Menu
Close
Sign up for NPL updates
Close
Sign up for NPL updates

For people, place, prosperity and planet, we deliver impact with measurement science

Products and services

Exploiting and commercialising new technology

At NPL our core mission is to create impact from our science.

An image

We partner with organisations to help bring our cutting-edge research and development (R&D) to life.

See examples below of Intellectual Property (IP) available for licensing and investment.

Sona: A safer and more accessible way to monitor breast health

Sona from the world-leading National Physical Laboratory (NPL), aims to revolutionise breast cancer screening with the world’s first ultrasound-based breast density assessment and monitoring technology, that does not require imaging or trained radiologists.

Early cancer detection is key to saving lives, and sona's unique innovation will ensure women are offered the right forms of screening at the right time.

sona logo - breast risk assessment

Find out more information about sona

Thermology Health: Using technology to target diabetes related foot amputations

20250501-3K1A2937_websize.jpgThermology Health, a spinout from the UK's National Metrology Institute, the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), is revolutionising diagnostic healthcare through thermal imaging.

We are focused on the development of robust and reliable thermal imaging measurement in healthcare applications. Our technology delivers medically relevant levels of temperature measurement (±0.2°C), unlocking the huge clinical diagnostic and prognostic potential of thermal imaging in health, for the first time. It uses technology to target diabetes related foot amputations.

Find out more information about Thermology Health

K3M: High accuracy coordinate measurement system

What is the technology?

NPL has developed a new class of high-accuracy coordinate measurement system aimed at the next generation of automated manufacturing applications, such as metrology assisted machining and assembly. The system operates conceptually like global navigation using GPS; with sensors surrounding the working volume, simultaneously detecting multiple points of interest.

 

Optimum sensors heads measuring an airplane wing

What are the benefits?

The K3M system has several key advantages over the current state-of-the-art:

  • High accuracy: The instrument uses frequency scanning interferometry to measure distances. The system is capable of a distance repeatability of 1 μm and an accuracy of 2 ppm over a range of up to 10 m for multiple targets simultaneously.
  • Self-calibrating: As well as determining the target coordinates, the new system also locates the sensor positions and other system parameters directly from the measurement data. The system is thus self-calibrating at the time of use.
  • Traceability: Frequency scanning interferometry determines distances in terms of frequency of the interferometer signals. Direct traceability to the International System of Units (the SI) is achieved using a quantum frequency reference in the form of a gas absorption cell. There is no need for regular factory calibration or a physical scale bar.
  • Uncertainty: The self-calibration mathematics inherently provide rigorous uncertainty estimates for all parameters derived from the data. This uncertainty includes contributions from the instrument and the environment in which it operates.

Who will be interested?

Manufacturers that require high-accuracy, flexible metrology systems, that can be easily embedded in their processes.

Contact us for more information or to invest

HIDRA Vision: Compound Semiconductor Optical Inspection

Born from cutting-edge research from the National Physical Laboratory, HIDRA Vision is spearheading a revolution in inspection technology for the future of the semiconductor industry. As semiconductor manufacture approaches the limits of silicon technology and continues to drive the adoption of new materials, packaging and optical integration, there is an inescapable need for advanced wafer inspection and yield management approaches.

Problem

Conventional semiconductor wafer inspection relies on point sampling, which takes time and cannot test the entire wafer. This results in only around 1% of a wafer being tested, leaving blind spots where defects can escape undetected. This leads to poor yield management and wafer rejection, creating losses and mistrust across the supply chain. As these wafers increase in size and complexity, even a single defect can lead to staggering losses, making this outdated approach no longer acceptable.

Solution

HIDRA Vision’s groundbreaking technology solves this issue by providing true 100% full-wafer inspection without sacrificing throughput or accuracy. Our solution provides a real-time, data-driven process control and equips manufacturers with the critical insights to make informed business decisions based on die performance and continuously improve their manufacturing processes.

Market

Compound semiconductors currently represent a $43B market with 11% CAGR over the next decade. Compound semiconductors offer superior performance than silicon in particular for applications with high voltage, high speed and photonic endpoints, such as facial recognition, datacom, LiDAR, power, RF and lighting.

Opportunity

HIDRA vision is seeking external investment to create a spinout company that will seek to access this multi-billion dollar market. 

Contact us for more information or to invest

Contact us for more information

Contact us

Innovation webinars: ideas which can change the world

UK public sector organisations are leading and enabling a new generation of radical innovations. The expertise found within science laboratories is driving ground-breaking research and development and delivering these game-changing ideas into the hands of the customers. NPL hosted three webinars demonstrating the parallels between real-life applications and the global issues facing society. They highlighted how collaboration between the public and private sector can accelerate the development of new technologies to keep us all healthy, reduce pollution, explore space and more. 

NPL has a long history of innovation and commercialising technology

Since its establishment in 1900, NPL has been delivering innovations to improve prosperity and quality of life for those living in the UK. In the late 1960’s NPL invented packet switching, a key ingredient of the internet, and this was then further developed into general computing and ultimately quantum computing. The Kibble balance, formerly the watt balance and renamed after Bryan Kibble who worked at NPL, was developed in the 1970s. It compares electrical and mechanical forces, which allows the kilogram to be realised in terms of quantum electrical units.

More recently, NPL has been involved in metrology and characterisation of graphene to facilitate the commercialisation of graphene. The world’s first room temperature maser, which produces monochromatic electromagnetic radiation in the microwave range, was invented at NPL and is used in atomic clocks.  We have developed a way of using existing optical fibres in our communications infrastructure to detect seismic activity – an innovative use of existing technology. NPL has also worked in collaboration with companies and universities to support innovations as diverse as graphene-based sensors to radiation treatment for medical equipment.

Contact us

Our research and measurement solutions support innovation and product development. We work with companies to deliver business advantage and commercial success.
Contact our Customer Services team on +44 20 8943 7070