A new class of high-performance, self-powered NIR photodetectors that are CMOS compatible and operate at room temperature without cooling. Background: Commercial Si- and InGaAs-based near-IR photodetectors require power to operate and they need to be used at low temperature to suppress large dark currents. This increases their size, weight and power, when compared to the desired requirement. In addition, these PDs are also sensitive to visible light, which limits their accuracy and applicability. The present technology demonstrates a new class of high performance, self-powered NIR photodetectors. The devices are fully CMOS-compatible, self-powered, highly sensitive and show room-temperature operation and dual-band NIR detection for different NIR wavelengths. Benefits: - Fully CMOS compatible, lending itself well to easier integration with existing electronic circuits on a single chip - Operates at room temperature, removing the need for external cooling devices - Self-powered NIR detection at 940 nm and 1064 nm wavelengths - Outperforms commercial Si photodetectors in terms of responsivity and detectivity - Strong detection performance is achieved without the need for an external voltage - Simple, straightforward fabrication process based on Al/Si/SiOx/ZrO2/ITO Applications: - IoT sensors - Wireless, self-powered devices for healthcare monitoring - Internet of Things devices - Scientific instruments - Specialist defense military applications - Optical communication systems Opportunity: We are seeking industrial partners interested in helping us to develop this.
Ref no: HAS-10370 An innovative composite mimics human skin This innovative composite e-skin is a soft, pyramid-patterned pressure and force sensor that emulates the multidimensional touch sensitivity of a human fingertip. It delivers high sensitivity, a broad range and real-time vector (normal and shear) read-out plus slip/roughness flags in a single patch. This product targets developers of prosthetics, industrial and agricultural manipulators, soft robots, and any human-machine interface creators who are frustrated with the limitations of current one-axis, narrow-window tactile pads. By providing machines with human-grade tactile feedback, this technology eliminates dead zones, expands the operational envelope, and enables self-adjusting grips, safer handling, and richer tactile responses. The performance is measured to be 10–100 times better than existing products. Background Developed by Professor Hasan, this innovative tactile sensing technology combines innovative fillers within a flexible composite structure to deliver high-sensitivity, multidimensional force detection. Inspired by the layered architecture of human skin, the sensor features anisotropic particle networks, microporous layers, and a pyramid-patterned surface that enhances its ability to detect and differentiate normal and tangential forces. With a pressure sensitivity of 110 kPa⁻¹ across a wide dynamic range of 500 kPa. Crucially, it can decouple force components to enable accurate 3D force recognition, slip detection, and surface roughness sensing. Technology overview This compact 3D force sensor integrates a MEMS piezoresistive chip with a soft elastomeric cap featuring pyramid-shaped microstructures that enhance force transmission. Stress-concentrating microholes in the cantilevers enable precise detection of normal and tangential forces with low hysteresis and fast response. A neural network processes the sensor’s output to accurately reconstruct 3D force vectors in real time. Benefits - High Sensitivity Across All Axes: The sensor design enables precise detection of forces in three dimensions (X, Y, Z), with enhanced sensitivity due to stress-concentrating microholes and pyramid-shaped surface structures. - Low Hysteresis and Fast Response: The sensor exhibits minimal hysteresis (<1.91%) and rapid response times (~30 ms), making it suitable for real-time applications requiring accurate force feedback. - Compact and Scalable Design: Its small footprint and MEMS-based architecture allow for easy integration into compact systems, including surgical tools and robotic grippers. - Neural Network-Based Signal Decoupling: Advanced signal processing using artificial neural networks enables accurate decoupling of normal and tangential forces, improving the reliability of 3D force reconstruction. - Slip and Texture Detection: The sensor can detect slip events and surface roughness, enhancing its utility in tasks requiring fine tactile discrimination. Applications - Automated manufacturing: enhances the precision and reliability of automated handling systems. - Soft robotics: mimics the sensing capabilities of human fingers. - Healthcare: potential applications in prosthetics for better force feedback and control.
CATEGORY
Ref no: DIX-12318 High-performance power-device material on low-cost wafers Ultra-wide-bandgap gallium oxide, grown on standard silicon wafers: a low-cost, scalable route to the high-voltage power devices that AI data centres and spacecraft now need. An ultra-wide-bandgap silicon-compatible semiconductor material for companies building high-voltage power conversion hardware, above all for AI data centres and spacecraft. Gallium oxide offers the best high-voltage performance of any manufacturable power semiconductor, but until now it could only be grown on small, costly specialist substrates. This technology grows it on standard silicon wafers, so it can be made at scale, at low cost, on existing foundry equipment in the semiconductor industry. Background By 2030, more than 80% of the world’s electricity will pass through power electronics, and around a tenth of it is lost as heat on the way. AI is making this acute. A high-end AI server rack drew about 100 kW in 2024 and is now heading beyond 1 MW, which is pushing the industry to move rack power distribution to 800 V and above. This forces a shift away from conventional silicon devices for AI power, which are at their physical limit at these voltages. Silicon carbide and gallium nitride perform well and are in volume production, but are already maturing toward their own physical limitations. Gallium oxide is the next step. Its ultra-wide bandgap gives it a theoretical power figure of merit roughly ten times that of silicon carbide, meaning leaner devices, lower resistance and less waste heat. To date its problem has been crystal growth in making the devices, which has been constrained to industry non-standard wafer materials which are small, expensive, and poor at conducting heat away from the device. Researchers in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge have developed a proprietary process for growing device-quality gallium oxide semiconductor material directly onto standard silicon wafers, removing the substrate barrier that has limited the material to date and rapidly accelerating the time-to-market for this revolutionary material. Technology overview A proprietary process produces device-quality, single-phase gallium oxide crystal layers on industry-standard commodity silicon wafers. Putting these two materials together has previously failed on three fronts at once, thermal, chemical and mechanical, and this approach answers all three. Heat is carried away where on other substrates it was trapped. The process carefully controls chemical mixing of the silicon and gallium oxide layers to produce sharp, best-in-class layer interface control. And the finished wafers handle like ordinary silicon. The resulting material shows electron mobility and high-voltage breakdown among the best in class. The process has been demonstrated on 100 mm silicon wafers using industry-standard semiconductor equipment, and working vertical diode devices have been made. Everything downstream of the growth step, the wafers, the tools and the processing, is standard industry kit. This is a materials epitaxy technology, ready to be integrated into a vertical process flow from raw material through to finished products. Patent pending. Benefits - Low cost and scalable: standard silicon wafers in place of small, expensive specialist substrates, processed on standard semiconductor tooling, demonstrated at 100 mm with a clear route to larger wafers - Best in class: electron mobility and high-voltage breakdown among the best reported for gallium oxide - Efficient at high voltage: an ultra-wide bandgap blocks more volts per micron, giving thinner, lower-resistance, lower-loss devices with simplified cooling requirements - Runs cooler: heat dissipation addressable through silicon compatibility - Ready to integrate: processing that drops into a standard device process flow, on wafers that handle like ordinary silicon in existing fabs and packaging lines - Robust: high radiation tolerance and wide temperature stability, opening up new markets for power electronics Applications - AI data centre power, including the move to 800 V rack distribution and beyond for fast-growing compute loads - Space and satellite power, where radiation tolerance, temperature stability and low mass are essential - Transport electrification, including high-power vehicle charging and rail traction - Renewable energy, grid infrastructure and offshore wind transmission - High-voltage power conversion generally, wherever silicon devices are now the efficiency bottleneck Opportunity The inventors are keen to speak with potential partners, licensees and investors. Founders Dr Sebastian Dixon Dr Sebastian Dixon is a Research Associate in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge. Professor Judith Driscoll Professor Judith Driscoll FRS FREng is Professor of Materials Science in Cambridge and Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Materials.
CATEGORY
An enabling technology for the quantum internet As our lives are increasingly dependent on internet communications, it is increasingly important to prevent the interception and decoding of encrypted messages. The quantum internet is one potential solution where quantum information is exchanged between distant parties and the security is guaranteed by the fundamental laws of physics. However, an essential component to realise a functioning quantum internet is a reliable quantum repeater that enables the required long-distance transmission of quantum information. No practical quantum repeater yet exists. Technology overview The quantum engineering group at the University of Cambridge has developed a control protocol for quantum dots that allows them to accurately and reliably store quantum information. This is done by transforming a source of noise – the nuclear states – into a reliable quantum register. Since quantum registers are the necessary memory units of a quantum repeater, this technology is a key step towards realising a quantum internet. Benefits - Improved quantum information storage in quantum dots - Transfer of quantum information within quantum dots - Extended storage times from up to 100us Applications - Information storage within a quantum repeater - Multi-dimensional photon entanglement for photonic quantum computing
CATEGORY
Ref no: RUB-9458 Sustainable recovery of critical battery metals A greener, faster process for recovering critical metals from spent lithium-ion battery materials. For battery recyclers, manufacturers and supply-chain partners seeking cleaner domestic sources of lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese. A team of academics at the University of Cambridge developed new hydrometallurgical process that recovers valuable metals from spent lithium-ion battery cathode materials rapidly at room temperature. The process is designed to reduce energy use, chemical consumption and waste while improving recovery speed and supporting a more resilient circular battery supply chain. Background The rapid growth of electric vehicles and stationary energy storage is driving increasing demand for lithium-ion battery materials, placing pressure on constrained supplies of critical raw materials including lithium, nickel, cobalt and graphite. At the same time, the UK and Europe lack sufficient downstream processing capacity to extract and purify metals from black mass, the shredded metal-rich material produced from spent batteries. Current recycling routes are limited. Pyrometallurgical processes are energy-intensive and can fail to recover lithium efficiently, while conventional hydrometallurgical approaches often require concentrated acids, sacrificial reagents and long processing times. This creates a need for faster, lower-energy and more sustainable ways to recover metals domestically from battery waste. Technology overview MetCycle uses a proprietary mediator solution to selectively extract valuable metals from spent lithium-ion battery material, commonly known as black mass. Operating at room temperature, the process has demonstrated rapid metal extraction within minutes, achieving high recovery efficiencies while enabling the leaching solution to be reused without loss of performance. The technology has been validated across multiple commercial black mass feedstocks, and the team is now seeking to scale the process towards larger-scale demonstration and commercial deployment. Benefits - Significantly reduced energy requirements compared to both pyro- and hydro- metallurgic alternatives. - Full solubilisation of metals achieved in minutes at room temperature (hydrometallurgy requires several hours at 90°C). - Continuous, closed-loop process – allows the facile recovery and re-use of reagents with minimal waste. - Eliminates the need for sacrificial agents, organic acids, or peroxides. - Applicable to both existing and emerging nickel-rich cathodic materials. - Supports domestic recovery of critical battery metals and strengthens circular supply chains. Applications Potential applications include recycling services for spent lithium-ion battery, production of recovered critical metal salts for battery manufacturers, integration into existing hydrometallurgical plants, and future continuous-flow recycling facilities. Opportunity Cambridge Enterprise is seeking commercial partners and collaborators to support scale-up, validation, pilot testing of this technology. Founders Professor Manish Chhowalla Prof Manish Chhowalla is the Goldsmiths’ Professor of Materials Science at the University of Cambridge. His research interests are in the fundamental studies of atomically thin two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides. He is also a co-founder of Molyon, a start-up developing lithium–sulfur battery technology. Dr Rubio Garcia Dr Rubio Garcia is an electrochemical technologies professional with extensive spin-out and scale-up experience. He previously co-founded Sweetgen and RFC Power (now known as Certain Energy), both of which were clean technology startups spun out from Imperial College London. He currently serves as Program Manager for Electrochemical Technologies at SLB. Ms Esther Gray Ms Esther Gray is a Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge funded by the Faraday Institution. She is leading experimental scale-up and industrial engagement for the project.
CATEGORY
