Intelligent Material as sensors
The crystal reports back.
The same crystals that carry a code can also measure. Their light changes with how many there are, how hot they are, and what they are bound to. A reader turns that light into a number, with no wires and no contact.
What it measures
One material, many readings.
Some of these are running today, some are demonstrated in the lab, and some are ideas we want to build with partners. Each card says which.
Temperature
Color and timing shift with heat. Lab data from room temperature to 1,100 °C; flexible films from −50 to +200 °C.
Learn more →In useIngredient dose
Brightness tracks how much crystal, and so how much ingredient, is present. Running on a fiber line at seven injection points.
Learn more →In useBiomarkers
Crystals bound to antibodies make lateral-flow tests quantitative: the reader counts the light at each line.
Learn more →DemonstratedTamper & integrity
A random crystal map on a label or a coated circuit board goes dark where something was changed.
Learn more →ConceptWater quality
Crystal cartridges in inline readers for cooling towers, ice machines and hot tubs.
Learn more →In developmentX-rays into light
Rare-earth particles turn X-rays into visible light where it is needed, studied for photodynamic therapy.
Learn more →Temperature · measured data
A thermometer you read with light.
Heat the phosphor and the blue band near 455 nm climbs against the peak at 493 nm, steadily, from room temperature to 1,100 °C. The ratio is the temperature. Press play, or drag the slider.
The blue band grows against a fixed reference peak. Shown above.
Rise-time change of Y₂O₂S:Yb,Er powder between −50 and 100 °C (Sabri et al., 2018).
Decay of La₂O₂S:Yb,Er in a silicone film, −50 to 200 °C (Sabri et al., 2018).
Timing sensors need only one detector, and smoke, dirt or a tinted window that skews colors does not fool them. It is the same rise-and-decay clock that codes a crystal.
Where temperature by light could go
Places a wire can't reach.
Ideas we would like to test with partners. A coating, a film or an ink, read from a distance.
Hot surfaces
A coating read through a window, up to furnace temperatures.
Hot spots
Watch cells for local heating before it spreads.
Under the coating
The same conformal coating as LightMap™ boards, now also a heat map.
Flexible films
Soft silicone sensors that bend with skin or fabric.
Down to −50 °C
Labels on vaccines and food read with a light.
Something to measure?
Let the crystal report back.
Tell us what you need to measure and where. We will design the crystal, the carrier (ink, film, coating or strip) and the reader. NovaVera Corp. makes and sells Intelligent Material.
