Optical mouse sensor: The sensor chip used in an optical mouse is a vision chip.

Compact cameras use much smaller sensor chips than digital S.L.R.'s.

If that power-hungry function proves popular, Foveon's sensor chips with their low power use would have a significant advantage.

One reason is that the sensor chip is cooled to 70 degrees Kelvin, or 70 degrees above absolute zero, by liquid nitrogen.

The sensor chip determines where infrared beam was broken.

Linear magnetic sensor chips go down to about $10.

So it is about as easy to wire up as sensor chips get.

Last month, at a technical conference in Melbourne, technicians unveiled a lentil-sized sensor chip that measures wind speed, light, humidity, soil moisture and leaf wetness.

And more densely packed pixels on a sensor chip means more heat, which can introduce speckles into low-light shots.

I'll put on a sensor chip.