Sensors & Test

Sensors/​Data Acquisition

This is your resource for developments in smart sensor systems and data acquisition. Browse technical briefs, articles, and white papers on advanced applications in transducer technologies, detector systems, data acquisition, and sensor-related technologies.

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Articles: Motion Control
Some species of sharks must constantly swim to keep water flowing over their gills to stay alive. That same concept also tends to apply to technology — once a technology stops evolving and moving forward, it's...
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Briefs: Transportation
Technology was developed that not only allows wheels to “know” when and how to rotate, but also enables them to work together in interactive teams. The new technology can be used wherever there is a need for...
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Blog: Data Acquisition
If digital transformation is a boardroom priority, why are companies so slow to transform product development? A reader asks our experts.
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Blog: Communications
A researcher tells Tech Briefs how his team's "symmetrical" sensor approach will support the growing "Internet of Things."
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Blog: Sensors/Data Acquisition
‘FingerPing’ Recognizes Micro Motions, Soundly
A new system from the Georgia Institute of Technology has a sound approach to recognizing tiny gestures of the hand.
Blog: Sensors/Data Acquisition
A new microchip allows sensor nodes to run uninterruptedly, even when the battery runs out.
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Blog: Sensors/Data Acquisition
A “MapLite” framework from MIT allows self-driving cars to navigate roads – with just GPS and sensors as a guide.
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Articles: Imaging
Machine vision plays a key role in the automation of production processes. Since the advent of vision in industrial manufacturing, there have been many advances in camera and image sensor technology. Right from...
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Articles: Electronics & Computers
The need to measure laser output characteristics, including average power, pulse energy, and pulse shape, is a common requirement across many industrial and research applications. However,...
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Articles: Test & Measurement
Laser engineers are leveraging new materials, unusual gain mechanisms, and innovative cavity designs to push laser performance into new regimes. Pulse lengths are getting shorter,...
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Briefs: Materials
A “4D printing” method was developed for a smart gel that could lead to the development of living structures in human organs and tissues, soft robots, and targeted drug delivery.
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Briefs: Motion Control
Piezoelectric materials, which generate an electric current when compressed or stretched, are familiar and widely used; for example, lighters that spark when a switch is pressed,...
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Briefs: Aerospace
NASA Langley Research Center has developed a breakthrough technology called Safeguard that can alleviate hazards with unmanned aircraft (UA) flying beyond their authorized perimeters and into...
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Briefs: Test & Measurement
For decades, mass spectrometers have offered a relatively fast and highly sensitive way to analyze and detect chemical compounds. But their bulky size has been a hindrance, limiting the in-field potential of the...
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Technology Leaders: Communications
Powered by smart machines, the new industrial revolution is changing how machine builders design, and how manufacturers operate today and in the future. To remain competitive and...
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Products: RF & Microwave Electronics
Assembly Pins JW Winco, New Berlin, WI, offers GN 2342 RoHS-compliant stainless steel assembly pins with three washer types available that place the bolt in an axial position in its insertion direction. The washer...
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Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Surface-Field-Enhanced Detection of Deep UV Photons in Silicon Carbide Avalanche Photodetectors
While silicon carbide (SiC) is an ideal material for building ultraviolet (UV) photodetectors, the absorbed photons get recombined in the first few nanometers at the surface due to a large absorption coefficient in the 200- to 250-nm wavelength band....
Briefs: Data Acquisition
Winter weather such as snow, freezing precipitation, and ice can impact airport surface operations. These conditions may result in significant disruptions in arrival and departure rates. To address...
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Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Soft robots inspired by nature can crawl, swim, grasp delicate objects, and even assist a beating heart, but none of them has been able to sense and respond to the...
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Briefs: Medical
Thinning a material down to a single-atom thickness can dramatically change that material’s physical properties. Graphene, the best known two-dimensional (2D) material, has...
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Briefs: Materials
Freeform Fabrication Using Electrically Conductive Filaments
The use of multifunctional composites such as mechanically reinforced, electrically and thermally conductive parts is of interest in a range of application areas. Especially interesting and important is where tailorability of function is achieved by strategic placement of materials with...
Articles: Sensors/Data Acquisition
This column presents technologies that have applications in commercial areas, possibly creating the products of tomorrow. To learn more about each technology, see the contact information provided for that innovation.
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Briefs: Test & Measurement
Mobile Instrument Detects and Samples Aerosol Particles
Hazardous airborne particles pose a risk for health and safety in a variety of environments; thus, detection of these small particles is essential. Current particle magnification systems are bulky and require a lot of power for operation, making them unsuitable to easily detect and analyze...
Briefs: Green Design & Manufacturing
Correlation spectroscopy is an attractive technique for sensing and analysis applications because it combines the attributes of mechanical and optical simplicity, high selectivity, and good sensitivity. In correlation...
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Briefs: Lighting
Crew time on the International Space Station (ISS) is extremely limited for any operations on science payloads. Autonomous science experiments in small, self-contained, cubical payloads are highly desirable...
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Application Briefs: Test & Measurement
Northrop Grumman CorporationAzusa, CAwww.northropgrumman.com Two critical instruments built by Northrop Grumman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s...
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Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Polymer-Based 2D-to-3D Transformable Surfaces
Technologies using stretchable materials are increasingly important. Yet, in general, it is not possible to control how they stretch with much more sophistication than inflating balloons. A method was developed that allows the calculated transformation of 2D stretchable surfaces into targeted 3D shapes.
Products: Sensors/Data Acquisition
ACCES I/O Products, San Diego, CA, announced the USB-AIO family of 12- and 16-bit USB analog I/O modules. The USB-AIO16-16F 16-bit, multifunction analog input/output board is suited for precision measurement, analysis,...
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Products: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Mounted Ball Bearings SKF (Lansdale, PA) launched mounted ball bearing units with industry-standard inch series cast iron housings in several designs, inch or metric insert bearings, and several shaft-locking methods. The mounted...
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