PMV and QBIC II and the founders.
Sentea will develop and market advanced silicon photonics based fiber optic sensing solutions.
These will be used to continuously monitor engineering structures for signs of damages that over time could lead to catastrophic failure, as well as to control industrial installations to maximize their efficiency.
“Integrating all optical functions into a single silicon photonics component will allow us to make highly accurate, small and robust fiber optic sensor interrogators,”says Sentea CEO, Karsten Verhaegen, “silicon photonics is also very cost-effective, which makes fiber optic sensing affordable for a wide range of new markets and applications and facilitates universal and continues monitoring of structures. Key potential customers have expressed great interest in Sentea’s solutions, stating that better infrastructure lifetime management and process control makes them more competitive in their respective markets.”
“Sentea builds on state-of-the-art silicon photonics technology IP that has been developed at the Photonics Research Group of imec and the UGent for the past 20 years, a technology in which both organizations are perceived as world-leading,” says Imec CEO Luc van den Hove, “this firm technology base will provide Sentea a kick-start to develop its sensor technology that is answering an existing need in a broad range of market segments.”
An initial 1.6 million Euro in funding was raised from Fidimec, Finindus, PMV and QBIC II and the founders.
Sentea will develop and market advanced silicon photonics based fiber optic sensing solutions.
These will be used to continuously monitor engineering structures for signs of damages that over time could lead to catastrophic failure, as well as to control industrial installations to maximize their efficiency.
“Integrating all optical functions into a single silicon photonics component will allow us to make highly accurate, small and robust fiber optic sensor interrogators,”says Sentea CEO, Karsten Verhaegen, “silicon photonics is also very cost-effective, which makes fiber optic sensing affordable for a wide range of new markets and applications and facilitates universal and continues monitoring of structures. Key potential customers have expressed great interest in Sentea’s solutions, stating that better infrastructure lifetime management and process control makes them more competitive in their respective markets.”
“Sentea builds on state-of-the-art silicon photonics technology IP that has been developed at the Photonics Research Group of imec and the UGent for the past 20 years, a technology in which both organizations are perceived as world-leading,” says Imec CEO Luc van den Hove, “this firm technology base will provide Sentea a kick-start to develop its sensor technology that is answering an existing need in a broad range of market segments.”
