Developing next generation portable sensing instrumentation

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Unisearch Associates Inc. is a Research & Development company and a specialty instrument manufacturer located in Concord, north of Toronto. Based on the demand of the markets it services and its future development plans, Unisearch is extremely interested in the research carried out at the University of Toronto in the field of Raman spectroscopy. Because of it's unparalleled chemical specificity, Raman spectroscopy is one of the most promising R&D areas to address man-portable solutions for detecting, identifying and monitoring (DIM) a large spectrum of chemical compounds in both industrial and environmental settings. In particular, a recent technical development in Dr Helmy's group at U of T has led to an optimum solution to enhance the sensitivity of the Raman signal by orders of magnitude by using an innovative optical design that aids in more efficient collection of the scattered light containing the Raman signal. In this way it becomes possible to perform Raman analysis of liquids and gases using existing Raman systems in conjunction with this low-cost add-on component that requires sample volumes down to the nano-litre range. These developments in the instrumentation of Raman measurements are extremely well aligned with Unisearch's present and future expansion plans with respect to their product portfolio. As such they have requested to set up joint work through starting a partnership with the Helmy group to help develop the next generation sensing instrumentation based on the opto-fluidic research his group carries out. This would benefit instrumentation for the sensing and monitoring of environmental compounds in outdoor and industrial settings. The project aims to utilize the recently developed innovations in opto-fluidic chip technologies to realize a platform for cost-effective handheld equipment for detection, identification and measurement of chemical compounds. The designs invented in Dr Helmy's group will be further developed to suite a portable form factor sensing system (for both Raman and FTIR) with sufficient sensitivity for the various applications of interest to a number of markets that are of interest to Unisearch.