Category Archives: Applications

Bosch Sensortec announced that its CEO, Dr. Stefan Finkbeiner, has been chosen by the MEMS & Sensors Industry Group to receive its prestigious MEMS/Sensors Lifetime Achievement Award.

Stefan Finkbeiner: CEO of Bosch Sensortec (PRNewsFoto/Bosch Sensortec)

Stefan Finkbeiner: CEO of Bosch Sensortec (PRNewsFoto/Bosch Sensortec)

The award was made at the recent MEMS Executive Congress US 2015 in Napa, California.

Dr. Finkbeiner was appointed as CEO of Bosch Sensortec in 2012, having previously served as General Manager and CEO of Akustica Inc, a Bosch Group company which develops MEMS microphones for consumer electronics applications and is located in Pittsburgh, PA, USA. Dr. Finkbeiner joined Robert Bosch GmbH in 1995 and has been working for more than 17 years in different positions related to the research, development, manufacturing, and marketing of sensors. Senior positions at Bosch have included Director of Marketing for sensors, Director of Corporate Research in microsystems technology, and Vice President of Engineering for sensors.

MEMS Industry Group (MIG) is the trade association advancing MEMS and sensors across global markets. Its members comprise nearly 200 companies and industry partners.

Now in its eleventh year, MEMS Executive Congress is an annual event that brings together business leaders from a broad spectrum of industries: automotive, communications, consumer goods, energy/environmental, industrial and medical.

Security by design


November 13, 2015

Chowdary_Yanamadala-150x150By Chowdary Yanamadala, Senior Vice President of Business Development, ChaoLogix

The advent of Internet-connected devices, the so-called Internet of Things (IoT), offers myriad opportunities and significant risks. The pervasive collection and sharing of data by IoT devices constitutes the core value proposition for most IoT applications. However, it is our collective responsibility, as an industry, to secure the transport and storage of the data. Failing to properly secure the data risks turning the digital threat into a physical threat.  

Properly securing IoT systems requires layering security solutions. Data must be secured at both the network and hardware level. As a hardware example, let’s concentrate, on the embedded security implemented by semiconductor chips.

Authentication and encryption are the two main crypto functions utilized to ensure data security. With the mathematical security of the standardized algorithms (such as AES, ECDSA, SHA512, etc.) is intact, hackers often exploit the implementation defects to compromise the inherent security provided by the algorithms.

One of the most dangerous and immediate threats to data security is a category of attacks called Side Chanel Analysis attacks (SCA). SCA attacks exploit the power consumption signature during the execution of the crypto algorithms. This type of attack is called Differential Power Analysis (DPA). Another potent attack form of SCA is exploiting the Electromagnetic emanations that are occurring during the execution of the crypto algorithm – or Differential Electromagnetic Analysis attacks (DEMA).

Both DPA and DEMA attacks rely on the fact that sensitive data, such as secret keys, leaks via the power signature (or EM signature) during execution of the crypto algorithm.

DPA and DEMA attacks are especially dangerous, not only because of their effectiveness in exploiting security vulnerabilities but also due the low cost of the equipment required for the attack. An attacker can carry out DPA attacks against most security chips using equipment costing less than $2,000.

There are two fundamental ways to solve the threat of DPA and DEMA. One approach is to address the symptoms of the problem. This involves adding significant noise to the power signature in order to obfuscate the sensitive data leakage. This is an effective technique.  However, it is an ad-hoc and temporary measure against a potent threat to data security. Chip manufacturers can also apply this technique as a security patch, or afterthought, once  and architecture work is completed.

Another way (and arguably a much better way) to solve the threat of DPA is to address the problem at the source. The source of the threat derives from the leakage of sensitive data the form of power signature variations. The power signature captured during the crypto execution is dependent on the secret key that is processed during the crypto execution. This makes the power signature indicative of the secret key.

What if we address the problem by minimizing the relation between the power signature and the secret key that is used for crypto computation? Wouldn’t this offer a superior security? Doesn’t addressing the problem at the source provide more fundamental security? And arguably a more permanent security solution?

Data security experts call this Security By Design. It is obvious that solving a problem at the source is a fundamentally better approach than providing symptomatic relief to the problems. This is true in the case of data security as well. In order to achieve the solution (against the threat of DPA and DEMA) at the source, chip designers and architects need to build the security into the architecture.

Security needs to be a deliberate design specification and needs to be worked into the fabric of the design. Encouragingly, more and more chip designers are moving away from addressing security as an afterthought and embracing security by design.

As an industry, we design chips for performance, power, yield and testability. Now it is time to start designing for security. This is especially true for chips used in IoT applications. These chips tend to be small, have limited computational power and under tight cost constraints. It is, therefore, difficult, and in some cases impossible, to apply security patches as an afterthought. The sound approach is to start weaving security into the building blocks of these chips.

In sum, designing security into a chip is as much about methodology as it is about acquiring various technology and tools. As IoT applications expand and the corresponding demand for inherently secure chips grows, getting this methodology right will be a key to successful deployment of secure IoT systems.

Related data security articles: 

Security should not be hard to implement

ChaoLogix introduces ChaoSecure technology to boost semiconductor chip security

From laptops and televisions to smartphones and tablets, semiconductors have made advanced electronics possible. These types of devices are so pervasive, in fact, that Northwestern Engineering’s Matthew Grayson says we are living in the “Semiconductor Age.”

“You have all these great applications like computer chips, lasers, and camera imagers,” said Grayson, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science in Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering. “There are so many applications for semiconductor materials, so it’s important that we can characterize these materials carefully and accurately. Non-uniform semiconductors lead to computer chips that fail, lasers that burn out, and imagers with dark spots.”

Grayson’s research team has created a new mathematical method that has made semiconductor characterization more efficient, more precise, and simpler. By flipping the magnetic field and repeating one measurement, the method can quantify whether or not electrical conductivity is uniform across the entire material – a quality required for high-performance semiconductors.

“Up until now, everyone would take separate pieces of the material, measure each piece, and compare differences to quantify non-uniformity,” Grayson said. “That means you need more time to make several different measurements and extra material dedicated for diagnostics. We have figured out how to measure a single piece of material in a magnetic field while flipping the polarity to deduce the average variation in the density of electrons across the sample.”

Remarkably, the contacts at the edge of the sample reveal information about the variations happening throughout the body of the sample.

Supported by funding from the Air Force’s Office of Scientific Research, Grayson’s research was published on October 28 online in the journal Physical Review Letters. Graduate student Wang Zhou is first author of the paper.

One reason semiconductors have so many applications is because researchers and manufacturers can control their properties. By adding impurities to the material, researchers can modulate the semiconductor’s electrical properties. The trick is making sure that the material is uniformly modulated so that every part of the material performs equally well. Grayson’s technique allows researchers and manufacturers to directly quantify such non-uniformities.

“When people see non-uniform behavior, sometimes they just throw out the material to find a better piece,” Grayson said. “With our information, you can find a piece of the material that’s more uniform and can still be used. Or you can use the information to figure out how to balance out the next sample.”

Grayson’s method can be applied to samples as large as a 12-inch wafer or as small as an exfoliated 10-micron flake, allowing researchers to profile the subtleties in a wide range of semiconductor samples. The method is especially useful for 2-D materials, such as graphene, which are too small for researchers to make several measurements across the surface.

Grayson has filed a patent on the method, and he hopes the new technique will find use in academic laboratories and industry.

“There are companies that mass produce semiconductors and need to know if the material is uniform before they start making individual computer chips,” Grayson said. “Our method will give them better feedback during sample preparation. We believe this is a fundamental breakthrough with broad impact.”

Today’s device manufacturers must piece together disparate, component-level software to create sensor-based wearable devices–often at the expense of accuracy and power consumption. Manufacturers of wearable devices are looking for cost-effective, turnkey solutions that function as a system to provide faster time to market, increased functionality, superior performance, and supply-chain flexibility. In response, Hillcrest Labs today unveiled its MotionEngine (TM) Wear software with always-on, sensor-enabled features optimized for the latest generation of wearable devices.

According to industry research firm IDC, the worldwide wearables market will reach a total of 76.1 million units in 2015, up 163.6% from 2014, and 173.4 million units by 2019, resulting in a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.9%. Hillcrest’s MotionEngine Wear offers device makers the ability to quickly create differentiated wearable products across the health, fitness, and lifestyle segments of this growing market. MotionEngine Wear is designed for smartwatches, activity and fitness bands, health and sleep monitors, and smart clothing. The small software footprint and low power profile make it a match for devices targeted to the mass market, active or sports segment, commercial and industrial markets, or for fashion accessories.

“Sensors play a key role in wearable devices but how these sensors are used to deliver a compelling and convenient user experience is even more critical to the success of a wearable product today,” said Chad Lucien, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Hillcrest Labs. “We are proud to offer our MotionEngine Wear software to manage and enhance the performance of sensors found in wearable devices–enabling high performance, low power motion-based applications, and providing the foundation for new user experiences.”

MotionEngine Wear provides high quality context awareness; tracks users’ daily activities such as walking, running, and sleeping; and simplifies the user experience with intuitive gesture controls. Unique power reduction algorithms provide always-on sensing without compromising the accuracy, reliability, or functionality of a wearable device. MotionEngine Wear is compatible with today’s widely used system architectures, including ARM Cortex-M, Cadence Tensilica Fusion DSP, and Synopsys ARC EM. It is OS independent, so it can be deployed when using platforms with Android, Android Wear, Tizen, WebOS, and RTOS, or others. Furthermore, it supports sensors from the leading suppliers to ensure lower costs, flexible implementations, and faster time to market.

Lucien continued: “With MotionEngine Wear, manufacturers are not locked into any one component supplier or system architecture. MotionEngine Wear therefore provides manufacturers with a highly flexible solution that enables faster time to market, product line diversity and lower costs.”

“Wearable devices are rapidly becoming more sophisticated, moving beyond simple health and fitness tracking devices to support a myriad of advanced features, from sleep monitoring to gesture recognition,” said Ramon Llamas, Research Manager with IDC’s Wearables Program. “For the next generation of wearable devices, manufacturers need simple, cost-effective solutions to meet consumers’ expectations for a consistent and accurate user experience. Solutions like Hillcrest’s MotionEngine Wear, that are compatible with a variety of low power MCUs and support sensors from leading suppliers, offer manufacturers maximum flexibility to innovate as new technologies are introduced in the wearables market.

There are many uses and applications for wearable devices, including Health and Fitness, Lifestyle, Augmented and Virtual Reality, and Motion Capture. These categories of devices each have distinct feature requirements but share in the need to maintain low costs, minimize power consumption, and extract maximum performance out of the available sensors. Hillcrest has developed a portfolio of products to address these needs. MotionEngine Wear offers the foundation for a variety of wearable device applications, including:

  • Accurate Activity Tracking: Algorithms specifically tuned for wearable devices can automatically track a variety of users’ daily physical activities, such as walking and running steps taken and stairs climbed, to provide an assessment of exercise program effectiveness.
  • Advanced Sleep Monitoring: The proprietary sleep-state algorithm uses a low power method to capture motion data related to users’ sleep quality and present results.
  • Context Awareness: Automatic detection of when the user is in a vehicle, such as a car, or if the user is riding a bicycle to allow the user interface to adapt to different modes of use.
  • Precise Compass Heading and Orientation: Hillcrest’s calibration and sensor fusion algorithms ensure precise, drift- and jitter-free device orientation and compass heading to provide the foundation for navigation applications.
  • Intuitive Gesture Controls: Users can perform motion gestures to interact naturally with devices, such as the “glance” gesture, which is used to detect when a user looks at the front-facing screen.

OMRON Corporation, which is in the field of automation based on its core sensing and control technology, and Adept Technology, Inc., a provider of intelligent robots, autonomous mobile robot solutions and services, today announced that the two companies have entered into an agreement whereby OMRON will acquire Adept.

OMRON plans to acquire 100% of the outstanding shares of Adept common stock through an all-cash tender offer followed by a second-step merger. OMRON will offer Adept investors $13.00 per share of Adept common stock, which represents a 63% premium over the closing price for Adept’s common stock on September 15, 2015. This values Adept at approximately $200 million. OMRON will fund the tender offer through cash on hand.

The tender offer is expected to commence on or about September 23, 2015, and the transaction is expected to close on or about October 23, 2015. The closing of the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including at least a majority of shares of Adept common stock being tendered in the offer, expiration of the applicable waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 and receipt of required foreign antitrust approvals. The transaction has been unanimously approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies.

Commenting on the acquisition, Yutaka Miyanaga, OMRON Industrial Automation Business Company President, said, “We are delighted Adept Technology, a world leader in robotics, has agreed to join OMRON. This acquisition is part of our strategy to enhance our automation technology and position us for long term growth. Robotics will elevate our offering of advanced automation.”

Rob Cain, President and Chief Executive Officer of Adept, added, “We are excited about the opportunity to join OMRON, a global leader in automation. Together, our products will offer new innovative solutions to customers all around the globe.”

Following the transaction, Rob Cain will continue to lead Adept and will report to Nigel Blakeway, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of Omron Management Center of America, Inc., OMRON’s wholly owned United States subsidiary.

As global manufacturing comes under even more pressure to cut costs, shorten supply cycles and operate across global environments, production sites around the world strive to improve productivity. Increased use of labor-saving robots is one of the solutions. By adding the robotics technology of Adept to its current offering, OMRON will be positioned to provide manufacturers in the automotive, digital device, food and beverage, packaging, and other industries with solutions to these challenges, as well as engineering support.

Founded in 1983, Adept is listed on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol ADEP. The company recorded annual sales of $54.2 million and gross margin of 42.0% in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2015. The company is a U.S. based manufacturer of industrial robots. Adept’s product lines include autonomous mobile robots, industrial robots, configurable linear modules, machine controllers for robot mechanisms and other flexible automation equipment, as well as machine vision systems and software. Adept’s strategy is to provide a broad range of highly reliable integrated products along with world-class service to allow manufacturers to maximize productivity, safety, flexibility and product quality. This acquisition is a part of the acceleration of OMRON’s “ILO+S” (Input, Logic, Output and Safety) strategy for its Industrial Automation Business, which provides automation solutions for the manufacturing industries.

The future of MEMS in the IoT


September 3, 2015

By Pete Singer, Editor-in-Chief

SEMI’s European MEMS Summit will be held on 17-18 September 2015 in Milan, Italy. Over the course of the two-day event, more than 20 keynote and invited speakers from the entire supply chain will share their perspectives and latest updates, including participation by European MEMS leaders. In addition, a focused industry exhibition will complement the conferences offering with additional networking opportunities.

In advance of the event, we asked members of the conference steering committee about what’s happening in the world of MEMS. Answers came from:

  • Stefan Finkbeiner, CEO Bosch Sensortec
  • Benedetto Vigna, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Analog MEMS, and Sensors Group, STMicroelectronics
  • Christophe Zinck, Senior Application Engineering Manager, ASE Group
  • Eric Mounier, Senior Analyst MEMS, Yole Developpement
  • Martina Vogel, Officer of the Director of the Institute, Fraunhofer ENAS
  • Yann Guillou, Business Development Manager and MEMS Summit event Manager, SEMI Europe Grenoble Office

Q: What do you see as the big trends and challenges in MEMS and their applications, particularly with regard to the IoT.

“The application of MEMS sensors to the IoT-enabled markets (e.g. wearables, smart home, etc.) will require sensors to shrink further and to work even more power-efficient as in smartphones,” said Dr. Stefan Finkbeiner, CEO Bosch Sensortec. “In particular, the application side of the sensor will demand more attention. The value-add of a sensor must be convincing to become designed into a certain product,” he added.

Finkbeiner said he sees a big market pull for gas sensors such as the Bosch in-door air quality sensor, the BME680. “That trend is visible for the smartphone as well as for the IoT-enabled markets, like for example the Smart Home market,” he said.

Martina Vogel, officer of the director of the institute, Fraunhofer ENAS, said: “We see, that MEMS exist almost everywhere in our daily lives – in our homes, our cars, our workplaces – and yet they go largely unnoticed. Despite this low profile, microsystems have undergone rapid development in the last two decades, evolving from miniaturized single-function systems into increasingly complex integrated systems. From our point of view we call these complex integrated systems, smart integrated systems.

From performance point of view we distinguish between different generations of smart systems. The first and the second generation entered into diverse applications. The first generation of Smart Systems consisted of several packages of components connected on a single substrate, or printed circuit board. These devices are commercially available in medical applications such as hearing aids and pacemakers, as well as in automotive applications such as airbag systems. The best-known example of a second-generation Smart System is the ubiquitous smart phone, which has seen great commercial success.

Smart systems of the third generation are self-sufficient intelligent technical systems or subsystems with advanced functionality, which bring together sensing, actuation and data processing, informatics / communications. Therefore these systems are not only able to sense but to diagnose, describe and manage any given situation. They are highly reliable and their operation is further enhanced by their ability to mutually address, identify and work in consort with each other. Such smart systems will be the hardware basis for the internet of things (IoT).”

From technology point of view, Vogel said such systems “are not limited to silicon–based technologies but integrate polymer-based technologies, printing technologies (e.g. for printed antennas, printed sensors, displays or batteries), different nanotechnologies (e.g spintronic devices, CNT based devices or devices based on embedded nanoparticles) and even embroidering technologies for sensors.”

Benedetto Vigna, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Analog MEMS, and Sensors Group, STMicroelectronics, said: “The next wave of MEMS development is moving toward actuation and, while the ripples from these beautiful little machines have been building slowly for years, they are converging quickly with the Internet of Things (IoT). We are beginning to see new applications such as tiny mirrors that enable people to interact more naturally with technology, smaller, faster autofocus solutions for mobile phones, and new types of printheads for 3D printing — and this is just the beginning.”

Christophe Zinck, senior application engineering manager, ASE Group, said the big trends and challenges from his perspective are “form factor (especially height), co-integration (flexibility to be used in different modules/SiP (in term of packaging of course but also compatibility with different wireless standard), power consumption and, of course, cost.”

Eric Mounier, senior analyst MEMS, Yole Developpement, said: “For us, MEMS is just a technology among others that could answer the IoT’s requirements for sensors. Indeed, type of sensing required for IoT is very broad: Inertial sensing, chemical sensing , pressure sensing, light sensing … any physical event.

Sensor for the internet of things follow several requirements, Mournier says:

  • Low power consumption (Due to the integration in wireless battery powered modules)
  • Small form factor (Due to the need for small wireless sensors)
  • Low cost (As IoT large expansion lies in the availability of low cost sensors)

For now, several sensing solutions exist in different fields (inertial sensors in smartphones for example). But strong challenges still have to be overcome:

  • New sensing solutions (such as MEMS chemical sensors, etc.)
  • Low cost, highly integrated solutions (via 3D stacking, etc.)
  • Standardization; The IoT is the accumulation of thousands of different applications requiring low cost solutions, but with limited volumes. Developing one sensor per application is not possible due to development costs.

“I am pretty confident MEMS will be used for IoT, specially for gas/chemical sensing. MEMS technologies for gas sensors have many advantages compared to other technologies: Up to 50% size reduction and cost reduction, CMOS scalable technology,” Mournier said. “With cost and miniaturization to be a driving force for consumer and industrial Iot applications, it opens the way to new technologies such as MEMS.”

Q: Sensor fusion is an intriguing thought and the ultimate device might have multiple sensors integrated with energy harvesting, a thin film battery, a microprocessor/ASIC, wireless communication capability, etc. How far away from that are we? What are the big challenges? Is it cost? Integration? Packaging? Form factor? What are the leading applications?

ST’s Vigna said “We are already well on the sensor-fusion path that contains multiple sensors integrated with a thin-film battery, a microprocessor/ASIC, and wireless communication capability. The two technical challenges are low-power radio and high-efficiency (energy) harvester.”

Finkbeiner said Bosch Sensortec already provides leading edge sensor fusion SW integrated within a multi-sensor 9-axis device powered by an ARM µController. “This single package device – the BNO055 – is already available and specifically targeting at motion sensing and orientation detection applications in the IoT-enabled markets. Energy harvesting and thin film batteries might still be a bit too far away from being capable of offering enough energy for this particular use case at reasonably small size. But there’s a lot of research in this area. The challenges? Yes, cost/price is always the main driver. Small size is also important. It allows for small form factor products and better placement flexibility.”

Fraunhofer’s Vogel said there is a lot of work carried out with in ECSEL and especially EPoSS. “EPoSS the industry driven Euroean Platform on smart system integration is just working more than 10 years in this field,” she said. “Big challenges are of course packaging and integration from technology point of view. But also issues like big data handling and data security in the internet need to be solved.”

Vogel said market reports concerning IoT predict two trends:

  • Printed electronic systems that will enable – low cost sensing. Printing technologies, such as roll-to-roll (R2R) will enable extremely large volumes and low cost. Also expect disposable devices with a short lifespan.
  • Sensor “swarms” for inorganic sensing. Devices will have complete integration of sensing, processing RF, energy harvesting, on single small chip ( <1mm2).

ASE’s Zinck said he didn’t see things going that far, “but each sensor fusion is quite specific and current modules are often using custom ASIC, MEMS, etc. The next big challenge is flexibility for co-integration and this will require availability of bare die on the market, otherwise small and efficient SiPs won’t be easily available if you cannot mix best solutions available on the market (in terms of performance and cost, of course).

Zinck said there are also lots of challenges regarding packaging, including compartmental shielding to avoid parasitic between components, antenna on package (especially for wearable), and test.

Q: We’re hearing a lot about wearables and medical applications, but what about applications in the smart home, smart city, smart grid, industrial and, of course, automotive ?

Vigna said: “There are already numerous applications for MEMS in Smart Environments, Smart Driving, and Smart Things and many of ST’s customers are leading that charge by combining elements of ST’s complete portfolio. We’ve got customers using ST MEMS, MCUs, analog and power, and connectivity products in smart thermostats, smart lighting, smart meters, and Smart Driving applications. If you’re not hearing enough about these, it is only because the wearable and medical applications may be sexier.”

Finkbeiner said: The sensors for the other IoT-enabled markets like smart home, smart grid etc. are available or already being developed … what is lacking is the corresponding infrastructure, that means the upper layers for aggregating, collecting and intelligent interpretation of the vast sensor data and bringing them into the cloud. This will for example require standards how to handle sensor data at an higher, more abstract level. But that’s beyond the domain of the MEMS sensor suppliers. At Bosch we have therefore founded Bosch Connected Devices & Solutions, a business unit which develops complete solutions based upon our MEMS sensors.

Vogel said: “Just several years ago Frost and Sullivan pointed out that smart is the new green. The concept of ‘Smart Earth’ is, in fact, the in-depth application of a new generation of network and information technologies. Smart cities arise worldwide. Global concepts for smart production are under development. The Internet of Things – IoT – including smart grid, smart health, smart city, smart buildings, smart home, smart production and smart mobility provides not only big opportunities but is requesting more highly integrated smart systems from the hardware side. The total number of connected devices is expected to grow rapidly. Electronic components and systems are a pervasive key enabling technology, impacting all industrial branches and almost all aspects of life.”

Zinck said: “Wearables and medical are driving SiPs developments as low power and very aggressive from factor, at low cost are mandatory. Smart home, smart city, etc. are using a lot of MEMS and sensors, but the challenges are not exactly the same, some are similar in particular for Smart home (low power, wireless modules, etc.) but there is less pressure on form factors.”

Automotive is a different topic, says Zinck. “The trend we can see is to go smaller for sure, but for the moment it implies move away from leaded packages to leadless, with specific technology developments like wettable flank QFN.  Also for automotive two categories have to be clearly distinguished:

  • Non-safety applications (like Infotainment):  basically similar trend as consumer MEMS, with more and more sensors in the cabin (uphones, pressure, etc.)
  • Safety applications: very robust have to be used, but some “intelligent SiPs” are already available like QFN 7×7 TPMS (featuring an accelerometer + ASIC + pressure sensor).

Q: Europe in general is very strong in MEMS for various reasons. Why does it make sense to have the MEMS Summit in Europe?

SEMI’s Yann Guillou said Europe is home to several strong IDMs in MEMS, and most notably home to Bosch and STMicroelectronics. “These MEMS leaders are often identified as the industry’s ‘Titans’. These IDMs have contributed enormously to the European industry, but they have also benefited from a strong value chain in the region: RTOs, equipment and materials companies, foundries, etc. Having such leaders in the region is definitively a differentiating factor for Europe in a MEMS and sensor industry that is facing mounting competition. With the IoT, many new business opportunities may arise and increase the competition. This might shake up the current state of the industry,” he said.

Organizing such event in Europe was pretty straightforward. We took this decision more than 1 year ago and it looks like this decision was right. Today more than 200 people are already registered for this event and we expect to go beyond. I see lot of non-European companies planning to attend, including many US and Asian companies. Interest is strong in Asia for this event. People from Korea, Taiwan and China will be attending. As an example, we will be pleased to receive the visit of a Chinese delegation interested to develop business and technology partnerships with European companies.

Batteries have not been a triumph of rapid innovation – from lead acid, nickel-cadmium, to nickel-metal-hydride and lithium-ion batteries, the development of batteries has significantly lagged many other components. For example, lithium-ion batteries, which are the mostly successful commercial battery system nowadays, have only seen a 1.6 times improvement in energy density over the last 24 years. Not exactly a follower of Moore’s Law like progress. It is already very optimistic to expect the energy density of lithium-ion battery to increase another 30 percent in five years time. Materials that can be chosen for the battery development are also limited. Companies see the challenge – and opportunity.

One significant development has been flexible battery technologies. However, even though thin, flexible batteries have been available for over fifteen years they have had limited commercial success. That is not really a surprise: they have been more expensive, offer lower capacity and have a shorter shelf life than regular button cell or larger batteries.

As a result, they have tried to exploit their thinness and flexibility as a way to differentiate – doing something that regular batteries cannot do.  Successes have been found in a small number of niche applications, such as powered skin patches, where the battery provides a voltage across an area of skin, opening the pores and allowing the anti-wrinkle cosmetic on the patch to be absorbed about ten times more quickly versus non-powered patches, an effect known as iontophoresis. For a patch applied to a face, that product is only possible with an unobtrusive thin and flexible battery. It created a new product category and price point – here the flexible battery was not a value sell proposition but an enabling sell.

However, despite a few pockets of success companies have been largely struggling to gain big commercial traction – new product categories need to be created rather than using these as a replacement versus the cheaper, higher performing incumbents.

Apple, Samsung, LG Chem Move into the Flexible Battery Business

Now the world’s largest consumer electronics companies such as Apple, LG and Samsung have moved into the development of flexible battery technology and that’s due in a large part to the wearable technology market, which will help drive the flexible battery market from US$ 6.9 million in 2015 to over US$ 400 million in 2025, according to IDTechEx Research.

Wearable electronics and IoT devices will increasingly require battery attributes such as thinness, flexibility, light weight and low charging thresholds to not just differentiate, but create new markets. Indeed, they already have – the powered cosmetic skin patch from Estee Lauder using a printed battery must have some claim to being one of the earliest successes of flexible wearable electronics.

Investment in flexible batteries is but one of the key areas of progress for truly wearable electronics. The first approach has been to reduce the energy consumption of electronics, such as the CPU and displays, in addition to making larger components, such as displays, flexible. Another direction is the charging method, such as integrating energy harvesting, rapid charging and wireless charging.

Now huge emerging topics such as wearable technology and IoT require some different parameters for the battery, such as ultra-thinness, small physical footprints, flexibility and light weight which are becoming increasingly prized.

While there is still progress to be made in both the performance of the battery technology and scaling up manufacturing, new products are appearing at a fast rate. In April this year Qualcomm unveiled a new product concept at the IDTechEx Printed Electronics Europe event in conjunction with printed battery provider Enfucell. This is a sensing label for golfers – stick the label on your golf club and play your game, with the label providing data via an app on your phone telling you information such as speed, angle and tempo of each swing. The electronics and battery form a single monolithic device.

In another example printed battery provider Blue Spark Technologies have launched a smart band-aid known as TempTraq, which reports your sick child’s temperature to your cellphone via a flexible band-aid powered by a flexible battery powering a low energy bluetooth circuit and sensor.

Source: IDTechEx Research report Flexible, Printed and Thin Film Batteries 2015-2025

Source: IDTechEx Research report Flexible, Printed and Thin Film Batteries 2015-2025

In the report Flexible, Printed and Thin Film Batteries 2015-2025 IDTechEx Research concludes that the current thin film battery market will change radically over the next years as grows – with wearable technology becoming the largest share of that, as pictured.

Knowm Inc., a start-up pioneering next-generation advanced computing architectures and technology, today announced they are the first to develop and make commercially-available memristors with bi-directional incremental learning capability. The device was developed through research from Boise State University’s Dr. Kris Campbell, and this new data unequivocally confirms Knowm’s memristors are capable of bi-directional incremental learning. This has been previously deemed impossible in filamentary devices by Knowm’s competitors, including IBM, despite significant investment in materials, research and development. With this advancement, Knowm delivers the first commercial memristors that can adjust resistance in incremental steps in both direction rather than only one direction with an all-or-nothing ‘erase’. This advancement opens the gateway to extremely efficient and powerful machine learning and artificial intelligence applications.

“Having commercially-available memristors with bi-directional voltage-dependent incremental capability is a huge step forward for the field of machine learning and, particularly, AHaH Computing,” said Alex Nugent, CEO and co-founder of Knowm. “We have been dreaming about this device and developing the theory for how to apply them to best maximize their potential for more than a decade, but the lack of capability confirmation had been holding us back. This data is truly a monumental technical milestone and it will serve as a springboard to catapult Knowm and AHaH Computing forward.”

Memristors with the bi-directional incremental resistance change property are the foundation for developing learning hardware such as Knowm Inc.’s recently announced Thermodynamic RAM (kT-RAM) and help realize the full potential of AHaH Computing. The availability of kT-RAM will have the largest impact in fields that require higher computational power for machine learning tasks like autonomous robotics, big-data analysis and intelligent Internet assistants. kT-RAM radically increases the efficiency of synaptic integration and adaptation operations by reducing them to physically adaptive ‘analog’ memristor-based circuits. Synaptic integration and adaptation are the core operations behind tasks such as pattern recognition and inference. Knowm Inc. is the first company in the world to bring this technology to market.

Knowm is ushering in the next phase of computing with the first general-purpose neuromemristive processor specification. Earlier this year the company announced the commercial availability of the first products in support of the kT-RAM technology stack. These include the sale of discrete memristor chips, a Back End of Line (BEOL) CMOS+memristor service, the SENSE and Application Servers and their first application named “Knowm Anomaly”, the first application built based on the theory of AHaH Computing and kT-RAM architecture. Knowm also simultaneously announced the company’s visionary developer program for organizations and individual developers. This includes the Knowm API, which serves as development hardware and training resources for co-developing the Knowm technology stack.

New “thermodynamic RAM” (kT-RAM) artificial neural network (ANN) architecture from Knowm is inherent adaptive, and built with memristors capable of bi-directional incremental resistance changes for efficient learning. (Source: Knowm)

New “thermodynamic RAM” (kT-RAM) artificial neural network (ANN) architecture from Knowm is inherent adaptive, and built with memristors capable of bi-directional incremental resistance changes for efficient learning. (Source: Knowm)

Energy storage players are eyeing emerging opportunities in bioelectronics as wearable, implantable and other medical devices create energy demands and design requirements beyond conventional batteries, according to Lux Research.

Existing battery solutions barely satisfy the demands for increased functionality and power in existing medical devices and may have slowed the shift toward personalized health care in many areas of medicine.

“Developers of energy storage must understand the required application-specific optimization of batteries, based on performance and safety, and desired form factors,” said Milos Todorovic, Lux Research Analyst and lead author of the report titled, “Powerful Medicine: Opportunities for Pairing New Bioelectronics with Innovative Energy Storage.”

“Winning in this race will require a thorough understanding of key technical requirements as well as the knowledge of regulatory and safety implications of bringing new energy storage to the fore,” he added.

Lux Research analysts identified key demands arising from the novel medical technologies, and evaluated energy storage companies on the proprietary Lux Innovation Grid. Among their findings:

  • Li-ion batteries will make rapid strides. Newer lithium-ion batteries will advance both safety and performance, besides extending life span. Compared with today’s best batteries, those that will become available in 2025 will double energy density to over 1,200 Wh/L, more than double specific energy to over 400 Wh/kg, quintuple life span to over 25 years and raise safety standards to “excellent,” from “mediocre to satisfactory.”
  • EaglePitcher, WiTricity, FlexEI are standout companies. On the Lux Innovation Grid, three companies offering diverse technologies stood out as “dominant” in the upper right quadrant. EaglePitcher’s batteries are entrenched in energy storage niches, including military, medical and aerospace; WiTricity leads with its wireless charging technology, a potential life-saving feature; and FlexEI offers contract engineering for custom batteries, with form factors including thin-film and cylindrical cells.
  • Current Li-ion developers lag. On the Lux Innovation Grid, Li-ion developers are clustered mostly in the lower-right “undistinguished” corner, with mediocre technology and business execution, highlighting the need to push beyond today’s incumbent technologies. To succeed, Li-ion battery companies would need to develop flexible form factors without sacrificing energy stored, sharply raise energy density with a push towards next-generation designs like ceramic or polymer solid-state electrolytes, and also enhance safety.

The report titled, “Powerful Medicine: Opportunities for Pairing New Bioelectronics with Innovative Energy Storage,” is part of the Lux Research BioElectronics Intelligence and the Lux Research Energy Storage Intelligence services.

BeSpoon SAS today launched BeSpoon Sport Edition, an ultra-precise position-tracking system that allows teams to measure and analyze player movement in three dimensions and provide immediate feedback to improve performance.

Designed for professional and other high-level competitive teams, BeSpoon Sport Edition generates key metrics such as distance run faster than 7km/h, average acceleration and jump height in real time. These next-generation statistics immediately give coaches, players and fans new insight into the action on the field.

BeSpoon’s impulse radio ultra-wideband (IR-UWB) technology, which can track individuals’ or objects’ positions and movements to within a few inches, measures the time of flight of an UWB signal, and is impervious to interference by nearby people or objects. The technology is ideal for tracking movement both in terms of accuracy and robustness.

BeSpoon Sport Edition, which combines BeSpoon’s technology and SportTracking Fusion software, is being used by Chambery Savoie Handball, a professional team in France. BeSpoon recently uploaded a YouTube video showing its tracking engine at work to improve player performance.

Installed in Le Phare, the team’s 4,500-seat indoor arena, the system instantaneously computes the position of players, who are wearing tiny chips, in three dimensions and feeds the SportTracking Fusion engine. Using portable computers near the team’s bench, coaches and players are able to optimize training and step up their game. The system also generates player statistics during games for fans to view.

“It was amazing to see how quickly the tracking system was implemented by our team,” said Laurent Munier, general manager of Chambery Savoie Handball. “After a few minutes, our athletes and coaches figured out how they could take advantage of the immediate feedback and engaged with the tool to improve their performance.”

“BeSpoon Sport Edition is a new, practical and affordable way to apply the benefits of innovative microelectronics in everyday activities,” said BeSpoon CEO Jean-Marie André. “The systems’ next-generation data can dramatically improve athletes’ performance and enhance sport-fans’ experience with real-time statistics.

“In addition, sports is just one example of the many domains where inch-level tracking technology can bring disruptive changes. In logistics, our customers are now able to automate challenging and expensive operations, as well as improve security in the warehouse. Retail stores are implementing location-based operation, a radical improvement in the way stores are managed daily. Defense organizations are using the technology for location tracking, which drastically enhances soldier safety. These are just a few areas where precise-location has already started to change the game. Industry, health care and museums are next on the list.”

BeSpoon, a fabless semiconductor company that also offers system-level products and support, solved the problem of indoor position tracking with a proprietary chip that can track items or individuals to within a few centimeters. Developed in cooperation with CEA-Leti in Grenoble, France, the location process measures the time of flight of an ultra wide band (UWB) radio signal with a precision of 125 picoseconds, opening a vast range of opportunities for asset monitoring, precise indoor location in professional and consumer environments.