Sparse-deconvolution terahertz near-field microprobe tomography enabling non-destructive inspection of small solid dosage forms.

Terahertz (THz) pulsed imaging is a powerful tool for investigating solid dosage forms. However, traditional far-field systems struggle with physically small samples and strongly bent surfaces due to inherently limited lateral resolution. The present study introduces a novel approach using photo-conductive near-field microprobes (PC-NFMs) with a THz time-domain spectroscopy module to overcome the limitations of far-field setups concerning their achievable lateral resolution.

Contact-free fault location and imaging with on-chip terahertz time-domain reflectometry.

We demonstrate in a first experimental study the application of novel micro-machined optoelectronic probes for a time-domain reflectometry-based localization of discontinuities and faults in electronic structures at unprecedented resolution and accuracy (± 0.55 µm). Thanks to the THz-range bandwidth of our optoelectronic system--including the active probes used for pulse injection and detection--the spatial resolution and precision of high-end all-electronic detection systems is surpassed by more than one order of magnitude.