Sensors

Sensors are at the forefront of many technology developments in modern society. The fields of security and safety particularly stand to benefit from such developments through, for example, air quality monitoring or the detection of dangerous substances introduced by terrorists in public places. Interest is not limited to these areas, however, and new sensor techniques are also providing benefits in a very wide range of application areas, including industrial processes and transport.

C-Tech Innovation has extensive experience in sensor research, and is active in all of the above areas. We have developed and applied a number of innovative sensor technologies in a variety of fields and continue to pursue new ideas to further improve not only detection and measuring capabilities, but also the range of applications.

Our work covers both physical and chemical sensors. Examples of technologies in which C-Tech has applied its expertise are diverse and include detection of, for example: ice formation, oil degradation, food contamination, presence of unwanted metals, genotoxicity, electrical discharges in equipment and thermal insulation inhomogeneity,

Current and recent areas of activity include:

• Dielectric impedance probes for the measurement of physical parameters (e.g. ice formation or particulate contamination in food and drink products)
• Remote sensing of physical parameters (e.g. pressure, temperature)
• Gas sensing using nanostructured metal oxide surfaces or immobilised enzymes

C-Tech’s high standing in the applied research sensor community is evidenced by participation in several projects funded by the EC:

• “CAFE”: FP7 large integrating project on monitoring and control of food and beverage processing
• “NANOSECURE”: FP6 integrated project applying nanotechnologies in sensing and detoxification to provide protection against surprise attack in public buildings and transport. (C-Tech is the coordinator of this project.
• ”Watersafe”: a recently completed project to protect drinking water supplies through application of sensing and detoxification technologies (this was coordinated by C-Tech)