Creation of a tactile terahertz glove and its application to novel minimally invasive testing

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K22099
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 28:Nano/micro science and related fields
• Research Institution: Tokyo Institute of Technology
• Principal Investigator: Yukio Kawano 東京工業大学, 科学技術創成研究院, 准教授 (90334250)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-06-28 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: テラヘルツ

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Various industrial products have penetrated into our daily lives and have made our society more comfortable and convenient. However, there is a need for inspection technology to confirm the safety of these products. In this study, we fabricated a soft terahertz sensor and developed a tactile terahertz detection glove that can be worn by a person to inspect objects while touching them. As an application of this sensing technology, it was shown that the glove can be applied to pipes to detect defective parts.

Free Research Field

テラヘルツ・光工学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

近年、電波と光の中間に位置するテラヘルツ帯の電磁波を利用したイメージングが着目されており，食料品や医薬品などの非破壊品質検査への応用が期待されている．この目的のため、コンパクトで簡便なテラヘルツ検査システムが求められている。本技術はやわらかいテラヘルツセンサに基づいた設計であるため、従来の検査技術のネックであった測定対象の制限や大規模な測定系という課題を回避でき，様々な場所・環境における品質検査や即時検査の実現につながる可能性がある。