Natural-disaster warning systems need sensors that can detect everything from faint vibrations to powerful shaking. Today’s most sensitive light-based sensors are often large and expensive, while the smaller sensors used in phones and cars cannot detect such subtle movement.

Researchers in the Chandra Family Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin have developed a chip-based motion sensor that offers both high sensitivity and a wide measurement range. Because it can be manufactured using processes similar to those used to make smartphone chips, the sensor could eventually be produced affordably and deployed in large networks.

The sensor contains two light-based measuring devices positioned side by side on a single chip. Software compares their signals to track motion accurately, even when vibrations become strong. This design eliminates the need for the additional control systems commonly used in optical sensors and allows the device to measure both faint and intense movement.

“Using light to sense motion isn't new by itself. Optical accelerometers exist, and a few groups have built them on photonic chips,” said Yuqi Meng, a researcher on the team. “What's new is what we could do because everything sits on one chip.”

Although the photonic chip technology is still in the early stages of development, it could eventually support planetary missions that place networks of 10, or even 100, seismic sensors across the surface of the Moon or Mars. Such networks could give scientists a more complete picture of seismic activity while avoiding the traditional tradeoff between sensitivity and measurement range.

The Texas ECE team works closely with Silicon Audio, an Austin-based seismic sensor company founded by Texas ECE professor Neal Hall, and with the University of Arizona. Silicon Audio and the University of Arizona supplied two more mature optical seismometers for NASA’s Lunar Environment Monitoring Station (LEMS) under NASA award 80NSSC24M0118. In August 2026, NASA announced that LEMS had become the first completed science payload intended for astronauts to deploy on the lunar surface.

LEMS is expected to travel to the Moon on a future Artemis mission. Artemis IV, planned for early 2028, is currently the first scheduled crewed lunar landing since Apollo 17 in December 1972. Astronauts will launch aboard NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft, then travel to the lunar surface in a commercial lander, either SpaceX’s Starship or Blue Origin’s Blue Moon.

By placing seismometers on the Moon, scientists hope to better understand its internal structure and formation. The instruments could also help researchers evaluate the risks posed by moonquakes as plans for future lunar bases move forward.

Prof. Neal Hall, along with Texas ECE graduate students Yuqi Meng, Qiyun Hu, Ehsan Vatankhah, Zihuan Liu and Wei Wang contributed to the project.