Vanadium Dioxide Key to “Smarter Sensors”

Nanowerk reported that researchers from North Carolina State University have come up with a way to make “smarter sensors” by integrating vanadium dioxide (VO2) onto a silicon chip and then using lasers to make the material magnetic.

As quoted in the market news:

The advance paves 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. 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.

Click here to read the full Nanowerk report.