16 OPTICS & PHOTONICS NEWS OCTOBER 2015

From Concept to Commercialization:

Next-Generation Spectroscopy

The story of Tornado and Hindsight begins in 1995 when Arsen Hajian was hired by the U.S. Naval

Observatory (USNO) in Washington, D.C., to translate spatial interferometry into optical wavelengths: Though primarily a radio astronomer, I was introduced to optical spectrometer instrumentation during my time at USNO and fabricated these devices to detect extrasolar planets and stellar companions. Unfortunately, these measure-ments were difficult and time-consuming—i.e., to obtain a given signal-to-noise ratio for high spectral resolution, these instruments need a very long integration time. The reason for this is not just the faintness of the light source,

but also an inherent problem with spectrometers: most of the light gets thrown away at the slit in order to generate the high spectral resolution needed for the experiment. Astronomers have solved this problem by making bigger spectrometers to collect more light. However, a room-sized spectrometer isn’t commercially practical, nor did it conform to the typical budget of a government research laboratory. There had to be a better way.

Squeezing more light out of a spectrometerAfter leaving USNO in 2007, I continued to explore this integral problem with spectrometers as a professor at the

Tornado Spectral Systems and Hindsight Imaging’s Arsen R. Hajian and Jessica Moreno explain how a hypothesis turned into a technological breakthrough and finally, a commercial product.

OPTICS INNOVATIONS

Pulses

USGS Spectroscopy Lab

An example of a spectroscopic

alteration map of Cuprite, Nev., USA

17 OCTOBER 2015 OPTICS & PHOTONICS NEWS

University of Waterloo, Canada. I was attracted to the university’s thriving local startup com-munity, and over the next three years, I built a team focused on imaging and remote sensing applications. Our work led to the founding of Tornado Spectral Systems in January 2010. I joined Tornado fulltime in late 2010, and my colleagues and I continued on our quest. In 2011, we deployed the high-throughput virtual slit (HTVS), which was the first commercial manifestation of our pupil slicing technology.

The HTVS allows the f-ratio and magnifica-tion of the system to change independently. Inclusion of an HTVS in a spectrometer changes the optical design flexibilities and performance rules. It alters the philosophy by which a spectrometer is designed and optimized. For example, a spectral imager designed with HTVS technology can be used to augment spatial or spectral resolution as compared to a similar standard push-broom spectrometer. Furthermore, the HTVS can be deployed in a reflective configuration, making it applicable across a wide range of wavelengths.

Since the HTVS can deliver spectral resolu-tion without blocking a significant amount of light, it results in a much smaller and cheaper spectrometer than conventional technology permits. In general, HTVS-equipped spectrom-eters can perform for many applications at the same level as standard devices that are 10 to 30 times larger. Another way to state this per-formance advantage is that HTVS-equipped spectrometer systems can generate the same results as non-HTVS-equipped spectrometers, but at a substantially lower price point.

After the design team improved and sim-plified the HTVS’ optomechanical design, it was clear we were on to something important.

COMPANY INFO

Tornado Spectral SystemsURLwww.tornado-spectral.com

HEADQUARTERS Toronto, Ontario, Canada

CEOAndrew Boorn

PRODUCTS Raman spectroscopy instruments

Hindsight ImagingURLwww.hindsight-imaging.com

HEADQUARTERS Brookline, Mass., USA

CEOArsen R. Hajian

PRODUCTS Hyperspectral imaging solutions

The HTVS can be deployed in a reflective configuration, making it applicable across a wide range of wavelengths.

Commercialization Jessica Moreno picks up here with the story of Tornado’s growth and the emergence of Hindsight Imaging: We patented the HTVS in 2011 and began building spectrometers that redefined achievable detection limits with process measurements using Raman spec-troscopy as the preferred modality. The cost savings and increased performance of pupil slicing as applied to Raman spectroscopy is

valuable in process monitoring in order to decrease the cost per cubic centimeter of material probed and the cost per molecule of detected material. Tornado’s product development has led to the recent release of a commercial Raman device called the Hyper-Flux P.R.O. Plus.

In 2015, Hindsight Imaging was founded as a separate entity, with a mission to deliver inexpensive, HTVS-based spectral imagers to customers interested in remote sensing. Hindsight has progressed rapidly—it fielded its first remote-sensing hyperspectral products in September 2015, only a few months after incorporation in May 2015. The first Hindsight product, the Bilby, is a visible-and-near-infrared (VNIR) hyperspectral system with a spectral resolution of one nanometer in a cost-effective package.

Our biggest challenge in selling Tornado and Hindsight products has been overcoming expert’s disbelief that our reported perfor-mance levels are possible. Our continued success comes from our instruments’ ability to deliver rapid real-time discrimination across a wide range of chemical analysis and process-control applications. It has been a long path, starting in academia, wandering through government research labs, back into academia, and finally in the business sector, but the HTVS has found two good homes. OPN

Arsen Hajian (arsen.hajian@hindsight-imaging.com) is CEO of Hindsight Imaging, and a founder and director of Tornado Spectral Systems. Jessica Moreno is the marketing and communications associate for Tornado.