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Electronics

Sensors

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Intrinsic Properties: The Secret Lives of Accelerometers

May 30, 2017

Accelerometers — devices that measure change in velocity — are built into automobiles, airplanes, cell phones, pacemakers, and scores of other products...

Tucking in to NIST’s ‘3D Printer’ Testbed

May 25, 2017

3D printing of metal objects is a booming industry, with the market for products and services worth more than an estimated $2.3 billion in 2015 – a nearly five...

No Liquid Helium, But Still Extremely Cool

May 23, 2017

NIST scientists have devised a novel hybrid system for cooling superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPD) – essential tools for many kinds of...

A Faster Way to Calibrate Piston Gauges

May 2, 2017

For industry and government labs to ensure their pressure-measurement machines are working correctly, they need a reliable source of pressure. Often, that...

‘Indoor GPS’ Apps Closer to Reality With New NIST Challenge

April 7, 2017

GPS usually works great outdoors, but what if you’re disoriented in a large building such as a museum or a mall? There are no smartphone apps for indoor...

Wearable ‘Watches’ to Monitor Your Blood Pressure

January 24, 2017

What if there were a wearable fitness device that could monitor your blood pressure continuously, 24 hours a day? Unfortunately, blood pressure (BP)...

Gauging Multi-Kilowatt Laser Power with the Pressure of Light

January 24, 2017

A multi-kilowatt laser beam can cut through steel and melt bricks into glass. Many industries use high-power lasers like these to precisely cut and weld metals...

NIST Physicists ‘Squeeze’ Light to Cool Microscopic Drum Below Quantum Limit

January 11, 2017

Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have cooled a mechanical object to a temperature lower than previously thought possible...

NIST Team Suggests Nanoscale Electronic Motion Sensor as DNA Sequencer

September 27, 2016

Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and collaborators have proposed a design for the first DNA sequencer based on an...

Colorized micrograph of a NIST single-photon detector

Less Jitter, More Bits: New Material for Detecting Photons Captures More Quantum Information

January 5, 2016

Detecting individual particles of light just got a bit more precise—by 74 picoseconds to be exact—thanks to advances in materials by National Institute of...

NIST Aims for Tool to Help Manufacturers Select Wireless Network That's Right for Them

May 14, 2015

Going wireless is appealing to a growing number of manufacturers. Using wireless sensor networks to monitor and control equipment and processes eliminates the...

Photonic Thermometers: Out of the Lab, Into a Bucket of Water

April 28, 2015

A new class of tiny chip-based thermometers being developed by PML's Sensor Science Division has the potential to revolutionize the way temperature is gauged...

Detecting Effects of 3D Shapes in Nanoscale Chip Features

April 27, 2015

As microchip feature dimensions approach atomic scale, it becomes formidably difficult to measure their size and shape. According to the International...

New Accelerometer Calibration Service to Start Soon

February 19, 2015

In a few weeks, NIST will begin offering a new, state-of-the-art calibration service for accelerometers. Based on a technique called laser interferometry, the...

NIST Quantum Probe Enhances Electric Field Measurements

October 7, 2014

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Michigan have demonstrated a technique based on the quantum...

Nearly Everyone Uses Piezoelectrics. Be Nice to Know How They Work.

January 29, 2014

Piezoelectrics—materials that can change mechanical stress to electricity and back again—are everywhere in modern life. Computer hard drives. Loud speakers...

NIST Unveils Prototype Video Imaging System for Remote Detection of Hidden Threats

September 30, 2013

By adapting superconducting technology used in advanced telescope cameras, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have built a...

Coming Soon: Tabletop Molecular Movies

November 5, 2012

One of the most urgently sought-after goals in modern science is the ability to observe the detailed dynamics of chemical reactions as they happen – that is, on...

NIST Mini-sensor Measures Magnetic Activity in Human Brain

April 19, 2012

A miniature atom-based magnetic sensor developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has passed an important research milestone by...

Hyperspectral Imaging: Shedding New Light on Wound Healing

April 9, 2012

Clinicians who treat severe wounds may soon have powerful new diagnostic tools in the form of hyperspectral imaging (HSI) devices, calibrated to new NIST...

Powerful NIST Detectors on Hawaiian Telescope to Probe Origins of Stars, Planets and Galaxies

December 6, 2011

The world's largest submillimeter camera—based on superconducting technology designed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)—is now ready...

photo of two men using a smart phone voice translation system

Researchers Share Useful Lessons Learned in Evaluating Emerging Technologies

June 21, 2011

Most industry executives, military planners, research managers or venture capitalists charged with assessing the potential of an R&D project probably are...

NIST Tunes 'Metasurface' with Fluid in New Concept for Sensing and Chemistry

June 7, 2011

Like an opera singer hitting a note that shatters a glass, a signal at a particular resonant frequency can concentrate energy in a material and change its...

Graph shows the NIST detector's linear increase in frequency as a function of time

The Secret Behind NIST's New Gas Detector? Chirp Before Sniffing

May 10, 2011

Trace gas detection, the ability to detect a scant quantity of a particular molecule—a whiff of formaldehyde or a hint of acetone—in a vast sea of others...

NIST Telescope Calibration May Help Explain Mystery of Universe's Expansion

January 5, 2011

Is the expansion of the universe accelerating for some unknown reason? This is one of the mysteries plaguing astrophysics, and somewhere in distant galaxies are...

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