Taking micro-structured fibers to industry and to the applications market was the purpose of the European Project «NextGenPCF – Next Generation Photonic Crystal Fibres», developed by INESC TEC’s Centre for Applied Photonics (CAP). INESC TEC was one of 18 European partners.

The performance of the micro-structured fibres has been improved over the last years by defining and demonstrating a large number of designs. This knowledge was explored by incubating key-devices in three strategic application areas: Biomedicine, Telecommunications and Environmental Sensors.

Benefits for the future
In the future, Portuguese companies may benefit from a huge competitive advantage in relation to the rest of the world because NextGenPCF’s objective was to create, during the three years of the project, a virtuous circle of market growth connecting the end user, the devices, the fibres and the base materials, disseminating knowledge and avoiding redundancy.

INESC TEC’s CAP was responsible for a work package where the goal was to develop sensing systems for monitoring gases based on the combination of absorption spectroscopy with micro-structured optical fibres. In particular, the Centre participated in the construction of a complete demonstrator system to remotely monitor methane gas. This system can be applied in the continuous monitoring of mines, and in the vicinity of pipelines and storage tanks.

O Primeiro de Janeiro, August 10, 2006