Si-Ware MEMS sensors chosen for spectrometer-based soil analysis

Feb. 20, 2015

Si-Ware Systems has had its MEMS spectral sensors chosen by Dutch Sprouts for use in its NIR portable spectrum analyzers.

Gail Overton

Integrated circuit (IC) and MEMS-based solutions provider Si-Ware Systems (SWS; Cairo, Egypt and La Canada, CA) has had its Prism-award-winning MEMS spectral sensors chosen by Dutch Sprouts (Wageningen, Netherlands) for use in its near-infrared (NIR) portable spectrum analyzers that farmers can use for in-situ soil analysis.

SWS says its spectral sensors, newly branded as NeoSpectra [trademarked], deliver the same functionality as conventional benchtop spectrometer instruments and are the most compact and lowest-cost Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometers on the market today. First-generation NeoSpectra sensors operate in the NIR spectral range with three different configurations available between 1150 nm and 2500 nm for material composition and/or identification in a wide range of application areas.

Dutch Sprouts, a group of companies devising innovative and cost effective methods for assessing soil and crops, is taking advantage of NeoSpectra sensors for its SoilCares initiative. SoilCares is developing a small, portable, low-cost NIR analyzer that uses the NeoSpectra sensor so that farmers can measure soil samples in the field in real time. "Enabling farmers to make real time measurements of soil samples in the field is key to the SoilCares initiative of helping to create better and more sustainable harvests”, said Henri Hekman, CEO of Dutch Sprouts. “SWS' NeoSpectra sensors are an enabling part of our NIR analyzer, allowing us to achieve a device that is small and cost effective."

"SWS is excited that Dutch Sprouts has chosen our NeoSpectra sensors for use in a new and exciting application that can help to solve the world's food demand problems," said Bassam Saadany, Optical MEMS division manager at SWS. "We believe that we have the smallest and most cost effective spectral sensor solution on the market today that can enable many other applications where measurement and analysis can be done in the field in real time by the average consumer."

The core technology behind NeoSpectra sensors is based on semiconductor microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology, which achieves high-volume production with economies of scale. The sensor covers a wide spectral range, consumes very low power, and is about the size of a smartphone. Unlike existing miniaturized NIR spectroscopy solutions, SWS says its NeoSpectra sensors are constructed from low cost, permanently aligned, and highly reproducible components.

SWS is now delivering evaluation kits for its first production NeoSpectra sensor, the SWS62221. The SWS62221 will be in full production in Q3 of this year. Contact SWS if you are interested in obtaining an evaluation kit or would like more information on its NeoSpectra sensors.

SOURCE: Si-Ware; http://www.si-ware.com/sws-neospectra-sensors-are-being-used-to-help-solve-the-worlds-food-demand-problems/

About the Author

Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)

Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.