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A new spin in the development of terahertz imaging

17.7.18
Dr. Mostafa Shalaby, the founder of Swiss Terahertz.
Dr. Mostafa Shalaby, the founder of Swiss Terahertz.

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PARK INNOVAARE’s start-up Swiss Terahertz LLC is entering into a partnership with US laser camera manufacturer DataRay Inc. to develop innovative solutions for terahertz imaging.


Terahertz technologies have been around for about half a century now. Yet, despite strong technological progress, product development has stayed modest, particularly in the field of imaging. This is mostly due to the low efficiency of the terahertz wave sources, the high cost of producing them, and fierce competition from X-ray and ultrasound imaging. Nevertheless, terahertz imaging has its advantages: it does not require contact for obtaining a visual and does not produce any harmful radiation.

Globally unique terahertz technologies

Founded in November 2017, Swiss Terahertz is implementing some of the globally unique terahertz technologies developed with the new X-ray free-electron laser SwissFEL, launched by the Paul Scherrer Institute, to overcome the current terahertz challenges, including imaging. Swiss Terahertz is striving to replace expensive large-scale machines with engineered, affordable, smartly-designed small ones.

The products of Swiss Terahertz can be integrated both into specialized research infrastructures and into commercial spectrometers for the pharmaceutical, automotive, electronic, transpiration, and logistics industries.

On the one hand, the company focuses on the production of non-linear organic crystals (NOCs), which are the most efficient means of generating and detecting terahertz radiation. With its secret procedures, Swiss Terahertz is currently the world’s sole provider of “NOCs” – BNA crystals, which are very sought after as they dramatically reduce the overall operating costs.

On the other hand, Swiss Terahertz is rapidly spreading the challenging technology originally developed in Villigen. So far, intense terahertz system technology has reached the USA, Germany, and China. This is helping science research and will ensure the reproducibility of experiments worldwide. Industrial non-destructive spectrometers and training are another focus of Swiss Terahertz business.

So far, 100% of the Swiss Terahertz products have been exported from Villigen to the EU, North America, and Asia.

Strong partnerships

To this end, Swiss Terahertz is actively engaged with a number of Swiss and international business and scientific partners. The partnership with DataRay Inc. (USA), the world leader in the development of imaging devices and beam profilers, is the most recent collaboration. A new product being launched by Swiss Terahertz involves components developed by the company in cooperation with DataRay Inc. (USA) and QMC Instruments Ltd. (UK). This smart package solution provides a very affordable alternative to costly terahertz cameras. This was achieved by the successful integration of the unique technologies of the three companies. Another product, still in the R&D phase, could reach the market by mid-2019.