Category Archives: Applications

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland developed an extremely efficient small-size energy storage, a micro-supercapacitor, which can be integrated directly inside a silicon microcircuit chip. The high energy and power density of the miniaturized energy storage relies on the new hybrid nanomaterial developed recently at VTT. This technology opens new possibilities for integrated mobile devices and paves the way for zero-power autonomous devices required for the future Internet of Things (IoT).

Supercapacitors resemble electrochemical batteries. However, in contrast to for example mobile phone lithium ion batteries, which utilize chemical reactions to store energy, supercapacitors store mainly electrostatic energy that is bound at the interface between liquid and solid electrodes. Similarly to batteries supercapacitors are typically discrete devices with large variety of use cases from small electronic gadgets to the large energy storages of electrical vehicles.

The energy and power density of a supercapacitor depends on the surface area and conductivity of the solid electrodes. VTT’s research group has developed a hybrid nanomaterial electrode, which consists of porous silicon coated with a few nanometre thick titanium nitride layer by atomic layer deposition (ALD). This approach leads to a record large conductive surface in a small volume. Inclusion of ionic liquid in a micro channel formed in between two hybrid electrodes results in extremely small and efficient energy storage.

The new supercapacitor has excellent performance. For the first time, silicon based micro-supercapacitor competes with the leading carbon and graphene based devices in power, energy and durability.

Micro-supercapacitors can be integrated directly with active microelectronic devices to store electrical energy generated by different thermal, light and vibration energy harvesters and to supply the electrical energy when needed. This is important for autonomous sensor networks, wearable electronics and mobile electronics of the IoT.

VTT’s research group takes the integration to the extreme by integrating the new nanomaterial micro-supercapacitor energy storage directly inside a silicon chip. The demonstrated in-chip supercapacitor technology enables storing energy of as much as 0.2 joule and impressive power generation of 2 watts on a one square centimetre silicon chip. At the same time it leaves the surface of the chip available for active integrated microcircuits and sensors.

VTT is currently seeking a party interested in commercializing the technique.

IC Insights has just released the Update to its 2016 IC Market Drivers Report that examines and evaluates key existing and emerging end-use applications that will support and propel the IC industry through 2019.

In 2015 and early 2016, there were numerous reports of slowing in the Chinese smartphone market. Since most of the Chinese smartphone producer’s sales are to Chinese customers, this slowdown became evident in some of their 2015 and 1Q16 smartphone sales figures.  For example, China-based Coolpad’s smartphone sales dropped by 44% in 2015 to only 25.5 million units.  Moreover, Xiaomi, a real “high-flyer” in smartphone sales in 2013 and 2014 saw its growth slow to 16% last year.  While a 16% growth rate is still very commendable, its sales of about 71 million smartphones last year was well below the company’s earlier stated goal of shipping 100 million smartphones in 2015.

Figure 1 depicts actual 1Q16 smartphone unit sales by the top 12 companies with a forecast for their full-year 2016 unit volume shipments.  As shown, eight of the top 12 companies are headquartered in China with an Indian company (Micromax) making the list for the first time.   Gionee, a China-based smartphone supplier, just missed making the 1Q16 top 12 ranking after shipping 4.8 million handsets in the quarter.

IC Insights believes that there will be very little middle ground with regard to smartphone shipment growth rates among the top 12 suppliers this year.  As shown, seven of the top twelve companies are forecast to register 2016 growth rates of 6% or less while the other five companies are expected to each log 29% or better increases.  Further illustrating the maturing of the smartphone market, the top two suppliers, Samsung and Apple, are each forecast to show a slight decline in smartphone shipments this year.

Three companies are expected to drop out of the top 12 ranking this year as compared to 2015—Japan-based Sony, U.S.-based Microsoft, and China-based Coolpad.  These three companies saw their 1Q16 sales of smartphones drop to 3.4, 2.3, and 4.0 million, respectively.  Although Microsoft announced it intends to sell its non-smartphone business later this year, its early 2016 Lumia smartphones shipments put it on a path to sell less than 15 million units in 2016.

chinese ic suppliers fig 1

Figure 1

Additional details on the cellphone IC market are included in the 2016 Update of IC Insights’ IC Market Drivers—A Study of Emerging and Major End-Use Applications Fueling Demand for Integrated Circuits. This report examines the largest, existing system opportunities for ICs and evaluates the potential for new applications that are expected to help fuel the market for ICs through the end of this decade.

At this week’s Design Automation Conference (DAC 2016), nanoelectronics research center imec, Holst Centre (initiated by imec and TNO), and Wi-Fi IP provider Methods2Bussiness will present a complete Wi-Fi HaLow radio solution. The new low-power, long-range radio solution uses 10 times less power than state-of-the-art orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) radio solutions on the market. It can be used for a broad range of applications related to the Internet of Things (IoT) and complies with the most recent wireless networking protocol, IEEE 802.11ah.

The radio solution’s compliance with the recently amended wireless networking protocol ensures that it is especially optimized for IoT-related applications. The Wi-Fi Alliance recently introduced the HaLow (TM) designation for the new low-power, long-range Wi-Fi protocol IEEE802.11ah. Compared to other IoT standards, its sub-GHz carrier frequency and mandatory modes with 1MHz/2MHz channel bandwidths allow devices to operate over a longer range with scalable data rates from 150kb/s to 7.8Mb/s. The standard uses OFDM to improve the link robustness against fading, which is important in urban environments, and to achieve a high spectral efficiency (data rate over a given bandwidth).

The radio integrates imec and Holst Centre’s sub-1GHz IEEE 802.11ah transceiver and Methods2Business’ Medium Access Controller (MAC) hardware and software IP and application layer to enable 802.11ah communication between large numbers of IoT clients and the internet using a central access point. The transceiver comprises a complete low-power physical layer implementation of RF front-end and digital baseband. It features a 1.3nJ/b fully digital polar transmitter optimized for IoT applications as well as for the novel IEEE 802.11ah Wi-Fi protocol. The transmitter surpasses the tight spectral mask and error-vector-magnitude (EVM) requirements of conventional Wi-Fi standards. It does so while demonstrating a power consumption rate as low as 7.1mW in Tx mode for 0dBm output power.

Methods2Business 802.11ah MAC core implements all the new Wi-Fi HaLow functionality to address the drawbacks of traditional Wi-Fi in IoT. Besides mandatory features for connecting up to 8.000 IoT clients (Hierarchical AID), improving collision avoidance in channel access mechanisms (CSMA/CA, DCF, EDCA), and increasing throughput by supporting shorter MAC headers, very advanced power saving modes like Target Wake Time (TWT) and Restricted Access Window (RAW) are also supported. To further trade-off power versus performance, time-critical functions are implemented in hardware while higher level MAC protocols are realized in software.

Imec’s connectivity research for the intuitive internet of things focuses on the development of ultra-small, low-cost, intelligent, and ultra–low power sensors, radio chips and heterogeneous sensor networks. Imec’s Intuitive IoT R&D program focuses on developing the building blocks for future IoT-related applications, with intuitive technology where sensor systems are aware of humans, human perspectives, and human’s environment. This intuitive IoT technology can react exactly as humans need or want them to, providing assistance in an unobtrusive way. Interested companies are invited to join imec’s research efforts as research partners or they can have access to imec’s innovative technology through licensing programs for further development.

Cadence Design Systems, Inc. today announced that STMicroelectronics has qualified and actively deployed the next-generation Cadence Virtuoso platform for its SmartPower technologies. The latest Virtuoso platform successfully enabled ST design engineers to improve custom routing quality and performance and significantly reduce block-planning and pin-optimization time using special pin groups and guide constraints.

In addition to its successes in such areas as sensors, microcontrollers and applications for the Internet of Things (IoT), ST is a worldwide leader in BCD (Bipolar, CMOS, DMOS) Smart Power technologies, utilized to develop ICs for automotive, power management, industrial, consumer and healthcare applications. To address the myriad of complex challenges that come with the development of these types of applications, ST turned to the next-generation Virtuoso platform to improve layout design automation without compromising the highest level of quality and reliability. Furthermore, the mixed-signal design interoperability between the Virtuoso platform and the Cadence Innovus™ Implementation System offers best-in-class floorplanning, pin-optimization and implementation flows that led to a reduction in turnaround time.

In addition to qualifying the next-generation Virtuoso platform for its SmartPower technologies, the ST SmartPower Technology R&D (TR&D) team has also updated its design kits to support the latest Virtuoso platform for production use. This platform also includes the Virtuoso Layout Suite for Electrically Aware Design.

“We have been longtime users of the Virtuoso platform and have a very large user community that trusts the platform to drive the delivery of dozens of production tapeouts each year,” said Pier Luigi Rolandi, director of TR&D Smart Power Design Enablement at STMicroelectronics. “Layout design automation needs to be done in a way that is very seamless to the end user while maintaining highest level of quality, and the next-generation Virtuoso platform does just that. The new platform also enables us to improve designer productivity and effectiveness to ensure that our teams can meet aggressive time-to-market goals.”

By Dr. Khasha Ghaffarzadeh, Research Director, IDTechEx

The first generation of wearable devices are constructed using mature, rigid technologies put inside a new box that can be worn. These are often bulky devices that are not truly wearable in the sense that our clothes are. This is, however, beginning to change, albeit slowly. New conformal, clothing-based components are emerging. Further announcements last week from Google’s Project Jacquard, in collaboration with Levis, shows that the technology and fashion industries are starting to make real progress through collaboration.

This project is but one example of work being done and the IDTechEx Research report, E-Textiles 2016-2026: Technologies, Markets, and Players, finds that electronic textiles (e-textiles) are on the cusp of rapid growth, forecasting the market to increase from under $150m in 2016 to over $3.2bn by 2026.  Many still argue that e-textiles are solutions looking for a problem, but IDTechEx Research finds that there is tremendous interest and progress right across the value chain. This includes material suppliers, traditional textile companies, contract manufacturers, brand owners, etc.

Conductors will inevitably play an indispensable role in any e-textile system. Naturally, therefore, conductive inks suppliers are all very interested. In parallel, conductive ink suppliers face challenging conditions in their traditional well-established market sectors.

For example, IDTechEx Research report, Conductive Ink Markets 2016-2026: Forecasts, Technologies, and Players, forecasts that the combined market for the previously well-established photovoltaic and touch screen edge electrodes will achieve a measly CAGR of 1-2% between 2016 and 2026.  The latter segment is forecast to decline whilst growth in the former will be hugely constrained thanks to the decreasing average silver consumption per cell.

In fact, these traditional markets are increasingly characterised by low demand growth, intense competition, high customer price sensitivity, and low customer loyalty.  This is yet another reason why conductive inks suppliers are hugely interested in new high-growth applications areas such as e-textiles.

Source: IDTechEx Research

Source: IDTechEx Research

Conductive inks win on their universality?

Conductive ink suppliers are touching and feeling their way into the e-textile market. Many have launched specially-designed inks on the market. Some examples are shown below. Most are also having to proactively help form and develop the nascent value chain. This is currently still more of a push than a pull market.

conductive inks

This is a complex space since conductive inks are one of many approaches being concurrently developed for e-textiles. To name a few, these approaches include metal cabling, textile cabling, conducting knits, conductive wovens, conductive inks, etc. There is a paucity of verified technical information and well-defined figures-of-merit on the market. We have therefore developed our semi-qualitative benchmarking based on many end users and supplier discussions, which can be found within the IDTechEx report: E-Textiles 2016-2026: Technologies, Markets, and Players.

There is no clear-cut winner. This is because some approaches win, say, on ease of integration with existing processes or maturity,whereas others win on increased clothing-like appearance and feel. Project Jacquard’s smart jacket, built specifically for urban bikers, is an excellent example of a compromise in these areas, with the look and feel being key in the selection of conductive yarns as the primary material. Still, there is no one-size-fits-all solution and the winner will be specific to an end use and/or a production process.

This makes sense as the traditional textile world itself includes many fabric types, production processes, and end uses. Despite the appearance of familiarly, this is an incredibly diverse and complex industry.  The technology composition will therefore be a mixed bag in the medium-term as e-textile manufacturers will likely select their conductor of choice based on the specific requirements of each application and their own existing production processes.

In the long-term, e-textile conductive inks will have a larger addressable market than all the other solutions. This is because they offer the highest degree of universal applicability: their integration is a post-production process that can be used by almost any textile manufacturer unless the fabrics cannot withstand high laminating temperatures or are very loose.

In the short to medium term, the risk however is that some end applications are more equal than others. For example, IDTechEx Research finds that smart sports clothing alone will make up 65% of the market by 2020. The challenge is therefore in identifying, targeting and winning in specific high-growth application sectors. IDTechEx Research can help you find and penetrate these sectors.

For more information please refer IDTechEx Research report, Conductive Ink Markets 2016-2026: Forecasts, Technologies, and Players.

Not the finished article yet

The ink technology however is not yet finished article. Achieving washability, direct-on-fabric printability, and high stretchability are challenging technical requirements. The industry is only beginning to accumulate expertise here. Therefore, this is the beginning of the beginning and we expect better e-textile conductive inks in the future.

The process currently is too complicated because the inks need to be printed and cured on a substrate such as TPU before being encapsulated using a similar substrate. The film then needs to be hot laminated over the fabric. This approach improves washability and durability, and does away with the technical headache of having to develop a different ink optimised for each fabric substrate, but screams out to be simplified.

TPU itself is the first choice of encapsulate but not likely to be the last. This is because it is not the most stretchable thus restricting the clothing-like feeling of e-textiles particularly if large areas are covered. Already companies are experimenting with othermaterial systems such as TPU/silicone combinations.

Silver costs can also be a limiting factor. This opens the way for carbon or graphene based inks in applications where high conductivity is not required. In the long term copper inks may also be an option but they have a long way to go to prove their reliability and technology maturity.

Silicon-carbide (SiC) power electronics from STMicroelectronics has enabled the creation of ZapCharger Portable, the world’s smallest, smartest, and safest electric-car charging station from Zaptec, an innovative start-up company that has revolutionized the transformer industry.

The market-first portable electric-car charger with built-in electronic transformer, ZapCharger works with any electric car on any grid. Excellent power-conversion capabilities of ST’s SiC MOSFET devices have enabled Zaptec engineers to design a portable, yet powerful piece of equipment. Ten times smaller and lighter than products with the comparable performance, the 3kg, 45 x 10 x 10cm charger delivers an energy efficiency of 97%.

Uncompromising on safety, the water- and weather-proof ZapCharger is fully galvanically insulated and continuously monitors the grid it is connected to. It dynamically adjusts the amount of power it delivers and can shut down immediately if it detects a fault, to protect the car. The charger offers GPRS connectivity and operates over an extended temperature range from -40 degrees C to +55 degrees C.

Inside the ZapCharger, 32 high-voltage SiC Power MOSFETs from ST deliver efficient power conversion with minimum losses. Compared with traditional (silicon) solutions, these components can sustain much higher voltages, currents, and temperatures, and their power-conversion circuits operate faster, enabling smaller, lighter designs, higher system efficiency, and reduced cooling requirements.

“The key for us was to find a power technology with a very high efficiency so we could reduce the overall size of the charger without compromising performance. ST’s silicon-carbide offering was the perfect match,” said Jonas Helmikstol, COO, Zaptec. “The support of ST as a strong and reliable partner helped us transform our invention into a product that dramatically changes the user experience and by allowing consumers to take their chargers anywhere eliminates ‘range anxiety” and can accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles worldwide.”

“Leveraging the exceptional efficiency of ST SiC Power MOSFETs, ingenious solutions like ZapCharger that can enable drivers to safely charge their vehicles anywhere are set to catalyze the growth of the e-car market and the smart-energy ecosystem as a whole,” said Philip Lolies, EMEA Vice President, Marketing & Application, STMicroelectronics. “Zaptec’s decision to rely on our advanced power technology confirms ST’s industry leadership and enabling role in the global trend towards Greener and Smarter Living.”

In addition to electric-car charging, Zaptec’s patented, prize-awarded electronic-transformer technology targets new applications in Industrial, Marine, and Space.

After successful field tests, ZapCharger is starting pilot production now, with volume ramp-up scheduled at the end of Q3 2016.

BioMEMS have been used for years, for plenty of applications. Some are linked to solid, mature, slow-growing industries, while others are part of booming applications that are adding new fuel to the bioMEMS market. According to Yole Développement (Yole) analysts, this market will triple from US$2.7 billion in 2015 to US$7.6 billion in 2021. Indeed, with the barrier between consumer and healthcare blurring, an increasing number of healthcare-related applications are using MEMS components, resulting in impressive market growth. Why is MEMS technology increasingly finding a sweet spot within the healthcare sector? What is the added-value of this technology? What are the drivers of this market? Who is developing what?…

Yole’s analysts propose today a high added-value survey of the BioMEMS components and their applications within the healthcare industry.

biomems_market_yole_april2016_433x280

Analysts from the “More than Moore” market research and strategy consulting company, Yole propose a comprehensive technology and market review of the microsystems for healthcare applications. Entitled BioMEMS: Microsytems for Healthcare Applications, this report provides an overview of the diverse bioMEMS components and applications, along with a detailed key players’ description at each level of the supply chain with market shares and related activities. It highlights threats and opportunities related to BioMEMS components along with market and technology trends. Yole’s analysis also details the challenges related to implantable devices and highlights the emergence of consumer healthcare with promising and booming applications.

Faced with an aging “baby boomer” population, healthcare is more important than ever. In-vitro diagnostics, pharmaceutical research, patient monitoring, drug delivery, and implantable devices: all of these fields is growing and system integrators need new innovative technologies. Adopting bioMEMS including accelerometers, pressure sensors, flow sensors, micropumps and others bring improved sensing and actuating functions for all of these healthcare fields. “MEMS components are increasingly used by healthcare system integrators,” says Sébastien Clerc, Technology & Market Analyst at Yole. “Indeed BioMEMS are used to bring new functionalities, improve performances and costs and enable miniaturized devices.”

And Yole details:
• Microfluidic devices will cover the largest part of the BioMEMS market in 2021 representing 86% of the total market. Microfluidic chips are increasingly used in life sciences applications. These components will enjoy a 19.2% every year between 2015 and 2021, driven by applications such as Point-of-Care testing.
• In parallel, silicon microphones and flow meters are showing a double digit growth during the 2015 – 2021 period (in value): respectively +23.3% and 18.3%. Though silicon microphones are still an emerging and small market, Yole’s analysts confirm the attractiveness of this MEMS technology for hearing aids application, where it brings higher performance than former technologies. They expect a fast penetration into these devices over the next five years. The trend is also positive for flow sensors: indeed the consulting company Yole highlights an increasing adoption of MEMS disposable devices for drug delivery applications. These disposable BioMEMS components are expected to take an important part of the MEMS flow sensor market in a near future. Until recently, flowmeters were relatively expensive devices and did not suit to drug delivery devices. However today the adoption of disposable sensors for this application opens new high-volumes opportunities for MEMS players. Price reduction was mandatory and MEMS technology successfully addressed the industry needs.

Many other bioMEMS components are also active within the healthcare industry. Yole’s analysts identified pressure sensors, accelerometers, gyroscopes, microdispensers, temperature sensors and more… Their market dynamics highly depend on the related applications and on the ability of MEMS makers to innovate. Lack of strong technical innovations and emerging applications are the characteristics of certain BioMEMS markets. Yole’s analysts give some examples below:
• The pressure sensors market for healthcare applications is showing a slowly growth. 75% of the market is dedicated to the blood monitoring applications. Established for decades, this market is mature with no real disruptive technologies. Reduction of the number of players and attempt to increase volumes are the main trends of this sector for the next years, analyzes Yole in its bioMEMS report. • Accelerometers market is also showing slow growth opportunities. Such devices are today mainly used for CRM applications (implantable pacemakers and defibrillators) which are growing slowly. New applications such as ballistocardiography or fall detection have the potential to boost this market but still represent very low volumes right now.

However the emergence of consumer could change the game and become a real opportunity for MEMS manufacturers with huge volumes. MEMS companies, involved within the consumer market are already considering the consumer healthcare sector. In the meantime, consumer giants acquire promising healthcare and biotech startups and are positioning themselves to address this market. Despite the great promises of consumer healthcare, it will take some time to reach its full potential, highlights the consulting company in its bioMEMS report. Performance, consumer acceptance, reimbursement, reliability, data security… Yole identified numerous barriers preventing rapid explosion of consumer healthcare. Various players have to sit around the table and discuss to find solutions and thus knock down these barriers: Yole expects it will take a few years until consumer healthcare devices are widely adopted.

The detection of carbon monoxide (CO) in the air is a vital issue, as CO is a poisonous gas and an environmental pollutant. CO typically derives from the incomplete combustion of carbon-based fuels, such as cooking gas and gasoline; it has no odor, taste, or colour and hence it is difficult to detect. Scientists have been investigating sensors that can determine CO concentration, and a team from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST), in tandem with the University of Toulouse, has found an innovative method to build such sensors.

As a tool for CO detection, scientists use extremely small wires: copper oxide nanowires. Copper oxide nanowires chemically react with CO, creating an electrical signal that can be used to quantify CO concentration. These nanowires are so thin that it is possible to fit more than 1.000 of them in the average thickness of a human hair.

This is an adaptation of a scanning electron microscopy image of copper oxide nanowires bridging the gap between neighbouring copper microstructures. Credit: OIST

This is an adaptation of a scanning electron microscopy image of copper oxide nanowires bridging the gap between neighbouring copper microstructures. Credit: OIST

Two issues have hampered the use of nanowires. “The first problem is the integration of nanowires into devices that are big enough to be handled and that can also be easily mass produced,” said Prof Mukhles Sowwan, director of the Nanoparticles by Design Unit at OIST. “The second issue is the ability to control the number and position of nanowires in such devices.” Both these difficulties might have been solved by Dr Stephan Steinhauer, postdoctoral scholar at OIST, together with Prof Sowwan, and researchers from the University of Toulouse. They recently published their research in the journal ACS Sensors.

“To create copper oxide nanowires, you need to heat neighbouring copper microstructures. Starting from the microstructures, the nanowires grow and bridge the gap between the microstructures, forming an electrical connection between them,” Dr Steinhauer explained. “We integrated copper microstructures on a micro-hotplate, developed by the University of Toulouse. A micro-hotplate is a thin membrane that can heat up to several hundred Celsius degrees, but with very low power consumption.” Thanks to the micro-hotplate, researchers have a high degree of control over the quantity and position of the nanowires. Also, the micro-hotplate provides scientists with data on the electrical signal that goes through the nanowires.

The final result is an exceptionally sensitive device, capable of detecting very low concentrations of CO. “Potentially, miniaturized CO sensors that integrate copper oxide nanowires with micro-hotplates are the first step towards the next generation of gas sensors,” Prof Sowwan commented. “In contrast to other techniques, our approach is cost effective and suitable for mass production.”

This new method could also help scientists in better understanding the sensor lifetime. The performance of a sensor decreases overtime, and this is a major issue in gas sensing. Data obtained with this method could help scientists in understanding the mechanisms behind such phenomenon, providing them with information that starts at the very beginning of the sensor lifetime. Traditionally, researchers first grow the nanowires, then connect the nanowires to a device, and finally start measuring the CO concentration. “Our method allows to grow the nanowires in a controlled atmosphere, where you can immediately perform gas sensing measurements,” Dr Steinhauer noted. “Basically, you stop growing and start measuring, all in the same location.”

Inkjet printing market is in transformation: “Not a revolution, but an evolution,” announces Yole Développement (Yole) in its latest MEMS report, Inkjet Printhead Market & Technology Trends report. And MEMS technology is largely contributing to that changes.

This new Yole’s inkjet printhead report, is gathering technology and market data collected during interviews with system and device manufacturers and equipment & materials suppliers. Under this new technology & market analysis, the consulting company proposes an overview of the MEMS inkjet printhead industry including applications trends, market quantification, list of key players and related market shares. Yole’s analysts detail the printhead industry ecosystem with a relevant competitive analysis and a detailed description of the supply chain. This report also includes a comprehensive technology roadmap.

With a market reaching US$ 1 billion in 2021 (CAGR : 1.8% between 2016 and 2021), the MEMS printhead is one of the most mature MEMS devices.

Without any doubts, MEMS technology is one of the key factor fostering access to new applications and markets. Yole highlights for example the introduction of thin film PZT deposition processes for better control and higher resolution. Industrial companies are also offering better accuracy and scalability of MEMS dies for higher integration first and then to allow single pass printing for high quality and throughput. At the end, the use of semiconductor serial processes directly impacts the printhead price compared to conventional printhead allowing significant cost reduction.
The transition is not only coming from the technology evolution and the MEMS printhead manufacturers (technology push) but also from the market with specific requirements (market pull):

“Today, MEMS technology is not only offering printing capabilities,” asserts Jérôme Mouly, Technology & Market Analyst, Yole. And he adds: “MEMS will create a new ecosystem including services and products around printing from manufacturing to dispensing and IoT.”

Amid this market (r)evolution, MEMS printhead manufacturer landscape has changed in the last 5 years due to high competitiveness in printing industry:
• The industry is today mainly made of large enterprise, led by HP Inc., representing 57% market share followed by Canon and Epson.
• Some companies are currently developing new MEMS-based products. They will give a new leverage to MEMS printead mature market. These companies including XAAR, Konica Minolta, Ricoh and Océ, are already players in conventional printheads sectors

According to Yole’s analysts, the MEMS printhead market is still expected to change in the next period. Yole already sees signs of changes:
• Lexmark sold its inkjet business to Funai in 2013.
• The major players HP Inc., Canon and Epson are diversifying activity from consumer to new printing opportunities.
• Most of the conventional piezo printhead players is more and more interested in MEMS technology to reach new markets

What are inkjet printheads writing in the future? MEMS printhead market will generate revenues combining flat sales coming from consumer market with relatively lower volume with high value printheads. From the technology side, emerging solutions will increase resolution, speed of ink to fire and suppress lead-based actuator materials to more and more environmental solutions. And companies will continue to invest in MEMS technologies using foundry services, to use the foundries’ technical knowledge and optimize manufacturing costs.

A detailed description of the MEMS printhead report is available on i-micronews.com, MEMS & Sensors reports section.

Nanoelectronics research center imec, Holst Centre (set up by imec and TNO) and micro-electronic design house Barco Silex, belonging to the Barco group, today announced that they will collaborate to implement data security into sensors for wearable devices and Internet of Things (IoT) sensor networks. The organizations are coming together to bring data security for the IoT to the next level.

Smart wearables for lifestyle and health monitoring as well as many other personal IoT applications are evolving with a plethora of capabilities at a rapid pace. However, trust is key for a broad adoption and the implementation of a true intuitive IoT society -with sensors invisibly embedded everywhere in the environment, measuring all kind of parameters and making smart decisions- to support everyday life. The smart society can only become a reality when the sensor technology is trusted by their users and the privacy of the users’ data is guaranteed at all time. Data security for the IoT is therefore considered as one of the main challenges to solve.

Current security solutions for IoT are designed for communication within one application domain or network. To realize a higher level of security, novel concepts for authentication, onboarding and end-to-end security in heterogeneous IoT networks are needed. Imec, Holst Centre and Barco Silex’ collaboration aims to leverage the technology and design expertise of imec and Holst Centre with the security IP portfolio of Barco Silex to develop novel chip architectures for secure ultra-low power sensors, and novel security concepts for reliable heterogeneous networks. Barco Silex will deliver the needed embedded security solution including crypto IP blocks to be implemented into imec’s multisensor IC for wearables and imec’s demonstrator platform for IoT. Imec will develop novel compute and memory architectures for minimal overhead of the secure implementation on the overall cost and power consumption of the sensors. In a next step, imec will study the impact of secure communication on throughput, response time and other performance aspects of heterogeneous IoT networks.

“This collaboration is part of a roadmap on a secure and intuitve IoT. Close collaborations with security experts like Barco Silex, but also with excellent research groups from KULeuven and iMinds will offer the imec ecosystem to develop novel and complete solutions for secure wearables and heterogeneous IoT networks. The program is open for new companies to join us on this exciting journey!” stated Kathleen Philips, program director  perceptive systems for an Intuitive IoT at imec.

“We are very pleased to be part of imec’s ambitious R&D program on intuitive IoT.” said Thierry Watteyne, CEO of Barco Silex. “This exciting collaboration is the recognition of the quality and flexibility of our security solutions. In addition it will help our developers to push our embedded security platforms solutions to the next level, especially in terms of optimizing the low power-high security equation within the chip architecture.”