The paper, published in the March 30th issue of Science Advances, says that the super small vibrating sensor can detect signals at the highest reported dynamic range of frequencies, up to ~110dB, at radio frequencies (RF) up to over 120MHz. Human hearing is generally in the range of around 60 to 100dB in the range of 10Hz to 10kHz.

While the transducer itself isn't immediately applicable to current devices, the research will likely help inform future devices. "Sensing and communication are key to a connected world," said associate professor and co-author Philip Feng in a statement. "In recent decades, we have been connected with highly miniaturized devices and systems, and we have been pursuing ever-shrinking sizes for those devices."