Category Archives: MEMS

Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) today announced the launch of the Qualcomm Ventures AI Fund to invest up to an aggregate of $100 million in startups transforming artificial intelligence. The fund will focus on startups that share the vision of on-device AI becoming more powerful and widespread, with an emphasis on those developing new technology for autonomous cars, robotics and machine learning platforms. This fund builds on more than a decade of Qualcomm’s AI research and its heritage of developing the foundational building blocks of low power processing and connectivity, which are essential for AI.

Qualcomm has set out to make on-device AI technology ubiquitous by inventing, developing, commercializing and, importantly, investing in it. As AI shifts towards the wireless edge – combining essential on-device capabilities with the edge cloud – the industry is already starting to see the full potential of 5G. Qualcomm’s ambitious 5G vision and strategic commitment to on-device AI goes hand in hand with mobile becoming the pervasive AI platform.

“At Qualcomm, we invent breakthrough technologies that transform how the world connects, computes, and communicates,” said Steve Mollenkopf, CEO of Qualcomm Incorporated. “For over a decade, Qualcomm has been investing in the future of machine learning. As a pioneer of on-device AI, we strongly believe intelligence is moving from the cloud to the edge. Qualcomm’s AI strategy couples leading 5G connectivity with our R&D, fueling AI to transform industries, business models and experiences.”

As part of the AI Fund, Qualcomm Ventures LLC participated in a Series A funding round for AnyVision, a world-leading face, body, and object recognition startup. AnyVision’s use of on-device AI minimizes the spread of data, mitigating privacy concerns. Its unique data acquisition strategy, together with its proprietary algorithms, are expected to provide immense value to customers. This investment – the first made by the AI fund – will further AnyVision’s efforts to expand into other industries and develop new AI applications that transform how the world connects, computes and communicates. The announcement was made at Qualcomm Ventures’ 5G & AI Summit in San Francisco, where influential leaders in AI convened to discuss applications of the technology in different industry verticals.

“Qualcomm Ventures is proud to invest in the future of AnyVision and many other key players in the AI industry,” said Quinn Li, senior vice president, Ventures, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and global head of Qualcomm Ventures. “This investment builds on our long history of successful AI investments, including Cruise Automation, Brain Corp., Clarifai, Prospera, SenseTime and Retail Next. Through the AI Fund, we’ll continue to seek out startups, with a focus on autonomous cars, robotics, computer vision and IoT, who are developing new AI applications, advanced machine learning technologies and AI/ML platforms across different verticals.”

The Qualcomm Ventures team has a demonstrated track record of investing in some of the top global AI startups. The AI Fund will continue to invest in those that share Qualcomm’s vision of making on-device AI ubiquitous. Qualcomm’s cutting-edge research, strong mobile footprint and leading development of 5G and AI will allow Qualcomm Ventures to serve as an ideal investor in AI startups bringing the next wave of innovation. Their success will provide significant value to many industries and billions of people.

How long can tiny gears and other microscopic moving parts last before they wear out? What are the warning signs that these components are about to fail, which can happen in just a few tenths of a second? Striving to provide clear answers to these questions, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a method for more quickly tracking microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) as they work and, just as importantly, as they stop working.

By using this method for microscopic failure analysis, researchers and manufacturers could improve the reliability of the MEMS components that they are developing, ranging from miniature robots and drones to tiny forceps for eye surgery and sensors to detect trace amounts of toxic chemicals.

Over the past decade, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have measured the motion and interactions between MEMS components. In their newest work, the scientists succeeded in making these measurements a hundred times faster, on the scale of thousandths, rather than tenths, of a second.

The faster time scale enabled the researchers to resolve fine details of the transient and erratic motions that may occur before and during the failure of MEMS. The faster measurements also allowed repetitive testing–necessary for assessing the durability of the miniature mechanical systems–to be conducted more quickly. The NIST researchers, including Samuel Stavis and Craig Copeland, described their work in the Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems.

As in their previous work, the team labeled the MEMS components with fluorescent particles to track their motion. Using optical microscopes and sensitive cameras to view and image the light-emitting particles, the researchers tracked displacements as small as a few billionths of a meter and rotations as tiny as several millionths of a radian. One microradian is the angle corresponding to an arc of about 10 meters along the circumference of the earth.

A faster imaging system and larger fluorescent particles, which emit more light, provided the scientists with the tools to perform their particle-tracking measurements a hundred times more rapidly than before.

“If you cannot measure how the components of a MEMS move at the relevant length and time scales, then it is difficult to understand how they work and how to improve them,” Copeland said.

In their test system, Stavis, Copeland and their colleagues tested part of a microelectromechanical motor. The test part snapped back and forth, rotating a gear through a ratchet mechanism. Although this system is one of the more reliable MEMS that transfer motion through parts in sliding contact, it nonetheless can exhibit such problems as erratic performance and untimely failure.

The team found that the jostling of contacting parts in the system, whether contact between the parts occurred at only one point or shifted between several points, and wear of the contacting surfaces, could all play a key role in the durability of MEMS.

“Our tracking method is broadly applicable to study the motion of microsystems, and we continue to advance it,” said Stavis.

STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM) is making its STM32* microcontrollers (MCUs) even more attractive to developers of IoT products and other smart devices by providing free software for creating rich, smooth, and colorful graphical interfaces that deliver a great user experience.

The STM32 is the world’s most popular Arm® Cortex® MCU family, with over 800 device variants and a powerful ecosystem comprising tools, middleware, software libraries, sample code, and evaluation boards that simplify product development and accelerate time to market. Following its acquisition of Draupner Graphics, creator of the acclaimed TouchGFX graphical user-interface development suite, ST is now making the software available free of charge for production and redistribution with STM32 MCUs.

“Many customers have already successfully used TouchGFX to bring smartphone-like experiences to new products running on STM32 microcontrollers,” said Daniel Colonna, Marketing Director, Microcontrollers Division, STMicroelectronics. “By incorporating the latest version in our STM32Cube ecosystem, with no license or royalty fees, and supported by our 10-year longevity commitment, we are making this powerful and innovative solution easily accessible on a global basis.”

TouchGFX is ready to use with STM32 microcontrollers and includes a C++ framework that enables the user-interface code to occupy as little as 10KB SRAM and 20KB Flash memory. It leverages the Chrom-ART Accelerator(TM) featured in STM32 MCUs with advanced graphics capabilities and contains a rendering algorithm that minimizes the number of pixels to be updated, enabling better graphics and smoother animations on a low memory and power budget. TouchGFX supports user interfaces with color depth of 1, 2, 4, 16, or 24 bits per pixel (bpp) and can run with or without a real-time operating system (RTOS).

Also included is the TouchGFX Designer tool, which lets users quickly develop graphical interfaces by simple drag-and-drop operations and features automatic code generation as well as font, text, and image conversion.

Now fully integrated with the STM32Cube package, TouchGFX is interoperable with the STM32CubeMX configuration tool and initialization-code generator, creating a unified project environment for seamless development of the GUI and the main application. To help graphics-design projects run smoothly, ST has added new features to STM32CubeMX including an enhanced MCU Finder that helps short-list suitable microcontrollers, a graphics calculator for assessing performance, and a simulator that shows how the graphics will run on the target hardware.

Human skin contains sensitive nerve cells that detect pressure, temperature and other sensations that allow tactile interactions with the environment. To help robots and prosthetic devices attain these abilities, scientists are trying to develop electronic skins. Now researchers report a new method in ACS Applied Materials & Interfacesthat creates an ultrathin, stretchable electronic skin, which could be used for a variety of human-machine interactions. See a video of the e-skin here.

Electronic skin could be used for many applications, including prosthetic devices, wearable health monitors, robotics and virtual reality. A major challenge is transferring ultrathin electrical circuits onto complex 3D surfaces and then having the electronics be bendable and stretchable enough to allow movement. Some scientists have developed flexible “electronic tattoos” for this purpose, but their production is typically slow, expensive and requires clean-room fabrication methods such as photolithography. Mahmoud Tavakoli, Carmel Majidi and colleagues wanted to develop a fast, simple and inexpensive method for producing thin-film circuits with integrated microelectronics.

In the new approach, the researchers patterned a circuit template onto a sheet of transfer tattoo paper with an ordinary desktop laser printer. They then coated the template with silver paste, which adhered only to the printed toner ink. On top of the silver paste, the team deposited a gallium-indium liquid metal alloy that increased the electrical conductivity and flexibility of the circuit. Finally, they added external electronics, such as microchips, with a conductive “glue” made of vertically aligned magnetic particles embedded in a polyvinyl alcohol gel. The researchers transferred the electronic tattoo to various objects and demonstrated several applications of the new method, such as controlling a robot prosthetic arm, monitoring human skeletal muscle activity and incorporating proximity sensors into a 3D model of a hand.

Silvaco, Inc. today announced the opening of a second Christian Doppler Laboratory (CDL) in partnership with the Institute for Microelectronics, TU Wien. The new CDL, officially opened November 12th will develop new device simulation solutions for MRAM, a novel non-volatile memory technology.

“The fact that memory components are constantly becoming smaller and smaller is driven by the constant need for devices with lower power and higher capacity,” said Dr. Siegfried Selberherr, Professor at the Institute for Microelectronics, TU Wien. “Conventional technologies are now reaching the limits of miniaturization and new technologies are being developed to replace them. The new CD lab will make an important contribution by exploring the foundations of possible memory alternatives and harnessing this new knowledge to the advantage of semiconductor businesses and their customers.”

Magnetoresistive random-access memory (MRAM) is a non-volatile memory technology with the potential to become a dominant alternative to DRAM and SRAM, and the future possibility to become a universal memory for digital devices. MRAM has the operation speed close to SRAM while using lower power and less area for an equivalent memory density. This characteristic makes MRAM suitable for a large number of applications, such as automotive and industrial where both performance and non-volatile memory are required.

“New digital device technologies will enable the next generation of smart components for consumer and industrial applications,” said Dr. Viktor Sverdlov from the Institute for Microelectronics, TU Wien, and who heads the new Christian Doppler Laboratory. “MRAM has the potential to deliver both more memory density and much lower power consumption extending memory beyond the current solutions. TCAD device simulation of this new device technology is an essential step in making this change possible for the industry.”

“TCAD simulation always plays a significant role launching, supporting and optimizing new technologies and this is also true for novel memories such as MRAM,” said Dr. Eric Guichard, VP and GM of the TCAD Division at Silvaco. “Silvaco has a long history pioneering new technologies and this new CDL is the latest addition to Silvaco’s TCAD development which is also progressing on high speed TCAD, atomistic simulation for advanced logic and cryogenic simulation for supercomputing. We are pleased to undertake this second technology partnership with the Institute for Microelectronics, TU Wien, and together we will continue to deliver research at the leading edge of semiconductor design.”

Miniature devices for sensing biological molecules could be developed quicker thanks to a rapid prototyping method. Devices that sense and measure biological molecules important for healthcare, such as detecting diseases in blood samples, rely on electrodes to carry out their tasks.

New generations of these devices are being made that manipulate molecules or work with smaller concentrations of molecules, for example detecting rare cancer cells in blood samples.

These require intricate patterning of minute electrodes. Getting the right pattern is key, but building prototypes of different electrode designs can be expensive and time-consuming, often requiring specialist equipment and expertise.

Now, researchers at Imperial College London, have created a method that allows intricate electrode patterns to be printed in community labs and hackspaces at a fraction of the time and cost. The details of their method are published in Scientific Reports.

Lead researcher Dr Ali Salehi-Reyhani, from the Department of Chemistry at Imperial, said: “With our method researchers and startups can more easily design and develop analytical devices, even when they need electronics that can’t be bought off-the-shelf.

“Community hackspaces are great for democratising science, allowing more people to try out new technology solutions. We hope this method will allow bioelectronics to benefit from that ecosystem of hackers getting hands-on with problems and solutions in healthcare.”

The method allows researchers to design electrode patterns on computers before printing them off using a laser-cutting printer. The cavities are then filled with metal using microfluidic techniques — using the science of how fluids move through confined spaces.

In this way, researchers could print several sheets of electrodes, each with a slightly different design, allowing them to be tested in rapid succession to find the best design. Previously, designs may have had to be sent away to be manufactured, taking weeks or even months to arrive at the best design, but now the whole process can be reduced to a matter of days.

The team at fabriCELL, a centre of excellence in artificial cell science run by Imperial College London and King’s College London, are now using the technique to prototype devices for manipulating and analysing cells.

They say the technique could be used to speed up the development of flexible wearable devices, such as skin patches that monitor health signals and devices, and devices that could be used in hospitals or GP surgeries, such as ones that can quickly distinguish between viral and bacterial infections with just a drop of blood.

The European Research Council (ERC) has just published the list of 27 projects it selected out of the 299 submitted to the ERC Synergy 2018 call for projects. Among them, the CEA’s laboratories have 3 winners.  In order to ensure Europe’s long-term competitiveness, the ERC’s mission is to support world-class frontier research of excellence through highly competitive calls for projects. With a budget of 250 million euros, the “Synergy” category supports two to four researchers and their teams from different laboratories to jointly carry out an ambitious research project over a six-year period. With 35 million euros in European subsidies granted to these three projects, this is a strong recognition of the expertise of the CEA and its partners within the European Research Area.

ReNewQuantum (for Recursive and Exact New Quantum)

While quantum physics is omnipresent in most recent science and technology, quantum theory needs mathematical tools. These are currently somewhat lacking, in particular for complex quantum systems and approximation methods.

This is why the ReNewQuantum project is aiming to develop a mathematical method of semi-classical approximation[1] of quantum theories, which could benefit the entire scientific community, whether it is working on chaotic systems, quantum field theories or string theory. Building on concrete success already achieved in some quantum systems, ReNewQuantum proposes using modern geometry to reinterpret quantum theories and, in particular, to reinterpret semi-classical corrections as geometric objects. The project aims for a better understanding of the entire set of corrections, which would enable more effective computing. The objective is therefore to generalize these geometric methods to create a mathematical applicable to almost all quantum theories.

QuCube (for 3D integration technology for silicon spin qubits)[2]

Applied to the field of computing, quantum physics could revolutionize high performance computing, theoretically solving problems that conventional supercomputers are unable to solve. All major industries (transport, finance, energy, chemistry, pharmaceuticals, etc.) could benefit from quantum computing. In practice, this research has produced the first proofs of concept for quantum bits – the quantum equivalent of the most basic bit in elementary computing – but it is not yet certain that these first demonstrations can be reproduced on a large scale. In this context, the QuCube project aims to develop a quantum processor based on silicon, the base material already used in what is known as classical electronics. The processor will support at least one hundred quantum bits, or qubits, currently a first in terms of qubit numbers. The success of the project requires technological breakthroughs, including architecture implementation, the control of quantum bit variability or the implementation of quantum error correction processes, and finally a thorough understanding of conventional control electronics, for example on issues related to thermal dissipation.

Whole Sun (for The Whole Sun Project: Untangling the complex physical mechanisms behind our eruptive magnetic star and its twins)[3]

Our Sun is an active magnetic star that, due to its variable and eruptive behavior, has a direct impact on our technological society. However, despite decades of research, many questions remain unanswered. While this research into solar physics has so far focused on either the structure and dynamics of the inside of the Sun or, separately, on the surface and atmosphere of the Sun, the Whole Sun project aims to understand the Sun as a whole by consolidating research into these two major solar regions. A detailed study of the (thermo) dynamic and magnetic interaction between the deep solar interior, the surface of the Sun and the highly stratified atmosphere is absolutely vital if we hope to tackle the fundamental problems of solar physics (such as the origin of sunspots and the 11-year cycle; the presence of a warm atmosphere, etc.). In conjunction with the development of what is known as ‘exascale’ computers[4], Whole Sun will deliver the most advanced multi-resolution solar code in order to jointly address global and local, macrophysical and microphysical aspects of solar dynamics. Finally, extending this integrated approach led by Whole Sun to solar analogue stars that have different rotational speeds and chemical compositions will also provide a deeper understanding of stellar magnetism and activity.

[1] That is, starting from a classical system and calculating the successive quantum corrections.

[2] With CNRS and the participation of teams from the Université Grenoble Alpes.

[3] With the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (Germany), the University of Oslo (Norway) and the University of St Andrews (United Kingdom).

[4] Exascale computers are capable of performing a billion billion calculations per second. CEA is actively involved in working to develop this new generation of supercomputers.

[5] Not including these three new Synergy projects.

Altair Semiconductor (www.altair-semi.com), a provider of cellular IoT chipsets, announced today it has partnered with JIG-SAW Inc. (jig-saw.com ), a provider of A&A (Auto sensor-ing and Auto Direction) solutions for IoT, to develop LTE-enabled sensors for a wide variety of global industrial IoT applications.

The partnership combines Altair’s dual-mode Cat-M/NB-IoT ALT1250 chipset with JIG-SAW’s software control technology to enable developers to create new IoT business models that can drive new efficiencies across their organizations. Potential market applications include IoT sensors for warehouse site management, equipment monitoring, logistics, and more.

“We are pleased to partner with Altair Semiconductor to bring end-to-end, power and cost-optimized LTE-connected solutions to IoT users around the world,” said Hiroto Ozaki, Chief Operating Officer of JIG-SAW. “The IoT market is expanding rapidly, and enabling control not only via the cloud, but also within the modem chip layer, offers significant value for IoT users by providing high monitoring quality and stabilized, consistent services.”

The collaboration will enable users with connected IoT devices to control and monitor individual devices and their statuses at all times via a modem chip connection. Additionally, auto-control services will enable users to address alerts in a timely manner.

“Because Wi-Fi is not always feasible or efficient for many industrial IoT applications, cellular is a strategic alternative for reliable, secure and low-cost connectivity to the cloud,” said Ilan Reingold, VP of Business Development and Marketing for Altair Semiconductor. “We are excited to collaborate with JIG-SAW to bring the most secure and effective LTE-enabled solutions to the global industrial sensors market.”

The integration will be demonstrated by JIG-SAW this month at re:Invent 2018 , the Amazon Web Services annual user conference, in Las Vegas from November 26-30. The service is scheduled to launch in the Spring of 2019.

SUNY Polytechnic Institute (SUNY Poly) announced today that two professors have been selected to receive a total of $330,000 via the awarding of two separate nanoscience and nanoengineering-focused grants:

  • Professor of Nanoscience Dr. Serge Oktyabrsky has been awarded $200,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for research aiming to demonstrate a novel type of scintillation detector that upon detection of small particles, can emit measurable light with unsurpassed speed and yield. This greater sensitivity and speed is essential for several DOE High Energy Physics areas of research, and could help to detect the interaction of quantum particles to better understand their properties and actions, for example, in addition to the potential for medical and nuclear security applications; and
  • Assistant Professor of Nanoengineering Dr. Spyros Gallis (Spyridon Galis) was awarded $130,000 by the National Science Foundation (NSF) — Directorate of Engineering for research which will help develop critical physical properties and provide a fundamental understanding of new silicon carbide photonic nanostructures that have erbium ions added to them for the realization of high-temperature CMOS-compatible quantum emitters at telecommunications wavelengths. The emission from erbium ions at telecommunication wavelengths can be controlled and amplified by these photonic nanostructures and can improve light-based devices, with applications in areas such as biological imaging and sensing, quantum storage of single-photons, and long-distance quantum communications.

“I am proud to congratulate Professors Serge Oktyabrsky and Spyros Gallis for being awarded these grants which will support research that could help us to better understand the behavior of fundamental particles through improved detection capabilities, in addition to providing us with further knowledge about how photonic nanostructures, combined with erbium ions, can be used to improve a variety of quantum-based applications,” said SUNY Poly Interim President Dr. Grace Wang. “We are thankful to the Department of Energy and National Science Foundation for recognizing the exciting potential of these research projects being led by our outstanding faculty members who continue to push the boundaries of knowledge as they provide hands-on educational opportunities for our students.”

Both research projects will provide hands-on learning opportunities to SUNY Poly students. In Dr. Oktyabrsky’s lab, a graduate student will build the scintillation detector and perform its initial testing, along with support from two SUNY Poly staff scientists. Dr. Gallis’ research project will provide first-hand laboratory experience for both undergraduate and graduate students at SUNY Poly, as well as summer interns, who will simulate with numerical calculations the theoretical behavior of erbium emissions in the photonic nanostructures.

“These two grants are the latest example of how SUNY Poly’s faculty are driving research that can impact a wide range of applications and enhance our understanding of the world around us,” said SUNY Poly Interim Provost Dr. Steven Schneider. “The DOE and NSF grants will allow SUNY Poly students to take an active, hands-on role in these important areas of research, and I congratulate Drs. Oktyabrsky and Gallis on this news.”

Dr. Oktyabrsky Research Grant—”Performance of scintillation detectors based on quantum dots in a semiconductor matrix”

The DOE award supports the development of quantum dots (QD’s), semiconducting Indium Arsenide (InAs) particles approximately 10 nanometers in size, embedded into a Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) matrix. This arrangement enables the QD’s to act as artificial luminescence centers, which, when struck by gamma rays or other particles, emit luminescence, thereby acting as a measurable detector of such particles. If successful, the research will lead to the development of scintillation detectors with unsurpassed speed and light yield.

The main goal of the proposed research is to develop and test a novel scientific approach and technology for a QD semiconductor scintillation detector, develop a physical understanding of the underlying processes, and establish credible performance parameters of the detector. As supported by the DOE, Office of Science, High Energy Physics (HEP) Program, the technology would mostly be focused on HEP applications, such as using the detectors to identify multiple primary interactions, for example, at the Tevatron or Large Hadron Collider. In addition, the development of an ultra-high rate photon counting detector could be used for muon-to-electron conversion experiments, and because they are expected to have unprecedented energy resolution at high counting rates, the QD semiconductor scintillators could also be useful for non-accelerator dark matter searches and searches for new physics phenomena.

Eventually, by taking advantage of the picosecond-range timing (one trillionth of a second) and energy resolution of single X-ray photons, these detectors could also be used to reduce the radiation doses that patients receive via medical imaging/tomography applications, such as those used in X-ray computed tomography, or CT Scans, as well as positron emission tomography, or PET scans, in addition to improving spectroscopic accuracy in nuclear security applications.

“I am thrilled to congratulate Dr. Oktyabrsky, whose research, supported by the Department of Energy, can lay a strong foundation for being able to detect and measure quantum particle behavior through this enhanced scintillation detector. This can enable a more detailed understanding of high-energy physics, with ramifications for how we comprehend the universe around us. Dr. Oktyabrsky’s research is just one great example of what our faculty are working on each day in collaboration with students, who are able to engage by using SUNY Poly’s world-class capabilities to design and deploy new tools for obtaining new information,” said SUNY Poly Interim Dean of the College of Nanoscale Sciences; Empire Innovation Professor of Nanoscale Science; and Executive Director, Center for Nanoscale Metrology Dr. Alain Diebold.

“I am thankful to the Department of Energy for this grant which will support Quantum Dot semiconductor scintillators that could provide about 5x higher light yield and 20x faster decay time, potentially opening a pathway for the development of very low mass tracking detectors with picosecond-scale time-of-flight resolution, along with gamma detectors with energy resolution close to 1% at 1 million electron volts and room temperature, which would be capable of sustaining counting rates greater than 100 megahertz, or one million cycles per second,” said Dr. Oktyabrsky. “In addition to my gratitude for this DOE award, I am also thankful to Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) for providing inspirational guidance in high-energy physics applications and support with detectors testing.”

Dr. Spyros Gallis Research Grant—“EAGER: On-Demand Silicon Carbide Photonic Nanostructures for Quantum Optoelectronics at Telecom Wavelengths”

Dr. Gallis’ research project aims to address fundamental questions pertaining to the material and physical behaviors of erbium-doped silicon carbide (SiC) photonic nanostructures. By deterministically integrating rare-earth erbium ions and by being able to engineer the ion’s emission properties in these photonic nanostructures, Dr. Gallis expects to develop potentially disruptive advances in single-photon emission at low-loss telecom C-band wavelength region ~1540 nm. The light emitted by a single-photon emitter is fundamentally different from laser or thermally produced light. The key distinction relates to the time intervals between the emitted photons in the light beam. Photons can either cluster together in bunches or they can have regular gaps between them. In the latter case, an ion cannot emit two photons at once, which can lead to a non-classical light (single-photon emission) source. This is a required property for the development of future quantum optoelectronics and long-distance quantum communication applications using existing fiber-optical-based infrastructures. Applications that could also benefit include, for example, telecom quantum memories and repeaters, to enable the storage of information based on quantum bits, which are the more complex version of today’s bits that can have more than an on (1) or off (0) state.

“I am proud to congratulate Dr. Gallis on this NSF research grant, which can drive advancements in the burgeoning quantum computing and communication space, with opportunities to develop these cutting-edge technologies while allowing our students to gain first-hand skills that can serve them well for a lifetime of learning,” said SUNY Poly Interim Dean of the College of Nanoscale Engineering and Technology Innovation and Associate Professor of Nanoengineering Dr. Michael Carpenter.

“I am grateful to the NSF Electronics, Photonics and Magnetic Devices (EPMD) Program for the support of this research, which can pave pathways in the uncharted territories of quantum optoelectronics and communication at telecom C-band wavelengths, empowering me and my research team to innovate and educate,” said Dr. Gallis. “I am also excited that this research can further attract students to our globally recognized College of Nanoscale Engineering and Technology Innovation, inspiring them to work in new quantum photonics research programs that can lead to game-changing technological developments.”

News of these latest grants follows other recent research funding announcements by SUNY Poly, including:

  •  Associate Professor of Nanoengineering Dr. Woongje Sung was selected to receive $2,078,000 in total federal funding from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) for advancing the “MUSiC,” or the Manufacturing of Ultra-high-voltage Silicon Carbide devices for more robust power electronics chips with a range of military and commercial applications;
  •   Professor of Nanobioscience Dr. Nate Cady was recently awarded $500,000 in funding from the National Science Foundation to develop advanced computing systems based on a novel approach to the creation of non-volatile memory architecture;
  • Associate Professor of Nanobioscience Dr. Janet Paluh was recently awarded more than $970,000 from the New York State Health Department—Spinal Cord Injury Research Board (NYSCIRB) for collaborative research using nanotechnology and human stem cell-derived neural cell therapies to create an effective treatment platform for spinal cord injuries in patients, in addition to a $162,000 sub-award from the New York State Health Department—NYSTEM Innovative, Developmental, or Exploratory Activities (IDEA) program for collaborative research with the University at Albany to identify new types of injury and repair biomarkers based on cell communication to benefit prognosis or diagnosis of traumatic brain injuries; and
  • Associate Professor of Nanobioscience Dr. Michael Fasullo was awarded $446,000 by the National Institutes of Health National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIH-NIEHS) to investigate with a number of partners how genetics can increase the risk of diet-associated colon cancer.

During the state visit of Emmanuel Macron President of the French Republic, the Belgian research center imec and the French research institute CEA-Leti, two research and innovation hubs in nanotechnologies for industry, announced that they have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that lays the foundation of a strategic partnership in the domains of Artificial Intelligence and quantum computing, two key strategic value chains for European industry, to strengthen European strategic and economic sovereignty. The joint efforts of imec and CEA-LETI underline Europe’s ambition to take a leading role in the development of these technologies. The research centers’ increased collaboration will focus on developing, testing and experimenting neuromorphic and quantum computing – and should result in the delivery of a digital hardware computing toolbox that can be used by European industry partners to innovate in a wide variety of application domains – from personalized healthcare and smart mobility to the new manufacturing industry and smart energy sectors.

shown seated from left to right: Emmanuel Sabonnadière, CEO of CEA-Leti and Ludo Deferm, EVP, corporate affairs, Imec

Edge Artificial Intelligence (eAI) commonly refers to computer systems that display intelligent behavior locally on the hardware devices (e.g chips). They analyze their environment and take the required actions to achieve specific goals. Edge AI is poised to become a key driver of economic development. And, even more importantly perhaps, it holds the promise of solving many societal challenges – from treating diseases that cannot yet be cured today, to minimizing the environmental impact of farming.

Decentralization from the cloud to the edge is a key challenge of AI technologies applied to large heterogeneous systems. This requires innovation in the components industry with powerful, energy-guzzling processors.

“The ability to develop technologies such as AI and quantum computing – and put them into industrial use across a wide spectrum of applications – is one of Europe’s major challenges. Both quantum and neuromorphic computing (to enable artificial intelligence) are very promising areas of innovation, as they hold a huge industrialization potential. A stronger collaboration in these domains between imec and CEA-Leti, two of Europe’s leading research centers, will undoubtedly help to speed up the technologies’ development time: it will provide us with the critical mass that is required to create more – and faster – impact, and will result in plenty of new business opportunities for our European industry partners,” says Luc Van den hove, president and CEO of imec.

“Two European microelectronics pioneers today are joining forces to raise the game in both high-performance computing and trusted AI at the edge, and ultimately to fuel European industry success through innovations in aeronautics, defence, automobiles, Industry 4.0 and health care,” said Emmanuel Sabonnadière, Leti CEO. “This collaboration with imec following earlier innovation-collaboration agreements with the Fraunhofer Group for Microelectronics of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, the largest organization for applied research, will focus all three institutes to the task of keeping Europe at the forefront of new digital hardware for AI, HPC and Cyber-security applications.”

Imec and CEA-Leti are inviting partners from industry as well as academia to join them and benefit from access to the research centers’ state-of-the-art technology with proven reproducibility – enabling a much higher degree of device complexity, reproducibility and material perfection while sharing the costs of precompetitive research.