研究人员将量子传感器装入MEMS检测压力的设备

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Sep 9, 2026 11:29am Sensors Applications Mechanical / Force / Tactile Motion / Proximity / Position Medical / Healthcare --> Sensor fusion is technology of opportunity. Sensors have recently been directly connected, or fused, to central CPUs, servers, even the Electronic Control Unit of a vehicle. Increasingly, fusion of sensors is moving into System-on-Chip technology, AI accelerators, smart inertial measurement units (IMUs) and edge AI processors. Sensors are increasingly being integrated with AI processing and fusion software directly on a chip, rather than sending raw data to remote server, even a data center, for interpretation. In smartphones, these are sensors are typically fused: accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetometers. In smart buildings, these sensors are fequently fused: occupancy, CO2, temperature, humidity. In humanoid robots, these: vision, force, tactile, IMU. Cars: camera, radar, lidar, and IMU. And so on… Value is shifting from the sensor itself to the fusion layer. Cameras, radars, IMUs are becoming commodities alone, but now Qualcomm, Apple, NXP, Nvidia, Intel, robotics startups and many others are fusing multiple sensor streams and then running AI inference on the resulting data. That’s how sensor fusion in the SoC is becoming a theme in robotics, robotaxis, smart glasses and pretty much every new edge AI device. Recent research points to the fusion trend in the quantum sensing space. At Tohoku University, work is underway on integrating (fusing) diamond quantum sensors onto tiny MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) devices used in various technologies, such as biosensors, microphones and accelerometers. So far, attaching a separate sensor to a MEMS device has been nearly impossible, but the researchers are making the sensing capability part of the mechanical device itself, according to a summary posted on TechXplore and based on research published in Functional Diamond. MEMS devices are highly useful, but prone to physical stress that impedes their performance, stability and reliability. Tracking this interference is vital, but it has been hard to attach a separate sensor. The researchers are making the sensing ability part of the mechanical device, which could support use of compact, fused diamond quantum devices in future technology. The research team used nitro-vacancy centers (NVCs) in diamond crystals, which have quantum properties when illuminated with green laser light. An NVC will emit red fluorescence and its electronic spin state can be manipulated with microwaves. The fluorescent intensity changes when the microwave frequency matches the spin resonance frequency in a technique called optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR). ODMR resonance frequency can be affected by magnetic fields, as well as temperature and mechanical stress. Researchers found when a MEMS cantilever is under mechanical stress, the unsupported end of the cantilever vibrates, affecting an entire system, then shifting the resonance of NVCs in opposite directions. A head researcher, Masaya Toda, said a quantum sensor was fused as part of the MEMS fabrication itself. The integrated NVC effectively functions as a stress sensor. In testing, it responded as expected to tensile and compressive bending. The mechanical structure and the quantum sensing function can be created together within a single diamond device, he said. sensor fusion Cross section of a fabricated single-crystal diamond MEMS cantilever (Tohoku University) Their study provides a way to create an all-in-one system in a single-crystal diamond structure, useful for stress sensing as well as further research on interactions between mechanical stress and quantum spin states. Engineers may see this as a way to fabricate quantum sensing into a MEMS device without attaching a separate sensing device. That’s a new kind of sensor fusion in the emerging world of quantum systems. While many engineers refer to sensor fusion as connecting sensors to some ty