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Scientists have developed a new imaging chip that utilizes high-frequency radio waves to give cell phones ‘Superman-inspired’ x-ray vision.
It took 15 years, but researchers from The University of Texas at Dallas and Seoul National University have created a chip that can be inserted into mobile devices that makes it possible to detect objects inside packages or behind walls.
“This technology is like Superman’s X-ray vision. Of course, we use signals at 200 gigahertz to 400 gigahertz instead of X-rays, which can be harmful,” said Dr. Kenneth K. O, director of the Texas Analog Center of Excellence (TxACE) and the Texas Instruments Distinguished University Chair in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science.
According to a press release announcing the scientific breakthrough, “Chip-enabled cell phones might be used to find studs, wooden beams or wiring behind walls, cracks in pipes, or outlines of contents in envelopes and packages. The technology also could have medical applications.”
“It took 15 years of research that improved pixel performance by 100 million times, combined with digital signal processing techniques, to make this imaging demonstration possible. This disruptive technology shows the potential capability of true THz imaging,” said Dr. Brian Ginsburg, director of RF/mmW and high-speed research at Texas Instruments’ Kilby Labs.
The study was supported by the Texas Instruments (TI) Foundational Technology Research Program on Millimeter Wave and High Frequency Microsystems and the Samsung Global Research Outreach Program.
The results of the scientists’ research, which was published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Terahertz Science and Technology, reveals that their new imaging chip is made up of an array of three sensor pixels that emit and receive high-frequency radio signals in the millimeter-wave (mmWave) band of the electromagnetic spectrum, LiveScience reports.
The technology works similarly to RADAR and SONAR, but it has the ability to create near-high-definition images.
“We designed the chip without lenses or optics so that it could fit into a mobile device. The pixels, which create images by detecting signals reflected from a target object, have the shape of a 0.5-mm square, about the size of a grain of sand,” said co-author of the paper Wooyeol Choi, assistant professor of electrical engineering at Seoul National University.
Due to privacy issues and to prevent the misuse of this new X-ray vision chip, the researchers designed it to only be used at a range of about one inch from an object.
The next chip the scientists plan on creating will allow use from as far away as five inches and make it easier to see smaller objects.