Physical Sensors & Devices

We demonstrate a design scheme for weakly coupled resonators (WCRs) by integrating the supervised learning (SL) with the genetic algorithm (GA). In this work, three distinctive achievements have been accomplished: 1) the precise prediction of coupling characteristics of WCRs with an accuracy of 98.7% via SL; 2) the stepwise evolutionary optimization of WCR geometries while maintaining their geometric connectivity via GA; and 3) the highly efficient generation of WCR designs with a mean coupling factor down to 0.0056, which outperforms 98% of random designs. The coupling behavior analysis...

Distributed sensors are becoming ubiquitous in manufacturing, automotive, and consumer applications. One extremely common need at the core of many of these sensors is the requirement to sense small voltages (uV-mV scale), amplify, digitize, and then communicate those bits so they can be acted on. We are taking a different approach - by utilizing nonlinear optical materials, we plan to transduce these signals directly into reflected light, removing the need for complex and high-cost sensor-side circuitry. Since the mechanism is purely passive and does not require a continuous power...

We aim to develop multi-functional, multi-material 3D printed structures for the development of 3D printed microsensors. Using these multi-functional 3D printed structures, we plan to demonstrate simple sensing platforms, such as EtOH sensing for monitoring of food quality, fermentation, or ethanol content in the body, for proof-of-concept in combining conductive materials with commercially available 3D printing materials or 3D printers. Upon further development, this combination could prove critical in resolving the foremost limitations of conventional diagnostic devices (i.e....

A classic challenge in chemical sensing is selectivity. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are an exciting class of materials because they can be tuned for selective chemical adsorption. Adsorption events trigger work-function shifts, which can be detected with a chemical-sensitive field-effect transistor (power ≈microwatts). In this work, several case studies were used towards generalizing the sensing mechanism, ultimately towards our metal-centric hypothesis. HKUST-1 was used as a proof-of-principle humidity sensor. The response is thickness independent, meaning the response is...