THz spectroscopy: An emerging technology for pharmaceutical development and pharmaceutical Process Analytical Technology (PAT) applications

• Huiquan Wu and
 
• Mansoor Khan

• Division of Product Quality Research (DPQR, HFD-940), Office of Testing and Research, Office of Pharmaceutical Science, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration, Life Science Building 64, White Oak Campus, 10903 New Hampshire Ave., Silver Spring, MD 20993, USA

Abstract

As an emerging technology, THz spectroscopy has gained increasing attention in the pharmaceutical area during the last decade. This attention is due to the fact that (1) it provides a promising alternative approach for in-depth understanding of both intermolecular interaction among pharmaceutical molecules and pharmaceutical product quality attributes; (2) it provides a promising alternative approach for enhanced process understanding of certain pharmaceutical manufacturing processes; and (3) the FDA pharmaceutical quality initiatives, most noticeably, the Process Analytical Technology (PAT) initiative. In this work, the current status and progress made so far on using THz spectroscopy for pharmaceutical development and pharmaceutical PAT applications are reviewed. In the spirit of demonstrating the utility of first principles modeling approach for addressing model validation challenge and reducing unnecessary model validation “burden” for facilitating THz pharmaceutical PAT applications, two scientific case studies based on published THz spectroscopy measurement results are created and discussed. Furthermore, other technical challenges and opportunities associated with adapting THz spectroscopy as a pharmaceutical PAT tool are highlighted.

For full paper see http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022286012003304

TeraView Appoints Sector Technologies as its Exclusive European Agent

TeraView Cambridge, United Kingdom – 14 May 2012

TeraView (www.teraview.com), the pioneer and leader in terahertz solutions and technology is pleased to announce that it has appointed Sector Technologies (www.sector-technologies.com) as its agent in Europe for sales of its products into the Semiconductor Industry.

Based at the heart of the European semiconductor industry in Grenoble, France, Sector-Technologies' focus is on the distribution and support of high-end failure analysis equipment. This focus aligns well with TeraView's own and the launch of its EOTPR 2000. This high end terahertz time domain reflectometry (TDR) system is increasingly being used for the isolation of faults in complex IC packages.

"We are very pleased to have been able to partner with such an experienced and respected company as Sector Technologies" said Ian Grundy, SVP of Global sales, "To-date much of our semiconductor related customer activities have been focused on Asia and the US, and we are delighted to now have a partner to help us better serve semiconductor customers in Europe."

"We believe that this partnership will be beneficial for our customers as it will complement our Solutions portfolio with a new high end Product containing leading edge technology. We are very excited to have TeraView's Products in our portfolio, and look forward to representing them," said Jean-Philippe Roux , President of Sector Technologies SAS.

The EOTPR 2000, TeraView's main fault analysis product, was jointly developed with Intel. This product uses terahertz waves to non-destructively isolate faults within complex IC packages to an accuracy of 10 microns. With installations in N. America and Asia, TeraView is now looking to grow its customer base in Europe.

see http://www.teraview.com/news/terahertz-news/TeraView-and-Sector-Technologies-Europe.html

Terahertz and Ultrashort Electromagnetic Pulses for Biomedical Applications Conference BO306 Part of program track on Tissue Optics, Laser-Tissue Interaction, and Tissue Engineering This conference has an open call for papers: See submission guidelines for Authors & Presenters Submit an abstract Conference Chairs Gerald J. Wilmink, Air Force Research Lab.; Bennett L. Ibey, Air Force Research Lab. Program Committee Hope T. Beier, Air Force Research Lab.; Benjamin P. Born, Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel); Patrick O. Bradshaw, Air Force Office of Scientific Research; Elliott R. Brown, Wright State Univ.; Ibtissam Echchgadda, National Academy of Sciences;Yuri Feldman, The Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem (Israel); Martina Havenith, Ruhr-Univ. Bochum (Germany); Peter Uhd Jepsen, Technical Univ. of Denmark (Denmark); Kodo Kawase, RIKEN (Japan); Martin Koch, Technische Univ. Braunschweig (Germany);Richard Nuccitelli, BioElectroMed Corp.; Gun-Sik Park, Seoul National Univ. (Korea, Republic of); Emma Pickwell-MacPherson, Hong Kong Univ. of Science and Technology (Hong Kong, China); W. Pat Roach, Air Force Research Lab.; Peter H. Siegel, Jet Propulsion Lab.; Joo-Hiuk Son, The Univ. of Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Koichiro Tanaka, Kyoto Univ. (Japan); Robert J. Thomas, Air Force Research Lab.; P. Thomas Vernier, The Univ. of Southern California; Shu Xiao, Old Dominion Univ. The terahertz (THz) region of the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum is defined as frequencies ranging from 0.1 to 10 THz (1 THz = 1012 Hz = 1 ps). Historically, few sources have been available to efficiently generate THz radiation; however, several recent technological advances have resulted in the unprecedented development of many new types of THz sources and components. These technologies are now being used as tools for a plethora of novel basic science investigations, and they are increasingly being integrated into innovative sensing and imaging operational schemes, which are finding widespread use in a host of medical, military, and defense applications. Ultrashort electromagnetic pulses (USEP) are defined as pulses with duration below one microsecond and a rise time at or below a nanosecond. Direct application of USEP on tissue has been shown to elicit an array of biological effects including plasma membrane breakdown, cellular swelling, nuclear granulation, and initiation of apoptotic death. These observed phenomena have spawned quick advancement of USEP-based techniques into clinical devices to treat both superficial and deep cancers. USEP-based technologies have a distinct advantage of causing desired effects only within the profile of the electric field with little to no thermal footprint. Future technology is pushing beyond direct application into shorter pulse regimes (picoseconds) to enable free field propagation of USEP into deep tissue. These efforts have required advancements in pulse generators and antenna construction. The drive to shorter pulse duration bridges the gap between electrical pulses and those commonly generated by THz sources. Fundamental knowledge gaps exist regarding how electric fields with frequency components from the MHz to the THz interact with biological structures. This conference aims to highlight USEP and THz source development, biological applications, and fundamental interactions with tissues, cells, and biomolecules. Scientific papers that push the state-of-the-art are solicited. These include: Basic Science and Phenomenology: interaction mechanisms, biological effects, and molecular dynamics THz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS): transmission, reflection, KITA, and attenuated total reflection (ATR) Biological effects of THz radiation and USEP at organism, tissue, cellular, and biomolecular level Molecular dynamics in meso-space: water relaxation components, hydration and biosolvation dynamics Biomedical Diagnostics and Therapeutics: Imaging, Spectroscopy, and Multi-modality approaches Cancer diagnosis and margin detection: skin, breast, liver, and oral tissues Skin burns, sweat gland monitoring, corneal hydration sensing, retinal imaging, and wound repair Therapeutic bio-stimulation: exploitation of THz and USEP for non-contact control of biological functions Advanced systems, sources, and bio-analytic tools Nanoscale FTIR, near-field microscopes, sub-wavelength THz microscopy, 3D THz tomography, THz OCT Microfluidics, micromachined probes, microcantilever systems, and THz integrated circuits Bio-environmental, agricultural, food testing, pharmaceutical applications Lasers: Far-IR molecular gas, p-type germanium, THz-Quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) Frequency down-conversion and non-linear optical sources: optical rectification, difference frequency generation, parametric amplification, and laser-induced plasma sources Frequency up-conversion: electronic solid-state devices, schottky diodes, varactors/varistors, multiplier sources Accelerating electron based-sources: photocurrent in semiconductor (photoconductive switches, photomixing, UTC); free electrons in vacuum (backward wave oscillators, traveling wave tubes TWTs, gyrotrons, and free electron lasers (FELs) Nanosecond and picoseconds high electric field pulse generators and electric field measurement systems Novel materials and transmission technologies Transmission technologies: free space optics, waveguides, and fiber optics Materials: active and passive metamaterials, photonics crystals, plasmonics, graphene, and THz phonon-polaritons Lenses: superfocusing, microlenses, liquid crystals, dielectric-based lenses Nanoparticles and nanotubes: carbon nanotube structures

Another journal you may consider publishing your terahertz research

Journal of Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves see http://www.springer.com/engineering/electronics/journal/10762
ISSN: 1866-6906 (electronic version)


Provides peer-reviewed rapid dissemination of original research in the frequency range between 30 GHz and 30 THz; in particular on sources, detectors, devices, systems, spectroscopy and applications.

The Journal of Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves offers a peer-reviewed platform for the rapid  dissemination of original, high-quality research in the frequency window from 30 GHz to 30 THz.  The topics covered include: sources, detectors, and other devices; systems, spectroscopy, sensing, interaction between electromagnetic waves and matter, applications, metrology, and communications.

Purely numerical work, especially with commercial software packages, will be published only in very exceptional cases. The same applies to manuscripts describing only algorithms (e.g. pattern recognition algorithms).

Manuscripts submitted to the Journal should discuss a significant advancement to the field of infrared, millimeter, and terahertz waves. Manuscripts not fitting the aims and scope, and minor extensions or copies of previous work, will not be considered for publication.

There are seven categories in which manuscripts will be considered.

Letters
Letters should be of particular interest to the community and they should be short in length.  The number of figures is limited to three, the abstract should not be longer than 80 words, the main text should not exceed 1,000 words (1,250 words for two figures), the number of references is limited to fifteen.  The review process will be expedited for this manuscript category.

Sources
All manuscripts discussing sources should be submitted to this category. Examples include systems based on photoconductive antennas and related techniques, resonant tunneling diodes, microwave devices, vacuum tube based sources, free electron lasers, synchrotrons, high power microwave sources, gas lasers, quantum cascade lasers and sources relying on parametric down conversion. 

Detectors
All manuscripts discussing THz detectors or detectors arrays or part of detectors such as mixers or antennas should be submitted to this category. 

Devices
Examples for this category are modulators, reflectors, filters, waveguides as well as metamaterial based devices.

Systems
Manuscripts which discuss system aspects should go in this category. This could be reports on entire emitter-receiver systems, imaging systems, characterization of systems, but also data extraction algorithms and metrology problems. 

Spectroscopy
Manuscripts which discuss the interaction between THz waves and all states of matter should be submitted to this category. This includes THz spectroscopy on solids, liquids, gases, and plasma.

Applications
Manuscripts which discuss possible applications e.g. for industrial inspection, bio-medical sensing, material science, and communications should go in this category.

6th International Symposium on Ultrafast Phenomena and Terahertz Waves

Submit your paper by June 28 2012