The engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a fast, ultra-broadband, low-power radio chip imitating the human inner ear or cochlea. The radio frequency chip – RF cochlea – modeled on the human inner ear is capable of picking up mobile phone, GPS, radio, internet and Bluetooth signals; it could enable wireless devices to receive cell phone, Internet, radio and TV signals.

According to the engineers, the RF cochlea chip is faster than any human-designed radio-frequency (RF) spectrum analyzer and also operates at a lower power.

The engineers have filed for a patent to incorporate the RF cochlea in a universal or software radio architecture, which is designed to efficiently process a broad spectrum of signals including cellular phones, wireless Internet, FM, and other signals.

The chip has been developed by Rahul Sarpeshkar, MIT associate professor of electrical engineering and his graduate student, Soumyajit Mandal. Mandal is graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India. He did his graduation in June 2002. He completed his MSc in 2004 at MIT, and is currently working on his PhD.