• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Electrical Engineering News and Products

Electronics Engineering Resources, Articles, Forums, Tear Down Videos and Technical Electronics How-To's

  • Products / Components
    • Analog ICs
    • Battery Power
    • Connectors
    • Microcontrollers
    • Power Electronics
    • Sensors
    • Test and Measurement
    • Wire / Cable
  • Applications
    • 5G
    • Automotive/Transportation
    • EV Engineering
    • Industrial
    • IoT
    • Medical
    • Telecommunications
    • Wearables
    • Wireless
  • Learn
    • eBooks / Handbooks
    • EE Training Days
    • Tutorials
    • Learning Center
    • Tech Toolboxes
    • Webinars & Digital Events
  • Resources
    • White Papers
    • Educational Assets
    • Design Guide Library
    • Digital Issues
    • Engineering Diversity & Inclusion
    • LEAP Awards
    • Podcasts
    • DesignFast
  • Videos
    • EE Videos and Interviews
    • Teardown Videos
  • EE Forums
    • EDABoard.com
    • Electro-Tech-Online.com
  • Bill’s Blogs
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe

New Photodetector Could Improve Night Vision, Thermal Sensing And Medical Imaging

June 28, 2018 By Amy Akmal, University of California, Los Angeles

Using graphene, one of science’s most versatile materials, engineers from the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering have invented a new type of photodetector that can work with more types of light than its current state-of-the-art counterparts. The device also has superior sensing and imaging capabilities.

Photodetectors are light sensors; in cameras and other imaging devices, they sense patterns of elementary particles called photons, and create images from those patterns. Different photodetectors are built to sense different parts of the light spectrum. For example, photodetectors are used in night vision goggles to sense thermal radiation that is invisible to the naked eye. Others are used in cameras that identify chemicals in the environment by how they reflect light.

How versatile and useful photodetectors are depends largely on three factors: their operating speed, their sensitivity to lower levels of light, and how much of the spectrum they can sense. Typically, when engineers have improved a photodetector’s capabilities in any one of those areas, at least one of the two other capabilities has been diminished.

The photodetector designed by the UCLA team has major improvements in all three areas – it operates across a broad range of light, processes images more quickly and is more sensitive to low levels of light than current technology.

“Our photodetector could extend the scope and potential uses of photodetectors in imaging and sensing systems,” said Mona Jarrahi, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, who led the study. “It could dramatically improve thermal imaging in night vision or in medical diagnosis applications where subtle differences in temperatures can give doctors a lot of information on their patients. It could also be used in environmental sensing technologies to more accurately identify the concentration of pollutants.”

The study was published in the journal Light: Science and Applications.

The new photodetector takes advantage of the unique properties of graphene, a super-thin material made up of a single layer of carbon atoms. Graphene is an excellent material for detecting photons because it can absorb energy from a broad swath of the electromagnetic spectrum—from ultraviolet light to visible light to the infrared and microwave bands. Graphene is also a very good conductor of electrical current—electrons can flow through it unimpeded.

To form the photodetector, the researchers laid strips of graphene over a silicon dioxide layer, which itself covers a base of silicon. Then, they created a series of comb-like nanoscale patterns, made of gold, with “teeth” about 100 nanometers wide.

The graphene acts as a net to catch incoming photons and then convert them into an electrical signal. The gold comb-shaped nanopatterns quickly transfer that information into a processor, which in turn produces a corresponding high-quality image, even under low-light conditions.

“We specifically designed the dimensions of the graphene nanostripes and their metal patches such that incoming visible and infrared light is tightly confined inside them,” said Semih Cakmakyapan, a UCLA postdoctoral scholar and the lead author of the study. “This design efficiently produces an electrical signal that follows ultrafast and subtle variations in the light‘s intensity over the entire spectral range, from visible to infrared.”

You Might Also Like

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Primary Sidebar

EE Engineering Training Days

engineering

Featured Contributions

Integrating MEMS technology into next-gen vehicle safety features

Five challenges for developing next-generation ADAS and autonomous vehicles

Robust design for Variable Frequency Drives and starters

Meeting demand for hidden wearables via Schottky rectifiers

GaN reliability milestones break through the silicon ceiling

More Featured Contributions

EE Tech Toolbox

“ee
Tech Toolbox: 5G Technology
This Tech Toolbox covers the basics of 5G technology plus a story about how engineers designed and built a prototype DSL router mostly from old cellphone parts. Download this first 5G/wired/wireless communications Tech Toolbox to learn more!

EE Learning Center

EE Learning Center
“ee
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND STAY CONNECTED
Get the latest info on technologies, tools and strategies for EE professionals.
“bills
contribute

R&D World Podcasts

R&D 100 Episode 10
See More >

Sponsored Content

Designing for Serviceability: The Role of Interconnects in HVAC Maintenance

From Control Boards to Comfort: How Signal Integrity Drives HVAC Innovation

Built to Withstand: Sealing and Thermal Protection in HVAC Sub-Systems

Revolutionizing Manufacturing with Smart Factories

Smarter HVAC Starts at the Sub-System Level

Empowering aerospace E/E design and innovation through Siemens Xcelerator and Capital in the Cloud

More Sponsored Content >>

RSS Current EDABoard.com discussions

  • Diode recovery test Irrm timing.
  • Battery Deep Discharge – IC Workarounds?
  • The Analog Gods Hate Me
  • Safe Current and Power Density Limits in PCB Copper(in A/m² and W/m³) simulation
  • Why so few Phase shift full bridge controllers?

RSS Current Electro-Tech-Online.com Discussions

  • Wideband matching an electrically short bowtie antenna; 50 ohm, 434 MHz
  • The Analog Gods Hate Me
  • Simple LED Analog Clock Idea
  • PIC KIT 3 not able to program dsPIC
  • Parts required for a personal project
Search Millions of Parts from Thousands of Suppliers.

Search Now!
design fast globle

Footer

EE World Online

EE WORLD ONLINE NETWORK

  • 5G Technology World
  • Analog IC Tips
  • Battery Power Tips
  • Connector Tips
  • DesignFast
  • EDABoard Forums
  • Electro-Tech-Online Forums
  • Engineer's Garage
  • EV Engineering
  • Microcontroller Tips
  • Power Electronic Tips
  • Sensor Tips
  • Test and Measurement Tips

EE WORLD ONLINE

  • Subscribe to our newsletter
  • Teardown Videos
  • Advertise with us
  • Contact us
  • About Us

Copyright © 2025 · WTWH Media LLC and its licensors. All rights reserved.
The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media.

Privacy Policy