For years, terahertz technology remained largely confined to research laboratories because the equipment needed to work with it was expensive and difficult to source. For Jyotirmayee Dash, Founder, CEO and Managing Director of Chennai-based TeraLumen Solutions, that limitation became the reason to build a company.
Dash encountered the technology during her PhD, when the terahertz devices she used were imported, often at an exorbitant price.
“Most of the devices I was using during my doctoral degree were being imported from Germany and the US, with the cost close to Rs 1.1 crore,” Dash says. “With that in mind, after my degree, I thought, why can't we make it here?”
Founded in 2019, TeraLumen initially focused on using terahertz technology for cancer-margin detection, partly inspired by a close friend's cancer diagnosis. It has since expanded into industrial inspection and research equipment.
The company now has 25 employees and manufactures its own hardware and software. Its products include TeraXPLOR, a research and spectroscopy system; TeraNIM, a non-destructive testing platform for industries such as aerospace, automotive, and oil and gas; and TeraMargin, its cancer-margin detection technology. TeraXPLOR and TeraNIM were commercialised in 2024, while TeraMargin is undergoing clinical trials.
The founder says the startup’s industrial systems use terahertz waves to inspect materials without destroying them, including applications such as coating, thickness measurement, and defect detection. Its current website lists specialised TeraNIM systems for aerospace, automotive, and oil and gas applications, alongside TeraXPLOR for research and TeraMargin for biomedical applications.
TeraMargin, meanwhile, is designed to identify cancerous tissue margins using terahertz imaging and AI.
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