Chee Hing Tan

Professor Chee Hing Tan is a world-leading researcher in infrared detector technology at the University of Sheffield, where he has spent over 24 years pioneering novel semiconductor materials for infrared detection. His work on antimony-based avalanche photodiodes produced some of the most significant breakthroughs in the field and directly informed the intellectual property at the heart of Phlux Technology.

Chee Hing co-founded Phlux in 2020 with Ben White and Professor Jo Shien Ng, translating his decades of Sheffield-based research into a commercial product capable of disrupting the global infrared sensing market. As an academic co-founder he brings unmatched technical depth in compound semiconductor fabrication, and his ongoing collaboration with Phlux's team ensures a continuous pipeline from frontier research to manufacturable sensors.

Phlux's technology delivers a 12x sensitivity improvement and 50% greater detection range compared to existing solutions, making it highly relevant for automotive LiDAR, optical fibre communications, and quantum applications. The company raised a €10.7 million Series A in 2025 backed by BGF and Octopus Ventures, and was named the Institute of Physics Business Start-Up Award winner in 2024.