Purdue sensor startup lands $1M federal grant
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A Purdue University-connected startup has received a $1 million federal grant to improve the sensors in semiconductors and other machinery.
ZS Instruments says it will use the Phase II SBIR National Science Foundation grant to work on a novel method to produce high-accuracy optical encoders, which will measure position and convert it into an electronic signal.
The company is working on this research with the Purdue College of Engineering researchers.
Purdue said the research will improve production of sensors used in semiconductor fabrication and inspection, precision machining equipment, UAV guidance and tracking systems, medical imaging equipment, industrial robots, and measuring instruments. Modern automation and robotics systems rely on such technology.
“Increasingly accurate encoders are needed to further innovate and enable the manufacturing of complex next-generation products,” ZS Instruments Co-Founder Sergey Zakharov said in a news release. “As device miniaturization continues, design specifications become more stringent, and the need to fill the demand for high-precision position sensors and the nano-fabrication technology which enable them becomes paramount.”
An NSF 18-month, Phase I SBIR grant initially supported the project, which the university said led to a prototype that has demonstrated an order of magnitude improvement in both resolution and edge quality.
The Purdue Innovates Office of Technology Commercialization has applied for a patent on the technology.