Exploring Technologies for Ultimate Phones
IMEC, the international micro-electronics R&D center in Leuven, Belgium, held a technology forum in the afternoon of July 11 to discuss enabling technologies and supply-chain infrastructure issues associated with future “Smart Phones.” Presentations included reviews of the market requirements from the perspectives of Intel and Qualcomm and recent technology developments at IMEC.
Smartphone applications have rapidly become the main force driving new technologies in semiconductor manufacturing. Mobile and low-power applications now drive both the leading edge of R&D and high-volume manufacturing (HVM), replacing the personal computer that led applications in recent decades. The trend toward ever-more integration of functionalities into mobile devices seems irreversible, with sensors for proximity, light, and touch already combined, along with gyroscopes and accelerometers.
Justin Rattner, Intel chief technology officer (figure), explained that our phones will soon be “smart” enough to be aware of our location in the world and what information we would like automatically delivered to us. In addition to ‘hard’ sensing of direct physical information, Rattner’s group also works on “soft” sensing of your calendar and browsing trends as another way to constantly learn about us. “We’ll be able to use skin response and heart rate to be able to infer your mood, so if you’re having a difficult day, your devices may go easy on you,” explained Rattner.
Robert Gilmore, VP of engineering at Qualcomm, said that the future phone is expected to be “always on” in sensing and communicating with its environment. To minimize continuous battery draining, tight integration is needed between hardware and software. IMEC has been working on ways to make each transistor less leaky as part of “More Moore” efforts, as well as on ways to integrate new sensors with CMOS as part of “More than Moore.”