Graphene to enable better night-vision sensors

Researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard, University of California Riveriside and US Army Research Laboratory have integrated graphene with silicon microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) to make a flexible, transparent, and low-cost device for the mid-infrared range. 

Tests showed it could be used to detect a person’s heat signature at room temperature (300 K or 27 degrees C/80 degrees F) without cryogenic cooling, which is normally required  to filter out background radiation, or “noise,” to create a reliable image (which complicates the design and adds to the cost and the unit’s bulkiness and rigidity).