High Speed Non Ionizing Terahertz Measurement System to Replace Nuclear Gages

We propose a Phase II project to develop and prototype a flexible time-domain terahertz (TD-THz) instrument that can be marketed to customers currently utilizing nuclear source gauges. While nuclear gauges are an established technology, their radiological sources present on-going safety, security, regulation, and disposal concerns. A primary goal of this project is to establish that; when all technical capabilities of the proposed TD-THz gauge system and all aspects of total life-cycle costs are considered, customers will realize a significant return on investment by replacing existing nuclear source gauges with the proposed TD-THz instruments. Nuclear source gauges (such as beta and gamma) are used in industrial process monitoring and control, often to measure thickness or mass in paper, plastics, rubber, and food stuffs in manufacturing and packaging. A system based on low power non-ionizing TD-THz measurements will be developed which can replace multiple types of nuclear source gauges in all of these applications. A time of flight THz measurement system will have similar or superior capabilities, with micron thickness resolution, less than 1 mm lateral resolution and measurement times as fast as 250 microseconds. The proposed THz system will be able to make simultaneous properties such as water and basis weight.