Spectrometers are widely used in many different aspects, such as food and environmental inspection etc. However, it is necessary to have a portable and high-resolution spectrometer for real-time on-site inspection at remote farm or factory. CUHK team invented two new technologies, which broke the traditional boundary. We develop a handheld high-resolution short-wave infrared (SWIR) spectrometer that enables real-time and on-site spectroscopic analysis in the 900–2800 nm wavelength range. Basing on our two technologies, the spectrometer can be fabricated via low-cost processes: (1) vacuum-imprinted varied-line-space concave grating, which simultaneously miniaturizes the optical design and improves resolution, and (2) HgTe quantum dot based detectors, which exhibit high room-temperature sensitivity beyond 2000 nm. This innovative spectrometer system developed by CUHK outperforms the current commercial products no matter in cost, size and performance.