SWIR-QD is a short-wave infrared tissue-sensing probe developed by DrSystemsTech Ltd. It shines short-wave infrared (SWIR) light into tissue and reads the pattern that comes back. Different tissue types reflect this light differently, which gives the probe a way to characterise tissue at the point of contact.

The light is picked up by a quantum dot detector at the probe tip. Quantum dots are tiny semiconductor particles, highly sensitive to specific wavelengths of light, which allows the detector to fit inside a slim instrument suitable for use at the point of a biopsy.