Nano-engineered Thermal Sensors

Thermal sensors are an enabling technology for a wide range of consumer goods, industrial operations, and military equipment. State-of-the-art thermal sensor technology has several inherent technology barriers which preclude the availability of cost-effective thermal sensors for applications that require linear circuit output, thermal stability, ppm level performance reproducibility, low device weight and volume, low power requirements, and miniaturization. The proposed effort will demonstrate temperature sensors that overcome these technology limitations. The approach is based on precision engineering devices to near-molecular scale and a technique that can be readily integrated with microelectronics of widely available COTS equipment. During Phase 1, NRC will demonstrate the proof-of-concept. Phase II will optimize, build prototypes, and field test the technology. Phase III will commerciale the technology. Potential commercial applications include temperature measurement, temperature control, thermal alarms, microwave power instruments, infrared bolometers, velocity sensors, flow sensing, and biomedical instruments.