Leaping into the future with quantum-inspired fiber sensor technology

The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research is funding the regional research alliance in Thuringia with around twelve million euros: QUANTIFISENS. The aim is to develop an innovative sensor platform based on fiber-optic and quantum technology processes. The alliance wants to initiate a turning point in the evolutionary development of classical sensors and revolutionize them using quantum technologies. The alliance’s target markets are medical imaging and infrastructure monitoring. The young startup PreciPoint Innovation GmbH is one of the 11 companies that, together with two research institutions, aims to make this technological leap by 2025.

PreciPoint is developing an omnifunctional and multimodal microscopy platform with the appropriate control electronics and software as part of the project. For this purpose, the appropriate data formats as well as the hardware and software infrastructure are being created. The startup is specifically dedicated to the development of LFD technology. With the help of label-free diagnostics, the processes in the pathology laboratory are to be revolutionized. Usually, pathological samples are cut for viewing and stained using various methods to make structures visible under the microscope. This process is vulnerable in many places, for example, when the stain is not properly accepted by the tissue. In addition, these preparations also take a long time. The Label-Free Diagnostics approach saves time and is less prone to error. Here, the tissue is bombarded with a laser. The different wavelengths of the light excite the different tissue components, which send the signal back. These components are then visible on the screen in a few minutes. So a diagnosis is possible within a few hours instead of several days. "This technology is groundbreaking for the work of patholog:in," says Dominik Gerber, CEO of PreciPoint Innovation. "It is a great honor for us to be part of QUANTIFISENS. This project is groundbreaking for Germany. I am particularly pleased that it is already becoming apparent that this approach works.”

A total of eleven companies and two research institutions are members of the regional alliance. The combination of partners, the majority of which are located in the high-tech optics region of Jena in Thuringia, results in efficient linkages.

Partner of QUANTIFISENS

FBGS Technologies GmbH
www.fbgs.com

Fraunhofer-Institut für Angewandte Optik und Feinmechanik IOF
www.iof.fraunhofer.de

Active Fiber Systems GmbH
www.afs-jena.de

ADVA Optical Networking SE
www.adva.com

Batix Software GmbH
www.batix.de

epicinsights c/o SMA Dev. GmbH
www.epic-insights.com

GRINTECH GmbH
www.grintech.de

heracle GmbH
www.heracle.de

LASOS Lasertechnik GmbH
www.lasos.com

Leibniz-Institut für Photonische Technologien e.V.
www.ipht-jena.de

Luna Innovations Germany GmbH
https://lunainc.com/

NKT Photonics GmbH
www.nktphotonics.com

PreciPoint Innovation GmbH
www.precipoint.com

Quantum Optics Jena GmbH
www.qo-jena.com