Chip integration has role in military sensors

The advance from North Carolina State University is claimed to pave the way for multifunctional spintronic smart sensors for use in military applications and next-generation spintronic devices.

VO₂ is currently used to make infrared sensors. By integrating VO₂ as a single crystal onto a silicon substrate, the researchers have made it possible to create infrared smart sensors, in which the sensor and computational function are embedded on a single chip.

According to NCSU, this makes the sensor faster and more energy efficient, since it doesn’t have to send data to another chip to be processed. Smart sensors are also lighter than conventional ones, since separate chips aren’t necessary.

‘For military applications, sensor technology needs to be able to sense, manipulate, and respond to data quickly – and this work achieves that,’ said Dr Jay Narayan, John C. Fan Distinguished Chair Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at NC State and senior author of a paper describing the work.