Micro-integrated light sources, detectors and photonic components are changing the landscape of sensing. Today, we have access to extremely efficient light emitters, that offer full control on key light properties to interrogate matter like stable emission patters, narrow linewidths and high brightness. On the detector side, light intensities can be measured down to single photon counting with precise timing characteristics. This mix of semiconductor technologies (nitrides, CMOS, organic) not only enables size reduction, but foster also true scalability, making measurement technology cost-effective, more available and usable.
In this contribution, we will first present examples on how chemical gas sensing benefitted in the last years of the emergence of microLEDs, enabling new transduction mechanisms and features like reduced power consumption, improved selectivity, and better reproducibility.
Second, we will report on integrated instruments, as small as a microchip, capable of examining the morphology and chemical composition of samples relevant in environmental protection, biomedicine or industrial quality control.
Third, we will present alternative strategies for light-based sensing aimed at reducing costs and electronic waste.
Finally, we will discuss how these advancements pave the way for future approaches to metrology, even new standards that are more widespread and accessible in fields like environmental monitoring, climate and complex system metrology.
Overall, this contribution aims to show how advanced integration light solutions set out to transform measurement and sensing into more versatile, scalable and eco-friendly metrology solutions.