Faster smart sensors in the offing

WASHINGTON - An Indian researcher with the North Carolina State University (NCSU) has developed new “smart sensors” to allow for faster response times as in military and security situations a split second can make the difference between life and death.

Equally important is new research from NCSU that will help ensure those sensors will operate under extreme conditions - like those faced in Afghanistan or elsewhere.

“We’ve taken a sensor material called vanadium oxide and integrated it with a silicon chip,” says Jay Narayan, professor of Materials Science and Engineering at NCSU and co-author of the research.

“Normally sensors are hardwired to a computer. But now the sensor is part of the computer chip itself. The advantage is that now you have a smart sensor that can sense, manipulate and respond to information.”

New findings on how “smart sensors” function gives researchers the ability to improve their reliability.

For example, such smart sensors allow for the development of infrared sensors that can respond more quickly in military or security applications.

The creation of these smart sensors is possible due to Narayan’s discovery of “domain matching epitaxy”.

This model allows the creation of single, defect-free crystal layers of different materials - which amplify the transmission of electronic signals between those materials, said an NCSU release.

New findings presented by a team of NCSU researchers now describe how vanadium oxide sensors work in conjunction with the silicon chips to which they are attached.

These findings were published in Applied Physics Letters and Journal of Applied Physics.