TOPTICA’s new TeraFlash smart offers extremely high measurement speeds of terahertz-based thickness gauging

Applications in industrial quality and process control take advantage of terahertz systems that are inherently safe, work in a contact-free manner and achieve a very high measurement speed.

Measurement speed becomes particularly relevant if the task involves rapidly moving samples, e.g., thickness gauging in extrusion lines, or items on fast conveyor belts that may need to be screened with single-millimeter resolution.

In contrast to conventional terahertz time-domain spectrometers, the TeraFlash smart does not use any mechanical delay unit, but includes two synchronized femtosecond lasers with an electronic delay (“electrically controlled optical sampling”, ECOPS). This concept results in extremely high measurement speeds: the TeraFlash smart acquires 1600 complete terahertz waveforms per second, enabling terahertz-based thickness gauging at unprecedented speed.

Flexible measurement setup

Within a measurement time of only 625 μs, the TeraFlash smart achieves a spectral bandwidth of 3 THz. The dynamic range of the pulse trace is greater than 50 dB. Within one second of averaging, this value increases to > 80 dB and the bandwidth exceeds 4 THz. Users can flexibly adjust the terahertz path length from 10 cm to 180 cm. The fiber-coupled transmitter and receiver antennas can be flexibly positioned and enable measurements in transmission or reflection.

Reflection measurements are particularly suitable to determine layer thicknesses, for example to investigate the wall thickness of plastic pipes, or the structure of polymer coatings or single- and multi-layered paint. The 10 m long fiber cables allow a spatial separation of the control unit from the measurement head, which can even be mounted on a robot arm.

For more information, please visit https://www.toptica.com.