Controlling and monitoring of processes in gases and plasmas

Our systems can be employed in several industrial processes, especially where controlling and monitoring of on-line production processes make great demands on reliability, safety, velocity and mainly sensitivity in measuring tiny concentrations of gases or plasma molecules (up to the ppt range).
An in-situ process control by Q-MACS covers consequently on the one hand an observation possibility of the production process or its parts and on the other hand the active control for quality purposes and efficiency improvements combined with cost reduction.

Plasma systems for pretreatment of sensitive surfaces

Technical plasmas became an essential tool for surface treatment of raw material in industrial applications, science and development. The chemical reactivity from the species and emissions formed in plasmas are used to selectively modify surface properties and to produce materials with specific properties. The utilized effects arise from the application of excited gas species, the irradiation by the ultraviolet light spectrum, the induced current flow and a topical short-term temperature increase. Plasmas combine these physical effects in a useful and synergistic way, what make the modification of surfaces by plasma activation possible. Hydrophilic surfaces are generated showing considerable improvements in wettability, printability and adhesiveness. Moreover, our plasma systems are suited for ultra-fine cleaning of surfaces, to remove chemical additives, applicable even with objects of highly complex geometries.

Characterization and quality control of optical components

The characterization of spectral properties of optical components often places the highest demands on the performance of light sources in the relevant spectral range. Here, our Q-MACS MIR Source as a point source with high power density and very low wavelength uncertainty offers outstanding features for use in the automated determination of optical properties in the mid-infrared, such as refractive indices. The modular design of the Q-MACS MIR Source allows beam characteristics to be tailored to customer requirements in terms of spectral distribution, intensity modulation, near and far field behavior. Our Q-MACS MIR Source thus supports manufacturers and their suppliers in the field of measurement and analysis technology for optical components and assemblies, e.g. in quality control.

Environmental and security applications

The possibility of detecting molecules of interest, despite the presence of other gases, offers in combination with a portable and highly sensitive detection system a wide range of applications for trace gas analysis in several fields.
The combination of high sensitivity and time resolution allows the employment of the Q-MACS for monitoring and detecting multiple species in real-time and in situ in various surroundings.
The opportunity to alert and indicate personnel to the presence of a variety of dangerous compounds in the air draws the line of new standards in workplace safety and homeland security.

Indoor air quality management is of global importance. Therefore, high accurate, online CO₂ detection is of worldwide increasing importance, as CO₂ concentration related standards are becoming more and more stringent. This causes a rising demand for robust and reliable air quality monitoring and control solutions to meet specific concentration limits for carbon dioxide. In this situation, our high quality NDIR sensors accurately measure CO₂ concentrations in various application scenarios.

Medical applications

Q-MACS technology is able to support medical diagnostics and medical imaging on a non-invasive way. The main idea of breath gas analysis is based on the fact that certain breath gases in combination with their concentration refer to a variety of illnesses. Such a library of biomarkers in combination with the Q-MACS features could provide real-time medical diagnostics, which deliver decisive information about a person's state of health in checkups.