Sensors & Test

Browse extensive resources on the advances in Sensor and Test technologies. Find applications for smart sensor systems, data acquisition, transducers, detector systems plus the latest in advanced measuring instruments and monitoring systems, devices and instrumentation.

Stories

Briefs: Photonics/Optics

New Device Modulates Visible Light with the Smallest Footprint and Lowest Power Consumption

Columbia researchers are reducing both the size and the power consumption of a visible-spectrum phase modulator, from one millimeter to 10 microns.

Briefs: Photonics/Optics

NIST Improves the Ability of Optical Microscopes to Measure the Volume of Microdroplets

For the first time, a team has measured the volume of individual droplets smaller than 100 trillionths of a liter, with an uncertainty of less than 1%.

Application Briefs: Photonics/Optics

Time of Flight vs. FMCW LiDAR Systems

An expert compares Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) LiDAR systems with Time of Flight tech.

Application Briefs: Photonics/Optics

Visualizing Value at the Speed of Light

See how hyperspectral imaging adds value to food inspection systems.

Technology Leaders: Photonics/Optics

How Indium Gallium Arsenide (InGaAs) Improves SWIR Sensing

InGaAs is interesting, but is it useful?

INSIDER: Robotics, Automation & Control

Artificial Intelligence Guides Drones to Navigate Oceans

Engineers at Caltech, ETH Zurich, and Harvard are developing artificial intelligence (AI) that will allow autonomous drones to use ocean currents to aid their navigation, rather than...

Question of the Week: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Do You See Valuable Applications for ‘Meta-Sense?’

A Tech Brief this month highlighted a manufacturing method from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that integrates sensing capabilities into 3D-printed objects.

Briefs: Photonics/Optics

Nanoscale Sensors Measure Elusive Water Levels in Leaves

A new technology uses nanoscale sensors and fiber optics to measure water status just inside a leaf’s surface, where water in plants is most actively managed.

Briefs: Test & Measurement

New Thermal Wave Diagnostic Technique Advances Battery Performance Testing

A new technique for measuring the performance of lithium batteries uses thermal waves to measure local lithium concentration as a function of depth inside battery electrodes.

Blog: Data Acquisition

Machinery Health Monitoring: Which Equipment is Critical?

Which machinery requires constant monitoring? According to one industry expert, the answer boils down to “Criticality.”

Briefs: AR/AI

Artificial Intelligence Magnifies the Utility of Electron Microscopes

An AI framework enables scientists to improve an imaging technique, enhancing the performance of electron microscopes.

Q&A: Electronics & Computers

How to Measure High Voltage with No Physical Contact

Dr. Israel Owens and his team at Sandia National Laboratories have used a crystal smaller than a dime and a laser smaller than a shoebox to safely measure 20 million volts without making physical contact to the electrode.

INSIDER: IoMT

Low-Cost Radio System Could Help Trace Disease Spread

In efforts to limit the spread of disease while preserving privacy, an interdisciplinary research team at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has designed and...

INSIDER: Semiconductors & ICs

Fabricating Stable, High-Mobility Transistors for Next-generation Display Technologies

The trade-off between carrier mobility and stability in amorphous oxide semiconductor-based thin film transistors (TFTs) has been finally overcome by...

INSIDER: Nanotechnology

New Photonic Effect Could Speed Drug Development

Twisted nanoscale semiconductors manipulate light in a new way. This effect could be harnessed to accelerate the discovery and development of life-saving medicines as well as photonic...

INSIDER: Data Acquisition

Biosensors Using Field-Effect Transistors Show Great Promise

Demand for sensitive and selective electronic biosensors — analytical devices that monitor a target of interest in real time — is growing for a wide range of applications....

Special Reports: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Test & Measurement - February 2022

From space vehicles to the modern battlefield to the human body, test innovations are improving device and system reliability while speeding time to market. Read about the latest advances – including the...