Ultrafast detection and identification techniques for temperature fields are crucial in various applications, spanning environmental sensing, biomedical monitoring, and thermal management in advanced energy systems. Traditional temperature sensing systems typically employ the von Neumann architecture, comprising discrete sensor arrays, memory modules, and processors. Such systems generally suffer from high latency, significant power consumption, and elevated hardware costs.

With the latest advancements in sensing technology and artificial intelligence (AI), the industry is actively developing new sensor architectures aimed at eliminating data interfaces between sensing arrays, memory, and processors to enhance device performance. Although ultrafast optical sensors based on in-sensor computing (ISC) have been achieved using tunable two-dimensional materials, temperature field ISC sensors remain unrealized due to the slow response and fixed responsivity characteristics of traditional temperature sensors (e.g., thermistors, thermocouples, thermal infrared sensors).

Recently, a research team led by Professors Liu Jun, Tang Jun, and Guo Hao from North University of China, in collaboration with a team led by Researcher Wang Lili from the Institute of Semiconductors at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, proposed a diamond array-based quantum sensor for ultrafast temperature field detection and identification (TDI-DQS). This sensor integrates temperature sensing and real-time processing functions within a unified sensor-in-sensor computing (ISC) architecture. By leveraging the strong linear correlation between temperature and the zero-field splitting of nitrogen vacancy (NV) color centers in diamond, combined with multi-parameter microwave modulation, it successfully achieves fixed-frequency temperature sensing with ultrafast response speed and tunable responsivity, achieving a single detection and identification delay of only 196.8 μs.

In this work, researchers propose a Temperature Field Detection and Identification Diamond Quantum Sensor (TDI-DQS), which incorporates an array of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color centers in diamond within an In-Sensor Computing (ISC) architecture. This design integrates sensing, storage, and processing functions at the physical level, enabling real-time, low-latency computation directly within the sensor. The TDI-DQS consists of a spatially structured diamond array and a parallel compensation resistor array. Specifically, the diamond array performs real-time matrix-vector multiplication for temperature intensity and responsivity, while utilizing Kirchhoff's current summation law to directly execute fully connected artificial neural network (ANN) operations on the analog sensor output. The resulting TDI-DQS combines the ultrafast characteristics of quantum sensing with the computational efficiency of the ISC architecture, eliminating the need for additional discrete memory and processor modules and effectively avoiding performance degradation caused by extensive redundant data transmission.