Image-guided needle procedures - such as taking biopsies in screening cancerous tumours - are becoming increasingly important in clinical practice. Today, physicians are severely hampered by the lack of precision in positioning the needle tip. Real-time tissue-characterization feedback at the needle tip during these procedures can significantly improve the outcome of diagnosis and treatment, and reduce the cost of oncology treatment. Spectral tissue sensing using photonic needles has the promise to be a valuable diagnostic tool for screening tumours, as shown by several clinical trials. However, for widespread adoption the cost and size of these photonic needle systems - in particular the spectrometer console - needs to be improved dramatically. The realization of a low-cost miniature system is limited by three key challenges: • Broadband (VIS+NIR) illumination • Broadband (VIS+NIR) sensitivity • Integration of the system InSPECT will address these challenges by developing and integrating photonic building blocks for low-cost miniaturized spectral tissue sensing devices. This involves the realization of a miniature broadband (400-1700 nm) solid-state light source, based on phosphor and quantum-dot converted LEDs, and the realization of a miniature low-cost integrated VIS+NIR spectrometer. For the spectrometer integration we will follow 2 approaches: • The micro-spectrometer, a moderate risk approach based on the miniaturisation and monolithic integration of diffractive dispersive elements and VIS+NIR photo-detectors in a small volume (cubic inch) device, and • The nano-spectrometer, a higher risk approach in which the spectrometer function is realized in a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) based on transparent SiO/SiN waveguide technology. This is a unique, novel, and timely approach to realize the key photonics building blocks for low-cost miniature spectrometers that will drive the adoption of spectral sensing in applications that were not accessible before.

The ageing population and related increase in chronic diseases put considerable pressure on both the healthcare system and the society, resulting in an unsustainable rise of healthcare costs. As a result there is an urgent need to improve efficiency of care and reduce hospitalisation time in order to control cost and increase quality of life. Addressing this need, medical applications need to become less invasive and improve disease detection, diagnosis and treatment using advanced imaging and sensing techniques. ASTONISH will deliver breakthrough imaging and sensing technologies for monitoring, diagnosis and treatment applications by developing smart optical imaging technology that extends the use of minimally invasive diagnosis and treatment and allows for unobtrusive health monitoring. The project will integrate miniaturized optical components, data processing units and SW applications into smart imaging systems that are less obtrusive, cheaper, more reliable and easier to use than state of the art systems. This results into 6 demonstrators by which the technologies will be validated and which allow for pre-clinical testing in the scope of the project. The overall concept within ASTONISH builds on the development and application of common imaging/sensing technologies. Smart algorithms, multimodal fusion techniques and biomedical signal processing will process the acquired data and advanced user interfaces will simplify the complex clinical tasks. These technology components will be integrated to build application specific solutions for physiological signs monitoring, tumour detection, minimally invasive surgery, brain function monitoring and rehabilitation. The ASTONISH partners cover the full value chain, from semiconductor manufacturing to clinical centres testing the final application. The proposed innovations improve the global competitiveness of the European industry in the healthcare domain.

Anteryon BV has a track record of more than 30 years in the R&D, manufacturing and marketing of refractive optical components and modules for a variety of niche market applications. Since 2010, Anteryon has been expanding in providing customized optical solutions for compact optical encoders and spectrometers. As a next step in this roadmap Anteryon envisages to accomplish a breakthrough in user access, size and cost reduction of a fast growing spectroscopic materials analysis technique, namely Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS). The name Colibri stands for compact LIBS module for advanced materials. The novel Colibri module is carrier for a breakthrough in LIBS and will enable a more efficient, affordable, and more wide-spread use this spectroscopic technology for the analysis of materials. In this way, the increased use of LIBS will also contribute to the social themes and to the efficiency in executing European programs in the field of waste management, environmental protection, ecological footprint reduction, food safety control and health care. The Colibri module is a novel architecture and manufacturing platform that will be available as a standard plug-in module for compact, cost-effective, robust reconfigurable and user accessible spectrometers. The proposed Colibri module satisfies spectrometer users needs to measure in real-time and in-line without compromising the LIBS spectral accuracy and at affordable costs (at least 4 times lower than the state of the art). The Colibri module allows reconfiguration of the spectrometer for different applications by adapting software only. These features will boost the user accessibility and market size of affordable LIBS technology. The feasibility assessment under Phase 1 will include a business plan including marketing plan, optimal price definition, funding strategies, technical feasibility, fabrication process, capital equipment, cost analysis, an IPR study and a risk and sensitivity analysis.

Increasing health and environmental awareness of European citizens has led to an urgent demand for spectral analysis of matter. However, what is missing are novel and cost-effective methods to sense the desired analytes with high sensitivity and high reliability using small and portable devices. Moreover, there is a severe shortage in the European spectroscopy industry of graduates and PhDs with the right expertise along the complete technology supply chain for the development of such micro-spectrometer systems. Training and education in all its aspects, namely in optical modeling and design, fabrication and prototyping, measurements and characterization, sensor readout and data analysis towards proof-of concept demonstration up to industrial valorisation of the micro-spectrometer systems is crucial, but to our knowledge not offered today as a whole. In response, xCLASS sets up a training through research programme, provided by a consortium of a leading academic centre (VUB) and a leading industrial partner (Anteryon), in which four ESRs will work on a disruptive compact high-performance micro-spectrometer concept, broadly applicable in various application domains. All ESRs will be enrolled in the PhD programme at VUB, the academic partner of xCLASS. The recruited researchers will be exposed to an integrated highly collaborative and interdisciplinary research environment where VUB and Anteryon together cover the complete supply chain. The combination of a broad and in-depth education and training in the complete technology supply chain of optical spectrometer systems and the extensive training in transferable skills that the ESRs will experience in xCLASS will optimally prepare them for a successful career as photonic scientists in European academy and the photonics industry. Beyond the impact on the structural training programme, xCLASS will result in a significant societal and economic impact in healthcare, environmental and food safety sectors for whole Europe.