All News & Publications

Unique roll-to-toll laminator enables unrivalled alignment

ma, 30, jan, 2012 14:50:00

Researchers at Holst Centre have used a unique laminator and a novel control strategy to achieve alignment of 70 microns between two foils in a roll-to-roll process. Through “sheet-by-sheet” adjustments, Holst Centre’s approach delivers faster, more accurate alignment, cutting waste and costs. The strategy promises further improvements, enabling roll-to-roll manufacturing of more advanced flexible electronics circuits.

Flexible electronics devices are built up from multiple layers of design features. Layers may be produced on separate foils, which must then be laminated together to create the final device. During the lamination process, the foils must be accurately aligned to ensure a good connection between layers so that the end device works properly. As devices become more advanced and features get smaller, more accurate alignment is required.

The Holst Centre team has achieved alignment accuracy better than 100 µm in two dimensions simultaneously. This new benchmark was set using a unique roll-to-roll laminator. This custom-made machine was designed by Holst Centre and manufactured by coating and laminating equipment specialists Coatema. Holst Centre has also developed a brand new control system to maximize alignment accuracy.

In this new strategy, the foil on one of the rolls is divided into sheets by carefully designed “weak zones”. Each sheet is measured separately, and the weak zones allow the position of each sheet to be adjusted individually without tearing the foil. This means accurate alignment can be achieved much more quickly, avoiding the meters of wasted material typical of today’s roll-to-roll lamination systems.

Sheet-by-sheet alignment also ensures better response to the inherent variability of flexible electronics production, improving yields. In addition, the system works at low tension, reducing the risk of breaking the foil’s barrier layer.

“We believe our system is the only roll-to-roll laminator capable of aligning separate sheets on a roll individually. This approach will help manufacturers greatly improve the economics of flexible electronics by reducing the waste of expensive raw materials,” said Irene Kaashoek, control engineer in Holst Centre’s Integration technologies for flexible systems program.

Philipp Weissel, CEO plastic electronic, an Austrian SME and research partner at Holst Centre: “We are very pleased that Holst Centre has added this unique tool to its equipment portfolio. It adds value to our partnership and will be of benefit for the manufacturing of our flexible electronic products, such as the StoreSkin, a pressure-detection foil for smart shop-shelve applications.”

Looking to the future, Holst Centre’s new control strategy offers scope for further alignment improvements. Combining it with more sophisticated mechanical system should allow alignment to be pushed well beyond today’s 70 µm benchmark, enabling flexible electronics to evolve to smaller feature sizes and more advanced devices.

See also

Integration technologies for flexible systems

Useful links

Storeskin product website

MEMS energy harvester suitable for shock-induced energy harvesting in car tires

vr, 16, dec, 2011 11:08:00

Holst Centre and imec announce that they have made a micromachined harvester for vibration energy with a record output power of 489µW. Measurements and simulation show that the harvester is also suited for shock-induced energy harvesting in car tires, where it could power built-in sensors. In a tire, at 70km/h, the new device can deliver a constant 42µW, which is enough to power a simple wireless sensor node. These results, obtained within the research centre’s program for Micropower Generation and Storage, have been presented at the 2011 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) in Washington (December 7-9).

The innovative harvester consists of a cantilever with a piezoelectric layer sandwiched between metallic electrodes, forming a capacitor. At the tip of the cantilever a mass is attached, which translates the macroscopic vibration into a vertical movement – putting strain on the piezoelectric layer and generating a voltage across the capacitor. As piezoelectric material, AlN (aluminum nitride) was chosen. The harvesters are packaged with a 6-inch wafer scale vacuum packaging process. The micromachining production process is compatible with low-cost mass-production fabrication.

The harvester has a record output power of 489µW when the vibrations closely match the MEMS’ resonance vibration, which in this case is 1011Hz. Together with an automotive partner, Holst Centre and imec also validated the use of the harvester for use in car tires. These submit the harvester to regular shocks, depending on the car’s speed and the characteristics and condition of the tire. Each shock will displace the mass, after which it will start to ring down at its natural resonance frequency. During this ring-down period, which depends on the quality factor Q of the harvester, part of the mechanical energy is harvested. It is shown that in this way, a constant power output as high as 42µW can be harvested at a speed of 70km/h.

Micromachined vibration harvesters such as these are ideal devices to generate electricity from machines, engines and other industrial appliances which vibrate or undergo repetitive shocks. In these environments, they will power miniaturized autonomous sensor nodes, in situations where battery replacement is not sustainable or practical. Harvesters will allow sustainable monitoring on a massive scale. One example is Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems (TPMS) and its successors: a car tire with built-in sensors that monitor e.g. the tire integrity and pressure, the road condition, or the driving style.

See also:

Micro-power generation and storage

Demonstrating the versatility of electrochemical sensors

vr, 16, dec, 2011 10:12:00

Holst Centre has demonstrated two new electrochemical sensors that enable considerable miniaturization in monitoring equipment, opening the door to novel smart packaging and body area network (BAN) applications. A miniature ethylene sensor could help monitor and control fruit ripening, potentially reducing food wastage. And a multi-ion sweat sensor could allow continuous monitoring of dehydration for athletes, the elderly and the sick.

Ethylene sensor for fruit ripening
Ethylene is a gaseous plant hormone. Ripe fruit gives off ethylene, and many fruits ripen faster when exposed to it. Fruit producers use high concentrations of ethylene to ripen fruit in the warehouse so it is ready to eat when it reaches consumers. Inexpensive, accurate ethylene sensors would enable better control of that process. It would also allow retailers to avoid wastage by monitoring fruit ripeness.

Today’s ethylene detection systems are lab-scale, expensive table-top devices, limiting their usefulness in fruit distribution and retail. Holst Centre’s new ethylene sensor provides the same functionality in a single chip. To achieve this, researchers from Holst Centre created a novel electrochemical cell based on an ionic liquid. Because ionic liquids cannot evaporate at room temperatures, they can be used in very thin layers in the cell. This means the cell – and hence the entire sensor – can be much smaller while delivering the same performance.

A first-generation prototype has been shown to detect ethylene down to 1 part per million (ppm), with a linear response up to 10 ppm – the kind of concentrations typically used to ripen fruit artificially. Holst Centre recently produced a second-generation prototype on an inexpensive, flexible substrate, paving the way for so-called smart packaging. Work is continuing to further miniaturize the sensor, extend its sensitivity to the sub-ppm regime for monitoring natural ripening and test it in real-life fruit storage and transportation conditions.

Sweat monitoring
Sweat can tell us a lot about our physical condition. Measuring its acidity and the concentration various ions gives information about a person’s dehydration and electrolyte levels. However, existing solutions for making these measurements are bulky and only sensitive to one type of ion, making them unsuitable for monitoring a person’s condition.

Different ions in sweat can be detected using electrochemical sensors that have electrodes made of different materials. Using nanotechnology and micro-fabrication techniques, the Holst Centre team was able to greatly reduce the size of these electrodes. This makes it possible to combine multiple electrodes onto one chip, and hence measure multiple ion concentrations with a single device.

To demonstrate the concept, the team created a combined acidity / chloride sensor complete with integrated wireless module, allowing the sensor output to be readout on a remote unit. The whole system was small enough to fit into a handheld device. Further size reductions are possible, leading to sweat sensors that are small enough to be integrated into an on-body patch as part of a body area network (BAN). The team is also investigating ways to channel sweat from the body to the sensor electrodes to enable continuous monitoring.

Such a system would allow real-time monitoring of dehydration and electrolyte levels, helping people to balance their intake of fluid and salt. This kind of information would be useful for sportspeople who want to train and perform at peak levels, as well as in the care of the elderly, small children and people suffering from fever and diarrhea – all of whom can become easily dehydrated.

See also:

Holst Centre hosts first PhD Day

do, 01, dec, 2011 11:00:00

With its wide range of research interests, Holst Centre is the center of extensive network of researchers covering universities across the Netherlands and beyond. On November 9th 2011, doctoral students from many of these universities came together at Holst Centre’s first PhD Day.

The aim of the day was to give students from the various universities a better understanding of the Holst Centre research community of which they are a key part. The Day began with an overview of the Holst Centre’s research by Holst Centre staff Ruud Vullers, Paul Blom and Sywert Brongersma. Students were also taken on a tour of Holst Centre’s facilities on the High Tech Campus Eindhoven, including a chance to see demos of some of the breakthroughs Holst Centre has made in its six year history.

Then the stage was given over to the students themselves. In two sessions either side of lunch, five students presented talks. Topics ranged from low-energy SRAM, body area networks and RFID to novel gas sensors and improving the performance of barrier layer for flexible electronics. In addition, 16 further students presented posters on subjects as varied as new materials and production techniques, measuring mental stress, investigating system reliability and enzyme-driven biofuel cells for medical implants.

Alongside showcasing the varied research being carried out by students connected to Holst Centre, the day was also a unique opportunity for students from different universities and fields to network. There was plenty of opportunity to mingle and share experiences over lunch, the poster sessions and the award ceremony that closed the day. Anne-Marije Andringa of the University of Groningen won Best Talk for her presentation on FET-based nitrogen dioxide sensors. Best Poster went to Jorge Vieyra-Salas of the Technical University Eindhoven (Controlling solution deposition with infrared irradiation).

“As a PhD student, it is always good to get an opportunity to talk about your work. And it was particularly nice to meet up with other students who, like me, are more focused on applications and are working in the space between academia and industry,” said prize winner Anne-Marije Andringa.

Holst Centre extends wireless research capabilities

wo, 09, nov, 2011 11:12:00

As research is its purpose, Holst Centre continues to invest in new tools to increase analysis capabilities and accelerate development of new technologies. Two of its most significant acquisitions for the research on wireless sensor technologies in 2011 have been an advanced, highly flexible network analyzer and a very powerful serial data analyzer.

The Agilent N5242A PNA-X Microwave Network Analyzer is used to measure differentials. With four ports and a maximum frequency of 26GHz, represents a major investment for Holst Centre and is a tool not normally found in non-corporate organizations. The analyzer plays an important role in the field of antenna / circuit design, helping researchers examine ultra wideband signals up to 10GHz together with their harmonics.

In-depth wireless studies
As a state-of-the-art oscilloscope, the LeCroy serial data analyzer SDA 816Zi-A offers powerful testing performance. Most oscilloscopes only go up to baseband frequencies of a few hundred MHz – the 816Zi-A reaches 16GHz. It can be used to analyze all wireless communication systems, and allows research to make in-depth studies of wireless signal structures such as time behavior. Holst Centre is one of the few research institutes in the world with this capability.

“These two tools greatly enhance our wireless research capabilities,” says Guido Dolmans, Principal Scientist, Ultra Low Power Wireless Communications. “They also represent Holst Centre’s commitment to breaking new ground in research by providing the most advanced tools to work with.”

See also:

ULP wireless

EU project IMOLA starts R&D on large-area, intelligent OLED lighting

do, 03, nov, 2011 10:27:00

All project partners announce the launch of IMOLA (Intelligent light Management for OLED on foil Applications), a project under the EU’s 7th framework program for ICT (FP7). The project’s goal is to make large-area OLED-based lighting modules with built-in intelligent light management. These systems will be used in future energy-efficient wall, ceiling and car dome lighting, where the light intensity can be adjusted intelligently, e.g. according to the time of the day or weather conditions.

OLEDs (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) are paper-thin, flexible and lightweight electronic devices. They consist of organic materials which emit light in response to an electric current. OLEDs consume up to 70% less energy compared to conventional light sources. This makes OLED technology a prime candidate for the next generation of energy-saving lighting. But before flexible large-area OLED lighting can be commercialized, more R&D is needed to solve some outstanding challenges. These areas, which mainly concern the driving electronics, power distribution, integration and miniaturization, as well as sensors and application intelligence, will be tackled by IMOLA.

The IMOLA consortium includes industrial and academic partners that are leaders in their field of expertise. Next to project coordinator imec, the partners involved in IMOLA are Holst Centre (Netherlands), Philips Technologie (Germany), NXP Semiconductors (Netherlands, Belgium), Hanita Coatings RCA (Israel), Henkel Electronic Materials (Belgium), Centro Ricerche Plast-optica (Italy), and the FER department of the University of Zagreb (Croatia).

IMOLA’s application demonstrators in the areas of car and wall lighting will raise public awareness and acceptance for environmental-friendly OLED lighting. In addition, IMOLA will help create a common OLED infrastructure on a European scale. IMOLA’s R&D results will help to give Europe a leading edge in OLED fabrication, especially in the field of high value-added applications, such as automotive lighting.

See also:

Printed organic lighting and signage

Wireless vibration monitoring enables predictive maintenance of machinery

vr, 28, okt, 2011 09:39:00

Holst Centre, imec and Flanders Mechatronics Technology Centre (FMTC) have reported the development of an energy-autonomous, wireless vibration sensor node for industrial machinery. The install-and-forget node could enable manufacturing companies to schedule condition-based maintenance for their equipment, saving time and money.

Condition-based maintenance allows machine owners to minimize spare parts costs, system downtime and service man-hours by only performing maintenance when it is needed. A common way to determine when maintenance is needed is by monitoring the vibration on the machine. However, today’s wired vibration sensors can only be attached to the static parts of a machine, while it is the moving parts that typically suffer the most wear.

To improve the accuracy of condition monitoring, Holst Centre, imec and FMTC have developed a wireless vibration sensor node that can be attached to both static and moving parts. The node is powered through energy harvesting enabling completely autonomous operation and avoiding maintenance costs and the need to replace batteries.

It features an innovative, annular thermal electric generator (TEG), developed at Holst Centre as part of the Micropower program. This converts thermal energy from a rotating shaft into electricity. The TEG is combined with a low-power wireless sensor node architecture that features a tunable sample rate, allowing the node to be deployed in various operating conditions.

The TEG and sensor node have been successfully tested in an industrial application involving a shaft rotating at up to 1800 rpm. In these tests, the TEG delivered a maximum power of 22 mW, more than enough to power the sensor node at even the highest sampling rates required. In addition, the TEG / sensor node combination was able to accurately characterize the 3-dimensional accelerations on the rotating shaft. These results will be presented at IEEE Sensors 2011 October (28-31) and PowerMEMS 2011 in November (15-18).

Developing the autonomous wireless condition monitoring sensor node is part of a wider collaboration between Holst Centre and FMTC that also covers measuring the whole body vibrations experienced by operators of heavy-duty machines and vehicles.. This cooperation is a feature of Holst Centre’s OpenSME initiative to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) benefit from the open innovation carried out at Holst Centre.

See also:

Usefull links

Office-style shirt with hidden thermoelectric generator to power low-energy wearable electronics

do, 27, okt, 2011 14:35:00

Holst Centre and imec present a new shirt with completely hidden integrated thermoelectric generator (TEG). The TEG produces an average power of 1mW when sitting in the office at 22°C, and 2mW when walking around. These values double at 17°C. As such, the device is an ideal power supply for low-power wearable electronics such as health-monitoring devices. Because the TEG is now completely hidden in textile, the shirt has greatly improved on a previous model in terms of comfort and potential market acceptance.

A TEG with 16 one-stage thermopiles has been designed, fabricated and integrated into an office-style shirt. The thermopiles are sandwiched between a hot plate (3cm in diameter) and a cold plate (sized 3cm x 3,5cm), resulting in an overall thickness of 5mm. They are mounted on a piece of cotton and sewed to the shirt from the inside. The cold plates of the thermopiles are glued to carbon fabric which has been sewed on the inner side of the shirt. As a result, the device and wiring are hidden between two cotton layers and invisible from either side of the shirt. In contrast to an earlier concept, the new TEG does not require any modifications to existing garments and is very comfortable to wear. The shirt can be washed and ironed. This new design greatly improves the potential acceptance of the energy harvester on the market.

The TEG has been tested on a standing and on a sitting person, and at different ambient temperatures. The measurements show an average power of 1mW in the office at 22°C, and this value doubles if the person walks. The power also doubles at an ambient temperature of 17°C, i.e., it increases to 2mW on a standing or sitting person, and to 4mW on a walking person. In practical applications, the power available for applications is limited by the presence of energy storage elements. Nevertheless, the TEG is an ideal power supply for low-power wearable electronics such as health-monitoring devices. For example, wireless electrocardiography requires about 0.4mW today and is expected to require only 0.1mW in the near future.

The new thermoelectric shirt is a good compromise between optimal comfort and power output. The power would have been slightly higher if the thermopiles were always tightly pushed to the skin, as in a previously developed slim-fit-style shirt. In this earlier design, the TEG was pushed to the skin by using elastic bands, and the cold plates were visibly located above the textile. For this shirt, only 14 thermopiles were needed to obtain the same power output. But in terms of comfort, elastic bands are not a preferable solution. Also, in the new design, the inner cotton layer located between the skin and the hot plate adversely affects the power, but it contributes to a better comfort. On the other hand, an improvement in power generation was provided by the carbon fabric to which the cold plates were glued. This carbon fabric acts like an easy-to-integrate flexible heat spreading layer and replaces the rigid aluminum plates used in previous concepts. Measurements with an 8cmx8cm carbon fabric have shown that the power generation improved by 30% as compared to an Al heat spreading plate of 3cmx4cm.

More detailed results have been presented at the 9th European Conference on Thermoelectrics, September 2011

See also:

Micro-power generation and storage

State-of-the-art integrated IR-UWB enabling global high-quality low-power mobile applications

di, 11, okt, 2011 00:00:00

Holst Centre and imec present a fully chip-integrated ultralow-power IR-UWB (impulse-radio ultra-wideband) solution for use in the worldwide available 6-10GHz band. The radio delivers high-quality communication for battery-operated mobile and sensing applications. It operates fade-resilient and interference-free.

With its first ultralow-power integrated solution for the 6-10GHz band, Holst Centre and imec now make UWB communication available for battery-operated applications in the area of personal area networks and positioning sensors worldwide. Examples are short-range video streaming or around-the-body audio streaming (e.g. between a headset and a smartphone). When using the UWB radio for the wireless streaming of audio between for example a smartphone and an earpiece, the battery lifetime of the smartphone will increase by over 3x compared to a conventional Bluetooth-based solution, and the earpiece will have a battery lifetime increase of over 5x. In contrast to the Bluetooth communication, the UWB radio will not suffer from interference from other wireless technologies that operate in the same location and in the same frequency band.

Impulse ultra-wideband communication is especially suited for short-range (20m) communication and positioning sensors. The large bandwidth improves the resilience against fades, resulting in a superior communication reliability. This is especially so compared to narrowband solutions, which tend to lose signals in surroundings with reflective surfaces and multi-path propagation. Also, spreading information over a wide bandwidth decreases the power spectral density, thus reducing the interference with other systems and lowering the probability of interception. IR-UWB is also suitable for positioning sensors; the reflection of the wide-band signal allows for centimeter-ranging positioning accuracy.

Holst Centre and imec’s solution consists of a transmitter, receiver front-end, and receiver digital baseband. The transmitter delivers 13dBm peak power, with an average power consumption of 3.3mW. The receiver front-end shows -88dBm sensitivity at 1Mbps. A digital synchronization algorithm enables real-time duty cycling, resulting in a mean power consumption of 3mW. A DCO with 100ppm frequency accuracy and a baseband frequency tracking algorithm ensure the coherent reception. A 75dB link budget with a data rate of 1Mbps is achieved.

Companies can have access to this technology by joining Holst Centre and imec’s R&D program on ultra-low power wireless systems.

Innovative technology for an ECG patch, combining an ultralow-power ECG SoC with Bluetooth Low Energy

di, 11, okt, 2011 00:00:00

Holst Centre, imec and DELTA announce an innovative body patch that integrates an ultra-low power electrocardiogram (ECG) chip and a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) radio. This unique combination fuses power-efficient electronics and standardized communication, opening new perspectives for long-term monitoring in health, wellness and medical applications. The system integrates components from Holst Centre and imec’s R&D programs. It is designed in collaboration with DELTA and integrated in DELTA’s ePatch platform.

The ECG patch measures up to 3 lead ECG signals, tissue-contact impedance and includes a 3D-accelerometer for physical activity monitoring. The data are processed and analyzed locally, and relevant events and information are transmitted through Bluetooth Low Energy. The patch is capable of monitoring, processing and communication on a minimal energy budget. When computing and transmitting the heart rate, the entire system consumes a mere 280µA at 2.1V, running continuously for one month on a 200mAh Li-Po battery. When transmitting accelerometer data (at 32Hz) on top of the heart rate, the power consumption remains below 1mA in continuous operation, giving about 1 week of autonomy.

The BLE link adds a standardized plug-and-play communication gateway to mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Smartphones and tablets enabled with Bluetooth 4.0 have been announced for next year; these will be your gateway to the world, bringing your heart parameters to wellness applications, to your network of friends, or to your doctor.

At the heart of the patch is an ECG System-On-Chip (SoC), a mixed signal ASIC. It is custom designed to provide ECG monitoring and high processing power at an extremely low energy consumption. Next to monitoring 1- to 3-lead ECG, the ECG SoC also monitors the contact impedance, providing real-time information on the electrode contact quality. This can be used to evaluate the quality of the ECG measurement and to filter motion artifacts. The ECG SoC has been designed to run algorithms for motion artifact reduction (based on adaptive filtering or principal component analysis) and beat-to-beat heart rate computation (based on discrete or continuous wavelet transforms). It has additional computation power to run application-specific algorithms such as epileptic seizure detection, energy expenditure estimation or arrhythmia monitoring. The built-in 12-bit ADC is capable of adaptive sampling – sampling QRS waves at high frequency, and the other waves at a lower frequency – achieving a compression ratio of up to 5.

Holst Centre and imec develop intelligent wearable sensing solutions addressing the needs for a better and more efficient healthcare. A prime example is the wearable ECG patch combining imec’s ultra low power electronics with DELTA’s ePatch technology. This first-of-a-kind demonstrator opens up new opportunities for companies active in wireless health.

See also:

Body Area Networks

Record-breaking energy efficiency for SRAM

vr, 07, okt, 2011 11:54:00

Researchers from Holst Centre, imec and and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (K.U. Leuven) have demonstrated the world’s most energy efficient 64kbit SRAM operating at 90MHz. At just 2.65pJ per access, the new SRAM consumes 5-20 times less energy than the previous state of the art. It opens the door to a range of new energy-harvesting applications in body-area networks (BANs) for healthcare and sensor networks for smart buildings.

BANs promise heath monitoring systems that can keep an eye on your vital signs around the clock without disrupting your normal daily life. The ultimate goal is systems that draw energy from their environment. But this “energy harvesting” requires sensors that consume very little power.

“For a typical wireless processor today, accessing the node’s memory accounts for about 75% of the energy it uses. So by making SRAM more efficient, you can make a big difference to the nodes overall energy usage – possibly as much as a factor of 3,” said Jos Huisken, Principal Scientist at Holst Centre specializing in ultra-low-power digital signal processing.

The Holst Centre / imec / K.U. Leuven team achieved the record-breaking figure of 2.65pJ per access (read or write cycle) by taking a fresh look at the way an SRAM is designed. Instead of prioritizing clock speed and silicon area, the group optimized their design for energy efficiency and variability resilience. To do this, the group used an innovative SRAM architecture with a low-energy charge-limited sequential sense amplifier and a novel mimicked negative bit-line technique. The design was then realized in a test chip fabricated in 65-nm LP CMOS.

According to Vibhu Sharma, a doctorate student at K.U Leuven who developed the test chip, this patented energy-saving technology could be used in many other applications. “Our test chip operates at 90MHz. Our group has also shown that the techniques behind it can also be applied at higher frequencies so could be used for applications such as cell phones and embedded processors that have higher memory performance requirements than BAN nodes,” he explained.

The record-breaking SRAM was announced at the European Solid-State Circuits Conference (ESSCIRC), held in Helsinki, Finland in September 2011. Work is currently ongoing to prepare the low-power techniques for industrialization for example through integration into an SRAM compiler. The group is also looking for industrial partners to support the transfer to litho-optimized SRAM cells.

See also:

Ultralow-power readout architecture for MEMS/NEMS sensors

wo, 24, aug, 2011 09:00:00

Holst Centre and imec report an ultralow-power readout ASIC for capacitive MEMS/NEMS-based sensors. The readout architecture has the lowest reported equivalent acceleration noise level and the highest bandwidth. It offers a unique tradeoff between signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), bandwidth, and power. The readout chip can be interfaced with a variety of sensors while maintaining its ultra-low-power capabilities.

With the growing number of MEMS sensors for all types of applications, there is a need for innovative, flexible and power-efficient readout architectures. These have to be able to read signals from a wide range of capacitive devices (such as accelerometers and strain sensors with different actuation voltages, sensitivities and resolutions). One particular interesting application field is the monitoring of building integrity, where the sensors have to measure displacements and stresses, as an indication for the integrity of structures during e.g. seismic events.

Most of the existing readout chips are custom-made for a particular sensor, which usually has a large sensitivity in a narrow band. Our architecture can interface with a variety of sensors without jeopardizing the power consumption. This is important for monitoring building integrity, which requires battery-operated systems to keep working for several years. It’s also a cost-effective solution, since the same readout can be used for both accelerometers and strain sensors. Last, the system’s flexibility is a major asset: sensors with different sensitivities, offsets and mismatch can easily be handled by modifying the timing and duty cycle of the excitation pulses.

Technical details
The system can read both accelerometers and strain sensors in a half-bridge configuration. The gain is controlled by integrating pulses from the excitation voltage allowing accurate control of the SNR (signal-to-noise) ratio. Applications such as monitoring of building integrity impose resolution requirements of 1mg and 10με for the accelerometer and strain sensor respectively, and a range of ±2.0g and ±20,000με over a 100Hz bandwidth. We achieved a figure-of-merit of 4.41×10-20 F√(W/Hz) for a sensor range of ±2.0g and ±20,000με over a 100Hz bandwidth. The system has also been designed to cancel residual motion artifacts. The design was fabricated on TSMC 0.25μm CMOS with metal-insulator-metal capacitors. The total power consumption of the 3 channels is 15μW. The clock and excitation voltages for the sensors are external.

See also:

Analog IC Design

First wireless energy transport and harvesting forum a success

di, 26, jul, 2011 11:29:00

On June 28, Holst Centre hosted the first ever conference dedicated to wireless energy transport and harvesting. The International Workshop on Wireless Energy Transport and Harvesting (IWWETH 2011) proved such a success that participants asked for it to be repeated in 2012. As a result, organizers Holst Centre are planning a larger second edition with a more global audience.

Wireless sensor networks promise to dramatically reduce the amount of energy we use in our homes. A small network of sub-milliwatt sensors could save tens of watts by automatically turning off heating and lighting when it isn’t needed. The question of how to power those nodes has made wireless energy transport and harvesting a hot topic.

However, it’s a topic that covers a lot of disciplines such as wireless physics, antenna design, coil design and system integration. And one that applies to numerous applications including smart packaging and intelligent tires as wells as wireless networking.

“Talking with others in the wireless energy transport and harvesting community, there was a feeling that we were outsiders at conferences on other topics. We needed a forum of our own,” says organizer Ruud Vullers, principal scientist in Holst Centre’s micro-power generation and storage program.

That observation led Holst Centre to organize IWWETH 2011 on June 28. The event featured 8 guest speakers and attracted 30 participants from across Western Europe. It covered three broad areas: inductive charging, harvesting energy from ambient RF signals (e.g. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and cellular) and wirelessly transmitting power from a central source (such as an idle Wi-Fi router). The program also included open presentations, plenary discussions and a networking reception.

“The feedback we got from the speakers and other participants was very positive. People really appreciated the chance to network and get a proper overview of what is happening in the field. They were keen to do it again next year,” Vullers adds.

Based on that feedback, Holst Centre is already planning a second IWWETH for spring 2012. The organizers hope to expand the scale of the event and open it up to participants from North America and Asia as well.

See also:

Micro-power generation and storage

Reliability testing opens door to secure wireless nodes

vr, 22, jul, 2011 16:18:00

Holst Centre and Intrinsic ID have demonstrated the reliability of Physical Unclonable Function (PUF) technology based on 6T-SRAM start-up states for secure key generation. In the most extensive investigation of its type to date, researchers showed that unique and consistent keys could be generated over wide variations in environmental variables such as temperature, supply voltage and device age.

Developed by Intrinsic ID, 6T-SRAM-based PUF technology offers a way to define a unique and unpredictable identifier for a given IC based on its intrinsic physical characteristics. This identifier can be used to prevent devices being counterfeited or as a cryptographic key for a security protocol to protect data. Importantly, the technology is highly resistant to physical attacks, making it a good option for unattended wireless sensor nodes.

To test the technology’s applicability in wireless networks, Holst Centre and Intrinsic ID used a PUF based on the start-up state of 6T-SRAM – a common memory choice for sensor nodes. Through an extensive battery of reliability tests, researchers showed that unique and consistent keys could be generated across the entire range of operating conditions a node is likely to face in typical use. These include temperatures from -40 to +80°, voltage variations of ±10% and ageing effects equivalent to 5 years of continuous use.

“Wireless sensor networks in applications such as medical monitoring have to handle highly sensitive data. For these applications to become widespread, consumers will want to know their data is secure and their privacy guaranteed,” says Maryam Ashouei of Holst Centre’s ULP DSP program. “By demonstrating the reliability of PUF technology, we aim to show cryptographic keys can be protected from physical attack – offering an additional layer of consumer confidence.”

The work was presented at the 2011 ISCAS conference in Rio de Janeiro.

See also

Ultra low power signal processing

Integrated inkjet engine puts roll-to-roll electronics production in reach

wo, 29, jun, 2011 00:00:00

Holst Centre, Philips and OTB Solar have brought roll-to-roll manufacturing of electronic circuits a step closer with the creation a 6-inch inkjet engine with integrated thermal stages. The engine represents the final step before full-scale roll-to-roll processes for manufacturing printed electronics, and could be industrialized for sheet-to-sheet production.

Roll-to-roll production and inkjet printing offer the potential to dramatically reduce costs for manufacturing organic electronic devices such as OLEDs and OPVs. However, to deploy these techniques industrially requires inkjet printing processes that can deposit highly homogenous polymer layers over wide areas.

Developed during a two-year collaboration between Holst Centre, Philips and OTB Solar, the integrated inkjet engine is the penultimate step towards that goal. The engine combines two inkjet heads comprising thousands of individual nozzles with six separate thermal modules and a fully automated robot for transferring the printed substrates to the thermal modules.

The development was carried under the Dutch Government’s kenniswerkersregeling (KWR). This was a scheme to protect the Netherlands’ knowledge economy during the recent global economic crisis. It funded R&D staff from Dutch technology companies to take part in authorized projects at research institutes in the country. Under the KWR, researchers from Philips and OTB Solar were embedded into Holst Centre’s TP1 – Large Area Printing.

“The integrated inkjet engine is a unique tool that allows us to start developing real roll-to-roll inkjet processes for printed electronics. Thanks to the involvement of Philips and OTB Solar researchers through the KWR, we were able to realize it at least a year earlier than would have been possible otherwise,” says Ronn Andriessen, Holst Centre Program Manager for Organic Photovoltaics and Large Area Printing.

Based on OTB Solar’s LP50 inkjet platform, the new engine includes two XAAR printer heads. It is currently in the final stages of testing and demonstrating robust performance.

It allows settings and optimizations for roll-to-roll processes to be explored in a more realistic setting, speeding the development of full-scale roll-to-roll manufacturing. Following further industrialization, the engine could also be used for electronics manufacturing in sheet-to-sheet set ups.

See also

Large Area Printing

Holst Centre Eindhoven, imec and University of Ghent collaborate on flexible and stretchable electronics

di, 14, jun, 2011 00:00:00

Holst Centre (an open-innovation initiative by imec and TNO) and the Centre of MicroSystems Technology (CMST), imec’s associated laboratory at Ghent University, join forces on flexible and stretchable electronics. The collaboration is an almost natural consequence of the complementary topics at the two nearby-located research groups. Progress will be made in the integration of flexible and stretchable electronics, for example for applications in the fields of sensors, health, lighting and organic photovoltaics.

Over the past years, CMST has built significant expertise in integration technologies for flexible and stretchable electronics with a focus on high density, high end PCB-type applications. Amongst the focus points of CMST are: silicon chip embedding in polyimide stretchable electronics and textile integration. Holst Centre on the other hand has built-up significant competences in the field of integration technologies for large area flexible electronics with an important focus on low cost PEN/PET substrates. Its main research topics involve silicon chip embedding in PEN/PET substrates and foil lamination and interconnection.

The formal collaboration between the two entities has the advantage that the full scope of integration technologies from high end to low cost is available for both flexible and conformable applications. It allows choosing the best technology for the application.

Although cross-the-boarder between Belgium and the Netherlands, the distance between the two research groups is negligible in view of the ambition to be a global player in the research field. The collaboration therefore illustrates how Holst Centre’s ties with its mother organizations result in a more bundled and efficient innovation strategy.

One of the first fruitful outcomes of the collaboration already becomes visible. CMST has a technology for making stretchable electronics based on meanders and embedding in PDMS rubber. Up to now, this technology is based on photodefinable polyimide and traditional PCB-technology. Jointly, the technology is being transferred to large area electronics, laser structuring and low cost foils. This for example opens up the possibility of making stretchable OLED devices.

Photo: top first laser-structured PET-based stretchable circuitry. Bottom: demonstrator of CMST: made using photodefinable polyimide and traditional PCB-technology

See also

Integration technologies for flexible systems

Holst Centre hosts IMAPS Benelux Spring Event on System-in-foil

di, 17, mei, 2011 00:00:00

On Thursday, June 9th Holst Centre will be hosting the IMAPS-Benelux Spring Event 2011. The theme of the event is System-in-foil: electronic products embedded in a thin flexible foil.

IMAPS-Benelux is the Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg) chapter of IMAPS, the International Microelectronics And Packaging Society. IMAPS Benelux works closely with industry and academia to ensure that members are kept up to date with the latest developments and innovations in microelectronics. It promotes its knowledge through workshops, seminars, conferences and exhibitions.
To find out more about this event and to print a registration form, please click here.

IMPORTANT: contrary to what is mentioned on the IMAPS website and registration form, Holst Centre is located in building 31 of the High Tech Campus.

Novel gas sensor paves way to personal air quality monitors

di, 10, mei, 2011 12:34:00

Holst Centre and imec have demonstrated the word’s first small, low-power gas sensor capable of detecting nitrogen oxides (NOx) at the parts per billion (ppb) level. Fully scalable to industrial, high-volume production, the new sensor could lead to personal, wearable air quality monitoring applications.

NOx gases such as nitrogen monoxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) are common air pollutants and key precursors for a range of secondary pollutants. They are naturally present in air at the tens of ppb level, but can cause breathing and health problems at concentrations above 100 ppb. Previously, detecting NOx in this range was only possible with large, high-power devices – restricting air quality monitoring to tabletop, mains-powered applications.

Micro-sensor with ppb sensitivity
Holst Centre and imec have now demonstrated a new sensor concept that delivers the same accuracy in sensors just microns across. The sensor is based on layers of aluminum gallium nitride (AlGaN) and gallium nitride (GaN) grown on silicon substrates. A two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) is formed at the interface between these layers, and provides a highly conductive channel sensitive to changes at the sensor’s surface. Moreover, because the channel is buried below the surface, noise in the channel is extremely low. Consequently, the new sensor is much more sensitive than previous technologies.

“The ability to detect NOx at ppb concentrations with such a small, low-power device stems directly from the properties of the sensor materials GaN / AlGaN. It is very novel to have these materials on silicon wafers. However, imec has been growing GaN and AlGaN reproducibly on silicon for a couple of years, and has a mature, industrially attractive process,” says Peter Offermans, researcher at Holst Centre.

Ready for industrialization
“The end result is an extremely sensitive air quality sensor that is small enough to be worn,” adds Roman Vitushinsky, also Holst Centre researcher. “Because the GaN and AlGaN are grown on silicon wafers, the sensors offer a simpler route to industrialization and volume production. With the right industrialization partner, the sensor could lead to wearable air quality monitoring products within a few years.”

In a world first, the sensor has been demonstrated in a battery-powered application with a wireless module. Further development could push the sensitivity down to the parts per trillion (ppt) level, which would be useful for applications such as asthma monitoring. Holst Centre is also looking to extend the sensor’s functionality to detecting other gases at equally low concentrations.

See also

Ultra low power sensors and actuators

Holst Centre involved in TEDxBrainport

vr, 08, apr, 2011 12:25:00

High quality speakers from inside and outside the Brainport region will ‘enlighten your brain’ with inspiring presentations and acts during TEDxBrainport in Eindhoven. The organizing committee, including people from Holst Centre, believes in the power of the region and wants to share that to a broad audience. Holst Centre is not only involved in organizing the event, but will also have a speaker on stage: Harmke de Groot, managing director of the Ultra Low Power wireless and DSP program will speak about open innovation.

Due to TEDx regulations, only 100 people can attend the main event. From all applications, the organizing team selects a balanced group of visitors. Several satellite locations ensure that everyone can join the experience.

Visit www.tedxbrainport.com and follow TEDxBrainport on various social media to stay informed.

Application demo shows power of collaboration

do, 07, apr, 2011 14:06:00

A new application-in-foil demo from the EU FP7-funded PolyNet Network of Excellence shows how collaboration between leading research institutes accelerates development.

The demo features laminated touchpads, an organic transistor, a printed display and printed batteries. Each component was manufactured by a different partner institute using existing technologies. They were then integrated and laminated into a complete application in foil, drawing on Holst Centre’s expertise in printing and integration for flexible substrates.

“The application demo shows it is possible to combine printed devices from institutes across Europe with relatively little additional effort,” says Herman Schoo, who leads Holst Centre’s PolyNet team. “At the moment, no single institute could create a complete system, but together we can make applications in foil work – and that’s a valuable resource today for companies exploring foil-based product ideas.”

A video of the demo in action is available on YouTube.

See also

SME-cluster DevLab enters into open innovation partnership with Holst Centre

ma, 04, apr, 2011 16:06:00

Within the scope of the Holst Centre OpenSME initiative, we signed a collaboration agreement with DevLab, a Dutch research platform for – and initiated by - SMEs. The partnership will investigate the potential of DevLab’s expertise on wireless network protocols and our own expertise on ultra-low-power electronics.

DevLab was initiated in 2005 by 12 technological SMEs. Its objective is to stimulate the flow of knowledge between universities and the SME members in order to create mid and long term national and international business opportunities. In close cooperation with universities, with a network of professors and lectors, research projects are carried out by employees of the member SMEs, PhD students, and graduating students . Within this concept DevLab is also partner in larger consortia, together with industry, universities and other research institutes.

At the core of DevLab’s activities lies MyriaNed, a wireless self-organizing networking concept. MyriaNed runs a "gossip" protocol, which spreads rumors (messages) in a network of nodes. There is no central authority, so there is no problem if some nodes fail their function. The messages will propagate through the network along the working nodes. Nodes may join and leave the network dynamically. The MyriaNed concept results in a network with a totally different behavior compared to the well known networks, which leads to a new approach for many applications.

The collaboration with Holst Centre research groups will enable the further improvement of the DevLab MyriaNed platform, by adding autonomy to the nodes with a focus on ultra-low power wireless technology and energy harvesting. For Holst Centre, the DevLab expertise on networking protocols adds valuable insights to the existing activities on wireless autonomous sensor technologies.

“Not only from a technical point of view DevLab and Holst Centre are complementary, DevLab has formed an open innovation platform for SMEs that aligns well with the drivers of Holst Centre OpenSME. Combining our eco-systems will bring many opportunities for all parties involved.” says Margot Nijkamp, Director SME Partnerships at Holst Centre.

The partnership agreement with Holst Centre OpenSME was signed during the DevLab café, a regular meeting of DevLab’s members, this time hosted by Holst Centre.

See also

SME participation

Ultra-low power 2.4GHz radio for healthcare applications

do, 31, mrt, 2011 11:44:00

At the ISSCC 2011 conference, Holst Centre, imec and Panasonic presented their results on an ultra-low power radio chip for wireless body-area networks (WBAN). Such networks are used for communication among sensor nodes operating on, in or around the human body, e.g. for healthcare purposes. In view of energy autonomy, the total energy consumption of the sensor nodes should be minimized.

Current results show an ultra-low-power single-chip transceiver, taped out in 90nm CMOS. Next to the direct modulation transmitter and receiver RF front-ends, the chip integrates analog and digital baseband, phase-locked loop (PLL) functionality (for signal stabilization and recognition) and additional programmability for flexible data rates. Power consumption of the entire chip is below 1 milliwatt in receive or transmit mode. Compared to state-of-the-art, the radio chip achieves a better sensitivity for higher data rates with lower or comparable power consumption. Holst Centre and its partners demonstrate the low-power potential of the radio chip in a wireless ECG senor node.

See also

Versatile Ultra-low Power Biomedical Signal Processor

wo, 23, feb, 2011 11:17:00

At today’s International Solid-State Circuit Conference (ISSCC2011), imec, NXP and Holst Centre present a versatile ultra-low power biomedical signal processor, CoolBioTM, meeting the requirements of future wearable biomedical sensor systems. The biomedical signal processor consumes only 13pJ/cycle when running a complex ECG (electrocardiogram) algorithm at 1MHz and 0.4V operating voltage. This C-programmable chip is voltage and performance scalable supporting a frequency range of 1MHz up to 100MHz with an operating voltage from 0.4 to 1.2V.

Intelligent body area networks (BANs) consisting of wireless sensors nodes which continuously monitor vital body parameters such as heart, muscle and brain activity promise to be a solution for more comfortable, cost- and time-efficient healthcare systems. They allow people to be monitored and followed up at home, doing their daily life activities.

A major challenge in developing such BANs is to bring overall power consumption down to a level where the system can be powered by energy harvesting or a microbattery that runs for months.

The CoolBioTM allows drastic power reduction of the wireless BAN sensor nodes. Processing and compressing data locally on the BAN node limits power hungry transmission of data over the wireless link, while adding motion artifact reduction and smart diagnosis at the same time,

Imec, Holst Centre and NXP started from the commercially available low power CoolFluxTM DSP baseband core from NXP (see www.coolflux.com) to design an ultra-low power flexible processor solution for body area networks applications. The architecture and circuitry were adapted to operate at near-threshold voltage (0.4V) at low operating frequencies. , extreme separation into multiple voltage power, clock and memory domains were implemented to guarantee high energy efficiency from standby to 100 MHz performance. The result means reduced power consumption at low operating frequency, while maintaining high performance possibilities for multi-channel biomedical signal processing.

“We designed the CoolBio based on the concept: “If there’s nothing to be done, then don’t waste energy!” With this key research focus on low power circuit techniques, we succeeded in designing with our industrial partner NXP a biomedical processor suitable for future biomedical products offering an optimized balance between performance and power consumption;” said Harmke De Groot, program director imec the Netherlands at Holst Centre.

“Ultra low power dissipation is a critical requirement for ubiquitous deployment of Personal Health solutions. NXP continues to push the envelope on all critical functions required in wearable healthcare solutions. CoolBioTM complements our comprehensive ultra low power portfolio with which we enable solutions improving people’s quality of life.” said Bart De Loore, VP New Business at NXP.

Semiconductor manufacturers or fabless design houses who aim to evaluate the CoolBio or to develop their own bioprocessor can build on imec’s expertise by joining imec’s research program on ultra-low power processing for body area networks, part of the HUMAN++ program.

See also:

Ultra low power signal processing

Ten contributions to ISSCC top conference

ma, 21, feb, 2011 09:00:00

At the 2011 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) in San Francisco, Holst Centre has a total of ten contributions, including five scientific papers and one keynote speech. ISSCC is considered the foremost global forum for presentation of advances in IC design.

An overview of the contributions:

Co-organization

Membership Energy-efficient digital subcommittee (Jos Huisken)

Sunday 20/02

Tutorial “Ultra low-power and low-voltage digital-circuit design techniques” (Jos Huisken)
Evening-session talk “Advanced energy harvesting techniques” (Ruud Vullers)

Monday 21/02

Keynote “Game-changing opportunities for wireless personal healthcare and lifestyle” (Jo De Boeck)
Session 6 on Sensors and Energy Harvesting - Paper: “5μw-to-10mw input power Range inductive Boost converter for indoor photovoltaic energy harvesting with integrated maximum power point tracking algorithm” (Yifeng Qiu and Chris Van Liempd – in collaboration with Philips Research, KU Leuven and imec)

Tuesday 22/02

Session 17 on Biomedical & Displays – Paper: “A 160μw 8-channel active electrode System for EEG Monitoring” (Jiawei Xu and Pieter Harpe – in collaboration with TU Delft and imec)
Demo session and poster: BAN radio (Maja Vidojkovic and Jef van de Molengraft)

Wednesday 23/02

Session 18 on Organic innovations – Paper: “An 8b organic Microprocessor on plastic Foil” (Gerwin Gelinck – in collaboration with KU Leuven, Polymer Vision, KH Limburg and imec)
Session 19 on Low-power digital techniques – Paper: “A voltage-Scalable Biomedical Signal processor running ECG using 13pJ/cycle at 1Mhz and 0.4V” (Maryam Ashouei, Jos Hulzink, Mario Konijnenburg, Jun Zhou, Filipa Duarte, Arjan Breeschoten, Jos Huisken, Jan Stuyt and Harmke de Groot – in collaboration with NXP and imec)
Session 26 on Low-power wireless – Paper: “A 2.4Ghz ULP OOK Single-chip Transceiver for healthcare applications” (Maja Vidojkovic, Xiongchuan Huang, Pieter Harpe, Simonetta Rampu, Cui Zhou, Li Huang, Benjamin Busze, Frank Bouwens, Mario Konijnenburg, Juan Santana, Arjan Breeschoten, Jos Huisken, Guido Dolmans and Harmke de Groot – in collaboration with Panasonic and imec)

Ingenious makes rapid progress

wo, 16, feb, 2011 17:08:00

After just one year, significant progress has already been made in the EU’s three-year Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) ‘Ingenious’ project. Tasked with developing an optical chemical sensor based on nanotechnology, the European and Russian partners involved have already reached the testing phase of the first sensor prototype.

Eight partners are involved in the FP7 Ingenious project. Four funded by the European Commission and representing European research institutes and universities, including Holst Centre which is coordinating the project. They are joined by four partners belonging to the Russian Academy of Sciences, sponsored by the Russian government.

The project aims to develop a new generation of ultrasensitive optochemical sensors for detecting benzene, toluene and xylene (BTX) from complex mixtures. BTX gases present serious medical, environmental and explosion hazards so their detection is critical for many industries.

See also:

Patterning for flexible systems

EU-project

DuPont Microcircuit Materials Expands Printed Electronics Research with Holst Centre Collaboration

wo, 16, feb, 2011 09:30:00

New Focus on Flexible Substrates to Benefit Printed Electronics and Organic Photovoltaics

BRISTOL, UK, Feb. 15, 2011 – DuPont Microcircuit Materials (MCM), part of DuPont Electronics and Communications, has announced a key collaboration with Holst Centre, an independent open-innovation R&D centre set up by imec (B) and TNO (NL), focused on printed electronics. The collaboration is expected to advance technology specifically in the area of printed structures on flexible substrates, which has application in flexible display, RFID, lighting, biomedical and Organic Photovoltaic (OPV) markets.

"As one of the leading material suppliers to the printed electronics industry, DuPont MCM is pleased to collaborate with Holst Centre to enhance the potential for significant new material developments and accelerate market growth in multiple printed electronics applications,” said Kerry Adams, European business development manager – DuPont Microcircuit Materials. “We are honored to be part of such an innovative centre of excellence for the advancement of technologies in this exciting area and look forward to collaborative research with other industrial partners.”

DuPont MCM is an established high-volume supplier of electronic inks and pastes and has developed a broad range of printed electronic materials commercially available today. This growing range of DuPont MCM functional inks is used for forming conductive traces, capacitor and resistor elements, and dielectric and encapsulating layers that are compatible with many substrate surfaces including polyester, glass and ceramic.

DuPont MCM will be joining the ‘Printed Structures on Flexible Substrates’ program. The work will concentrate on optimizing printed metallic structures on flexible substrates in terms of conductivity, fine line deposition and low energy sintering. A variety of roll-to roll compatible printing techniques will be studied including screen, flexography and ink jet. Alternative conductor metallurgies will be studied as well as reactive systems for depositing conductive traces.

"We are proud to welcome DuPont to the Holst Centre ecosystem,” said Erwin Meinders, program manager Printed Structures on Flexible Substrates – Holst Centre. “DuPont has a strong reputation in functional inks. I'm confident that DuPont's participation in Holst Centre will give a boost to the further advancement of functional inks and conductive pastes, as key enablers for large-area printed electronics applications.”

DuPont Microcircuit Materials recently highlighted its printed electronics offerings at the FlexTech Alliance 10th Annual Flexible Electronics and Displays Conference & Exhibition in Phoenix, Ariz., and next will feature them at the IDTechEx Printed Electronics Europe event, April 5 – 6, 2011, in Dusseldorf, Germany.

Holst Centre is an independent open-innovation R&D centre that develops generic technologies for Wireless Autonomous Sensor Technologies and for Flexible Electronics. A key feature of Holst Centre is its partnership model with industry and academia around shared roadmaps and programs. It is this kind of cross-fertilization that enables Holst Centre to tune its scientific strategy to industrial needs. Holst Centre was set up in 2005 by imec (Flanders, Belgium) and TNO (The Netherlands) with support from the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Government of Flanders. It is named after Gilles Holst, a Dutch pioneer in Research and Development and first director of Philips Research. Located on High Tech Campus Eindhoven, Holst Centre benefits from the state-of-the-art on-site facilities. Holst Centre has over 170 employees from around 25 nationalities and a commitment from over 30 industrial partners.

DuPont Microcircuit Materials has over 40 years of experience in the development, manufacture, sale and support of specialized thick film compositions for a variety of electronic applications in the automotive, display, photovoltaic, biomedical, industrial, military and telecommunications markets. For more information on DuPont Microcircuit Materials, visit http://mcm.dupont.com.

DuPont (www.dupont.com) is a science-based products and services company. Founded in 1802, DuPont puts science to work by creating sustainable solutions essential to a better, safer, healthier life for people everywhere. Operating in more than 90 countries and regions, DuPont offers a wide range of innovative products and services for markets including agriculture and food; building and construction; communications; and transportation.

See also:

Printed Structures on Flexible Substrates

Towards brain wave monitoring (EEG) at your home

wo, 09, feb, 2011 16:22:00

At the 2011 Medical Device & Manufacturing conference and exhibition in Anaheim, imec and Holst Centre present breakthroughs in enabling technologies for wireless EEG (electroencephalogram) systems enabling continuous ambulatory monitoring. The demonstrated EEG headset is compatible with dry electrodes and combines ease-of-use with ultra-low power electronics. The prototype headset records high quality EEG signals and wirelessly transmits the data in real-time to a receiver located up to 10m from the system.

Applications that can be envisaged with this EEG prototype system include entertainment and infotainment, for example adaptive game environment reacting to the player’s cognitive state, or e-learning where the difficulty can be adapted based on cognitive load; lifestyle, such as neuro-feedback; safety, for example monitoring drowsiness of drivers or cognitive load of occupational health services in action; and medical such as early warning system for epileptic patients or brain typing enabling people with motoric disabilities to communicate.

At the heart of the system is imec’s 8-channel ultra-low-power analog readout ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit). The ultra-low power readout ASIC consumes only 200µW and features high common mode rejection ratio (CMRR) of 120dB and low noise (input referred noise of 55nV/√Hz). These performances are achieved at high input impedance (1GΩ), which makes it compatible with the use of dry electrodes. The electronics, including ASIC, radio, and controller chips are integrated in a small wireless EEG system of 25mmx35mmx5mm dimensions, that can easily be embedded in headsets, helmets or other accessories. The signal to noise ratio of the system is 25dB on real EEG signals. The entire system consumes only 3.3mW for continuous recording and wireless transmission of 1 channel, and 9.2mW for 8 channels. This gives between 1.5 to 4 days of autonomy on a small 100mAh Li-ion battery, depending on the mode of operation.

Today’s EEG recordings are performed in hospital or lab settings, and require trained personnel to apply the electrodes with gel. Taking EEG to the home environment requires a system using dry electrodes, that is easy to set up by the user and does not require recharging the battery every few hours. To that purpose, the wireless EEG system has been integrated in a prototype EEG headset. The prototype headset can be easily adapted to the head of the user by extending a plastic bridge near the back of the head and by moving the part that contains the electronics upwards or downwards. On top of that, a spring suspension, guaranteeing improved robustness, and a magnetized pivoting mechanism can be used for fine adaptation to the head. The magnetic connection of the electrodes allows quick and easy replacement making it a hygienic solution. Gel injection is still possible if required for certain applications. Today the system relies on commercial off-the-shelf Ag/AgCl electrodes, which may lead to certain level of discomfort. In a few years, research on dry electrodes will result in increased comfort and higher signal quality. Combined with circuit and algorithm innovation, this will eventually enable monitoring brain waves on-the-move.

Industry can get access to this technology by joining the Human++ program as research partner or by licensing agreements for further product development. Within the Human++ program, imec and Holst Centre develop solutions for an efficient and better healthcare. Intelligent body area networks with wireless sensors, such as this EEG, promise to be a solution for more comfortable healthcare systems. This will allow ambulatory monitoring of people, which increases the comfort level of patients and is a cost- and time-efficient alternative for current EEG monitoring systems. And, home monitoring results in daily life measurements that cannot be measured in a clinical environment.

---ends---

Active components integrated into sensor foil

wo, 02, feb, 2011 16:01:00

Holst Centre and plastic electronic have successfully integrated several active components, previously mounted on a separate PCB, directly into plastic electronic’s flexible, intelligent sensor foil surface for shelving. Offering practical proof of Holst Centre’s program Integration Technologies for Flexible Systems, this achievement brings a number of benefits to plastic electronic’s touch sensitive foil product.

A partner in Holst Centre’s shared research activities, plastic electronic develops and manufactures intelligent multilayer surfaces with different sensory characteristics. Their latest large area pressure sensor foil detects the changing of objects on a shelf. Aimed at a range of applications from retail to hotels and hospitals, the foil’s output data provides indispensable information for helping with inventory management, stock control and even pest control.

In the development effort with Holst Centre the amount of wiring in the foil has been significantly reduced. With more space for sensors and fewer ‘dead zones’ between the sensors, the resulting foil is much more accurate. And with the electronics closer to the sensors, connecting wires are shorter, making the product less prone to interference and noise and improving signal reliability. Furthermore, where previously an analog signal was output from the foil, the output is now digital, creating a much more stable connection and providing a more reliable read-out. Finally, with several components integrated directly into the foil, external wiring is also reduced.

The active components integrated into the sensor foil include a multiplexer chip and a capacitive-to-digital converter, along with a number of passive components such as resistors and capacitors. The partnership is already exploring the next steps, including how to integrate the components into the foil in bare die form.

The program is also looking at ways to replace surface mounted resistors and capacitors, with passive components printed directly onto the foils. It will also investigate methods for scaling up the integration techniques to enable full volume production and, ultimately to develop a completely reel-to-reel production process.

The achievement results from successful collaboration in the Shared Research programs at Holst Centre. The generic research created in this program is shared by all program partners. It’s up to these partners, like plastic electronic, to successfully translate the research results into next generation products.

Pressure sensor foil with integrated components as a step towards smart shop shelves.

Mock up of solution with embedded bare die chip. Integrating the discrete components will be the next step.

See also:

Integration technologies for flexible systems

Useful links:

website plastic-electronic

Energy-autonomous RF-powered e-Skin panel

do, 27, jan, 2011 10:26:00

Philips Research, Holst Centre and imec illustrate feasibility of autonomous smart windows

At the 17th International Display Workshops (IDW ‘10) in Fukuoka, Japan in December 2010, a demonstration was presented that showed how an e-Skin panel, developed by Philips Research, could be powered by energy harvested from a mobile phone. Thanks to an RF energy harvester developed by Holst Centre and imec, the e-Skin device could be switched from black to transparent (and vice versa) without the need of a battery. The combined effort illustrates the feasibility of applications such as energy-autonomous smart windows.

RF energy is a hot research topic. With the increasing number of small, ‘smart’ devices that we use to make our lives more comfortable, questions are being raised on how to efficiently supply them with electrical power. Harvesting energy from ambient RF waves is a prime candidate for wirelessly powering small devices and eliminating the need of batteries. RF energy can be harvested from energy already present in the environment, for example from wireless networks. Also, just as wireless internet routers transmit data, one can consider the possibility of RF energy sources that transmit power.

Philips e-Skin is a low power display targeted at ‘green’ applications such as smart windows or building surfaces that change color to reflect or absorb sunlight. In a joint effort, Philips Research, imec and Holst Centre have illustrated the low-power capabilities of the e-Skin. For the demonstration, the researchers used a mobile phone as RF energy source, showing that switching the e-Skin could be realized even with this small amount of power.

The demonstration comprises a 75mm by 75mm e-Skin panel connected to an energy harvesting antenna. A mobile phone is placed 10-15cm from the antenna. Simply making a call to the phone provides enough ambient RF energy for the antenna to directly generate the 6V needed to power the e-Skin panel, and would actually be sufficient to switch over 250 of such e-Skin panels.

The antenna used in the demonstration needed to be quite large as it did not include a voltage boost converter and also because it was tuned to the 900MHz operating frequency of the mobile phone. Smaller antennas can be used for higher frequencies such as the 2.45GHz frequency used by Bluetooth devices, or by incorporating a boost converter to raise the output voltage.

In other experiments, imec and Holst Centre have achieved charging voltages of 4V, the minimum needed to charge a mobile phone, at distances of over 60cm and has reached distances of up to 2m for lower voltages, using a RF energy harvester measuring only 5.5cm x 4.0cm x 0.80 cm. The harvester includes the receiving antenna, rectifying circuit, voltage boost converter and rechargeable battery.

Holst Centre and imec are also working on large antennas with an estimated operating range of up to 10m. It is investigating the possibility of manufacturing these large area antennas on flexible foils so that they can be concealed in walls, ceilings and windows. In addition to developing the antennas, the Micro-power generation and storage program is also developing the rectifiers and the DC:DC boost converters as part of a fully optimized energy harvesting solution.

Huib Visser, Senior Researcher on the Micro-power generation and storage program stated, “This will be a breakthrough in the development of office and home automation and assisted living applications. Today, applications are limited by the lifetime of batteries or cabling. With wireless energy harvesting, no batteries or cables are needed. It is also an ideal solution for addressing the growing amount of electronics in the car, where the cabling alone can account for anywhere between 20 and 50kg of a car’s weight.”

More details:
- K.-M.H. Lenssen, L.W.G. Stofmeel, M.H.W.M. van Delden, R.J.M. Vullers, H.J. Visser and V. Pop, “Zero-Energy E-Skin”, Proc. IDW’10, pp. 1507-1510, 2010
- On June 28, 2011 imec and Holst Centre organize the 1st International Workshop on Wireless Energy Transport and Harvesting at Holst Centre in Eindhoven (www.iwweth.org)

Pictures
(Click on the picture for a hi-res version)

Demonstrator illustrating the feasibility of energy-autonomous smart windows. An RF harvester developed by Holst Centre and imec allows switching of Philips’ e-Skin screen between open (top) and closed (bottom) states. Note that the RF antenna used in the demonstrator can operate larger e-Skin surfaces than illustrated in the picture. (Source: Philips Research)

Holst Centre wins ‘Best Cell of the Year’

wo, 08, dec, 2010 14:03:00

At this year’s ISOS-3 conference on OPV stability, Holst Centre’s flexible organic solar cell won the annual ‘Device of the Year’ award. Our achievement echoes the general success of the entire conference, which helped pave the way in standardising OPV parameters.

Held in Roskilde, Denmark from October 21 to 29, the third annual summit on OPV stability, ISOS-3, comprised two experimental roll-to-roll manufacturing OPV workshops, a scientific conference with poster session, and a summit with scientific talks on OPV stability. 75 people attended the latter part of the event which focused on defining a standard set of stability parameters and tests.

As part of the summit, companies had the chance to present a key OPV solution to win the ISOS Device of the Year prize. A total of six devices vied for the award, each one being tested and assessed by everyone taking part in the summit. The competition was judged by representatives from NREL, Plextronics, ECN, Konarka, Risø and Holst Centre.

A real product with real benefits
Holst Centre’s entry was voted ahead of other devices based on several merits. A real product, it is based on an ITO-free (Indium-Tin-Oxide-free) design that represents the cutting edge for low cost organic solar cells. By replacing the ITO transport layer with a composite electrode – a high conductive PEDOT:PSS and printed silver current collecting grid – this innovative approach improves processing, conductivity, price and cell size.

“I am proud to have presented our winning solar cell at the summit. It’s a great achievement for Holst Centre,” said Dr Yulia Galagan, from Holst Centre. “And the summit was also successful, with the development of a paper outlining guidelines for OPV standardization.”

Within the OPV program, Holst Centre teams up with ECN, the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands.

See also:

Organic photovoltaics (OPV)

Polymer Vision extends and expands research contract

do, 25, nov, 2010 10:56:00

Holst Centre welcomes back Polymer Vision to an extended and expanded research contract. Once part of Philips and now part of the Taiwanese ODM, Wistron, Polymer Vision is again contributing to research in several of Holst Centre’s programs.

In the past, Polymer Vision was involved in Holst Centre’s programs on Organic and Oxide Transistors and on Lithography on Flexible Substrates. With the renewed partnership contract, Polymer Vision continues to share in these Holst Centre’s activities but is also taking part in the program on Electrodes and Barriers.

According to Polymer Vision, its partnership with Holst Centre provides many advantages. It helps Polymer Vision to maintain its reputation as the flagship of organic electronics, drawing on the shared experience gained in the programs and through access to Holst Centre’s external know-how via its extensive research network. It also helps Polymer Vision to reduce costs compared to conducting purely internal R&D, cutting R&D risk and reducing time to market of next-generation products.

See also:

New shoe to help prevent falls among elderly

vr, 19, nov, 2010 14:57:00

European researchers have developed a new shoe aimed at helping elderly people walk more safely, called smiling shoes. Holst Centre is involved in this European Program and cooperates with Smiling (Self Mobility Improvement in the eLderly by counteractING), a European Union research project. Holst Centre is responsible for the sensors that analyze the movements of the feet which are then wirelessly sent to a remote control or in the future to a smart phone.

Mobility is a very important issue for elderly people. A third of the elderly face a risk of falling. Falls are a huge, dangerous risk and mostly make the elderly insecure and anxious to take a walk again. To go for a walk is not only a physical function. It is also a way to keep in touch with society, it is a vital way of being a part of society. Elderly people who have suffered a fall do not just lose their balance at a given moment. There is often a cause or an aftermath. Many of them lose the ability to walk safely, they are no longer able to link motor, physical movements with impulses coming from the brain. So they need training. And the best way to do this is to provide them with an unstable environment. Studs on the soles of the shoes randomly change angles to de-stabilize the wearer, stimulating his brain in order for force him to keep his balance. In that way they ‘learn’ to link their brain with their motor movement again. A very important goal in this therapy is that the elderly people need to regain trust. With this training we try to teach them to get used to obstacles they might find while walking outside in the street.

The shoes change angles all the time, which stimulates the brain. The users’ brain is also stimulated with other tricks. Wearers must listen to various instructions; they have to follow a path along colored lines on the floor. Also, they have to carry out what we call “a dual task”, an additional activity to walking, for example, juggling with a ball.

A remote control gives the physiotherapist the necessary instructions. Information concerning each patient, including shoe size, height and weight, is sent from the computer to this remote control. The software system then elaborates a customized training session adapted to each patient’s physical specificities and needs. For the future the researchers have already some challenging ideas. The remote control that manages pattern downloads and orders could be a smart phone. Also, the whole mechanical structure of existing shoes could be much more simple, and inserted into an ordinary shoe. So not only elderly people, but also younger people could use the whole system to train at home.

See also:

Human technology helps prevent falls

Useful links:

Gas sensing device using as-grown vertical InAs nanowires

do, 11, nov, 2010 16:37:00

Holst Centre has developed a nanoscale gas sensing device as part of its ultra-low-power sensors program. Based on gold-free grown vertical InAs nanowire arrays, the system is sensitive to NO2 concentrations of fewer than 100ppb at room temperature. The semiconductor nanowires are contacted ohmically using an air bridge construction, leaving the nanowire surface free for gas adsorption.

The achievement – first reported in a paper published in Nano Letters in May – boasts several key landmarks in nanowire technology. Key amongst these is that the vertical nanowires are electrically contacted in the locations on the substrate where they are grown. Alternative solutions place the nanowires on the substrate after growing them elsewhere. Another major benefit of the sensing nanowires is that they work without heating, making them highly power efficient.

InAs makes good sense
The InAs nanowires are about 3μm in length and 50-100nm wide, and are contacted in an exposed air-bridge formation. A typical sensor contains 500 nanowires. InAs is a good material for gas sensing because it exhibits an electron accumulation layer at the surface, making it sensitive to accumulated charges, and allows relatively easy fabrication of ohmic contacts (due to its small band gap). Analogous to the gate of a transistor, gas molecules adsorbing onto the nanowires modify the current flow through the nanowires. The sensor is reset, simply by applying a stronger current.

The ability to detect NO2 is important for applications for monitoring environmental pollution resulting from combustion or automotive emission. One of the next development steps is to increase detection selectivity as well as sensitivity, for example for the distinction between NO2 and NO. Manufacturing techniques are also being investigated, aiming to make a silicon substrate a viable alternative for high yield solutions.

Holst Centre's partner Huntsman wins JEC Asia Innovation Award 2010

ma, 25, okt, 2010 00:00:00

In cooperation with Holst Centre and Oreca, Huntsman won the JEC Asia Innovation Award 2010 for Electrical and Electronics Engineering. The award was issued during the annual conference in Singapore. In june 2010 during the 24 hours Le Mans race, the ORECA 01 car from French racing team Oreca used rear view mirrors with an integrated thin film flexible OLED-lighting device on the back. Since flexible OLED lighting will only be available on the market (and in our homes) within a few years, the initiators of the project - Huntsman Advanced Materials and Holst Centre - considered the integration in the composite material of the race car as a great success.

JEC is a French company which is dedicated to promoting composites internationally. It supports the development of these materials by fostering knowledge transfer and exchanges between suppliers and users. The JEC innovation program was created in 1998 with the goal of promoting innovation. Through this program, the JEC Group projects and promotes successful innovation strategies onto the international scene throughout the year. This top-level competition for Innovation is a focus of attention in the international composite market. Each year, a jury of renowned international experts chooses the best composite innovations, based on their technical interest, market potential, partnership, financial impact and originality. The decision to give prominence to this project was based on his atypical nature and various noteworthy aspects.

In this project, OLEDS were integrated in the composite structure of the rear view mirrors on the ORECA racing car. OLEDs (Organic Light Emitting Diodes) are paper-thin, flexible and lightweight devices. Compared to conventional light sources OLEDs consume up to 70% less energy, making them prime candidates for the next generation of lighting. Before flexible OLED lighting and signage devices can be commercialized, there are some important research challenges to be solved. For using OLEDs on the car, there was one critical step to overcome, which is overcoming there sensitivity to moisture, and oxygen. They had to be protected from these in order to maintain a long lifetime. So, the success of the OLED integration in the car depended on the encapsulation technology and Araldite® composite materials of Huntsman Advanced Materials. During the race, the coatings developed by Huntsman provided the right level of protection.

This award reflects the successful integration of OLEDs in the composite structure of the rear view mirrors of the ORECA 01. This can be seen as the first step towards a genuine alternative to traditional light sources.

See also

For all details read the press release of june 2010

DuPont Teijin Films extends partnership with Holst Centre

wo, 13, okt, 2010 09:08:00

Dupont Teijin Films (DTF), the world’s leading supplier of PET and PEN polyester films, has agreed an extension to its partnership contract with Holst Centre. The new deal extends both the length of the cooperation and DTF’s areas of activity.

DTF’s cooperation with Holst Centre began in 2008. Since then, DTF has been applying its industry-leading manufacturing experience within Holst Centre’s program on Printed Organic Lighting and Signage to optimize plastic foils for organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). In particular, the cooperation has focused on maximizing light outcoupling in foils to improve overall OLED efficacy, and producing foils suitable for both roll-to-roll and sheet-to-sheet processing.

The new agreement will see this work continue for another two years. In addition, DTF will become involved in foil characterization activities within Holst Centre’s Lithography on Flexible Substrates program.

According to program manager Ton van Mol, the ongoing cooperation with DTF highlights the value of Holst Centre’s open innovation business model. “We’re bringing together leading materials and equipment suppliers with system integrators and device manufacturers to drive forward OLED development. Having the number one in foils for these applications choosing to stay onboard is a great sign that this approach has industry-wide value.”

All Holst Centre phone numbers have changed

ma, 28, jun, 2010 00:00:00

Please note that all Holst Centre phone numbers have changed since June 28, 2010.

The new general phone number is: +31 (0)40 40 20 400

The new general fax number is: +31 (0)40 40 20 699

Also all direct numbers have changed.

Please ask your contact person(s) at Holst Centre for the correct details or check their e-mail signature over the coming period.

We thank you for updating our contact details in your databases.

InnoPhysics plasma printing from open innovation to market

ma, 19, apr, 2010 00:00:00

InnoPhysics plasma printing technology on its way to market after successful open innovation trajectory with Holst Centre

InnoPhysics B.V., a Dutch startup company from the Vision Dynamics Group, demonstrates a proprietary Digital-on-Demand PlasmaPrint hardware solution that enables software patterned surface functionalization, etching and deposition of functional coatings on thin (plastic) substrates. After successful feasibility studies performed at Holst Centre in the area of flexible electronics such as OLED lighting, InnoPhysics is now developing a go-to-market strategy for the new technology.

Printed electronics is a fast growing market with a large variety of different applications such as RFID tags, organic and polymer LEDs and solar cells. The proprietary InnoPhysics technology solution operates on a large variety of plastic substrates in ambient conditions, at room temperature and it provides flexibility in patterning, i.e. mask-less, which is especially important during the prototyping phase, personalized product solutions and versioning of single products for the flexible and printed organic electronics market. As part of the go-to-market strategy, InnoPhysics is developing a PlasmaPrint toolkit integratable with existing table-top R&D print platforms.

In a joint effort Holst Centre and InnoPhysics have shown the feasibility of surface tension contrast patterning and printing as a valuable technology for the production of energy efficient OLEDs. This successful concept validation has led to a collaboration between Holst Centre and InnoPhysics to further develop the surface tension contrast patterning and printing method and explore a number of new processes to create patterns of functional materials on flexible substrates using the InnoPhysics technology.

Ronn Andriessen, Program Manager Large-Area Printing at Holst Centre: “We are very pleased to see that a young startup company is able to benefit from the collaboration within our open innovation environment. We wish InnoPhysics a successful next step in bringing its technology to the market.”

Alquin Stevens, CTO of InnoPhysics: “The validation of our technology by Holst Centre, as a global research institute in the field of printed electronics, is of vital importance in our first steps towards the market. The collaboration with has resulted in a speed up of application and product development, and the open innovation environment has provided us access to the market and its players.”

PLACE-it makes light flat and flexible

ma, 15, mrt, 2010 00:00:00

Leading companies and institutes in lighting and flexible electronics, including Philips, Holst Centre/TNO, imec, Freudenberg, TU Berlin and more have joined forces to co-develop the route to integrate light into people’s surroundings be it ceilings, walls, floors, furniture, soft furnishings, and even garments. The ultimate aim of this PLACE-it (Platform for Large Area Comformable Electronics by InTegration) initiative is to realize an industrial platform for thin, lightweight and flexible optoelectronics systems that will not only open new dimensions in product design, but will also create unique opportunities for on-body applications in healthcare and wellness.

PLACE-it looks beyond the bulb for lighting applications, optimally exploiting the energy efficient and small form-factor characteristics of new lighting technologies like LEDs and OLEDs (organic LEDs). Imagine a lamp that is not fixed to the ceiling, but can instead be designed in any shape, or even blended into the surroundings, or curtains that emit light to mimic natural daylight conditions. Imagine illuminating jackets for children to safeguard them as they cycle home from school and even bandages that shine light on the body to treat skin diseases. These are just some of the examples of products that could become reality in the near future.

“Until now, large area electronics R&D has been carried out independently for flexible, elastic and fabric based technologies,” says Liesbeth van Pieterson, senior scientist at Philips Research and project leader of PLACE-it. “In the PLACE-it project, foil, elastic and fabric substrate technologies will be systematically co-developed with the common goal of heterogeneous integration.” PLACE-it received €10.9 million funding by the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme. The project aims to realize an industrial platform for lightweight, thin and flexible optoelectronics systems within three and a half years and will:

Develop an integration platform of foil, elastic and fabric optoelectronic technologies.
Create foil, elastic and fabric-based devices for light emission, electronics and sensing.
Formulate industry design guidelines for light-emitting flexible surfaces and textiles.
Build demonstrators of compelling beyond-the-bulb applications.

PLACE-it will share the outcome of the project with third parties and start the dialogue with designers, architects, governments, industry and other stakeholders to discuss the future of comfortable ambient lighting and the requirements/conditions for an industrial platform.

Media Contact: Hans Driessen – Philips Research - Mob: +31 610610417 - Email: hans.driessen@philips.com

Summer school on organic optoelectronics

ma, 01, mrt, 2010 00:00:00

Covering the theme ‘Organic optoelectronics on the move’, the VII International Krutyn Summer School is being organized as part of the FP7 Collaborative Projects: Fast2Light and OLED100.eu, in association with the Polish Supramolecular Chemistry Network and the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

The summer school will be held in the village of Krutyn, in the Masurian Lake District of Poland from 22-28 June 2010. Offering state-of-the-art training, including lectures and consulting sessions delivered by top experts, the course will help Ph.D. students and young researchers reinforce their knowledge and skills in the field of molecular optoelectronics.

Paul Blom, Scientific Director Systems-in-Foil at Holst Centre is one of the members of the International Scientific Advisory Board for the course. Edward Young, Principal Researcher in the Holst Centre Program on Organic Lighting and Signage is one of the invited speakers. Holst Centre is also the coordinator of the Fast2Light project which aims to develop innovative, cost-effective, high-throughput, roll-to-roll, large area deposition processes for fabricating light-emitting polymer-OLED foils for intelligent lighting applications.

For all details and registration: visit the summer school webpage.

See also

New book on Photochemistry and Photophysics of Polymeric Materials

ma, 01, mrt, 2010 00:00:00

Marius Ivan, Advanced Materials Project Leader at Holst Centre, has contributed to a new book about polymeric materials. Entitled ‘Photochemistry and Photophysics of Polymeric Materials’ the book is published by Wiley, one of the leading publishers of scientific and technical information.

Marius is co-author of a chapter on ‘Photoimaging and Lithographic Processes in Polymers’. The book analyzes and presents the current understanding of polymer photochemistry and photophysics technology. Each chapter covers a specific topic and is written by one or more leading experts and pioneers in the field. In addition to covering all the latest findings and developments, the book also includes personal insights and perspectives of the authors.

A complete picture of the current state of knowledge on this subject, the book makes a perfect foundation for research and development of new materials and applications. It can be ordered from various online bookstores (ISBN: 978-0-470-13796-3).

Thesis prize for Holst Centre student

di, 16, feb, 2010 00:00:00

Yahya Yassin has been awarded a prize of 15,000 NOK (~1,850 euros) by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) for his thesis on an ‘Ultra Low Power Application Specific Instruction-set Processor Design for a Cardiac Beat Detector Algorithm’. Yahya’s thesis was based on research he performed from January to June 2009 while working at Holst Centre.

Holst Centre’s undergraduate program gives masters and PhD students an opportunity to make real contributions to the technologies being developed in its programs. Working within the Ultra low power DSP group at Holst Centre, Yahya designed a low power processor to run an algorithm for detecting heartbeat disorders.

Tough deadlines
The prestigious NTNU award has some very challenging requirements, for the submission of thesis and a strict deadline within which the student must complete his thesis. Yahya also faced tough deadlines at Holst Centre, having to develop the processor from scratch in just six months.
“I hoped to learn some hardware design, but was able to go much further than I could ever have imagined,” said Yahya. “My colleagues at Holst Centre really triggered my motivation and made me realize that with the right motivation, anything is possible.”

Well deserved award
“Yahya was a very hard worker. He occasionally had to be reminded to go home at the end of a long evening”, said Jos Hulzink, Yahya’s mentor on the project. “His design work will be used to develop a real solution and some of the suggestions he made will be used to further optimize the software algorithm. He did an excellent job here at Holst Centre and the prize reflects this.”

Yahya was presented with a plaque and the check at the NTNU Electronics and Telecom day in Trondheim in January 2010 and celebrated his success with a fine bottle of champagne. Having completed his degree, he is now working as a hardware design engineer at Atmel.

Analog organic electronic ADC on flexible foil (ISSCC2010)

di, 09, feb, 2010 00:00:00

At today’s International Solid State Circuit Conference (ISSCC), Holst Centre, imec, TNO and KULeuven present an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) designed, fabricated and measured in an organic technology on plastic foil. The result is of great scientific value as it represents the first steps of creating analog organic electronics.

Organic electronics are expected to create new applications and possibilities in the electronics market by introducing flexible displays, low-cost RFID tags etc. But because of the maturity of the technology, the possibilities to create fully-organic circuits are still limited. Using p-type only transistors, digital circuits have been shown by several groups. Analog components are however much more difficult to make, and as a result, progress has been slow.

For the first time, Holst Centre, an initiative by imec and TNO, now reports an organic ADC. The ADC is an important building block in the realization of wireless sensors on thin, flexible foil, such as for instance intelligent food packages and smart bandage applications that are currently under research in the Holst Centre program on Systems-in-Foil.

The ADC is based on a Sigma Delta (ΣΔ) topology, because of its insensitivity to variations in threshold voltage (Vt). The latter is needed to drive active matrix displays developed by the rollable display company Polymer Vision, from which the underlying organic thin-film-transistor (OTFT) technology was used. An overview of the specifications and measurement results (obtained in an N₂ atmosphere at room temperature) can be found in the table below.

Minimal width	25μm
Minimal length	5μm
Typical intrinsic gain	5
f_T for minimal transistor	20kHz

Current consumption	100μA
Power supply	15V
Clock frequency	500Hz
Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR)	26.5dB
Signal-to-noise and distortion ratio (SNDR)	24.5dB
Over-sampling ratio (OSR)	16
Bandwidth (BW)	17Hz
Active area	13x20mm²

The work was conducted in the framework of a PhD thesis co-promoted by imec and by the analog design group MICAS of the ESAT department at the Flemish KULeuven university (http://www.esat.kuleuven.be/micas).

See also

Organic and oxide transistors

Prominently present at International Solid State Circuit Conference (ISSCC2010)

vr, 05, feb, 2010 00:00:00

At next week’s International Solid State Circuit Conference, Holst Centre and imec present their newest breakthroughs in ultra-low power design for wireless communications and wireless sensor networks, 3D design and in organic electronics with an impressive number of contributions including 10 reviewed publications and 6 contributions to tutorials and workshops. Over the week, several news releases will be issued. Check our website regularly for the latest details.

Launch of European research project "HIFLEX" for new low-cost scalable Organic Photovoltaics applications

di, 12, jan, 2010 00:00:00

(Source: ECN ) On 1 January 2010 the European research project "HIFLEX" was launched. Over the next three years a European consortium comprising five research institutes and two industrial companies aims to jointly develop a technology for highly flexible Organic Photovoltaics (OPV) modules, which will allow the cost-effective production of large-area OPV modules with commercially viable Roll-to-Roll compatible printing and coating techniques. HIFLEX will be coordinated by Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) and is supported by the European Commission as part of the FP7 Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Programme.

Organic Photovoltaics (OPV) is considered as one of the important emerging photovoltaic technologies which carry large hope for substantial cost reductions for PV in the future. The potential for cost reduction is based on the compatibility with high throughput processing (a factor of at least 10 higher than for other technologies) and the use of low cost materials. Additionally, OPV opens up the perspective of new applications in which mechanical flexibility and light weight are important add-ons to the functionality of PV systems.

The research in HIFLEX aims at developing the OPV technology to match the particular requirements of mobile and remote ICT applications, delivering the required efficiency under different light conditions, sufficient lifetime for practical use, acceptable cost structure, appropriate power-to-weight ratio and fit-to-purpose mechanical flexibility. HIFLEX intends to accelerate the exploitation of this OPV technology for a wide variety of ICT products in the mobile electronics market.

An application-driven research approach will be followed by developing large area, solution processable OPV free of Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) using scalable, reproducible and commercially viable printing and coating techniques enabling the low-cost production of highly flexible and lightweight OPV products. At the same time this approach guarantees the technological compatibility with other printed electronic ICT components and systems. The high flexibility and low costs will be addressed by the solar module design that is intended to be brought into production.

The two industrial partners are: Dr Schenk GmbH, an SME with valuable expertise in the inline process and quality control of Roll-to-Roll processed PV, Agfa-Gevaert with market-tested experience on photographic development of silver grid lines, polymeric antistatic and conductive coatings and large scale coating and printing as well as on developing innovative coating solutions. The five research organizations comprise: Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN), Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE), Risø National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy (Risø DTU), Holst Centre/TNO, and UK Materials Technology Research Institute (MaTRI). They all have a technology development and market implementation focus with complementary expertise in the field of device and module engineering, up-scaling and large area printing, and long-term lifetime testing.

Holst Centre appoints Director SME Partnerships

ma, 04, jan, 2010 00:00:00

On 1 January 2010, Margot Nijkamp stepped into her new role as Director SME Partnerships. In her new role, Margot will build partnerships with small and medium enterprises to help bring Holst Centre’s maturing technologies closer to product introduction.

By expanding its partnerships with SMEs, Holst Centre hopes to bring its technologies to market faster. It also believes that SMEs have a lot to bring to its technology projects in terms of new market, application and end-customers insights.

Margot is happy to take on the challenge of bringing SMEs on board. “In my role of HR Director, I helped build up the Holst Centre on the High Tech Campus for over four years. Now I will be helping to build Holst Centre from a different angle and I am excited to be in a role where I can have impact on developing the business.”

See also

Industrial partnerships

Human++ technology helps prevent falls

do, 12, nov, 2009 00:00:00

As part of the EU’s SMILING project to help elderly people recover a stable walking gait, Holst Centre, an open-innovation initiative by IMEC (B) and TNO (NL), will create a body sensor solution that can measure and assess an individual’s gait parameters.

SMILING (Self Mobility Improvement in the eLderly by counteractING falls) is an EU-sponsored project under FP7’s theme “ICT for independent living and inclusion”. Many elderly people develop a poor gait, whether through injury or lack of exercise, which can increase the chances of them losing their balance and falling.

The SMILING project aims to help people improve their gait and balance through a rehabilitation program based on an intelligent shoe concept. Holst Centre’s contribution to the project is an innovative miniaturized, wireless sensor platform. This will be attached to a person’s shoes to analyze their gait as part of the assessment process for developing a tailored rehabilitation program.

The sensor platform is derived from Holst Centre’s Human++ Body Area Network technology. The solution contains an accelerometer, 3 gyroscopes (for roll, yaw and pitch, an embedded micro-controller, a low-power 2.4 GHz radio link with 10 m range, an SD-card for local data storage and a battery allowing for over 24 hours of autonomy. All the electronics are contained in a small package that attaches to the back of the shoe, making it highly wearable.

With these electronics, it is possible to measure the movements of each foot. The parameters measured are 3-axis acceleration and rotation. The solution supports synchronized data acquisition from multiple sensors and features an embedded algorithm to detect walking phases. In a benchmark test, the sensors proved to have a 93.2% sensitivity for walking phase detection compared to the standard that was used (a pressure insole system).

See also

Useful link

Hompage of the EU smiling program

BAN MAC proposal selected as best paper at ICWMC

ma, 14, sep, 2009 11:59:00

The white paper "A new priority-guaranteed MAC protocol for emerging body area networks", written by Yan Zhang and Guido Dolmans has been selected as one of the best papers at the International Conference on Wireless and Mobile Communications (ICWMC) 2009.

Just getting a paper accepted for ICMWC is already a challenge. Of more than 300 papers submitted for the conference only 31% (about 100) were accepted for presentation and from these only one was picked as the best paper in each of 10 categories.

The paper outlines a new MAC protocol proposal for body area networks that is capable of handling a wide mix of traffic while also guaranteeing priority for certain types of data such as control data or data from medical applications. The protocol is ideally suited for managing the mixed signals of BAN systems which can range from a few kbits/s for medical application to full multimedia broadcasts for consumer applications. It also designed to use less power than existing solutions, particularly with large numbers of nodes.

Yan and Guido have now been invited to publish an extended version of their paper in an International Academy, Research, and Industry Association (IARIA) journal.

Unique lamination unit added to roll-to-roll R&D line

vr, 21, aug, 2009 10:44:00

The recent installation of a lamination tool brings Holst Centre one step closer to demonstrating a complete systems-in-foil manufacturing process on its roll-to-roll R&D line.

This unique piece of equipment will allow Holst Centre to test and develop innovative methods for accurately laminating multiple interconnected functional foils for large area electronics. First lamination trials using 30 cm wide foils are planned for the start of next year.

The lamination machine uses a patented concept and is designed to align foils with high accuracy – Holst Centre is aiming for an initial accuracy of 100µm – and laminate them with low residual stress in a continuous process. This allows lamination at low tensile forces to avoid damaging the devices and prevent stress-induced curling.

Together with its partners in the Integration and Interconnects technology program, Holst Centre will use the new machine to investigate further optimization and application of this process for large-area electronics, such as OLED lighting and organic photovoltaics (OPV).

The lamination process requires extreme positioning control and the new system uses advanced vision control technology from research partner Orbotech. Innovations in control technology, both hardware and software, will be a key component of this development.

Holst Centre is also considering incorporating a laser system for multilayer patterning and via drilling into the roll-to-roll platform. Further R&D partners from the laser industry have already indicated their interest to join a roll-to-roll laser program to build such a tool and demonstrate applications.

See also:

Click here for more information on Integration Technologies for Flexible Systems

Jaap Lombaers joins Organic Electronics Association board

ma, 06, jul, 2009 00:00:00

Jaap Lombaers, Managing Director of Holst Centre, has been appointed to the board of the Organic Electronics Association (OEA). Jaap took up his seat on June 22, and will initially serve for two years.

The OEA is a working group of the VDMA (the German Engineering Federation). It brings together over 100 leading industry, research and academia organizations from around the globe, covering the entire organic electronics process chain from materials to applications. The association provides a forum for sharing information, speeding progress and defining future development strategies for organic electronics.

“I’m pleased and honored to join the board of the OEA,” Jaap said. “Organizations like this are vital for the development of this important technology. By getting involved in its board-level activities, I look forward to building new opportunities for international co-operation and knowledge sharing, and bringing our own vision to the OEA’s efforts to shape the future of organic and large-area electronics.”

Body Area Networking standard attracts major industry attention

ma, 15, jun, 2009 00:00:00

The recent IEEE 802.15.6 Working Group (WG) meeting in Montreal, Canada drew significant interest from major industry players including Philips, General Electric (GE), Texas Instruments, Toumaz and Samsung. Over five days (May 11-15th), more than 40 proposals were presented, including four from Holst Centre’s Program on Ultra-Low Power (ULP) Radios.

Amongst the industry presenters were the MedWiN Alliance (an industrial alliance jointly set up by GE, Philips, TI and Toumaz) and NICT, a research centre representing Japanese businesses. Several proposals were put forward by Samsung, and other major technology players including Motorola, Qualcomm and Fujitsu also presented.

Holst Centre’s four proposals included a narrowband PHY for ISM band communications and a corresponding MAC proposal as well as an UWB PHY proposal, in part inspired by the recent IEEE 802.15.4a standard in which IMEC also played an active role. Finally a MAC proposal coupled to the UWB PHY was also proposed.

Olivier Rousseaux, Business Development Manager ULP Wireless and Guido Dolmans, Activity Leader/Principal Researcher ULP Wireless, attended the meeting, “Typically there might only be a few proposals for a new standard. So the fact that more than 40 proposals were presented shows just how much attention this standard is attracting. With so many proposals and interested parties, the next challenge will be agreeing what goes into the final standard.”

The scope of the IEEE 802.15.6 WG is to define a new standard for Wireless Body Area Networking (WBAN). This covers wireless networks operating at up to 3 m around, on and inside the body and supporting a mix of medical applications and multi-media / consumer applications. Holst Centre and IMEC have been closely involved in this standard from the initial study phase. They have helped determine the application scope and technical requirements, many of which are quite demanding – data rates from 10 kbits/s up to 10 Mbits/s, guaranteed quality of service (critical for biomedical applications) and very low power consumption.

From the initial discussions at the meeting, the general consensus was that the standard will need to support several PHY layers under on unifying MAC layer. One of the PHY layers may be for medical implants only. GE is currently lobbying the FCC to assign a dedicated frequency band for medical communications around the body. Next, ISM band and UWB PHYs are expected to be adopted by the group. The next meeting, being held from 13-17 July in San Fransisco, will start the merger activity where members decide on which proposals to include in the final standard.

Solvay extends its Holst Centre collaboration on OLEDs

vr, 15, mei, 2009 00:00:00

International chemical and pharmaceutical group Solvay has signed an agreement to join Holst Centre’s technology integration program on Printed Organic Lighting and Signage. Together, Solvay and Holst Centre will investigate the use of solution processes to cut costs and increase throughput for the manufacture of small-molecule organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs).

Solvay has been working with Holst Centre since October 2008 as part of the Systems in Foil technology program, focussing on semiconductor materials for organic circuitry. The new deal, which will initially run for three years, looks at new materials and solution processes to replace the vacuum techniques currently used in making high-efficiency, multi-layer OLEDs. Solvay is one of the first materials suppliers to invest in solutions processes, such as printing and coating, for small-molecule OLEDs.

“With its extensive materials expertise, I’m very happy to have Solvay as a partner. This agreement will allow us to focus more effort on solution processes for small-molecule OLEDs, bringing a new generation of cost-effective, flexible display and lighting applications a step closer,” said Ton van Mol, Holst Centre’s Program Manager for Printed Organic Lighting and Signage.

Best Paper Award for Micropower team during SSI2009

do, 12, mrt, 2009 00:00:00

During the Smart Systems Integration Conference (March 10-11, Brussels), the Micropower team, consisting of IMEC employees working in Leuven and at Holst Centre, won the Best Paper Award for a presentation “Wireless body-powered electrocardiography shirt”.

The paper featured an autonomous wearable electrocardiography (ECG) system integrated into an office-style shirt. It contains biopotential electrodes, an electronic module built on flex technology, thermoelectric generator and wireless link. The thickness of system components does not exceed 6.5 mm. The ECG system does not require any technical service, i.e., it is service-free for its entire lifetime. The user just puts it on and the device starts itself. When taken off, the system switches into a standby regime. The shirt is fully washable in a conventional washing machine.

Novel gas sensor characterization facility supports sensor development

do, 15, jan, 2009 00:00:00

Holst Centre has installed an experimental set-up that provides a flexible platform for gas sensor testing. This gas sensor characterization facility will support the ongoing developments of (bio)chemical sensors.

The gas sensor characterization facility consists of a gas mixing set-up, a custom-made probe station, and a semiconductor parameter analyzer. This experimental set-up was built to complement the development of gas sensors by providing a flexible platform for testing. The samples are contacted by means of adjustable probes in an enclosed, controlled environment. As a result, the devices can be monitored in the middle of the fabrication process with no need to bond them in a package. Electrical measurements can be performed while gases are flowing with varying concentrations. Therefore, transient responses and responses to increasing concentrations can be measured without opening the vessel. Several different gases can be used in the set-up because gas mixing components can be added or changed easily. A detailed description of the different elements of this gas sensor characterization facility is given below:

Gas mixing set-up

A stream of gas with a well-defined composition is generated with a gas mixing set-up. Nitrogen or dry air can be chosen as the main gas stream with an optional water bubbler for humidity control. A variable concentration of a gaseous analyte or a vapor can be obtained by injection of a trace into the main gas flow. Concentrations can be adjusted to application-relevant levels.

Probe station

The stream of gas from the gas mixing set-up is led through to a custom-made four-probe station. This includes a small chamber where the sample is located and contacted by four electrical probes that are vacuum sealed. A controlled atmosphere is thus created within the confined space of the chamber, which can contain a 150mm diameter wafer. Gas is continuously flowing through the chamber to avoid concentration changes. The chuck temperature can be controlled in a range from –200°C to +200°C. The complete probe station was manufactured by Materials Development Corporation. A magnifying stereoscope is mounted on the set-up to facilitate the placement of the probe tips on the contact pads.

Semiconductor parameter analyzer

The sensor response to the gaseous analyte is monitored by a semiconductor parameter analyzer (Agilent B1500). Four source-meter units are available so that more complex devices can be characterized. The maximum voltage and current ranges are 100V and 100mA, respectively. The minimum voltage and current resolutions are 0.5mV and 1fA, respectively. A complex-impedance measurement unit (from 1kHz to 5MHz) is also included in the system. Resistive, capacitive, and inductive measurement geometries are thus also possible. Computer-controlled hardware makes it possible to fully automate the measurement sequences. The gas sensor characterization facility was built in the frame of the activities on sensors and actuators, which focus on the development of generic sensor technologies for low-power, wireless and autonomous electronic devices. The current interest is focused on (bio)chemical sensors. Applications are found in the industrial, domestic, environmental, agricultural, logistical, and medical fields.

IEDM paper: world’s first UHF rectification using organic diodes

wo, 17, dec, 2008 00:00:00

Within the Holst Centre program on Organic Circuitry, the world’s first plastic diode operating in the Ultra-high frequency (UHF) band has been developed and reported at the IEDM conference in San Francisco.

For organic-electronic applications such as RFID-tags, the rectifier is one of the most critical components. The rectifier is responsible for converting the electromagnetic energy of the incoming RF-signal captured by the antenna into a DC operating voltage that powers the transponder chip on the tag. Plastic transponder chips that hold the promise to result in low cost tags have been shown in the past years,. However, the antenna itself forms a very significant part of the cost of an RFID tag. Antennas for the UHF frequency band (operating at 433MHz, 869MHz, 915 MHz) are smaller and lower cost than antennas for HF (13.56 MHz), therefore UHF is the preferred frequency band for ultra-low-cost tags. For the first time, researchers have been able to make a UHF rectifier (operating at 433MHz and 869MHz) with a plastic diode. This is therefore not only a scientific breakthrough, but really opens the door for low-cost plastic electronic tags.

Technical details

The rectifier presented at IEDM was made using a 160nm thin film of purified pentacene sandwiched between Al and Au electrodes on glass. The diodes have a reverse breakdown voltage exceeding 25V and a charge carrier mobility of 0.15cm2/Vs.

The diodes where integrated with capacitors into rectifiers on a plastic foil (schematic and picture shown in Figure1). These integrated rectifiers operate up to a frequency of 869MHz In Figure 2, the measurement results have been plotted over the full frequency range. The rectified DC voltage at 869 MHz is 4.5V. Further increases of the voltage level will be possible using a more complex rectifier.

The work was done within the framework of the Holst Centre research program on organic circuitry, in close collaboration between IMEC Leuven and TNO Eindhoven, and was co-funded by the European project POLYAPPLY.

IMEC deal with Panasonic includes research at Holst Centre

do, 13, nov, 2008 00:00:00

Today, the nanoelectronics research center IMEC and Panasonic Corporation have signed a joint research contract concerning the most advanced technologies in the semiconductor, networks, wireless, and biomedical fields. Research will be carried out at the Leuven (Belgium) facilities and at Holst Centre in Eindhoven (the Netherlands).

Since 2004, Panasonic has been participating in IMEC’s joint research platform on the most advanced semiconductor process technologies as a core partner[1] to accelerate its open innovation in this field. The world’s first mass production of the system-on-chip with 65nm and 45nm processes such as Panasonic’s “UniPhier®” [2] uses the results of the joint research with IMEC. Now, a comprehensive joint research program covering most of the research domains of IMEC will start by expanding the collaboration scope from advanced semiconductor process technology to include application areas of semiconductors.

For this purpose, the Panasonic IMEC Center will be established at the IMEC premises in December 2008. It will conduct R&D on network technology such as dynamically reconfigurable software-defined radio [3], ultra-low power consumption wireless communication technology for healthcare and lifestyle monitoring[4] and biomedical technology such as next generation biosensors.

Recently, thanks to the evolution of systems-on-chip, consumer electronics have advanced with higher performance, smaller size and lower power consumption. Future evolution of semiconductor technologies and integration with various other technologies is expected to further broaden application domains. In order to accelerate such evolution and integration of different technologies, joint research among the world class research institutes is essential.

Panasonic is enhancing its R&D in networks, healthcare devices and semiconductor technologies in order to realize an environmentally-friendly ubiquitous networked society. Panasonic will make further acceleration of R&D on cutting-edge technologies by expanding the scheme of joint research with IMEC, the world outstanding nanoelectronics research center as well as the world-leading research center in applications of semiconductor technology.

[1] Core partner
A member company which actively participates in a core set of research programs on sub-32nm CMOS at IMEC. Nine such companies as of October 2008 on worldwide basis.
[2] UniPhier is a registered trademark of Panasonic Corporation in Japan and other countries.
[3] Dynamically reconfigurable software-defined radio
A Software-Defined Radio system is a reconfigurable radio implementation which offers support for a large variety of wireless standards on a single hardware platform. It switches between the supported standards by controlling all parameters of the PHY/MAC functions in software or even by implementing some PHY/MAC functions on specialized software-programmable processors.
[4] Healthcare and lifestyle monitoring
Detecting health condition (capture, understand and judge outside stimulus) by live signals such as brain wave, pulse wave and body temperature.

Open innovation results in Best Peer-Review Paper award from the Organic Semiconductor Industry Awards 2008

vr, 03, okt, 2008 00:00:00

During the Networking Dinner of the Organic Semiconductor Conference (OSC-08), Holst Centre, Philips Research Europe and ASML were given the Best Peer-Review Paper award for the paper "Advances in lithographic patterning of micron-sized features on flexible substrates"*

Jaap Lombaers, Managing Director Holst Centre: “This award is a true boost for a young organization as Holst Centre. We are very grateful and proud for the recognition of our work. The co-authorship of two of our partners symbolizes the added value of joining forces in an open-innovation setting as Holst Centre. I congratulate the entire team.”

The number of nominations for the awards was significantly higher than last year and the OSIA 2008 judging panel commented on how the quality of the nominations overall was also significantly higher.

Craig Cruickshank, cintelliq CEO and member of the OSIA 2008 judging panel, said, "The awards are an important way to recognize excellence in the industry. We are very pleased with the continued high standard of entries for the awards and are grateful to the panel of judges for their rigorous evaluation of the nominations. The past 12 months have seen a number of significant technical developments in the industry, and these have been reflected in the award nominations."

* Mária Péter, François Furthner, Bas van der Putten, Gerwin Gelinck, Erwin Meinders, Tom Geuns, Wim de Laat: Advances in lithographic patterning of micron-sized features on flexible substrates, Organic Semiconductor Conference and Exhibition 2008 , OSC08

ASML extends participation in Holst Centre

vr, 03, okt, 2008 00:00:00

After the recent news about the partnership extentions of Singulus Mastering and Bekaert (July 31), Holst Centre has also prolonged and widened its partnership with ASML. The world's leading provider of lithography systems for the semiconductor industry teamed up with Holst Centre in June 2006. Holst Centre is pleased that ASML extends its partnership to further investigate potential business cases, technologies and markets for lithography.

Participation in Futurotextiel08

wo, 17, sep, 2008 00:00:00

From October 9 to December 7, 2008 the Belgian city of Courtrai (Kortrijk) hosts Futurotextiel08, an exhibition on how science, technology and art impact the textiles of tomorrow. Holst Centre has a participation in the exhibition by displaying its wireless ECG patch and Smart Bandage as examples of how smart textiles will bring more comfort to our daily lives. All details about the exhibition can be found on the Futurotextiel08 website.

Research book on Battery Management Systems

vr, 15, aug, 2008 00:00:00

As principal author, Holst Centre researcher Valer Pop presents Volume 9 in the Philips Research Book Series, titled “Battery Management Systems - Accurate State-of-Charge Indication for Battery-Powered Applications”. The book is a practical example of ‘open-innovation’ combining authors affiliated to different institutes, companies and universities. The content covers all disciplines from (electro)chemical, electrical engineering, mathematical and measurement science to describe the field of State-of-Charge (SoC) indication for battery-powered applications. The result is a new developed universal SoC and remaining run-time indication solution together with a fast-charging solution for rechargeable batteries.
Full details and pricing can be found on www.springer.com (ISBN 978-1-4020-6944-4)

Delineator algorithm extends wireless ECG patch

ma, 14, jul, 2008 00:00:00

The functionality of the Human++ demonstrator(*) "wireless ECG patch for cardiac monitoring" has been extended with software that delineates the electrocardiography (ECG) signal locally on the patch node before sending the results over the air to the receiver. The algorithm achieves excellent results for sensitivity and predictivity, and covers a broad range of wave morphologies.

The wireless ECG patch is a hybrid system combining electronic assembly on a flexible polyimide substrate and integration in textile. This enables flexibility in one dimension and stretchability in the other, which is required for optimal personal comfort. The patch features IMEC’s proprietary ultra-low-power biopotential ASIC, a commercial microcontroller and a 2.4GHz radio link. The patch can continuously monitor the patient’s heart at a sample rate of up to 1kHz. It sends the results directly to the receiver, or it can delineate the signals locally before sending them. Local delineation reduces the use of the radio, improving the autonomy of the patch. The current autonomy with local delineation is 10 days of continuous monitoring.

For local delineation, a wavelet-based ECG delineator algorithm has now been implemented. The algorithm transforms the monitored ECG signal using discrete wavelet transform, and then performs a multi-scale search for the ECG waves. The delineator is able to identify P,Q, R, S, and T wave peaks and boundaries. Because the intervals and amplitudes of these waves contain most of the useful information of the ECG, this delineation will provide quick and useful information to the healthcare provider.

The QRS-wave search uses scales 21 to 23. It is based on modulus maximum lines, and the decision whether to consider a maximum modulus will be made immediately. The search will continue with adjacent slopes to delineate further QRS waves. The algorithm covers QRS, QR, RS, R, and QS wave morphologies. The search for P and T waves also uses scales 23 to 24. It follows the QRS delineation and covers the following morphologies: positive and negative, raising and falling waves for both P and T waves, and biphasic T waves.

The delineator on the ECG patch has been validated over all the records in the MIT-QT database. It achieves a 99.93% sensitivity and a 98.28% positive predictivity for QRS detection on 86,994 beats. For delineation over 3,623 beats, it reaches a 99.83% sensitivity and a 95.08% positive predictivity.

(*) Human++ is the Holst Centre strategic program in which technology innovations in the domain of health and wellness monitoring are demonstrated and tested.

Opening Roll-to-Roll research line for printed electronics

do, 19, jun, 2008 00:00:00

On June 19, Holst Centre officially inaugurated its roll-to-roll line for printed electronics. The current installation is a fully equipped pilot-production line for systems-in-foil printing, coating, drying and lamination. The next stage is the development of a complementary roll-to-roll deposition line for thin-film barriers on foil, currently in specification. Holst Centre also plans to build a dedicated roll-to-roll line for high-precision lamination.

Holst Centre will initially focus its activities on large-area printing and printed structures on flexible substrates around the Roll-to-Roll line. Main application driver is the development of device layouts and processes for flexible OLED lighting and signage. Gradually, also other Holst Centre programs such as organic circuitry and lithography on foil will move more and more towards roll-to-roll compatible processes.

Flexible electronics is an emerging market with a massive potential and a huge range of possible applications, from displays and lighting to smart packaging. While the technology is proven, there is a growing need for new manufacturing methods and technologies to support volume production.

Holst Centre gathers together partners from the complete value-chain including materials suppliers (foils, active polymers, inks…), equipment manufacturers and product manufacturers, each with their own dedicated area of expertise. This type of collaboration allows defining open standards and smart interconnect technologies that will allow manufacturers to easily combine foils into end-products.

Hydrogen sensor with record ultra-low-power consumption

ma, 21, apr, 2008 00:00:00

In the framework of Holst Centre, IMEC and Nanosens have developed an ultra-low-power hydrogen sensor based on palladium nanowires. It shows a reproducible response to hydrogen concentrations as low as 2.7ppm, while consuming a mere 1nW power. Sensors such as these can be used, for example, in fuel cells or to monitor for gas leaks.

Palladium is known as one of the best materials for hydrogen sensing, as it is able to absorb up to 600 times its own volume of hydrogen. In the presence of hydrogen, palladium forms the more resistive palladium-hydride. Such resistive sensor elements are of particular interest as they enable relatively straightforward signal detection and fabrication. For the palladium-based sensors that are currently available, the response times and sensitivity are insufficient; but more importantly, these sensors do not meet the ultra-low-power requirements for integration with wireless autonomous sensor nodes needed in many applications.

Nanosens, a Dutch company developing innovative nanotech solutions, has invented CMOS compatible processes to fabricate highly uniform, long, and small nanowires of various materials, including palladium.

At Holst Centre, chips with palladium nanowires have been subjected to a wide range of hydrogen concentrations in nitrogen. The sensor shows a reversible response to hydrogen concentrations as low as 2.7ppm while consuming a mere 1nW of power. To the best of our knowledge this is the hydrogen sensor with the lowest power consumption to date. Additionally, the sensor response to hydrogen is highly reproducible and stable over a period of up to six months. In a next step, a low-power read-out circuitry will be developed at Holst Centre. This will result in a full sensing device.

Hydrogen is widely used in many industries. It is also touted to become one of the main energy carriers of the future, replacing fossil fuels. Hydrogen sensors thus represent an important opportunity. They could be used in applications as varied as detecting impending electrical power transformer failure, or monitoring hydrogen concentrations in fuel cells. And for all hydrogen-based industrial applications, the availability of sensitive and effective hydrogen sensors to quickly respond to hydrogen gas leaks and to monitor manufacturing and distribution is paramount.