Cambridge spin-out CMOS Sensors secures seed funding

Spin out

Cambridge CMOS Sensors Ltd (CCMOS) has been launched with initial funding from Cambridge Enterprise Seed Funds. The new company is a spin-out from the Electrical Division of the Department of Engineering. The company has also in-licensed technology from the University of Warwick.

CCMOS says its sensor technology represents a significant improvement on existing portable instrument products, which use gas sensing elements and have high energy consumption, low gas sensitivity and a higher price per manufactured unit.  

Nick Slaymaker, Investment Manager at Cambridge Enterprise Seed Funds said, “By using CMOS technology which is used in microprocessors and other digital logic circuits, gas sensors can be developed based on a miniature heating element, or micro-hotplate design, which is fully compatible with CMOS.” Using this technology gas sensors can be miniaturised, produced at higher volume, for a lower cost, with good thermal behaviour.  

There company says there are many potential applications for the technology, such as the constant and accurate monitoring of airplane’s cabin air quality. CCMOS’s sensors can test, at a very accurate level, for carbon monoxide, which is colourless, odourless and very toxic.

The academic founders, Florin Udrea, Julian Gardner and Bill Milne, have worked together for 15 years and have a very successful record of transferring research to industry. They have carried out collaborative R&D projects in the area of microsensors and nanotechnology with many companies and have previous start-up company experience.

Gardner said, “We are very excited about the potential of Cambridge CMOS micro-hotplate technology. Our devices can heat up from room temperature to 700 degrees Celsius in just a few milliseconds and have ultra low power consumption suitable for battery-operated devices.”

“We envisage numerous applications, ranging from chemical micro-sensors to detect toxic gases to physical sensors, for example, infra-red cameras. The technology is ideal for high volume and low unit cost products and will help drive forward the emerging field of ubiquitous sensing.”