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RF-ImagingNet: Spintronic RF Neural Front-Ends for Embedded Microwave Sensing

Objective

Active microwave sensing probes biological tissue, walls or soil with safe, easy-to produce non-ionising waves. It could enable cheap, portable scanners for medical and field inspection applications with fast on-site diagnosis. But current systems rely on wideband digitisation and heavy digital processing, making them too bulky, slow, and power-hungry to be embedded. RF-ImagingNet shifts the sensing-computing boundary by performing the first inference step directly in the radio-frequency (RF) domain during acquisition, so that only a low-rate decision output is digitised. By processing frequency-dependent RF signals before sampling, the approach reduces data movement and relaxes ADC and compute requirements.
Building on recent results showing that spintronic devices can act as programmable frequency-selective RF synapses, we will integrate an RF neural layer with a compact active sensor (2 transmitters, 2 receivers, 1-9 GHz) and demonstrate direct target detection and classification from microwave measurements on hidden objects, without first reconstructing a full image. Objectives are sub-10 ms end-to-end latency
and near-digital decision accuracy (<2% degradation) on the selected tasks. Energy benefits will be assessed at the architecture level by quantifying the avoided cost of wideband digitisation, data movement and digital inference.
The RF neural front-end can operate either as a stand-alone decision sensor or as a preprocessor that triggers full imaging only when needed, reducing duty cycle and limiting raw data storage and transmission. The Proof of Concept will deliver a reproducible demonstrator, quantified benchmarks, and an exploitation package including foreground IP assessment and early adopter feedback from industrial stakeholders.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

HORIZON-ERC-POC - HORIZON ERC Proof of Concept Grants

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Call for proposal

(opens in new window) ERC-2026-POC

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Host institution

CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS
Net EU contribution
€ 150 000,00
Address
RUE MICHEL ANGE 3
75794 Paris
France
Region
Ile-de-France Ile-de-France Paris
Activity type
Research Organisations
Links
Total cost
No data

Beneficiaries (1)