European research grant of €150,000 brings new, cheaper infrared cameras and detectors closer

The research group of Prof. Dr. Koen Vandewal (imo-imomec UHasselt) has received a grant from the European Research Council (ERC) to develop new and cheaper types of infrared detectors and infrared cameras. “Current conventional infrared cameras now cost around 25,000 euros and more. With our technology in which we integrate cheap organic materials into basic cameras, such as those on your smartphone, we can develop infrared cameras with a price well below 1,000 euros,” says Prof. Dr. Koen Vandewal.

Infrared cameras and infrared detectors are already widely used in industry. For example, they are used to determine the water content and degree of ripeness (ripe or rotten) of a fruit, or to identify and then sort different types of plastic in waste. “Unlike conventional cameras, which use visible light, infrared images usually have higher contrasts, revealing a lot more information about materials and products. These infrared cameras are already being used in agriculture, pharmaceuticals, chemical industry or in the production of computer chips and solar panels. But with a cost of 25,000 euros and much higher, they are very expensive, which means that the use of the cameras is limited to only a few industrial applications," says Koen Vandewal.

Integrating cheap organic materials

The European Research Council is now giving a grant of €150,000 to Koen Vandewal's research group. The researchers want to demonstrate how you can use a new approach - at a price well below €1000 - to turn your smartphone camera into an infrared camera. The research team around Prof. Vandewal will integrate custom-made organic semiconductors from the chemistry group of Prof. Dr. Wouter Maes (imo-imomec UHasselt) on cheap standard visible light cameras, such as those in mobile phones. By applying the organic semiconductors to a standard camera, the sensitivity is extended from visible to infrared light.

“This new, affordable approach can enable the manufacturing industry to systematically detect and control product anomalies in real-time. So this concept has the potential to reduce waste across a wide range of industries,” say Dr. Bernhard Siegmund and Dr. Laurence Lutsen, both of whom made a major contribution to writing the approved project proposal. "Thanks to the much cheaper realization, we also see a clear potential for new applications, such as automated vision in self-driving cars in haze and fog, detailed sorting of reusable plastics in waste management and in advanced biomedical imaging," says Prof. Koen Vandewal.

Strength of Materiomics

The awarded research once again underlines the synergy of collaboration between chemists and physicists. "Our chemists develop the organic molecules that the physicists then implement to improve standard cameras. Such a collaboration illustrates again the power of our recently started Master's program in Materiomics at UHasselt," the researchers conclude.

Involved researchers: Prof. Dr. Koen Vandewal and Dr. Bernhard Siegmund of the OOE research group.