Sensors

An improved sensor assembly has been developed for astronomical imaging at photon energies ranging from 1 to 100 keV. The assembly includes a thallium-doped cesium iodide scintillator divided into pixels and coupled to an array of high-gain avalanche photodiodes (APDs). Optionally, the...

A new low-power microchip developed at the University of Michigan uses 30,000 times less power in sleep mode and 10 times less in active mode than comparable chips currently on the market. The Phoenix Processor, as it's called, sets a low-power record and is intended for use in cutting-edge sensor-based devices such as medical...

Silicon carbide-based position sensors INPROX Technology Corp. Boston, MA 617-573-5158 www.inproxtechnology.com INPROX Technology Corp. (ITC) has entered into a Space Act Agreement (SAA) with NASA’s John H. Glenn Research Center in Ohio to develop advanced silicon carbide (SiC)- based...

Inspired by the device used to find lost coins in the sand, Johns Hopkins University biomedical engineering students have invented a small handheld metal detector to help doctors locate hidden orthopedic screws that need to be removed from patients' bodies. The device emits a tone that rises in pitch as the surgeon moves closer...

Using lasers and tuning forks, researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have developed a chemical weapon agent sensing technique called Quartz Laser Photo-Acoustic Sensing (QPAS) that promises to meet or exceed current and emerging defense and homeland security chemical detection requirements. The instrument is...

A research team led by Chang Liu at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, Champaign, IL) has built a sensor for underwater vehicles equivalent to a sensory organ found on fish called the lateral line. In fish, the lateral line provides guidance for synchronized swimming, obstacle avoidance, and prey/predator detection...

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have created a new class of gas sensors using a chemical process that converts the silica (silicon dioxide) found in the shells of diatoms into the semiconductor material silicon. Silicon is normally produced from silica at temperatures well above the silicon melting point...

Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Lincoln Laboratory developed a pinpointed sound beam that can detect buried land mines from a safe distance. Called a parametric acoustic array, the device is made up of ceramic transducers -- devices that emit a powerful narrow acoustic beam at ultrasonic frequencies. One...

Computer science engineers at Washington University in St. Louis have developed wireless sensor networks with software agents that have been able to navigate a robot safely through a simulated fire, and spot a fire by seeking out heat. The sensor networks also can be used to protect containers in a manufacturing environment.

Renishaw, Hoffman Estates, IL, has introduced a 13-bit magnetic sensor for rotary and angular positioning control. Providing 8,192 counts per revolution, the sensors are available in chip, chip-on-board, and ready-to-mount packaged versions. The solid-state, non-contact design features an integrated circuit chip that senses...

A phase sensor has been developed for use in aligning a segmented telescope mirror to within a fraction of a wavelength in piston. (As used here, "piston" signifies displacement of a mirror segment along the optical axis of the telescope.) Such precise alignment is necessary in order to realize...

OurOcean Portal 2.0 (http:// ourocean.jpl.nasa.gov) is a software system designed to enable users to easily gain access to ocean observation data, both remote-sensing and in-situ, configure and run an Ocean Model with observation data assimilated on a remote computer, and visualize...