Tag Archives: letter-mems-tech

At the 2017 International Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco (US), imec, the research and innovation hub in nanoelectronics and digital technologies, Holst Centre (set up by imec and TNO) and ROHM today presented an all-digital phase-locked loop (ADPLL) for Internet-of-Things (IoT) radio transceivers. Whereas a PLL is traditionally one of the major power consumers in a radio and can take up to 30% of the radio area, this new ADPLLfeatures a small area (0.18mm² in 40nm CMOS), low power consumption (0.67mW) and excellent performance. With all spurs lower than -56dBc and jitter below 2ps, which is beyond state-of-the-art digital PLLs, the new ADPLL shows an excellent robustness.

The intuitive IoT relies on tiny sensor nodes, invisibly embedded in our environment and wirelessly connected to the internet. As billions of IoT devices are set to be deployed, battery replacement becomes impossible and therefore, power consumption reduction, especially in wireless connectivity, is one of the leading concerns and challenges on low power radio design to address.

The PLL is the radio component for frequency synthesis and has traditionally been an analog component, although the research community has been working on digital alternatives. All-digital PLLs enable a smaller footprint, better control and testability, and improved scaling to advanced CMOS nodes. However, to-date, they have lagged behind in terms of performance, compared to analog solutions.wex`1wq2

Imec and ROHM’s all-digital PLL is an industry-first, combining record-low power consumption of only 0.67mW, with state-of-the-art performance. It supports all specifications of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) radios while significantly reducing cost and power consumption below any of today’s solutions. This divider less fractional-N digital PLL features a power-efficient spur-mitigation technique and a digital phase unwrap technique. Both approaches contribute to its excellent performance.

“We are pleased of our collaboration with ROHM to solve yet another challenge and deliver an ADPLL that adds to imec’s world-class record low power radio design portfolio. With this performance, this all-digital PLL has become a mature and superior alternative to the widespread analog PLLs,” commented Kathleen Philips, Program Director at imec/Holst Centre for Perceptive Systems for an Intuitive IoT. “The ADPLL is ready for industrial mass production and is currently being transferred to our industrial partners for product integration.”

At ISSCC2017, imec presents four papers addressing key building blocks for ultra-low power connectivity. The innovations serve power reduction in active, standby, sleep and transient operation of standard radios like Bluetooth, or newcomers in the sub-GHz communication space. 

“We are proud that we have developed the world-class low power ADPLL with imec. We develop the RF transceiver with this ADPLL and integrate ROHM’s ultra-low power sensors and micro controllers into the “sensor edge” module. We hope they will be leaders of IoT market.“ commented Isao Matsumoto, Director LSI Production Headquarters/LSI Product Development Headquarters at ROHM.

Today, at the 2017 International Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco, imec, the world-leading research and innovation hub in nanoelectronics and digital technologies, Holst Centre (established by imec and TNO) and Cartamundi demonstrate a world first thin-film tag on plastic, compatible with the near field communication (NFC) Barcode protocol, a subset of ISO14443-A, which is available as standard in many commercial smartphones. The innovative NFC tag is manufactured in a thin-film transistor technology using indium gallium zinc oxide thin-film transistors (IGZO TFT) on a plastic substrate.

Plastic electronics offers an appealing vision of low-cost smart electronic devices in applications where silicon chips were never imagined before. Item-level identification, smart food packaging, brand protection and electronic paper are just a few examples. Such new applications will require a continuous supply of countless disposable devices.  Imec’s IGZO TFT technology uses large-area manufacturing processes that allow for inexpensive production in large quantities – an ideal technology for ubiquitous electronic devices in the Internet-of-Everything.

“Making a plastic electronics device compatible to the ISO standard originally designed for silicon CMOS was a very challenging research and development expedition” stated Kris Myny, senior researcher at imec. “Our collaboration with Cartamundi enabled us to develop a truly industry-relevant solution”.

The researchers developed a self-aligned TFT architecture with scaled devices optimized for low parasitic capacitance and high cut-off frequency. This allowed design of a clock division circuit to convert incoming 13.56 MHz carrier frequency into system clock of the plastic chip. Optimizations at logic gate and system level reduced power consumption down to 7.5mW, enabling readout by commercial smartphones. “These research innovations are the first major achievements of my ERC starting grant”, stated Kris Myny, principal investigator and holder of the prestigious ERC starting grant FLICs (716426).

 “This innovative hardware solution of plastic NFC tags opens up several new possibilities for NFC deployments,” stated Alexander Mityashin, program manager at imec. “Thanks to the nature of thin-film plastics, the new tags can be made much thinner and they are mechanically very robust. Moreover, the self-aligned IGZO TFT technology offers manufacturing of chips in large volumes and at low cost”.

The results were presented in paper 15.2 (“A Flexible ISO14443-A Compliant 7.5mW 128b Metal-Oxide NFC Barcode Tag with Direct Clock Division Circuit from 3.56MHz Carrier”, by K. Myny, Y.-C Lai, N. Papadopoulos, F. De Roose, M. Ameys, M. Willegems, S. Smout, S. Steudel, W. Dehaene, J. Genoe, Feb. 7, 2017).

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are a group of carbon-based chemicals with low evaporation or vaporization points. Some VOCs are harmful to animal or environmental health so sensing these gasses is important for maintaining health and safety. VOCs also occur in nature and can be useful in medical diagnostics, which require highly sensitive sensors to be effective.

In an effort to improve VOC detection, a collaboration of Japanese researchers from Kumamoto University, Fukuoka Industrial Technology Center, and Tohoku University set out to improve sensor sensitivity by modifying the particle and pore sizes of Tin-dioxide (SnO2) nanocrystals on sensing film. They knew that particle size was a determining factor in sensor response, so they formulated a method to synthesize SnO2 particles of different sizes and pore distribution patterns, and ran an analysis to determine optimal sensor film particle morphology for various gasses.

Using a hydrothermal method, the researchers synthesized SnO2 nanocubes and nanorods, and created gas-sensing films of various pore and particle sizes. Nanocrystals created in this experiment were developed using organic molecules in an acidic solution, which is a major difference from previous experiments that used cations in an alkaline solution. Films made from nanocubes had very small pores, less than 10 nm, whereas films made with nanorods were distinctly porous with pore sizes larger than 10 nm. Palladium (Pd)-loaded SnO2nanocrystals were also synthesized to test the idea that Pd-loading would improve sensor response by changing pore sizes. The gasses used to test the new sensors were hydrogen (200 ppm), ethanol (100 ppm), and acetone (100 ppm), each of which are known biomarkers for glucose malabsorption, alcohol intoxication, and diabetic ketoacidosis respectively. Sensor response (S) was calculated using a ratio of electrical resistance produced in air (Ra) to the resistance produced by the testing gas (Rg) (S=Ra/Rg).

The research team found that the sensors had the best response when using long (500 nm) nanorods at a temperature of approximately 250 degrees Celsius, except for the H2 sensor, which responded best at a temperature of 300 degrees Celsius with nanocubes. Furthermore, Pd-loaded sensors had an improved response at 250 degrees Celsius with long nanorods being the best performing nanocrystal morphology for each of the gasses tested. “Our experiments show that the TiO2 nanocrystal sensors with larger pore sizes gave the best sensor responses. In particular, we found ultra-high sensitivity (increasing by five orders of magnitude) in the devices with largest pore size, the long nanorod sensors,” said Professor Tetsuya Kida of Kumamoto University. “This tells us that is beneficial to have precise control over the manufacturing methods of these types of sensors.”

Simulations have estimated ethanol detection levels to be in the lower parts-per-billion range, meaning that the devices could feasibly detect alcohol biomarkers in a patient’s breath.

One drawback of the new sensors is their relatively long recovery time. Even though the response time was swift, between 15 and 21 seconds, the recovery time fell between 157 to 230 minutes. This was thought to be caused by reaction byproducts remaining on the surface of the sensor film. Additionally, experimental and simulation results for ethanol showed that sensors with pore sizes over 80 nm are prone to saturate. However, it is likely that this can be overcome by pore size optimization and controlling the sensor film electrical resistance.

A simple technique for producing oxide nanowires directly from bulk materials could dramatically lower the cost of producing the one-dimensional (1D) nanostructures. That could open the door for a broad range of uses in lightweight structural composites, advanced sensors, electronic devices – and thermally-stable and strong battery membranes able to withstand temperatures of more than 1,000 degrees Celsius.

The technique uses a solvent reaction with a bimetallic alloy – in which one of the metals is reactive – to form bundles of nanowires (nanofibers) upon reactive metal dissolution. The process is conducted at ambient temperature and pressure without the use of catalysts, toxic chemicals or costly processes such as chemical vapor deposition. The produced nanowires can be used to improve the electrical, thermal and mechanical properties of functional materials and composites.

The research, which is scheduled to be reported this week in the journal Science, was supported by the National Science Foundation and California-based Sila Nanotechnologies. The process is believed to be the first to convert bulk powders to nanowires at ambient conditions.

Researchers have developed a new low-cost technique for converting bulk powders directly to oxide nanowires. Shown is a crucible in which an alloy of lithium and aluminum is being formed. Credit: Rob Felt, Georgia Tech

Researchers have developed a new low-cost technique for converting bulk powders directly to oxide nanowires. Shown is a crucible in which an alloy of lithium and aluminum is being formed. Credit: Rob Felt, Georgia Tech

“This technique could open the door for a range of synthesis opportunities to produce low-cost 1D nanomaterials in large quantities,” said Gleb Yushin, a professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “You can essentially put the bulk materials into a bucket, fill it with a suitable solvent and collect nanowires after a few hours, which is way simpler than how many of these structures are produced today.”

Yushin’s research team, which included former graduate students Danni Lei and James Benson, has produced oxide nanowires from lithium-magnesium and lithium-aluminum alloys using a variety of solvents, including simple alcohols. Production of nanowires from other materials is part of ongoing research that was not reported in the paper.

The dimensions of the nanowire structures can be controlled by varying the solvent and the processing conditions. The structures can be produced in diameters ranging from tens of nanometers up to microns.

“Minimization of the interfacial energy at the boundary of the chemical reaction front allows us to form small nuclei and then retain their diameter as the reaction proceeds, thus forming nanowires,” Yushin explained. “By controlling the volume changes, surface energy, reactivity and solubility of the reaction products, along with the temperature and pressure, we can tune conditions to produce nanowires of the dimensions we want.”

One of the attractive applications may be separator membranes for lithium-ion batteries, whose high power density has made them attractive for powering everything from consumer electronics to aircraft and motor vehicles. However, the polymer separation membranes used in these batteries cannot withstand the high temperatures generated by certain failure scenarios. As result, commercial batteries may induce fires and explosions, if not designed very carefully and it’s extremely hard to avoid defects and errors consistently in tens of millions of devices.

Using low-cost paper-like membranes made of ceramic nanowires could help address those concerns because the structures are strong and thermally stable, while also being flexible – unlike many bulk ceramics. The material is also polar, meaning it would more thoroughly wetted by various battery electrolyte solutions.

“Overall, this is a better technology for batteries, but until now, ceramic nanowires have been too expensive to consider seriously,” Yushin said. “In the future, we can improve mechanical properties further and scale up synthesis, making the low-cost ceramic separator technology very attractive to battery designers.”

Fabrication of the nanowires begins with formation of alloys composed of one reactive and one non-reactive metal, such as lithium and aluminum (or magnesium and lithium). The alloy is then placed in a suitable solvent, which could include a range of alcohols, such as ethanol. The reactive metal (lithium) dissolves from the surface into the solvent, initially producing nuclei (nanoparticles) comprising aluminum.

Though bulk aluminum is not reactive with alcohol due to the formation of the passivation layer, the continuous dissolution of lithium prevents the passivation and allows gradual formation of aluminum alkoxide nanowires, which grow perpendicular to the surface of the particles starting from the nuclei until the particles are completely converted. The alkoxide nanowires can then be heated in open air to form aluminum oxide nanowires and may be formed into paper-like sheets.

The dissolved lithium can be recovered and reused. The dissolution process generates hydrogen gas, which could be captured and used to help fuel the heating step.

Though the process was studied first to make magnesium and aluminum oxide nanowires, Yushin believes it has a broad potential for making other materials. Future work will explore synthesis of new materials and their applications, and develop improved fundamental understanding of the process and predictive models to streamline experimental work.

The researchers have so far produced laboratory amounts of the nanowires, but Yushin believes that the process could be scaled up to produce industrial quantities. Though the ultimate cost will depend on many variables, he expects to see fabrication costs cut by several orders of magnitude over existing techniques.

“With this technique, you could potentially produce nanowires for a cost not much more than that of the raw materials,” he said. Beyond battery membranes, the nanowires could be useful in energy harvesting, catalyst supports, sensors, flexible electronic devices, lightweight structural composites, building materials, electrical and thermal insulation and cutting tools.

The new technique was discovered accidentally while Yushin’s students were attempting to create a new porous membrane material. Instead of the membrane they had hoped to fabricate, the process generated powders composed of elongated particles.

“Though the experiment didn’t produce what we were looking for, I wanted to see if we could learn something from it anyway,” said Yushin. Efforts to understand what had happened ultimately led to the new synthesis technique.

In addition to those already named, the research included Alexandre Magaskinski of Georgia Tech and Gene Berdichevsky of Sila Nanotechnologies.

At the 2017 European 3D Summit in Grenoble (France, Jan 23-25), research and innovation hub for nano-electronics and digital technology imec and supplier of wafer-bonding equipment EV Group (EVG) announce an extension to their successful collaboration, achieving excellent wafer-to-wafer overlay accuracy results in both hybrid bonding and dielectric bonding. Expanding this collaboration, EVG will become a partner in imec’s 3D integration program through a joint development agreement to further improve overlay accuracy in wafer-to-wafer bonding.

Wafer-to-wafer bonding is a promising technique for enabling high-density integration of future ICs through three-dimensional (3D) integration. This is achieved by aligning top and bottom wafers that are then bonded, thus creating a stacked IC. An important advantage is that wafers/ICs with different technologies can be stacked, e.g. memory and processor ICs.

Many of the alignment techniques and bonding methods for 3D integration have evolved from microelectromechanical system (MEMS) fabrication methods. The fundamental difference between MEMS and 3D integration is that the alignment or overlay accuracy has to be improved by 5–10 times. Accurate overlay is needed to align the bonding pads of the stacked wafers and it is essential to achieving a high yield with wafer-to-wafer bonding. Imec and EVG have realized excellent results on overlay accuracy.

Firstly, the hybrid (via-middle) wafer-to-wafer bonding technique was improved by using EVG’s high quality bonding system with integration definition of bonding pads, resulting in a high yield and a 1.8µm pitch, which is significantly better compared to recently published results at recognized conferences such as ECTC and 3DIC reporting 3.6µm pad size,.

Secondly, the dielectric (via-last) wafer-to-wafer bonding technique was tackled. This technique requires extremely good overlay accuracy to align the copper pads from both wafers, which are then contacted by through-silicon vias (TSVs). In this case, 300nm overlay across the wafer was achieved.

“By joining forces, we achieved these excellent results on overlay accuracy,” explains Eric Beyne, fellow at imec. “We are excited that we can expand our collaboration with EVG with a JDP and the installation of EVG’s GEMINI FB XT wafer bonder in our cleanroom. The GEMINI FB XT has the potential to further reduce the wafer-to-wafer overlay errors and therefore allow for the development of sub-micron wafer-to-wafer interconnects technologies.”

“Further improving the overlay accuracy for wafer-to-wafer bonding into the sub-200nm range requires optimization of the interaction between the wafer bonding tool and processes as well as pre-and post-processing and the wafer material,” explains Markus Wimplinger, corporate technology development & IP director at EVG. “We are excited to partner with imec in an effort to advance overlay accuracies for wafer-to-wafer bonding to meet the needs of future 3D IC designs that rely on high density interconnects”

Imec’s 3D integration program explores technology options to define innovative solutions for cost-effective realization of 3D interconnect with TSVs. Imec’s 3D integration processes are completely executed on 300mm. Imec also explores 3D design to propose methodologies for critical design issues, enabling effective use of 3D interconnection on system level.

imec wafer to wafer

ams AG (SIX: AMS), a provider of high performance sensor solutions and analog ICs, today launched the world’s first series of cost-effective multispectral sensor-on-chip solutions, opening the way for a new generation of spectral analyzers for consumer and industrial applications.

Offered in a small 4.5 x 4.4mm land grid array package, the ultra-low power AS7262 visible range sensor and AS7263 NIR sensor each provide six calibrated spectral channels. Because of their attractive price point, the new multispectral sensors open the door to testing and use in a very wide range of consumer and real-world field applications. Key solution spaces include material and product authentication, product quality and integrity as well as material content analysis in the near-infrared (NIR) and visible spectrums.

“In much the same way that intense sensor integration into our smartphones and tablets has created a tidal wave of new mobile applications, the launch of the AS7262 and AS7263, enabling chip-scale spectral analysis, heralds a similar revolution that will open the door wide for spectral sensing innovation for both industrial and consumer applications,” commented Jean Francois Durix,
Marketing Director for Emerging Sensor Systems at ams. “The dramatic reduction in the size and cost of spectral analysis enabled by our new spectral sensing solutions brings the lab to the sample for an incredible variety of applications from food safety and product authentication, to routine
testing that can better protect both our health and our environment.”

The multispectral sensors employ a new fabrication technique which enables nano-optical interference filters to be deposited directly on the CMOS silicon die with extreme precision. This interference filter technology used for the sensors offers extremely precise and reproduceable filter characteristics which are stable over both time and temperature and are much smaller and more cost-effective than the components typically used in today’s spectral analysis instruments.

The AS7262 six-channel visible light sensor with integrated intelligence provides a calibrated digital output over an I2C or UART interface. It measures light intensity at six wavelengths in the visible light spectrum: 450nm, 500nm, 550nm, 570nm, 600nm and 650nm. The AS7263 operates in the NIR spectrum detecting 610nm, 680nm, 730nm, 760nm, 810nm and 860nm infrared signatures. Both devices include an electronic shutter with LED drive circuitry, which means that device de-signers can accurately control the light source and the spectral sensing functions with a single chip.

The small size of the new multispectral sensors combined with their low power consumption enable measurement equipment OEMs to develop new product types that take advantage of these unique attributes. For instance, bulky laboratory-grade analysis equipment can now be replaced by conve-nient handheld form factors. In factories, samples which today have to be removed from the production line and taken to a laboratory for chemical analysis or quality testing will be tested in-line by new small, robust spectral analyzers based on the multispectral sensors.

The AS7262 and AS7263 are in volume production now. Unit pricing is $4.00 in order quantities of 1,000.

How can the Internet of Things change the future of the average citizen? To answer this question, imec joins forces with the City of Antwerp and the Flanders region to turn Antwerp into a Living Lab in which businesses, researchers, local residents and the city itself will experiment with smart technologies that aim to make urban life more pleasant, enjoyable and sustainable.

“Making life in cities more pleasant and sustainable, using everything that our technology has to offer, that is what Smart Cities is all about,” says Philippe Muyters, Flemish Minister for the Economy. “And imec, as a world-class research center, is the right partner to make this happen. With imec’s expertise, we can build a smart city with an open, secure and scalable infrastructure. A smart city where everyone has the opportunity to develop ideas and work together to create the future of Antwerp and the Flanders region.” Through imec, Flanders will invest €4 million annually in the City of Things project, in addition to the required project resources.

City of Things is a collaborative project between the City of Antwerp, Flanders and imec. The nerve center for this initiative is located at StartupVillage, the location from which imec also runs its Antwerp startup and incubation operations. During the period from 2017 to 2019, the City of Antwerp intends to invest €650,000 in the project. According to City Councilor for the Economy Caroline Bastiaens: “The city is targeting four strategic priorities: mobility, security, sustainability and digital interaction with citizens.”

Network of sensors

The City of Things project will roll out a fine-grained network of smart sensors and wireless gateways located around Antwerp’s buildings, streets, squares and other city objects. This network will connect the citizens with a whole range of innovative applications. The ensuing digital innovation is expected to enforce the city’s economic clout. And with the insights gained from the project, Antwerp and its businesses will learn how to collect the data they need to take well-informed decisions and develop innovative smart applications. Shortly, the seaport of Antwerp will also join the initiative, becoming an incubator for similar smart ideas.

“For the cities of tomorrow it’s all about the survival of the smartest,” says Antwerp mayor Bart De Wever. “Monitoring is the key to knowledge – so that’s exactly what we are going to do. Thanks to this unique collaboration, Antwerp is heading for a new golden age. In the coming years, the city will build a strong position in smart city technology, nationally and internationally. It is also the first step in putting Flanders firmly on the world map as a knowledge region: Smart Flanders, we call it.”

Europe’s biggest living lab

Imec has major ambitions. The Antwerp Living Lab is designed to grow into the largest living lab in Europe for Internet of Things applications. “Together with the City of Antwerp and Flanders, we have the ambition to become a leading player in the connected world,” says Luc Van den hove, CEO of imec. “The City of Things project allows us to join the city residents, developers, entrepreneurs, the government, and research centers and universities around one common goal: developing innovative solutions for better cities. Antwerp will become a living technology lab in which everyone can make a contribution to a sustainable, forward-looking society.”

The Antwerp Living Lab already has a number of projects up and running. These include vans operated by Bpost, the Belgian postal service, which have sensors to measure the air quality throughout the city, sensors whose data can be used to improve the city’s air quality. Another project involved the company Restore, measuring energy consumption in real-time and smoothing out usage spikes with the aim to ensure more efficient, cheaper energy production. With network operator Orange, we study how the project’s goals can be achieved using NarrowBand-IoT. This new technology enables communication of small data volumes over extended periods at hard-to-reach places, at the same time ensuring that the batteries of the connected devices can keep going for up to 10 years. The preparatory work on a host of other projects, e.g. concerning mobility, is underway.

A smart city will make life, living and working more enjoyable for local residents, visitors and businesses alike. Privacy and security are, of course, of great importance.

Ideal city

Caroline Bastiaens, City Councilor for the Economy: “Antwerp is an ideal city to establish this Living Lab. The city is big enough to test applications properly, yet sufficiently small to keep the cost and time required for development under control. Antwerp also has an interesting mix of offices, industry and retail, meaning that various applications can be developed to cover all needs.”

In recent years, Antwerp has developed a blooming ecosystem of start-up businesses and growth companies involved in digital innovation. Currently, the city has more than 350 start-ups and ten growth companies that have newly raised more than half a million euro capital, as well as nine incubators and accelerators, the StartupVillage, exciting corporation such as Nokia, and an extensive  international network. “And last but not least,” concludes Mayor Bart De Wever, “our city council is very open to innovation.”

Vesper, developer of the world’s most advanced acoustic sensors, DSP Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:DSPG), a global provider of wireless chipset solutions for converged communications, and Sensory, Inc., the leader in voice interface and keyword-detect algorithms, will demonstrate a turnkey development platform that boasts the lowest overall power consumption for far-field always-listening voice interfaces. This platform is the first to achieve overall power consumption low enough to enable battery-powered always-listening far-field systems.

“Today consumers who want to turn on their battery-powered smart speakers, TV remotes, smart home systems and Internet of Things (IoT) devices have to push a button to wake their device from sleep. This limits consumers’ ability to interact seamlessly and naturally with their devices, leaving them tethered to touch,” said Matt Crowley, CEO, Vesper. “The Vesper-DSP Group-Sensory development platform offers an alternative technology based on the fundamentally different physics of piezoelectric materials that wakes devices from sleep, while sipping mere microwatts of power. Due to the rugged nature of piezoelectric microphones, this platform is also ideal for systems that need to survive outdoors or in harsh environments.”

Crowley added, “The Vesper-DSP Group-Sensory wake-on-sound platform consumes 5x less power than existing approaches, potentially allowing products to run for years rather than months without battery replacement.”

The new development platform – which the companies will demonstrate at CES 2017 for the first time — integrates Vesper’s VM1010 wake-on-sound piezoelectric MEMS microphone with DSP Group’s DBMD4, an ultra-low-power, always-on voice and audio processor based on Sensory’s Truly Handsfree™ voice control embedded algorithms. The platform gives developers the ability to initiate voice processing through Sensory’s wake-up word technology, which ensures that only a specific trigger word activates the device.

“Our development platform enables and dramatically accelerates time to market for far-field voice-controlled battery-powered consumer electronics,” said Ofer Elyakim, CEO, DSP Group. “It gives OEMs and integrators a fully integrated solution for consumer electronics that actively listen and sense both voice activity and commands while in near-zero-power mode, alleviating battery strain, improving device usability, and extending battery life.”

“Voice-activated battery-powered consumer electronics, such as smart speakers and TV remotes, are proliferating,” said Todd Mozer, CEO, Sensory, Inc. “The Vesper-DSP Group-Sensory development platform — which features the same Sensory TrulyHandsfree voice activation algorithms that have already shipped in over 1 billion devices — is a major advancement in speeding the design-to-deployment cycle of keyword-activated battery-powered electronics.”

Vesper, DSP Group and Sensory will demonstrate their new development platform from January 5-8, 2017 during CES 2017.

Today, Bosch Sensortec launches the BMP380, the company’s smallest and best performing barometric pressure sensor, with a compact size of only 2.0 x 2.0 x 0.75 mm³.

The BMP380 is aimed at the growing markets of gaming, sports and health management, as well as indoor and outdoor navigation. By measuring barometric pressure, the sensor enables drones, smartphones, tablets, wearables and other mobile devices to accurately determine altitude changes, in both indoor and outdoor environments.

Wide range of applications

This new BMP380 sensor offers outstanding design flexibility, providing a single package solution that can be easily integrated into a multitude of existing and upcoming applications and devices.

Typical applications for the BMP380 include altitude stabilization in drones, where altitude information is utilized to improve flight stability and landing accuracy. This simplifies drone steering, thereby making drones attractive for a broader range of users. The BMP380 can also substantially improve calorie expenditure measurement accuracy in wearables and mobile devices, for example by identifying whether a person is walking upstairs or downstairs in a step tracking application. Especially in hilly environments, this allows runners and cyclists to significantly improve the monitoring accuracy of their performance. In smartphones, tablets and wearables, this sensor brings unprecedented precision to outdoor/indoor navigation and localization applications, i.e. by utilizing altitude data to determine the user’s floor level in a building, and enhancing GPS accuracy outdoors.

Accurate and unmatched ease of use

Pressure and temperature data can be stored in the built-in FIFO of 512 byte. The new FIFO and interrupt functionality provide simple access to data and storage. This greatly improves ease of use while helping to reduce power consumption to only 2.7µA at 1Hz during full operation.

The sensor is more accurate than its predecessors, covering a wide measurement range from 300 hPA to 1250 hPA. Tests in real-life environments have verified a relative accuracy of +/-0.06 hPa (+/-0.5m) over a temperature range from 25°C to 40°C. The absolute accuracy between 300 and 1100 hPa is +/- 0.5 hPa over a temperature range from 0°C to 65°C.

This new barometric pressure sensor exhibits an attractive price-performance ratio coupled with low power consumption. The small package size of only 2.0 x 2.0 x 0.75 mm³ complies with new industry benchmarks and is more than one third smaller than the previous-generation BMP280, thus offering increased placement flexibility.

“We are very excited about the opportunities that this sensor opens up for designers to further advance their products,” says Jeanne Forget, Vice President Global Marketing at Bosch Sensortec. “Our product is unmatched in its scope, precision and footprint, and provides an improvement for outdoor localization, thereby reducing our reliance on GPS signals”.

The powerful features and solid performance specifications of the BMP380 are the result of more than a decade of experience that Bosch has acquired in the manufacturing of MEMS pressure sensors. Bosch invented a completely new “Advanced Porous Silicon Membrane” (APSM) process for the manufacture of MEMS pressure sensors and has applied this technology to produce more than one billion pressure sensors. Today, Bosch is the number one MEMS supplier and industry leader in barometric pressure sensors.

The sensor will be available for selected customers with the start of channel promotion in the 2nd quarter of 2017.

Sensor sensation


December 22, 2016

Microfluidic platforms have revolutionized medical diagnostics in recent years. Instead of sending blood or urine samples off to a laboratory for analysis, doctors can test a single drop of a patient’s blood or urine for various diseases at point-of-care without the need for expensive instruments. Before the sample can be tested however, doctors need to insert specific disease-detecting biomolecules into the microfluidic platform. While doing so, it has to be ensured that these biomolecules are well-bound to the inside of the device to protect them from being flushed out by the incoming sample. As this preparatory step can be time-consuming, it would be advantageous if microfluidic platforms could come pre-prepared with specific biomolecules sealed inside. However, this sealing process requires exposure of the device components to high energy or ‘ionized’ gas and whether biomolecules can survive this harsh process is unknown.

The nMIS sensor created by researchers in OIST's Micro/Bio/Nanofluidics Unit. The sensor detects biomolecule charge in a conventional way, but additionally, the gold nano-islands enable the detection of biomolecule mass. Credit: Micro/Bio/Nanofluidics Unit, OIST

The nMIS sensor created by researchers in OIST’s Micro/Bio/Nanofluidics Unit. The sensor detects biomolecule charge in a conventional way, but additionally, the gold nano-islands enable the detection of biomolecule mass. Credit: Micro/Bio/Nanofluidics Unit, OIST

To answer this question, researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) have created a novel sensor that detects biomolecules more accurately than ever before. This sensor was used to demonstrate that biomolecules can be successfully sealed within microfluidic devices. The results, published in Nanoscale, have profound implications for healthcare diagnostics and open up opportunities for producing pre-packaged microfluidic platform blood or urine testing devices.

Traditionally, metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) sensors are used to detect the binding of biomolecules to a surface by measuring changes in charge. Comprised of a silicon semiconductor layer, a glass insulator layer and a gold metal layer, these sensors are incorporated in an electric circuit with the biomolecule sitting in an electrolyte-filled plastic well on top of the sensor. If you then apply a voltage and measure current, you can work out the charge from the capacitance reading given off. Biomolecules with different charges will give you different capacitance readings, enabling you to quantify the presence of biomolecules.

The novel sensor created by researchers in OIST’s Micro/Bio/Nanofluidics Unit, measures charge using the same technique as conventional sensors but has the additional function of measuring mass. Instead of having a solid gold metal layer, the so-called nano-metal-insulator semiconductor (nMIS) sensor has a layer of tiny gold metal islands. If you shine light on these nanostructures, the surface electrons start oscillating at a specific frequency. When biomolecules are added to these nanoislands, the frequency of these oscillations change proportional to the mass of the biomolecule. Based on this change, you can use this technique to measure the mass of the biomolecule, and confirm whether it survives exposure to ionized gas during encapsulation within the microfluidic platform.

“We made a simple sensor that can answer very complex surface chemistry questions,” says Dr. Nikhil Bhalla who worked on the creation of the nMIS sensor.

Measuring two fundamental properties of surface chemical reactions on the same device means that researchers can be far more confident that biomolecules have been successfully encapsulated within the microfluidic platform. A measurement of charge or mass alone could be misleading, making it look like biomolecules have bound to a surface when in fact they have not. Having more than one technique in the same device means that you can switch from one mode to the other to see if you have the same result.

“Scientists have to validate one reaction with multiple techniques to confirm that an observation is authentic. If you’ve got a sensor that enables the detection of two parameters on a single platform, then it is really beneficial for the sensing community,” says Dr. Bhalla.

“By combining these two simple measurement techniques into one compact platform, it opens doors to create portable and reliable sensing technologies in the future”, adds PhD student Shivani Sathish.

In a proof-of-concept experiment, by combining information about both the mass and charge of the biomolecule, the scientists were able to show that a common biomolecule survives exposure to ionized gas at a specific energy level. A single reading of charge alone gives a misleading result, but looking at the complementary parameters together allows for more accurate biomolecule detection.

This novel nMIS sensor could be used to create microfluidic platforms that test for various diseases. By measuring charge and mass using the nMIS sensor, researchers can ensure that disease-detecting biomolecules are successfully sealed and functional inside the testing device.

“It would be like a pre-packaged pregnancy test,” says Professor Amy Shen, head of OIST’s Micro/Bio/Nanofluidics Unit. “If there is already something adsorbed then all you have to do is introduce whatever sample you are using, such as urine or blood.”

It might also be possible to combine several biomarkers in the same device to test for different diseases at the same time. By integrating this dual sensing technology with the ready-to-use devices, it offers great promise in the field of healthcare diagnostics owing to its advantages of portability and point-of-care testing.