Ctech Labs applies capacitive physics to image sealed systems without opening them — and to deliver safe, low-level therapy that disrupts tumor growth and supports cellular recovery.
Electrical Capacitance Volume Tomography — a non-intrusive imaging method that reconstructs real-time three-dimensional images from capacitance measurements taken at the boundary of any medium. Early capacitance tomography was limited to cross-sectional slices — two-dimensional projections that lost axial information. Our foundational contribution was volumetric reconstruction: the 3D-NN-MOIRT algorithm produced instantaneous volumetric images of permittivity distribution — not slices, but complete volumes.
The measurement infrastructure supporting ECVT comprises a 32-channel data acquisition system with CMOS switch technology, achieving capacitance resolution of 0.21–0.42 fF at four frames per second. T-configuration switching reduces parasitic stray capacitance at the circuit level; FPGA-based quadrature phase detection ensures synchronisation across all electrode pairs — forming the hardware foundation on which every downstream specialty was built.
INDUSTRIAL · PROCESS IMAGING SYSTEM
ECVT's first industrial proving ground was multiphase flow — oil and gas systems where gas, liquid, and solid phases coexist under pressures, temperatures, and opacities that make any intrusive or optical measurement impossible.
Across vessels from 1 to 60 inches, Ctech Labs resolved flow phenomena previously invisible to any measurement technique. In circulating fluidised beds, ECVT captured the choking transition in real time — its first volumetric visualisation. In bubble columns, it tracked spiral plume dynamics inaccessible to 2D imaging. In three-phase systems, it measured simultaneous holdups of all phases without a single intrusive probe.
The 32-channel, 4 fps data acquisition system built for these deployments became the hardware baseline for all Ctech Labs platforms. The Process Imaging System is the commercial form: a field-deployable ECVT instrument for continuous process monitoring across oil and gas, chemical, and industrial flow applications.
Process Imaging System →INDUSTRIAL · MATERIAL INSPECTION
The transition from process imaging to material inspection is a change not in physics but in the state of the medium. Where process imaging targets dynamic multiphase flow, material inspection targets solid structures whose internal properties — voids, discontinuities, composition gradients — are fixed in space but invisible from the outside.
Adapting ECVT to solid media required overcoming a fundamental signal challenge: capacitance readings in dense structures are smaller than in fluid systems, demanding sub-femtofarad precision and tight control of parasitic sources. T-configuration CMOS switching and differential measurement schemes solved this — resolving genuine permittivity changes within solid structures for the first time. Sensor geometry followed: planar and conforming configurations replace cylindrical process sensors for flat structures, welds, and post-tensioned components.
The result is a non-destructive inspection capability that works from a single external surface — no interior access, no sample extraction, no radiation. Applicable to weld integrity, composite laminate inspection, post-tensioned tendon evaluation, and pipe wall characterisation, it is particularly suited to oil and gas infrastructure where pressurised or coated components must be inspected in service without shutdown.
Material Inspection →What happens when the same physics that sees the interior of closed industrial systems is applied to the human body?
HEALTHCARE · MEDICAL PHYSICS
Wearable. Non-invasive. Delivered at home. Proven across 5,000+ patients. Biological tissue is a dielectric medium — the same capacitive field physics developed for industrial imaging can reveal structure within the body, and applied differently, selectively disrupt cancer cell division.
The first healthcare application of ECVT was the brain: a helmet-shaped 32-channel sensor array maps permittivity distribution within the brain volume in real time, without radiation. Breast ECVT followed — producing volumetric permittivity maps that distinguish malignant tissue from normal parenchyma through dielectric contrast, confirmed against biopsy findings.
Sustained study of capacitive field interactions with living cells revealed an unexpected finding: at frequencies below 300 kHz, these fields interfere selectively with the mitotic spindle in rapidly dividing cells. Cancer cells — with elevated division rates and altered membrane potentials — are preferentially disrupted while normal tissue is left unaffected. The physics of imaging had become the physics of treatment.
ECCT, patented in 2012, delivers low-frequency (below 300 kHz), low-intensity (below 30 Vpp) capacitive fields via electrodes in body-conforming garments for home use without radiation or systemic toxicity. In vitro studies confirmed reduced proliferation in MCF-7 breast cancer cell lines; in vivo murine studies showed inhibited tumour growth alongside cytokine changes suggesting modulation of the tumour immune microenvironment.
Medical Physics & Cancer Research →HEALTHCARE · CELLULAR HEALTH
If capacitive fields can selectively inhibit cancer cell division, what can they do for healthy cells? The same physics — applied at different frequencies to non-pathological tissue — interacts with membrane potential, ion transport, and metabolic signalling to support recovery and cellular performance.
The distinction between ECCT and ECBS lies in frequency, intensity, and the biological state of the target tissue. Where ECCT operates below 300 kHz to selectively disrupt cancer cell division, the same capacitive fields applied at different frequencies to healthy tissue interact with membrane permeability and intracellular signalling — accelerating recovery from metabolic stress and supporting mitochondrial function without disrupting normal physiology.
The ECBS device applies this to athletic and clinical populations. Wearable electrodes in conforming garments deliver low-intensity capacitive fields during rest or active recovery — acting capacitively, with no direct charge transfer and no neuromuscular threshold effect, distinguishing it from electrical muscle stimulation or TENS.
Capacitive stimulation of healthy tissue operates on the same physics as cancer therapy — the same fields, recalibrated. Ongoing investigation into cytokine expression, mitochondrial membrane potential, and cellular redox state continues to define how frequency and intensity determine whether a cell is disrupted or supported. At a certain point the question shifts: not what these fields do to diseased tissue, but what they unlock in healthy living matter — and whether that answer is performance.
Sport Technology & Cellular Health →