Harsh Environment Sensors Research Articles

Real-time study of radiation damage in monocrystalline diamond sensors

Being an excellent radiation hard material, diamond is preferred as an ionizing radiation sensor in radiation harsh environments. In this study, radiation damage from a beam of 67.5 MeV protons at the Crocker Nuclear Laboratory on the campus of the University of California, Davis, was used to determine exposure lifetime in detectors made from a thinned (∼ 40 μm) monocrystalline CVD (chemical vapor deposition) diamond substrate. The sensor response was sampled in real time as the sensor was exposed to a total fluence of ∼ 4×1016 / cm2, yielding an overall damage constant of k = (3.3 ± 0.3) × 10-18 cm2 / p-μm. Damage levels were later confirmed using a non-destructive x-ray technique at the LINAC Coherent Light Source (LCLS) at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Results are presented on the real-time degradation of the charge collection efficiency as a function of proton fluence.

Response Enhancement in High-Temperature H2S-Treated Metal Oxide Gas Sensors.

Metal oxide gas sensors (MOGS), crucial components in monitoring air quality and detecting hazardous gases, are well known for their poisoning effects when exposed to certain gas molecules, such as hydrogen sulfide. Surprisingly, our research reveals that high-temperature H2S treatment leads to an enhancement effect rather than response decay. This study investigates the time-decaying response enhancement, being attributed to the formation of metal sulfide and metal sulfate on the metal oxide's surface, enhancing the electronic sensitization. Such an enhancement effect is demonstrated for various gases, including CO, CH3CH2OH, CH4, HCHO, and NH3. Additionally, the impacts of H2S treatment on the response and recovery time are also observed. Surface compositional analysis are conducted with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. A proposed mechanism for the enhancement effect is elaborated, highlighting the role of electronic sensitization and the sulfide-sulfate component. This research offers valuable insights into the potential applications of metal oxide sensors in sulfide-presented harsh environments in gas sensing, encouraging future exploration of optimized sensor materials, operation temperature, and the development of hydrogen sulfide poisoning-resistant and higher sensitivity MOGS.

(Invited) Organic Electrochemical Transistors for Marine Sensing

With our marine ecosystems under threat from climate change, there is an urgent need to continuously monitor marine conditions. One key indicator is the dissolved oxygen level, but existing sensors are limited by size and costs that preclude widespread non-intrusive monitoring. This work reports a new dual-gate design based on organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) to track dissolved oxygen concentration in seawater, a highly challenging matrix owing to its high ionic strength and multitude of chemical interferents. We present the novel operating principle, by deriving the channel conductance with respect to potentials on the two gates. The dual-gate OECT was highly sensitive and stable compared to the conventional OECT structure, as the dual-gate configuration extended the device stability window by preventing undesirable reactions at the OECT channel. Specifically, the sensor achieved a detection limit of 0.5 ppm dissolved oxygen concentration in seawater. The device demonstrated reliable operation over five days and was capable of monitoring oxygenation changes arising from the photosynthesis cycles of saltwater macro-algae. In addition, we also engineer a system to monitor the correlation of oyster movement with dissolved oxygen in its environment, and it offers a new design to realize compact, highly sensitive, economical in-situ sensors for harsh marine environments.

Very High Temperature Hall Sensors in a Wafer‐Scale 4H‐SiC Technology

Abstract4H‐SiC is a key enabler for realizing integrated electronics operating in harsh environments, which exhibit very high temperatures. Through advances in 4H‐SiC process technology, different sensor and circuit types have been demonstrated to operate stable at temperatures as high as 800 °C, paving the way toward harsh‐environment immune smart sensors. In this work, for the first time the operation of ion‐implanted 4H‐SiC Hall sensors realized in a wafer scale Bipolar‐CMOS‐DMOS technology is demonstrated at a wide operation temperature range spanning room temperature up to 500 °C in addition to short‐term operation up to 600 °C. The temperature‐dependent sensor characteristics of 15–22 samples are evaluated in terms of sensitivity and noise. The small inter‐device variations reflect the stability of the used process for very high temperature Hall sensors. The noise‐limited detectivity is further evaluated, revealing a best value of 950 nT/ and a mean detectivity of 1 µT/ at 500 °C. This is the best value reported up to date for very high temperature Hall sensors, besides being the first demonstration of ion‐implanted wide‐bandgap Hall sensors. Overall, the results reflect the potential of the demonstrated Hall sensors for the next generation of integrated magnetic field sensors in harsh environments.

Fast-Response Thin Film Heat Flux Sensors for Harsh Environments

Fast-Response Thin Film Heat Flux Sensors for Harsh Environments

High Ion-Conducting PVA Nanocomposite Hydrogel-Based Wearable Piezoelectric and Triboelectric Sensors for Harsh Environments.

Traditional hydrogel-based wearable sensors with flexibility, biocompatibility, and mechanical compliance exhibit potential applications in flexible wearable electronics. However, the low sensitivity and poor environmental resistance of traditional hydrogels severely limit their practical application. Herein, high-ion-conducting poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) nanocomposite hydrogels were fabricated and applied for harsh environments. MXene ion-conducting microchannels and poly(sodium 4-styrenesulfonate) ion sources contributed to the directional transport of abundant free ions in the hydrogel, which significantly improved the sensitivity and mechanical-electric conversion of the nanocomposite hydrogel-based piezoelectric and triboelectric sensors. More importantly, the glycerol as an antifreezing agent enabled the hydrogel-based sensors to function in harsh environments. Therefore, the nanocomposite hydrogel exhibited high gauge factor (GF) at -20 °C (GF = 3.37) and 60 °C (GF = 3.62), enabling the hydrogel-based sensor to distinguish different writing letters and sounding words. Meanwhile, the hydrogel-based piezoelectric and triboelectric generators showed excellent mechanical-electric conversion performance regardless of low- (-20 °C) or high- (60 °C) temperature environments, which can be applied as a visual feedback system for information transmission without external power sources. This work provides self-powered nanocomposite hydrogel-based sensors that exhibit potential applications in flexible wearable electronics under harsh environmental conditions.

A novel sensor with excellent high-temperature performance for in-situ temperature measurement

Real-time access to critical information about system temperature variations is essential for evaluating system performance in some of the high-temperature and harsh environments. Given the technical difficulty of accurately obtaining the temperature of a high-temperature and harsh environment, a new sensor package structure is proposed. Combining ceramic sintering and isostatic pressure molding methods, the thermal junction is fixed in the temperature measurement end face of the alumina ceramic substrate, while the shell design threads play a role in fixing the sensor and preventing loosening. This paper conducted repeatability, upper-temperature limit, and high-temperature serviceability assessment tests on the sensor. The results show that the sensor maximum repeatability error is 2.4%. The sensor can continue to operate at 1200°C for more than 6 hours with no signal interruption and the upper limit of temperature measurement is 1307°C. The results demonstrate the feasibility and practicality of temperature measurement by this sensor in high-temperature and harsh environments.

Reliable operation of Cr2O3:Mg/β-Ga2O3 p–n heterojunction diodes at 600 °C

Beta gallium oxide (β-Ga2O3)-based semiconductor heterojunctions have recently demonstrated improved performance at high voltages and elevated temperatures and are, thus, promising for applications in power electronic devices and harsh environment sensors. However, the long-term reliability of these ultra-wideband gap (UWBG) semiconductor devices remains barely addressed and may be strongly influenced by chemical reactions at the p–n heterojunction interface. Here, we experimentally demonstrate operation and evaluate the reliability of Cr2O3:Mg/β-Ga2O3 p–n heterojunction diodes during extended operation at 600 °C, as well as after 30 repeated cycles between 25 and 550 °C. The calculated pO2-temperature phase stability diagram of the Ga-Cr-O material system predicts that Ga2O3 and Cr2O3 should remain thermodynamically stable in contact with each other over a wide range of oxygen pressures and operating temperatures. The fabricated Cr2O3:Mg/β-Ga2O3 p–n heterojunction diodes show room-temperature on/off ratios >104 at ±5 V and a breakdown voltage (VBr) of −390 V. The leakage current increases with increasing temperature up to 600 °C, which is attributed to Poole–Frenkel emission with a trap barrier height of 0.19 eV. Over the course of a 140-h thermal soak at 600 °C, both the device turn-on voltage and on-state resistance increase from 1.08 V and 5.34 mΩ cm2 to 1.59 V and 7.1 mΩ cm2, respectively. This increase is attributed to the accumulation of Mg and MgO at the Cr2O3/Ga2O3 interface as observed from the time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry analysis. These findings inform future design strategies of UWBG semiconductor devices for harsh environment operation and underscore the need for further reliability assessments for β-Ga2O3-based devices.

Fast and robust demodulation of temperature from sparse sapphire fiber Bragg grating spectra with machine learning

Sapphire fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) have demonstrated their efficacy in sensing at high-temperature harsh environments owing to their elevated melting point and outstanding stability. However, due to the extremely high volume of modes supported by the clad-less sapphire fiber, the demodulation capability of the reflected spectra is hindered due to their irregular and somewhat complicated shapes. Hence, a mode-stripping or scrambling step is typically employed beforehand, albeit at the expense of sensor robustness. Additionally, conventional interrogation of sapphire FBG sensors relies on an optical spectrum analyzer due to the high sensitivity provided by the spectrum analyzer, where the long data acquisition time restricts the system from detecting instantaneous temperature variations. In this study, we present a simple sensor configuration by directly butt-coupling the sapphire FBG multi-mode lead-out fiber to a single-mode lead-in fiber, and detect its reflected spectra via a low-cost, fast, and coarsely resolved (166 pm) spectrometer. We leverage machine learning to compensate for the under-sampling of the measured FBG spectra and achieve a temperature accuracy of 0.23 °C at a high data acquisition rate of 5 kHz (limited by the spectrometer). This represents a tenfold improvement in accuracy compared to conventional peak-searching and curve-fitting methods, as well as a significant enhancement in measurement speed that enables dynamic sensing. We further assess the robustness of our sensor by attaching one side of the sensor to a vibrator and still observe good performance (0.43 °C) even under strong shaking conditions. The introduced demodulation technology opens up opportunities for the broader use of sapphire FBG sensors in noisy and high-temperature harsh environments.

Recent advances in hydrogel-based flexible strain sensors for harsh environment applications.

Flexible strain sensors are broadly investigated in electronic skins and human-machine interaction due to their light weight, high sensitivity, and wide sensing range. Hydrogels with unique three-dimensional network structures are widely used in flexible strain sensors for their exceptional flexibility and adaptability to mechanical deformation. However, hydrogels often suffer from damage, hardening, and collapse under harsh conditions, such as extreme temperatures and humidity levels, which lead to sensor performance degradation or even failure. In addition, the failure mechanism in extreme environments remains unclear. In this review, the performance degradation and failure mechanism of hydrogel flexible strain sensors under various harsh conditions are examined. Subsequently, strategies towards the environmental tolerance of hydrogel flexible strain sensors are summarized. Finally, the current challenges of hydrogel flexible strain sensors in harsh environments are discussed, along with potential directions for future development and applications.

Rapid laser fabrication of indium tin oxide and polymer-derived ceramic composite thin films for high-temperature sensors

Thin-film sensors are essential for real-time monitoring of components in high-temperature environments. Traditional fabrication methods often involve complicated fabrication steps or require prolonged high-temperature annealing, limiting their practical applicability. Here, we present an approach using direct ink writing and laser scanning (DIW-LS) to fabricate high-temperature functional thin films. An indium tin oxide (ITO)/preceramic polymer (PP) ink suitable for DIW was developed. Under LS, the ITO/PP thin film shrank in volume. Meanwhile, the rapid pyrolysis of PP into amorphous precursor-derived ceramic (PDC) facilitated the faster sintering of ITO nanoparticles and improved the densification of the thin film. This process realized the formation of a conductive network of interconnected ITO nanoparticles. The results show that the ITO/PDC thin film exhibits excellent stability, with a drift rate of 4.7 % at 1000 °C for 25 h, and withstands temperatures up to 1250 °C in the ambient atmosphere. It is also sensitive to strain, with a maximum gauge factor of −6.0. As a proof of concept, we have used DIW-LS technology to fabricate a thin-film heat flux sensor on the surface of the turbine blade, capable of measuring heat flux densities over 1 MW/m2. This DIW-LS process provides a viable approach for the integrated, rapid, and flexible fabrication of thin film sensors for harsh environments.

High-performance flexible reduced graphene oxide/polyimide nanocomposite aerogels fabricated by double crosslinking strategy for piezoresistive sensor application

Flexible conductive polyimide aerogels used for piezoresistive pressure sensors in harsh environments are often limited by brittleness, structural collapse, low elastic recovery, low sensitivity, and narrow pressure detection range. Herein, we report a simple and green method of ice-templating unidirectional solidification combined with freeze-drying and thermal imidization to obtain a flexible reduced graphene oxide/polyimide (rGO/PI) nanocomposite aerogels with a double crosslinked structure, which achieve a significant transformation of PI aerogels from brittleness to high flexibility. The strong layered structure and dense interlaminar porous network are established by the covalent crosslinking of 1,3,5-triaminophenoxybenzene (TAB) and the hydrogen bonding crosslinking of graphene oxide (GO), imparting the double crosslinked rGO/PI aerogels with unique “porous honeycomb” structure and excellent mechanical properties. Due to the synergistic effect of TAB, rGO, PI, and unidirectional freezing process, the double crosslinked rGO/PI nanocomposite aerogel shows low density (25 mg/cm3), high compression cycle stability (3000 cycles), wide pressure detection range (0–85.1 kPa), extremely short response time (about 129 ms) and excellent environmental resistance (maintaining high structural stability and pressure response even at high temperatures of 180 °C and low temperatures of −50 °C), suitable for detecting various motion signals. It is proved that the elastic double crosslinked rGO/PI nanocomposite aerogels have potential applications serving as candidate materials for piezoresistive sensors and wearable electronic protective equipment in the fields of national defense, military industry, aerospace, and other fields in extreme environments.

Development of a compact NDIR CO2 gas sensor for harsh environments

We present a compact non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) gas sensor that can be adopted in high-moisture and low temperature environments. The NDIR gas sensor was formed by a Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) emitter working at 400℃ with a broadband radiation spectrum, a MEMS thermopile detector that integrated with an optical filter, a compact gas-cell with high optical coupling efficiency of ∼ 48 %, and an imbedded miniature thermostat. The footprint of the sensor is 24 mm × 8 mm × 8 mm (length × width × height), making it just 30 % of the size of conventional NDIR gas sensors with equivalent detection resolution, and its heat capability is around 7.29 J/K that promise a cost-effective thermoregulation. The sensor is capable of accurately detecting gas, such as Carbon dioxide, within a concentration range spanning from 0.5 % to 20 % with a reading error of ± 0.1 % covering a working temperature from −20 ℃ to 60 ℃. Because the sensor is equipped with a waterproof breathable film at the air hole, the sensor can operate in the humidity range from 0 to 100 %RH, and the maximum detection reading error is 0.1 % ± 230 ppm. It is possible to be applied for both low temperature environments (e.g. food preservation cabinet, biological cabinet, etc) and high-moisture environments (e.g. greenhouse, humidity chambers, etc.).

A Review of Carbon Nanotubes, Graphene and Nanodiamond Based Strain Sensor in Harsh Environments

Flexible and wearable electronics have attracted significant attention for their potential applications in wearable human health monitoring, care systems, and various industrial sectors. The exploration of wearable strain sensors in diverse application scenarios is a global issue, shaping the future of our intelligent community. However, current state-of-the-art strain sensors still encounter challenges, such as susceptibility to interference under humid conditions and vulnerability to chemical and mechanical fragility. Carbon materials offer a promising solution due to their unique advantages, including excellent electrical conductivity, intrinsic and structural flexibility, lightweight nature, high chemical and thermal stability, ease of chemical functionalization, and potential for mass production. Carbon-based materials, such as carbon nanotubes, graphene, and nanodiamond, have been introduced as strain sensors with mechanical and chemical robustness, as well as water repellency functionality. This review reviewed the ability of carbon nanotubes-, graphene-, and nanodiamond-based strain sensors to withstand extreme conditions, their sensitivity, durability, response time, and diverse applications, including strain/pressure sensors, temperature/humidity sensors, and power devices. The discussion highlights the promising features and potential advantages offered by these carbon materials in strain sensing applications. Additionally, this review outlines the existing challenges in the field and identifies future opportunities for further advancement and innovation.

Research on Packaging Reliability and Quality Factor Degradation Model for Wafer-Level Vacuum Sealing MEMS Gyroscopes.

MEMS gyroscopes are widely applied in consumer electronics, aerospace, missile guidance, and other fields. Reliable packaging is the foundation for ensuring the survivability and performance of the sensor in harsh environments, but gas leakage models of wafer-level MEMS gyroscopes are rarely reported. This paper proposes a gas leakage model for evaluating the packaging reliability of wafer-level MEMS gyroscopes. Based on thermodynamics and hydromechanics, the relationships between the quality factor, gas molecule number, and a quality factor degradation model are derived. The mechanism of the effect of gas leakage on the quality factor is explored at wafer-level packaging. The experimental results show that the reciprocal of the quality factor is exponentially related to gas leakage time, which is in accordance with the theoretical analysis. The coefficients of determination (R2) are all greater than 0.95 by fitting the curves in Matlab R2022b. The stable values of the quality factor for drive mode and sense mode are predicted to be 6609.4 and 1205.1, respectively, and the average degradation characteristic time is 435.84 h. The gas leakage time is at least eight times the average characteristic time, namely 3486.72 h, before a stable condition is achieved in the packaging chamber of the MEMS gyroscopes.

Temperature-Immune, Wide-Range Flexible Robust Pressure Sensors for Harsh Environments.

Flexible pressure sensors possess vast potential for various applications such as new energy batteries, aerospace engines, and rescue robots owing to their exceptional flexibility and adaptability. However, the existing sensors face significant challenges in maintaining long-term reliability and environmental resilience when operating in harsh environments with variable temperatures and high pressures (∼MPa), mainly due to possible mechanical mismatch and structural instability. Here, we propose a composite scheme for a flexible piezoresistive pressure sensor to improve its robustness by utilizing material design of near-zero temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR), radial gradient pressure-dividing microstructure, and flexible interface bonding process. The sensing layer comprising multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), graphite (GP), and thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) was optimized to achieve a near-zero temperature coefficient of resistance over a temperature range of 25-70 °C, while the radial gradient microstructure layout based on pressure division increases the range of pressure up to 2 MPa. Furthermore, a flexible interface bonding process introduces a self-soluble transition layer by direct-writing TPU bonding solution at the bonding interface, which enables the sensor to achieve signal fluctuations as low as 0.6% and a high interface strength of up to 1200 kPa. Moreover, it has been further validated for its capability of monitoring the physiological signals of athletes as well as the long-term reliable environmental resilience of the expansion pressure of the power cell. This work demonstrates that the proposed scheme sheds new light on the design of robust pressure sensors for harsh environments.

Waterproof, Light Responsive, and Highly Sensitive Fabric Strain Sensor for Flexible Electronics.

Corrosion resistant, durable, and lightweight flexible strain sensor with multiple functionalities is an urgent demand for modern flexible wearable devices. However, currently developed wearable devices are still limited by poor environmental adaptability and functional singleness. In this work, a conductive fabric with multifunctionality in addition to sensing was successfully prepared by assembling zero dimensional silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and one-dimensional carbon nanotubes (CNTs) layer by layer on the surface of the elastic polypropylene nonwoven fabric (named PACS fabric). Polystyrene-block-poly(ethylene-co-butylene)-block-polystyrene (SEBS) added as binder materials favored strong interaction between conductive fillers and the fabric. Benefiting from the synergistic interaction among the conductive fillers with different dimensions and the fabric, the strain sensor based on the conductive fabric showed high sensitivity (GF up to 8064), wide detection range (0-200%), and excellent stability and durability (more than 10000 stretch-release cycles). Besides, the prepared conductive fabric showed superhydrophobicity (water contact angle = 154°) with excellent durability. This ensured the performance stability of the fabric sensor in harsh environments. At the same time, the fabric also showed excellent photothermal conversion performance (90 °C at a power density of 0.2 W/cm2 within 20 s). The PACS fabric strain sensor proved excellent performance and environmental adaptability, revealing great potential to be applied in human motion monitoring, self-cleaning, biomedicine, and other fields.

Printing Three-Dimensional Refractory Metal Patterns in Ambient Air: Toward High Temperature Sensors.

Refractory metals offer exceptional benefits for high temperature electronics including high-temperature resistance, corrosion resistance and excellent mechanical strength, while their high melting temperature and poor processibility poses challenges to manufacturing. Here this work reports a direct ink writing and tar-mediated laser sintering (DIW-TMLS) technique to fabricate three-dimensional (3D) refractory metal devices for high temperature applications. Metallic inks with high viscosity and enhanced light absorbance are designed by utilizing coal tar as binder. The printed patterns are sintered into oxidation-free porous metallic structures using a low-power (<10W) laser in ambient environment, and 3D freestanding architectures can be rapidly fabricated by one step. Several applications are presented, including a fractal pattern-based strain gauge, an electrically small antenna (ESA) patterned on a hemisphere, and a wireless temperature sensor that can work up to 350°C and withstand burning flames. The DIW-TMLS technique paves a viable route for rapid patterning of various metal materials with wide applicability, high flexibility, and 3D conformability, expanding the possibilities of harsh environment sensors.

Starfish‐Inspired Cut‐Resistant Hydrogel with Self‐Growing Armor: Where Softness Meets Toughness

AbstractMany soft animals like starfish have developed armors to protect their soft bodies in order to survive in harsh environment. Inspired by this fact, special hydrogels with self‐growing protective armors are developed by allowing sodium acetate to crystallize on hydrogel surface. Poly(acrylic acid) chains limit the crystalline region to the surface of the hydrogel by decreasing the pH value and limiting the movement of ions, and then creating a set of tough armor. This armor‐protected hydrogel is able to withstand a high pressure (&gt; 78 MPa) under cutting and prevent the penetration of sharp objects. Interestingly, the unique stimulated‐precipitation mechanism allows the armor to repair itself after damage. Besides, the surface of hydrogel changes from “sticky” to “slippery”, which also helps to improve its protective ability. Moreover, the armor helps to retrain water in hydrogel network, and significantly improve the mechanical properties of hydrogels (maximum compressive stress &gt;18 MPa, compressive strain &gt; 90%). In addition, the hydrogel can keep soft and work durably at extreme temperatures (−50 °C and 80 °C) due to the high salt concentration. This study provides an innovative approach for designing armor‐protected hydrogels with great potential in engineering applications such as actuators and sensors for harsh environments.

SЕNSORS BASED ON POLYCRYSTALLINE 3C-SiC: IMPACT OF BORON DOPING

As a chemically inert wide bandgap semiconductor material with high hardness and thermal conductivity, stable electrical characteristics, silicon carbide SiC is attractive for harsh environment electronics and sensors applications. The concept of harsh environment includes extremes of temperature, pressure, shock loads, radiation and chemical attacks those arise in aircraft and automotive engines, industrial gas turbines, during oil and gas exploration, etc.&#x0D; Lower growing temperatures of polycrystalline cubic silicon carbide, pc-3C-SiC, compared to monocrystalline allow to significantly reduce its cost and expand the possibilities of application. It follows from previous works that the thermal sensitivity of pc -3C-SiC can be significantly increased by doping with an acceptor impurity of boron during the growth of the material. The purpose of this work is to determine the properties of pc-3C-SiC doped with boron for the creation of photosensors and thermosensors, as well as thermal anemometers for extreme operating conditions.&#x0D; It is shown that pс-3C-SiC doping with a boron impurity in the growth process causes the formation of acceptor-type centers in the band gap and the appearance of features in the photosensitivity spectrum, which may be of practical interest for photovoltaics. For temperatures T &gt; 150K, the conductivity of the doped sample increases almost exponentially with an activation energy of 0.28 eV, which is close to the activation energy of the photoconductivity of the same sample. This indicates that the ionization process of equilibrium and non-equilibrium charge carriers occurs from the same impurity centers. Boron doping causes the appearance of a broad photoconductivity band with a maximum at 1.7 eV in the impurity absorption region of pc-3C-SiC, similar to the situation in single crystal 3C-SiC.&#x0D; It was determined that the temperature coefficient of resistance for boron-doped pc-3C-SiC is 3.0´10-2 K-1 at T=300K and 1.1´10-2 K-1 at T=700K, which is almost an order of magnitude higher than for thermocouples, as well as for metals from which anemometer threads are made. The discussion of the obtained results allows to associate the value of the activation energy E=0.28 eV with the level of shallow boron in pc-3C-SiC and to assume this center is a point defect containing a boron atom that replaces a silicon atom in the 3C-SiC lattice, i.e. BSi.&#x0D; Photosensors that can be used as solar cells in the near-IR range of 0.6 - 1.8 μm, and as photocells in the visible range of 0.4 - 0.6 μm are proposed. The ability of pc-3C-SiC to work in extreme operating conditions, as well as the low cost of device manufacturing technology based on it, compared to other SiC polytypes, allow it to be considered a suitable material for creating temperature sensors, thermo-anemometers and photosensors, as well as detectors for monitoring nuclear facilities.