U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Electronics

Sensors

Projects/Programs

Displaying 26 - 46 of 46
Planar absolute cryogenic radiometer with multiwall vertically-aligned carbon nanotubes. Superconducting transition-edge sensor. Fully-lithographic fabrication.

Photonic Radiometry

Ongoing
Meeting the needs of the photonics industry and anticipating emerging technologies requires investigation and development of improved measurement methods and instrumentation. This project develops state-of-art, absolute microfabricated thermal detectors with absorber coatings consisting of carbon
SPoT chip

Photonic Thermometry

Ongoing
Why do we need reliable temperature metrology? Temperature, the second most measured physical property after time and frequency, is indispensable to innumerable industries, military services, medicine, climate, and weather forecasts – precise, accurate, and rapid temperature metrology enables much

Power Quality Measurements and Fault Detection and Identification

Completed
Traditionally, disturbance detection relies on customer calls to the utility and through the SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system. A major disadvantage of SCADA is that the measurements are not synchronized, which means that the fault detection process is not precise or timely
integrated photonics

Precision metrology with integrated photonics

Ongoing
This project develops integrated photonics– devices based on waveguides that are fabricated in a nanoscale device layer on a silicon wafer –for the purposes of exploring nonlinear science, enabling new applications with scalable integrated photonics light sources, and enhancing classical and quantum
Picture of prototype ultrasonic wearable device for proximity detection

Proximity Detection for Electronic Contact Tracing

Completed
We are developing performance metrics for not just ranging, but also for detecting close contacts, which in the context of COVID-19 is the situation where two people are less than six feet apart with no obstacles between them. Obviously, the duration of a close contact is important, as it affects
Boulder Cryogenic Quantum Testbed

Quantum Characterization

Ongoing
The BCQT serves as a resource to academic and industry quantum research groups for measurement of superconducting microwave resonators in a well-characterized cryogenic environment using traceable, open-source methods developed in broad consultation with companies, universities, and NIST. This
equipment

Quantum Radiometry

Ongoing
For quantum applications, it is important to generate quantum states of light and detect them with extremely high efficiency. This project explores the metrology challenges associated with precision measurement of single photon sources and detectors. The classical photonic radiometry techniques used

Sensing and Imaging of concealed objects

Ongoing
Threats to personal and collective safety abound in our society. The Security Technologies Group (STG) performs research to advance the technology and measurement science of security imaging and sensing. This work includes the establishment of test and evaluation tools, reference test beds, test
wafer

Single Photonics and Quantum Information

Ongoing
One of the activities in this group is the development of single photon technologies for quantum information science and technology. We work closely with the Nanostructure Fabrication and Metrology Project on the generation of novel non-classical states of light and the detection of single photons

Smart Grid Communications

Completed
Currently, the Smart Grid faces challenges in terms of reliability and security in both wired and wireless communication environments. The most important challenge is a lack of communication network infrastructure, which is a key factor in supporting the grid monitoring system. In the absence of any

Smart Grid Interoperability Testbed Facility

Ongoing
Objective - To develop and progress an advanced multi-mode interacting measurement testbed that leverage cross-OU expertise to facilitate implementation, validation, and full characterization of smart grid interoperability standards and smart grid performance, with a particular emphasis on DER
Cityscape in the background. Solar panels in the foreground.

Smart Grid Program

Completed
Objective: To develop and demonstrate advances in measurement science to enable integration of interoperable and secure real-time sensing, control, communications, information and power technologies, in order to increase the system efficiency, reliability, resiliency and sustainability of the nation

Smart Grid Wireless Network Security

Completed
Wireless local area networks (WLAN) can be deployed in various smart grid domains, such as the home area network (NAN), neighborhood area network (NAN), and substation area network (SAN). They offer a cost effective solution when compared with other wired or wireless options. However, to overcome
NIST researchers measuring a flow profile

Smoke Stack Flow Measurement

Completed
The Fluid Metrology Group is using its smoke stack simulator (See Fig. 1.) and field tests in operating smoke stacks to critically test conventional and improved ways of measuring the flow of stack gases. In the NIST stack simulator, the inlet cone and reference (upstream) section of the simulator
Breathalyzer

Standards Development to Ensure Reliable Breath Analysis in the Field

Ongoing
Numerous volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have been identified in human breath. These compounds can be produced by the body or by organisms in the body (e.g., bacteria or viruses) and provide a non-invasive window into human health. Inexpensive point-of-care devices are being developed to diagnose

State Estimation for Uncertain Power Systems

Completed
The deployment of renewable resources in distributed grid systems poses a set of new challenges mainly due to their variability and dependency on climate parameters, which can have a major impact on the system parameters that are needed to measure power flow and state estimation. More precisely, a

Synchrophasor Networks for Grid monitoring

Completed
It is well accepted that the Smart Grid will employ a variety of networking technologies. Although there has been tremendous advancement in networking technologies from an architectural point of view, those for smart grid applications need to be designed to ensure a high degree of reliability, self
Passive millimeter-wave image of concealed contraband (handgun and ceramic knife).

Terahertz Imaging and Sources

Ongoing
Over the past several years, we have focused on bolometric detection of THz radiation. Our initial work on cryogenic detectors has been extended to antenna-coupled bolometers operating at room temperature. These detectors provide a rugged, low-cost alternative for homeland security applications; e.g
SRM 3452 certified Seebeck coefficient data

Transport Property Measurements for Semiconductors and Energy Materials

Ongoing
The properties of materials and interfaces that govern reliability, performance, and thermal transport in advanced microelectronic packages are not fully characterized or understood, especially at device length scales wherein properties may differ significantly from bulk or literature values

Waveform Metrology Project

Ongoing
Optical measurement techniques: NIST uses the electro-optic sampling (EOS) technique to measure the vector response of photodiodes and provide phase traceability for commercial instrumentation, such as large-signal network analyzers, lightwave component analyzers, vector signal analyzers

Wireless M2M Network For Power Grid

Completed
In conventional transmission systems, wired sensor technologies are largely used in power plants and substations to control and monitor critical parameters. The distribution system does not normally have the support of any infrastructure network. Despite the fact that wired technologies offer a good