Tristan Technologies was first created in 1991 by former principals of San Diego superconducting companies Biomagnetic Technologies (BTi) and S.H.E. Corporation. Tristan Technologies was subsequently sold to ‘Conductus’, Sunnyvale, in 1993, and became its Instrument & Systems Division in San Diego. This division closed in July 1997, and several employees reformed Tristan Technologies in August 1997. As part of the reformation, Tristan acquired from Conductus the rights to the iMAG® product line and associated product lines, and continues to manufacture the iMAG® series LTS and HTS SQUID systems as standard products and as parts of custom cryogenic measurement systems.
The SQUID (Superconducting Quantum Interference Device) is the world’s most sensitive magnetic flux detector. It is often referred to as a cryogenic or superconducting magnetometer, and indeed the measurement of extremely small magnetic fields is one of its most important applications. However, the scope of the SQUID’s usefulness extends far beyond simple field measurements. Almost any low frequency electric or magnetic signal that can be converted into a corresponding magnetic flux signal will be detected at a greater level of sensitivity with a SQUID than with any other instrument. Applications of SQUID systems have ranged from the investigation of magnetic and electronic properties of materials to the search for geothermal energy sources, from studies of paleomagnetism to biomagnetic research and from the measurement of millikelvin temperatures to the detection and characterization of subsurface magnetic structures on land and at sea.
Tristan’s strength is in the design and manufacture of laboratory and custom SQUID systems. Tristan’s standard product line of SQUID instrumentation is the widest available for scientific laboratory applications. Custom SQUID magnetometers supplied by Tristan personnel include the first commercial high temperature SQUID magnetometer and gradiometer, liquid helium scanning SQUID microscopes with 2 µm resolution (the world’s first magnetic microscope) and 100+ channel biomagnetometers for medical applications.
