"SENSORS: Sensor design gets systematic"

Sensor manufacturers have continued to improve the sensitivity of their designs through engineering innovations derived from trial-and-error experimentation. Electrical engineers have been guided by "black art" principles, which sensor-gurus claim in abundance. Unfortunately, no overarching framework has been available that incorporates these principles into a methodology for new sensor designs. Now EEs at Purdue University (West Lafayette, Ind.) claim to have invented that missing framework, providing a new method of modeling sensor designs that is already solving long-standing puzzles.
Text: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=205208762