With a long experience in Image Sensor Functionalization, SILIOS technologies recently undertook the development of custom Wavefront Imagers for Microscopy based on commercial CMOS sensors and is now offering an off-the-shelf Cross-grating Wavefront Imaging Cameras for microscopy applications: the MAKATEA camera and the TIKEI camera.









​Cross-grating microscopy (CGM), also known as QLSI (Quadriwave Lateral Shearing Interferometry), is a wavefront microscopy technique capable of mapping a wavefront profile with high sensitivity (<1 nm), and high spatial resolution (reaching the diffraction limit). QLSI was invented and patented in 2000 by J. Primot et al. (ONERA).

The MAKATEA and the TIKEI cameras can be easily implemented in the port of inverted optical microscopes and has been designed for the high-precision characterization of samples such as:
- Living Cells (1): neurons & neurites, organelles, vesicles, bacteria, eukaryoptic cells, algae, yeast, archaea, virus, ...
- Nanophotonics objects: nanoparticles, 2D-materials, metasurfaces, nanowires, ...
 
(1) The MAKATEA and TIKEI cameras are particularly valuable for single-cell dry mass measurements, from a single image acquisition. Indeed during its life, the dry mass of a cell, i.e., the mass of all cellular content except water, is deeply modified. These changes are related to all the metabolic and structural cell functions. The study of dry mass consequently provides crucial insights into cellular aspects, such as the cell cycle, the impact of stimuli or drugs, as well as cell metabolism. This knowledge proved valuable for studying individual cell or cell populations.
 
In terms of applications, the quantitative nature of the measurements enables:
- Quantitative phase imaging, speckle-free,
- Measurement of the biomass of single living cells with a sub-pg precision, and dry mass density (pg/µm²),
- Birefringence imaging,
- Mapping of the complex optical polarizability of nanoparticles,
- Mapping of the complex refractive index of graphene and other 2D materials,
- Temperature microscopy,
- Mapping the wavefront profiles of metasurfaces,
- Single-shot phase-fluorescence imaging,
- Surface roughness/topography characterization at lambda/1000