The company: Omnisens is a Swiss company created in 1999 from the collaboration between academic research institutes and industrial groups, gathering an extensive cumulated experience in optical sensing techniques and product industrialisation. The company has close connections with the Laboratory of Nanophotonics and Metrology of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), from which it is a spin-off company, through the transfer of high academic research and shared experience in photoacoustic spectroscopy, laser characterization and fibre optics sensors. This SME has 8 full-time employees, and several representatives in various countries, including Japan, Korea and USA. The company designs, develops and manufactures innovative measuring instruments and systems using leading edge optical sensing techniques. Omnisens has pioneered trace gas monitoring by introducing the first commercially available laser-based photo-acoustic trace gas analyzer for the monitoring of ammonia with sub-ppb sensitivity for the semiconductor industry and environmental monitoring. Omnisens trace gas analyzers product range includes ethylene, water vapour, ammonia, chloride acid and methane offering sub-ppm to ppb sensitivities for various applications, such as process gas monitoring, environmental pollution monitoring, food industry, etc., where high sensitivity, selectivity and continuous real-time measurements are required. Omnisens also benefits from 15 years of experience in distributed fibre optic monitoring systems which have been integrated in its fibre optic Brillouin analyzer, the so-called DiTeSt® system. The DiTeSt® uses a unique monitoring technique that offers long range and high-performance measurements of temperature and strain with meter spatial resolution over tens of kilometres. It provides surveillance and monitoring capabilities for the control of large structures and processes everywhere temperature or strain information is the indication of important changes. The DiTeSt® measuring system and technology has been integrated in complex and complete systems, such as the LeaDeS and FiDeS systems which offer turn-key solutions to very different applications and industries, such as: oil & gas, civil engineering, safety systems, fire detection, telecommunications and cable manufacturing, etc..

The resources: Omnisens is fully equipped for laser characterization, including power and spectral properties, and for gas handling in order to prepare dedicated gas mixtures using mass flow controllers. It has large competencies in gas sampling, especially for polar molecules, such as ammonia, that require special care in material selection, surface treatment and air flow control in order to achieve unbiased measurement down to very low concentrations. Specialists in advanced signal processing are also available for real time signal processing.

The role in the project: Omnisens will act as an end-user of the VCSEL technology. It will develop high-sensitivity gas sensors based on photoacoustic spectroscopy. Two different targets will be addressed, (i) sub-ppm NH₃ sensing for DeNO_x process control and monitoring of microclimatic conditions in laboratory animals housings for life science and (ii) ¹³CO₂/¹²CO₂ isotope ratio determination for medical applications and metabolism studies.