Sensors

A tiny prototype robot that functions like a living creature could be safely used to pinpoint diseases within the human body. Called ‘Cyberplasm’, it will combine advanced microelectronics with latest research in biomimicry (technology inspired by nature). The aim is for Cyberplasm to have an...

In the microgravity environment of the International Space Station (ISS), telling the difference between an actual fire and a false alarm may not be simple. To understand how to detect smoke in space, researchers from NASA's Glenn Research Center flew the Smoke Aerosol Measurement Experiment (SAME) aboard the...

The Army-led science and technology Joint Multi-Role (JMR) Demonstrator effort to design a next-generation vertical-lift aircraft by 2030 is heavily focused on leveraging advanced electronic and avionics capabilities. Sensors, electronics, avionics and cutting-edge mission and...

'Lateral lines' in fish contain hundreds of tiny pressure and velocity sensors that enable them to navigate through currents and eddies as efficiently as possible. To mimic that ability, MIT researchers have developed sensitive, MEMS-based pressure sensors and mounted them on a small...

Coherent terahertz radiation has historically been very difficult to generate, and the search for an easy-to-use, compact source continues today. Northwestern University researchers recently developed a simpler way to generate single-chip terahertz radiation — a discovery that could benefit...

Engineers at Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) in Munchen, Germany developed an electronic sensor chip that can be implanted close to the tumor to determine the oxygen content in a patient’s tissue fluid. The data can be wirelessly transmitted to the patient’s doctor to support the choice of therapy....

Pricing pressures, intense competition, and strict regulatory demands are challenging scientists and researchers in the fast-growing, highly-regulated pharmaceutical, life science, biochemical, industrial, and environmental industries to make important breakthroughs faster and...

Optical hardware has been developed to measure the depth of defects in the Space Shuttle Orbiter’s windows. In this hardware, a mirror is translated such that its position corresponds to the defect’s depth, so the depth measurement problem is transferred to a mirror-position measurement problem. This is...

This oscillator uses a single-emitter 0.3-μm InP heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) device with maximum frequency of oscillation (fmax) greater than 500 GHz. Due to high conductor and substrate losses at submillimeter-wave frequencies, a primary challenge is to efficiently use the...