All press releases

Bayer MaterialScience joins Holst Centre flexible electronics research

di, 13, jul, 2010 11:31:00

Leverkusen/Eindhoven, July 2010 – Bayer MaterialScience AG, one of the world’s largest producers of polymers and high-performance plastics, and Holst Centre, an open innovation initiative by research organizations imec (Belgium) and TNO (The Netherlands), have now announced their partnership in the field of flexible electronics. By joining the Holst Centre eco-system, Bayer exchanges its own expertise with the existing network of academic and industrial partners.

Together with leading players in the domain of flexible electronics, Holst Centre subscribes the vision of a smart foils industry. The vision describes a value chain that starts with materials and equipment suppliers delivering to manufacturers of smart foils such as organic light emitting diode (OLED) lighting, battery or organic photovoltaics (OPV). At the end of the chain are producers of smart devices who develop products by integrating foils with various functionalities.

Jaap Lombaers, Managing Director Systems-in-Foil at Holst Centre: “We are proud to add Bayer MaterialScience as a leading materials supplier to our existing partner network. Over the past few months, I have met with many colleagues of Bayer. I am convinced that their dynamic spirit and world class technical expertise is a valuable asset to our program.”

“We are committed to deliver improved films product solutions to our customers addressing new applications within the flexible electronics industry”, adds Bernd Steinhilber, Senior Vice President and Head of Functional Films at Bayer Material Science. “The partnership in Holst Center is an excellent opportunity for us, bringing together competent industry in the open innovation surrounding. The growing demand for increased functionality in the materials we supply is matched perfectly with the improvements we expect from this collaboration.”

To stimulate innovation and decrease time-to-market in this eco-system, Holst Centre aims at gathering academic and industrial partners from across this value chain around shared technical roadmaps. Already Holst Centre teams up with several global leaders and local startups to jointly develop technologies for flexible electronics such as OLED and OPV.

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About Bayer MaterialScience:
With 2009 sales of EUR 7.5 billion, Bayer MaterialScience is among the world’s largest polymer companies. Business activities are focused on the manufacture of high-tech polymer materials and the development of innovative solutions for products used in many areas of daily life. The main segments served are the automotive, electrical and electronics, construction and sports and leisure industries. Bayer MaterialScience has 30 production sites around the globe and employed approximately 14,300 people at the end of 2009. Bayer MaterialScience is a Bayer Group company.

About Holst Centre:
Holst Centre is an independent open-innovation R&D centre that develops generic technologies for Wireless Autonomous Transducer Solutions and for Systems-in-Foil. 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 150 employees from around 25 nationalities and a commitment from around 30 industrial partners.

Contact:
Bayer MaterialScience AG:
Dr. Frank Rothbarth, Tel. +49 214 30-25363
E-Mail: frank.rothbarth@bayermaterialscience.com

Holst Centre:
Koen Snoeckx, Tel. +31 40 402 05 61 and +31 612 71 98 43
E-Mail: Koen.Snoeckx@holstcentre.com

Find more information at www.bayermaterialscience.com and www.holstcentre.com.

Forward-Looking Statements
This release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Bayer Group or subgroup management. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in Bayer’s public reports which are available on the Bayer website at www.bayer.com. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.

World’s first application of flexible OLED lighting on foil

wo, 09, jun, 2010 00:00:00

Holst Centre OLED signage device in Le Mans race car mirror

Eindhoven, June 9 2010 - In this year’s 24 hours Le Mans race (June 12-13), the ORECA01 car from French racing team Oreca will be using rear view mirrors with an integrated thin film encapsulated Flexible Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) on the back. Since flexible OLED lighting and signage devices 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 - consider the integration in the composite material of the race car as a great success. The results of the project are valuable for the road to market of OLED lighting technology.

OLEDs are paper-thin, flexible and lightweight devices consuming up to 70% less energy compared to conventional light sources, making them prime candidates for the next generation of lighting. Before flexible OLED lighting and ignage devices can be commercialized, there are some important research challenges to be solved. To use OLEDs on the car, there was one critical step to overcome. OLEDs are sensitive to moisture, and even to oxygen, and had to be protected from these in order to maintain a long lifetime. The current success of the OLED integration in the car is dependent on the encapsulation technology and Araldite® composite materials of Huntsman Advanced Materials.

The OLED itself displays the logo Araldite® - a brand which belongs to Huntsman - and was provided by Holst Centre, a Dutch open-innovation initiative by imec (B) and TNO (NL). At Holst Centre, leading industrial and academic partners from across the world collaborate in mixed teams to solve shared research challenges. Holst Centre and its partners are amongst the very few who are already able to make flexible OLED lighting and signage devices. In the field of encapsulation technology and moist barriers for flexible electronic devices, Holst Centre and its partners are probably even ahead of all competition. Part of the OLED research was conducted within the European FP7 program Fast2Light, coordinated by Holst Centre.

Ton van Mol, Program Manager Flexible OLED Lighting and Signage at Holst Centre: “We are very proud to see our technology succesfully applied in this ambitious and prestigious project. To my knowledge, it is the first time that an OLED on flexible foil is shown outside the laboratory in an actual application. Because of the harsh conditions, applications in automotive are always very demanding for the technologies that are used. Racing teams like Oreca raise the bar even higher. The results of this integration project will be very valuable in our further research. We wish the entire team all the best during the race and hope that drivers, car and OLED will make a bright finish.”

André Genton, Huntsman CEO said: “The integration of the OLEDs into the ORECA O1’s rear view mirrors represents a great success. The ORECA car has already proven its speed and reliability over the past three seasons and by working hand in hand with other members of the team we have the opportunity to test our materials far beyond the limits of normal conditions. If Araldite® can withstand the demands of a racing track, then we know we have a winning formula.”

Pierre Seze, Composite Department Manager at Oreca, explained: “First of all, we are very happy and proud to be involved in the OLED project. The integration of the OLED system in our carbon fiber pre-preg represents several advantages for our race car. The first one is the weight. Indeed with the OLED system our race car mirror carbon fiber made, keep its performance in terms of weight. Furthermore the integration of the OLED system doesn’t imply any mechanical problem on the carbon fiber pre preg made car mirror. This technology fit perfectly with the very demanding constraints of endurance race such Le Mans 24 Hours. I would like to pay a tribute to the guys at Huntsman laboratory in Switzerland for their help and support during the process of OLED integration on our race car.”

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Pictures (hi-res version available at Holst Centre upon request)

Image 1: ORECA01 race car

Image 2: Pierre Seze, Composite Department Manager at Oreca, holding the rear view mirror of the ORECA01 race car. With integrated OLED that was developed by Holst Centre and its research partners.

About Holst Centre

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 150 employees from around 25 nationalities and a commitment from over 20 industrial partners.

Visit us at www.holstcentre.com

About Hunstman

Huntsman is a global manufacturer and marketer of differentiated chemicals. Its operating companies manufacture products for a variety of global industries, including chemicals, plastics, automotive, aviation, textiles, footwear, paints and coatings, construction, technology, agriculture, health care, detergent, personal care, furniture, appliances and packaging. Originally known for pioneering innovations in packaging and, later, for rapid and integrated growth in petrochemicals, Huntsman today has more than 12,000 employees and operates from multiple locations worldwide. The Company had 2009 revenues of approximately $8 billion. For more information about Huntsman, please visit the Company’s website at www.huntsman.com.

Forward Looking Statements:

Statements in this release that are not historical are forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management’s current beliefs and expectations. The forward-looking statements in this release are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances and involve risks and uncertainties that may affect the company’s operations, markets, products, services, prices and other factors as discussed in the Huntsman companies’ filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Significant risks and uncertainties may relate to, but are not limited to, financial, economic, competitive, environmental, political, legal, regulatory and technological factors. In addition, the completion of any transactions described in this release is subject to a number of uncertainties and closing will be subject to approvals and other customary conditions. Accordingly, there can be no assurance that such transactions will be completed or that the company’s expectations will be realized. The company assumes no obligation to provide revisions to any forward-looking statements should circumstances change, except as otherwise required by applicable laws.

Legal information
Araldite® is a registered trademark of Huntsman Corporation or an affiliate thereof in one or more, but not all, countries.

Contact

For all inquiries about the Le Oreca race team at the Le Mans race:

Alexandre GIBOT
Chargé des Partenariats
Pole Compétition
Groupe ORECA
Siège Social Signes
T: + 33 (0)494 885 736
M: + 33 (0) 6 34 37 31 57

For all inquiries about OLEDs, the status of the technology and its application potential:

Koen Snoeckx
Communication Manager Holst Centre
T : +31 40 277 40 91
M : +31 612 71 98 43
Koen.snoeckx@holstcentre.com

For Hunstman press information only please contact:

Patricia Albisser
Huntsman Advanced Materials (Switzerland)
GmbH K-401.5.77
Klybeckstrasse 200
CH-4057 Basel
Switzerland
Phone: +41-61-299 2664
Fax: +41-61-966 8130
Email: patricia_albisser@huntsman.com

NeoDec enters Holst Centre partner network for Roll-to-Roll flexible electronics

wo, 14, apr, 2010 00:00:00

Eindhoven – April 9, 2010 - NeoDec, an Eindhoven-based spin-off company from the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), and Holst Centre, an open-innovation initiative by imec (B) and TNO (NL), today announce their partnership on metallic inks for flexible electronics applications. NeoDec’s conductive ink technology is a complementary technology to the competences of Holst Centre and its industrial partners and opens new routes to enable roll-to-roll manufacturing of flexible electronic devices, such as OLED lighting foils and smart packaging.

Flexible electronics is seen as a promising market with high growth potential in the next decades. Several flexible electronics applications require cost-effective manufacturing of conductive structures, such as OLED lighting, thin-film photovoltaics on flexible substrates, smart packaging and smart cards. In contrast to the conventional silicon-based electronics, the incompatibility of the plastic substrates with high processing temperatures is considered to be one of the key challenges to be addressed.

For the anticipated flexible electronics applications, like shunt lines for OLED and current collectors for thin-film photovoltaics, commonly used metallic inks require temperature-based post-curing. This to enhance the conductivity of the printed metallic structures to the required level. In particular in case of foil based electronics, the post-curing temperature is limited by the allowable processing temperature of the polymer substrates.

The patented NeoDec technology was developed at the Eindhoven University of Technology by two of NeoDec's co-founders. The technology enables cost-effective patterning of metallic structures based on their proprietary process. A unique feature of this technology is the room-temperature post-curing for obtaining the highly conductive metallic structures. The NeoDec process is compatible with inkjet and rotary screen printing, making it very useful for high-throughput roll-to-roll manufacturing of plastic electronics.

The NeoDec proprietary technology will be further developed within the Holst Centre program on printed structures. Within this program, several routes are explored to manufacture conductive structures on flexible substrates. For this purpose, Holst Centre developed with its partners a unique in-house roll-to-roll research facility, which enables the process integration of new materials, process modules and tools in a semi-industrial environment.

Erwin Meinders, program manager of Holst Centre: “Already, Holst Centre recently announced new developments in the field of low-temperature, foil-compatible post-curing. NeoDec’s proprietary ink technology is a valuable addition to the existing eco-system and opens new possibilities for low-temperature roll-to-roll patterning of conductive structures. We are very happy to welcome NeoDec in Holst Centre and look forward to jointly explore the potential of its technology for plastic electronics applications.”

Rob van den Akker, CEO of NeoDec: “The participation with Holst Centre enables us to accelerate the optimization of our process. Furthermore, we can benefit from the knowledge, infrastructure and network Holst Centre offers, so as a small company we can play our role in the global market.”

The contract was signed between NeoDec and TNO, coordinating the Holst Centre program on printed structures. The partnership will initially run for a period of two years.

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About NeoDec
NeoDec is a spin-off company from the Eindhoven University of Technology. NeoDec uses a unique printing procedure for making conductive tracks in a roll-to-roll process. This fast, room temperature process is particularly suitable for applying highly conductive tracks on flexible plastic substrates. Currently, the NeoDec team is made up of three people. More information: www.neodec.nl

Contact
Holst Centre
Koen Snoeckx
Communication Manager
E-mail: Koen.Snoeckx@holstcentre.com
T: +31 (0)40 277 40 91
M: +31 (0)612 71 98 43

NeoDec
Joost Valeton
CTO
E-mail: j.valeton@neodec.nl
T: +31 616431918

PRESS RELEASE: Holst Centre extends Roll-to-Roll line with new sintering tool

wo, 17, mrt, 2010 00:00:00

EINDHOVEN – March 17, 2010 - Holst Centre, an open-innovation initiative by imec (B) and TNO (NL), has released a new proprietary roll-to-roll (R2R) sintering platform for fast and low-temperature curing of printed conductive structures. This new tool is a next step in the creation of a complete tool set for R2R manufacturing. It enables Holst Centre and its industrial partners to further advance technologies for R2R manufacturing of plastic electronics, such as flexible OLEDs, organic PV and smart packaging.

High web speeds and low temperatures are key elements for R2R manufacturing of plastic electronics. The sintering platform uses a new photonic sintering process, developed by Holst Centre, which heats only the printed target material rather than the whole carrier substrate. The tool can sinter printed conductive structures in less than a second, which is already enabling a fast throughput speed of over 5 meters/minute. It also works at significantly lower temperatures than traditional sintering techniques, preventing distortion of the carrier substrates and reducing energy costs.

“Initial results from the sintering platform have been very good,” said Erwin Meinders, program manager Printed Conductive Structures at Holst Centre. “The sintering platform is an important step towards fast R2R manufacturing of flexible OLED and OPV devices. The tool will be used to further advance the developed photonic sintering technology and to investigate new low-temperature sintering techniques and materials, such as next generation copper inks.”

Holst Centre started development of a complete R2R testing line two years ago. The line now includes printing, coating, drying and lamination stages in addition to the new sintering unit. A vacuum deposition stage is currently in development.

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More information

Picture Caption
“Screen printed structures on foil, processed with a conductive silver paste and sintered on Holst Centre’s proprietary tool in only a few seconds.”

Contact
Koen Snoeckx
Communication Manager
E-mail: Koen.Snoeckx@holstcentre.com
T: +31 (0)40 277 40 91
M: +31 (0)612 71 98 43

See also

Printed conductive structures on flexible substrates

PRESS RELEASE: ADC with record figure of merit suited for low energy radios (ISSCC2010)

wo, 10, feb, 2010 00:00:00

Leuven, Belgium and Eindhoven, the Netherlands, February 10, 2010 – At today’s International Solid State Circuit Conference, imec and Holst Centre report an ultra-low power 8 bit analog to digital convertor (ADC) consuming only 30fJ energy per conversion step. This world-class figure of merit ADC is especially suited for upcoming low energy radios in the ISM (industrial, scientific and medical) radio bands such as low-energy Bluetooth or IEEE 802.15.6 for body-area networks.

Imec and Holst Centre realized this ultra-low power ADC with record performance by using a unique concept that combines a successive approximation (SAR) architecture working completely in the charge domain with an asynchronous controller. By doing all the charge redistribution passively, the power consumption of the SAR ADC is already drastically reduced compared to conventional SAR ADCs. An asynchronous controller is implemented to further minimize the power consumption and to allow operation on a single external sampling clock. This asynchronous implementation thus has no clock-driven precharge phase but instead self-synchronizes the various building blocks to maximize the speed of operation and to minimize the power consumption.

The chip was implemented in a 90nm digital CMOS technology. Measurements on silicon show a power consumption of only 69µW at a sampling rate of 10Msamples/s and a standby power of only 17nW. Since none of the ADC building blocks consumes any static power, the power consumption of the ADC scales linearly with the sampling frequency. Thus, the figure of merit of 30fJ/conversion step is maintained from 10kSamples/s to 10MSamples/s making it the widest power-efficient range published amongst comparable state-of-the-art designs.

“This result proves that imec and Holst Centre have built up extensive know-how in ultra-low power design within their program on ultra-low power radios for body-area networks. This extreme low-power ADC is applicable in ultra-low power radios usable in a wide range of applications from healthcare to industrial;” said Bert Gyselinckx, Managing Director Wireless Autonomous Transducer Solutions at Holst Centre.

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Picture: Test board of imec and Holst Centre’s 8 bit, 30fJ/conversion step ADC.

About imec
Imec performs world-leading research in nanoelectronics. Imec leverages its scientific knowledge with the innovative power of its global partnerships in ICT, healthcare and energy. Imec delivers industry-relevant technology solutions. In a unique high-tech environment, its international top talent is committed to providing the building blocks for a better life in a sustainable society.
Imec is headquartered in Leuven, Belgium, and has offices in Belgium, the Netherlands, Taiwan, US, China and Japan. Its staff of more than 1,650 people includes over 550 industrial residents and guest researchers. In 2008, imec's revenue (P&L) was 270 million euro.
Imec is a registered trademark for the activities of IMEC International (a legal entity set up under Belgian law as a "stichting van openbaar nut”), imec Belgium (IMEC vzw supported by the Flemish Government), imec the Netherlands (Stichting IMEC Nederland, part of Holst Centre which is supported by the Dutch Government) and imec Taiwan (IMEC Taiwan Co.).

Contact
Holst Centre: Koen Snoeckx, Communication Manager, T: +31 40 277 40 91, Mobile: +31 612 719843, koen.snoeckx@holstcentre.com
imec: Katrien Marent, Director of External Communications, T: +32 16 28 18 80, Mobile : +32 474 30 28 66, katrien.marent@imec.be

See also

Ultra low power wireless communication

PRESS RELEASE: Record performance of dual-gate organic TFT-based RFID circuit (ISSCC2010)

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

Eindhoven (NL) and Leuven (B) - February 09, 2010 - At today’s International Solid State Circuit Conference (ISSCC), Holst Centre, imec and TNO present a dual-gate-based organic RFID chip with record data rate and lowest reported operating voltage. For the first time, the advantages of dual gate transistors in circuit speed and robustness have thereby been exploited in a complex organic-electronic circuit.

Organic RFID tags are one of the drivers of flexible electronics research and development. Over the previous years, Holst Centre, imec and TNO, have been successful in reporting state-of-the art results on major conferences, such as ISSCC and IEDM. The current result of a 64-bit transponder circuit at 4.3kb/s shows an improvement of over a factor two compared to the result reported last year at ISSCC. What’s more, results show that chips start to operate at lower voltages (down to 10V), making them more suitable for capacitive and inductive coupling with a readout station.

Main reason behind the increased performance is the use of a dual gate unipolar transistor technology, adapted from rollable-display company Polymer Vision, one of the partners in the Holst Centre research programs. Using a dual gate allows controlling the threshold voltage (Vt) and the thus obtained multiple-Vt technology leads to more robust circuits.

Dual-gate organic TFT (thin-film transistor) circuits have been reported before, but had never surpassed the complexity of basic inverters. Thanks to the tight collaboration within mixed teams of circuit designers and technology developers, Holst Centre, imec and TNO now report 99-stage dual-gate ring oscillators in various topologies, plus 64-bit RFID transponder chips using the same architecture.

Further and ongoing work will demonstrate the viability of the technology towards industrial uptake. Holst Centre therefore gathers leading industrial players from across the value chain around its shared research roadmaps. The work is the result of a close collaboration between TNO and imec teams in Eindhoven and Leuven.

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Picture: 64-bit organic transponder chip based on dual-gate thin-film-transistor technology, achieving 4.3kb/s data rate.

About TNO
TNO is a prominent, independent knowledge company whose expertise and research contributes significantly to the competitiveness of businesses and organisations, to the economy and to the quality of life as a whole. Versatility and capacity to integrate this knowledge makes TNO unique. TNO employs some 4300 professionals in five core areas:

TNO Quality of Life
TNO Defence, Security and Safety
TNO Science and Industry
TNO Built Environment and Geosciences
TNO Information and Communication Technology

Contact
Holst Centre: Koen Snoeckx, Communication Manager, T: +31 40 277 40 91, Mobile: +31 612 719843, koen.snoeckx@holstcentre.comimec : Katrien Marent, Director of External Communications, T: +32 16 28 18 80, Mobile : +32 474 30 28 66, katrien.marent@imec.be

See also:

Organic and oxide transistors

PRESS RELEASE: Breakthrough in battery-less radios (ISSCC2010)

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

Leuven, Belgium and Eindhoven, The Netherlands, February 9, 2010 – At today’s International Solid State Circuit Conference, imec and Holst Centre report a 2.4GHz/915MHz wake-up receiver which consumes only 51µW power. This record low power achievement opens the door to battery-less or energy-harvesting based radios for a wide range of applications including long-range RFID and wireless sensor nodes for logistics, smart buildings, healthcare etc.

Today’s battery-operated wireless communication systems consume a lot of power at times when the radio does not have to transmit or receive data. This means that most of their time Bluetooth or WLAN radios on mobile phones are taking energy from the battery without adding functionality. Imec and Holst Centre’s wake-up receiver with ultra-low power consumption and fast response time can be put in parallel with the conventional radio to switch it on when data needs to received or transmitted.

Imec and Holst Centre developed an innovative radio architecture based on double sampling to overcome the 1/f noise problem. This noise affects most low data rate (10-100kbps) radios. As a consequence, these radios traditionally have a higher power budget than higher data rate radios achieving the same performance. By using a double-sampling technique the offset and 1/f noise is reduced and consequently the sensitivity of the receiver improves proportionally as data-rate scales.

The wake-up receiver chip was implemented in a 90nm digital CMOS technology and occupies an area of 0.36mm². Measurements on silicon show a sensitivity of -75dBm (SNR>12dB) for the 915MHz receiver at 100kbps OOK (on off keying) modulation. When scaling the data rate to 10kbps and filtering the out-of-band noise, the sensitivity is improved by 5dB. For the 2.4GHz receiver, the sensitivity is -64dBm and -69dBm for 100kbps and 10kbps data rate respectively.

“Within our wireless autonomous sensor system research, we aim to develop wireless sensor systems powered by energy harvested from the environment instead of using batteries. The power budget of such systems is only 100µW for the DSP, radio and sensor. This ultra-low power radio of only 51µW with small form factor is a major step forward to achieve our goal. It opens the door to many new battery-less applications such as long-range RFID, smart lighting, and sensor tags.” said Bert Gyselinckx, ManagingDirector Wirelss Autonomous Transducer Solutions at Holst Centre.

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Picture: Test board of imec and Holst Centre’s wake up receiver.

Contact
Holst Centre: Koen Snoeckx, Communication Manager, T: +31 40 277 40 91, Mobile: +31 612 719843, koen.snoeckx@holstcentre.com
imec : Katrien Marent, Director of External Communications, T: +32 16 28 18 80, Mobile : +32 474 30 28 66, katrien.marent@imec.be

See also:

Ultra low power wireless communication

PRESS RELEASE: Ultra-low power heart activity signal processor (ISSCC2010)

zo, 07, feb, 2010 00:00:00

Leuven, Belgium and Eindhoven, the Netherlands February 7, 2010 – At today’s International Solid State Circuit Conference, imec and Holst Centre report an analog-signal processor ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) – in short ASP - that reduces the overall power consumption of an ambulatory heart activity signal monitoring systems by more than 5 times. This is a major step towards autonomous wireless sensor systems powered, which constantly monitor the patient’s health for diagnosis or chronic illness.

In today’s biomedical wireless sensor systems, a lot of power consumption is wasted in the DSP (digital signal processor) or radio by continuously processing biopotential signals (e.g. ECG or electrocardiogram), or transmitting raw data over the wireless link. And, today’s ambulatory biomedical sensor systems also suffer from motion artifacts which affects the robustness of detection algorithms and demands even more processing power.

The innovative ASP, developed within imec’s and Holst Centre’s HUMAN++ program, uses an adaptive sampling scheme based on activity detection. This reduces the amount of data which needs to be processed by the DSP or transmitted by the radio. By preprocessing the signal, a simplified DSP can be used for accurate R-peak detection resulting in lower power consumption of the DSP. Motion artifacts are detected by continuously monitoring the electrode-tissue impedance. The impedance monitoring can also be used for ensuring signal integrity by continuously checking the electrode connectivity.

The ASP has a record low power consumption of only 30µW operating from 2V. It consists of an ECG readout channel, two quadrature readout channels for continuous-time monitoring of electrode-tissue impedance, and two quadrature readout channels for tracking signal fluctuations in a specific frequency band. The ASP also includes an activity detector that senses the frequency content of the ECG signal and adapts the sampling rate of the integrated ADC (analog to digital convertor) for the digitization of the ECG signal. The ASP stage reduces the power consumption of the DSP and wireless transmission by 11 and 6 times respectively. This results in an overall system power dissipation below 300µW for the complete wireless heart activity signal monitoring system which is more than 5 times more power efficient than its predecessors. This power budget also includes the additional functionality of continuous-time electrode-tissue contact impedance measurement.

“Within the Human++ program, imec and Holst Centre develop solutions for an efficient and better healthcare. Self-powered intelligent body area networks with wireless sensors promise to be a solution for more comfortable healthcare systems. This breakthrough is a major step towards constant ambulatory monitoring of people using energy harvesting, which increases the comfort level of patients and is a cost- and time-efficient alternative for current monitoring systems;” said Bert Gyselinckx, Managing Director Wireless Autonomous Transducer Solutions at Holst Centre.

Industry can get access to this technology by joining the Human++ program as research partner or by licensing agreements for further product development.

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Picture: Die photograph of imec and Holst Centre’s 30µW analog signal processor ASIC for biopotential signal monitoring.

About imec
Imec performs world-leading research in nano-electronics. Imec leverages its scientific knowledge with the innovative power of its global partnerships in ICT, healthcare and energy. Imec delivers industry-relevant technology solutions. In a unique high-tech environment, its international top talent is committed to providing the building blocks for a better life in a sustainable society.
Imec is headquartered in Leuven, Belgium, and has offices in Belgium, the Netherlands, Taiwan, US, China and Japan. Its staff of more than 1,650 people includes over 550 industrial residents and guest researchers. In 2008, imec's revenue (P&L) was 270 million euro.
Imec is a registered trademark for the activities of IMEC International (a legal entity set up under Belgian law as a "stichting van openbaar nut”), imec Belgium (IMEC vzw supported by the Flemish Government), imec the Netherlands (Stichting IMEC Nederland, part of Holst Centre which is supported by the Dutch Government) and imec Taiwan (IMEC Taiwan Co.).

Contact
Holst Centre: Koen Snoeckx, Communication Manager, T: +31 40 277 40 91, Mobile: +31 612 719843, koen.snoeckx@holstcentre.com
imec : Katrien Marent, Director of External Communications, T: +32 16 28 18 80, Mobile : +32 474 30 28 66, katrien.marent@imec.be

PRESS RELEASE: Frost & Sullivan Recognizes Holst Centre and imec for Its Path Breaking Wearable Energy Harvester Technology

di, 02, feb, 2010 11:21:00

LONDON – February 2, 2010 – Based on its recent research on the wearable energy harvesters market, Frost & Sullivan presents Holst Centre and imec with the 2009 European Frost & Sullivan Award for Technology Innovation for its wearable electrocardiograph energy harvesting solution, which provides tens of microwatts of energy per square centimetre for modules with 3x4 cm2 dimensions. Due to its convenience of use, self powering, and low maintenance, this has opened the way for a wide range of commercial and personal solutions. The European open-innovation R&D centres Holst Centre and imec achieved this result within their R&D program on micropower generation and storage.

Recently, Holst Centre and imec developed miniaturized health monitoring systems, which consume heat naturally dissipated from the human body in order to operate. While wearable devices that operate using the body’s heat have been in use for several years, small thermoelectric energy generators have so far proven their capability to power only small personal devices such as watches without needing an external power source. The unique device developed by Holst Centre and imec is the result of clever design of a thermal harvester, matched specifically to a human body, as well as a large reduction of the power consumption of the electronics. The thermal harvester is made of a thermoelectric material, in this case bismuth telluride, that converts human body heat into electric current. Once this device is placed close to the body, it generates electricity that is further accumulated in an energy storage system. The electricity capacitor subsequently powers the autonomous wearable electrocardiography (ECG) system and a radio which transmits the ECG signal real-time to a base station. Thanks to clever optimization, the power consumption of the electronics has been largely reduced. The thickness of the system components does not exceed 6.5 mm and can be easily integrated into fabric. Once installed, the system requires no technical maintenance.

“The personal devices, which couldn’t be made portable due to their large sizes or high power requirements can now be developed in the form of easy to wear and care gadgets,” says Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Krzysztof Grzybowski. “This approach is valid for monitoring systems and related personal low-power appliances that could be integrated in clothes, e.g watches. On the other hand, devices like mobile phones currently still use too much power to be powered by body heat.

Holst Centre and imec’s demonstrated energy harvesting solution provides tens of microwatts of energy per square centimetre of the skin for modules with 3x4 cm2 dimensions. In this specific application, the energy harvesting module efficiency was sufficient to operate the wearable ECG using fourteen units integrated in a shirt and occupying less than 1.5 per cent of its total area. The device operation was tested in indoor and outdoor conditions with outdoor clothes worn on and off. During energy harvesting, the power management unit of the presented system uses the ASIC converter to charge two 2.4V batteries, which are powering the second stage DC/DC converter supplying the ECG unit. In all cases, the system performance was sufficient to operate the ECG.

Further, the whole unit is fortified against the mechanical stress that would accidentally destroy the fragile thermopiles of the energy harvester. The shock protection, made of thermally isolating material, is placed between the radiator and the hot end of the device (exposed to the source of a heat). It was found that this protection facilitates even washing the device in laundry with a drying cycle of 1,000 rpms. Interestingly, the developed prototype is service-free for its entire life and user activity is only limited to the need of wearing it. Once placed close to the body the device starts itself and monitors the patient’s health.

“Most personal devices still consume large amounts of energy that cannot be provided by currently available energy harvesting solutions,” notes Krzysztof Grzybowski. “However, increasing efficiencies of energy harvesters, such as the system developed by Holst Centre and imec for health monitoring systems, combined with a further decrease of power consumption of the electronic elements could enable the fabrication of a wide range of self sustainable personal solutions in the future.”

Holst Centre and imec will continue to miniaturize self-powered health monitoring devices such as this one through decreasing their power consumption. Maintenance-free devices, self-powered for their entire service life such as the demonstrated electrocardiograph in a shirt,,allow for efficient and easy monitoring of human health, which was not possible in the past. In recognition of this unique wearable energy harvesting technology based on a unique design platform, Frost & Sullivan is proud to present Holst Centre and imec with the 2009 European Technology Innovation Award in the wearable energy harvesters market.

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to a company that has carried out new research, which has resulted in innovations that have or are expected to bring significant contributions to the industry in terms of adoption, change, and competitive posture. The award recognizes the quality and depth of a company’s research and development program as well as the vision and risk-taking that enabled it to undertake such an endeavour.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.

About Holst Centre

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.

About imec

Imec performs world-leading research in nano-electronics. Imec leverages its scientific knowledge with the innovative power of its global partnerships in ICT, healthcare and energy. Imec delivers industry-relevant technology solutions. In a unique high-tech environment, its international top talent is committed to providing the building blocks for a better life in a sustainable society.

Imec is headquartered in Leuven, Belgium, and has offices in Belgium, the Netherlands, Taiwan, US, China and Japan. Its staff of more than 1,650 people includes over 550 industrial residents and guest researchers. In 2008, imec's revenue (P&L) was 270 million euro.

Further information on imec can be found at www.imec.be.

Imec is a registered trademark for the activities of IMEC International (a legal entity set up under Belgian law as a "stichting van openbaar nut”), imec Belgium (IMEC vzw supported by the Flemish Government), imec the Netherlands (Stichting IMEC Nederland, part of Holst Centre which is supported by the Dutch Government) and imec Taiwan (IMEC Taiwan Co.).

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve best-in-class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined research and best-practice models to drive the generation, evaluation, and implementation of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages over 45 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from 40 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership, please visit http://www.awards.frost.com.

Contact:

Ciara Jamie Connolly, Senior Events & Promotions Executive/ EMEA, Best Practices, Frost & Sullivan, ciara.connolly@frost.com, P: 0044 (0) 207.915.7868, F: 0044 (0) 207.730.3343, www.frost.com

PRESS RELEASE: Micromachined piezoelectric harvester with record power output drives fully autonomous wireless sensor

wo, 09, dec, 2009 09:51:00

IEEE IEDM, Baltimore – December 8, 2009 - 5pm pacific time – For the first time, a piezoelectric harvesting device fabricated by MEMS technology generates a record of 85μW electrical power from vibrations. A wafer level packaging method was developed for robustness. The packaged MEMS-based harvester is used to power a wireless sensor node. Within the Holst Centre program on Micropower Generation and Storage, imec researchers developed a temperature sensor that can wirelessly transmit data in a fully autonomous way.

Micromachined vibrational energy harvesters operating in the frequency domain between 150 and 1000Hz are ideal devices to convert vibrations from machines, engines and other industrial appliances into electricity. Thanks to their smaller dimensions, the micromachined devices are the prefered candidates for powering miniaturized autonomous sensor nodes.

Record and novel material
By using cost-effective, CMOS compatible MEMS processes on 6’ silicon wafers, imec developed piezoelectric energy harvesters capable of generating up to 85μW of power.
The harvester consists of a Si mass that is suspended on a beam with Aluminum Nitride (AlN) as piezoelectric material. By changing the dimensions of the beam and mass, the resonance frequency of the harvester can be designed for any value in the 150-1200Hz domain.

Not only the record power output, but also the use of AlN as piezoelectric layer, is a notable achievement. AlN has several advantages in terms of materials parameters and ease of processing compared to the commonly used PZT (Lead zirconate titanate). Just to name two: AlN can be deposited up to three times faster while composition control is not an issue, thanks to the stoichiometric nature of the material.

Vacuum package
Final achievement in the research is the development of a wafer-scale process to protect the piezoelectric devices by a package. It was shown that the power output significantly increases by the use of the vacuum package compared to packaging in atmospheric pressure. In a three step process, glass covers are coated with an adhesive, vacuum bonded on top and bottom of the processed wafer and diced.

Fully autonomous
The piezoelectric harvester was connected to a wireless temperature sensor, built op from of-the-shelf components. After power optimization, the consumption of the sensor was reduced from 1.5mW to ±10μW, which is an improvement by three orders of magnitude. When subjected to vibrations at 353Hz at 0.64g (indicating a realistic amplitude of the vibrations), the system generated sufficient power to measure the environmental temperature and transmit it to a base station with an interval of fifteen seconds. The result proves the feasibility of building fully autonomous harvesters for industrial applications.

Once fully mature, the technology can be used to power sensors in industrial applications such as tire-pressure monitoring and predictive maintenance of moving or rotating machine parts. Imec and Holst Centre do not go to market themselves, but perform the research together with industrial players interested in commercializing the technology.

The result was obtained within the Micropower Program at Holst Centre, an open-innovation initiative by imec and TNO. All details of the research are presented during the 2009 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) in Baltimore (December 7-9).

Fully autonomous wireless temperature sensor powered by a vibrational energy harvester. A high resolution picture can be downloaded here .

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About Holst Centre
Holst Centre is an independent open-innovation R&D centre that develops generic technologies for Wireless Autonomous Transducer Solutions and for Systems-in-Foil. 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 145 employees from around 25 nationalities and a commitment from more than 20 industrial partners.
Visit us at www.holstcentre.com

About imec
Imec performs world-leading research in nanoelectronics. imec leverages its scientific knowledge with the innovative power of its global partnerships in ICT, healthcare and energy. imec delivers industry-relevant technology solutions. In a unique high-tech environment, its international top talent is committed to providing the building blocks for a better life in a sustainable society.
Imec is headquartered in Leuven, Belgium, and has offices in Belgium, the Netherlands, Taiwan, US, China and Japan. Its staff of more than 1,650 people includes over 550 industrial residents and guest researchers. In 2008, imec's revenue (P&L) was 270 million euro.
Further information on imec can be found at www.imec.be.

Imec is a registered trademark for the activities of imec International (a legal entity set up under Belgian law as a "stichting van openbaar nut”), imec Belgium (imec vzw supported by the Flemish Government), imec the Netherlands (Stichting imec Nederland, part of Holst Centre which is supported by the Dutch Government) and imec Taiwan (imec Taiwan Co.).

Contact
Holst Centre: Koen Snoeckx, Communication Manager, T: +31 40 277 40 91, Mobile: +31 612 719843, koen.snoeckx@holstcentre.com
imec : Hanne Degans, Press Officer, T: +32 16 28 17 69, Mobile : +32 486 065 175, hanne.degans@imec.be

PRESS RELEASE: Holst Centre, imec and TNO report a world-first plastic transponder circuit at 50 kb/s

wo, 09, dec, 2009 00:00:00

IEEE IEDM Baltimore, December 8, 2009 5pm Pacific Time – Today, at the International Electronics Devices Meeting, Holst Centre, imec and TNO presented the world-first organic transponder circuit with a bit rate of 50kbits/s. This bit rate approaches the requirements for the Electronic Product Coding (EPC) standards.

Flexible circuits offer ruggedness during processing as well as in the final product, a property which makes them appealing for new applications such as plastic RFID tags (radio frequency identification tags) for object tagging. However, for widespread application, plastic RFID technology should adhere maximally to the standard Electronic Product Code (EPC) specifications for item-level tagging. The standards require a bit rate of the order of 50 kb/s. Holst Centre, together with imec and TNO, developed an 8-bit flexible transponder circuit on foil using pentacene as semiconductor material and a high-k gate dielectric. The current drive of this technology enables a data rate of > 50 kbits/s for the circuit, which compares favorably with the above mentioned required EPC bit rate specifications. Earlier versions of such organic circuits had a bit rate limited to 1-2 kbits/s.

The Electronic Product Code or in short EPC standard has been developed for wireless identification in high-volume logistics applications like retail. It is widely used already today e.g. on pallet level logistics. The next step is to use EPC tags on package level and on a longer term target on individual items (“item-level tagging”). Organic electronic technology is a candidate for high-volume and low-cost manufacturing of simple electronic circuits. The new results demonstrate that the technology is now on the way to reach EPC compatibility.

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About imec
Imec performs world-leading research in nano-electronics. imec leverages its scientific knowledge with the innovative power of its global partnerships in ICT, healthcare and energy. imec delivers industry-relevant technology solutions. In a unique high-tech environment, its international top talent is committed to providing the building blocks for a better life in a sustainable society.
Imec is headquartered in Leuven, Belgium, and has offices in Belgium, the Netherlands, Taiwan, US, China and Japan. Its staff of more than 1,650 people includes over 550 industrial residents and guest researchers. In 2008, imec's revenue (P&L) was 270 million euro.
Further information on imec can be found at www.imec.be.

Imec is a registered trademark for the activities of imec International (a legal entity set up under Belgian law as a "stichting van openbaar nut”), imec Belgium (imec vzw supported by the Flemish Government), imec the Netherlands (Stichting imec Nederland, part of Holst Centre which is supported by the Dutch Government) and imec Taiwan (imec Taiwan Co.).

About Holst Centre
Holst Centre is an independent open-innovation R&D centre that develops generic technologies for Wireless Autonomous Transducer Solutions and for Systems-in-Foil. 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 145 employees from around 25 nationalities and a commitment from more than 20 industrial partners.
Visit us at www.holstcentre.com

About TNO
TNO is a prominent, independent knowledge company whose expertise and research contributes significantly to the competitiveness of businesses and organisations, to the economy and to the quality of life as a whole. Versatility and capacity to integrate this knowledge makes TNO unique. TNO employs some 4300 professionals. TNO's five core areas are quality of life, defence, security and safety, science and industry, built environment and geosciences and information and
communication technology. More information about TNO can be found on www.tno.nl

Contact
imec : Hanne Degans, Press Officer, T: +32 16 28 17 69, Mobile : +32 486 065 175, hanne.degans@imec.be
Holst Centre: Koen Snoeckx, Communication Manager, T: +31 40 277 40 91, Mobile: +31 612 719843, koen.snoeckx@holstcentre.com

PRESS RELEASE: Terepac partnership on low-cost flexible electronics packaging

di, 20, okt, 2009 00:00:00

Next-generation wireless ECG patch drives joint research activity

Eindhoven, The Netherlands – October 20, 2009 – Terepac Corporation, an emerging leader in electronics miniaturization, packaging and assembly, and IMEC, a leading European research center in nanotechnology, announce their collaboration on novel packaging technologies for flexible electronics. The initial driver for this synergistic shared research relationship is a next generation wireless ECG system, developed in the Human++ Program at Holst Centre, Eindhoven.

As electronic systems will become ubiquitous, the demand for innovative packaging technologies increases. For many applications, like on-the-body devices, thin and flexible form factors greatly improve the comfort of the wearer. In order to allow large-scale manufacturing and market penetration, low-cost yet high value solutions are key. Traditional electronics packaging and assembly with rigid printed circuit boards and pick-and-place machines are unable to cope with these demands.

The technology developed by Terepac holds great promise to give a unique answer to the challenges mentioned above. In its patented photochemical printing process, thinned silicon dies and passive components can be placed on flexible substrates at speeds of more than one chip per second and with accuracies down to a few microns.

The wireless ECG patch that is being developed in the Body Area Networks program at Holst Centre will be used as a test vehicle for further development of Terepac’s technology. For Holst Centre it is an opportunity to go from a lab-scale assembly on polyimide carrier to a more production-ready version of its wireless sensor nodes. First results are expected by mid 2010.

Ric Asselstine, CEO of Terepac: “Following five years of development by a team of world-class scientists and engineers and based on the patents of co-founder and CTO Dr Jayna Sheats, Terepac is ready to completely transform the landscape of small form factor electronic packaging. The company aims to become a total solutions provider able to collaborate with companies up- and downstream in the value chain. Apart from being on the forefront of technological innovation, being able to tap into the existing partner network of IMEC and Holst Centre is a great asset to our collaboration.”

Julien Penders, Program Manager Body Area Networks at Holst Centre: “Initial contacts with Terepac were laid a few months ago. It quickly became clear that their expertise would be a valuable addition to the existing competences that we and our partners have on board. We look forward to further developing our sensor technology and opening doors towards low-cost and large-scale manufacturing for our existing partners or companies interested in this technology.”

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About IMEC
IMEC performs world-leading research in nanotechnology. IMEC leverages its scientific knowledge with the innovative power of its industrial partners in ICT, healthcare and energy, IMEC delivers industry-relevant technology solutions. In a unique high-tech environment, IMEC’s international top talent is committed to providing the building blocks for a better life in a sustainable society.
IMEC is headquartered in Leuven, Belgium, and has offices in Belgium, the Netherlands, Taiwan, US, China and Japan. Its staff of more than 1,650 people include over 550 industrial residents and guest researchers. In 2008, IMEC's revenue (P&L) was 270 million euro.
Further information on IMEC can be found at www.imec.be.

IMEC is a registered trademark for the activities of IMEC International (a legal entity set up under Belgian law as a "stichting van openbaar nut"), IMEC in Belgium (IMEC vzw supported by the Flemish Government), stichting IMEC Nederland (IMEC-NL) and IMEC Taiwan Co. (IMEC-TW).

About Holst Centre
Holst Centre is an independent open-innovation R&D centre that develops generic technologies for Wireless Autonomous Transducer Solutions and for Systems-in-Foil. 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 145 employees from 25 nationalities and a commitment from close to 20 industrial partners. Visit us at www.holstcentre.com

About Terepac
Terepac Corp., a privately held emerging technology company in Waterloo, Ontario, has developed a system for transfer printing electronic components of any lateral size and thinness down to microns or below, at high speeds and accuracy. With costs far below any competing technique and no sacrifice in performance, this platform technology introduces revolutionary advances in assembly and packaging of micro and nanoelectronics. Ubiquitously deployed real time location systems, wireless sensors, RFID tags and embedded electronics products will provide the input to a Microelectronic Nervous System™ (MNS), a Terepac-enabled network which reports not only an object's location but also its condition, creating a uniquely powerful tool for economic competitiveness, quality of life and sustainability. For more information please visit www.terepac.com.

Contact:
IMEC : Katrien Marent, Director of External Communications, T: +32 16 28 18 80, Mobile : +32 474 30 28 66, katrien.marent@imec.be
Holst Centre: Koen Snoeckx, Communication Manager, T: +31 40 277 40 91, Mobile: +31 612 719843, koen.snoeckx@holstcentre.com
Terepac: Ric Asselstine, CEO; T: +1 519 885 9993; Mobile: +1 519 575 1819, ric@terepac.com

PRESS RELEASE: 8-channel wireless EEG system for ambulatory monitoring

ma, 05, okt, 2009 00:00:00

Eindhoven, The Netherlands – October 5, 2009 – Within the shared program on Body-Area Networks at Holst Centre a miniaturized and wireless 8-channel EEG system has been developed. The system is suited for remote monitoring of patients in their daily environment, resulting in more natural readings and greatly increasing the patient’s comfort. In a collaboration between IMEC and the Flemish art centre STUK, an interactive acoustic art installation based on the EEG technology has been constructed and is being premiered today.

The EEG system can be connected to individual electrodes, standard EEG monitoring hats or proprietary EEG headsets. The system records high quality EEG signals when connected to gel electrodes. Early tests with dry electrode are promising, although more research is required to achieve reliable measurement in non-controlled environments. The data is wirelessly transmitted in real-time to a receiver located up to 10m from the system. Algorithms have been developed that interpret the brain signals, linking the brain activity to the degree of relaxation. Applications that can be envisaged with this EEG system are, for example, comfortable ambulatory monitoring of epileptic patients, e-learning and gaming.

At the heart of the system is IMEC’s 8-channel ultra low-power analog readout ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit). The electronics, including ASIC, radio, and controller chips are integrated on a printed-circuit board that measures only 47mm by 27mm. The whole system is packaged in a small box with status LEDs, a switch button and interfaces for din32 cables. The packaged system consumes only 1.8mA, allowing over 3 days of autonomy with a 160 mAh Li-ion battery.

Today, IMEC and the art centre STUK in Leuven present Staalhemel (Steel sky), a work of art by Christoph De Boeck (°1972, Belgium). Staalhemel is composed of 80 steel segments suspended over the visitors’ heads. Visitors wear a headset with the EEG system, monitoring their brain signals. As they walk through the space, tiny hammers tap rhythmic patterns on the steel plates, activated by their brainwaves. This responsive environment confronts visitors with an acoustic representation of their electrical brain activity (www.staalhemel.com).

Industry can get access to this technology by joining the shared program as research partner or by licensing agreements for further product development.
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About IMEC
IMEC performs world-leading research in nanotechnology. IMEC leverages its scientific knowledge with the innovative power of its industrial partners. In ICT, healthcare and energy, IMEC delivers industry-relevant technology solutions. In a unique high-tech environment, IMEC’s international top talent is committed to providing the building blocks for a better life in a sustainable society.
IMEC is headquartered in Leuven, Belgium, and has offices in Belgium, the Netherlands, Taiwan, US, China and Japan. Its staff of more than 1,650 people include over 550 industrial residents and guest researchers. In 2008, IMEC's revenue (P&L) was 270 million euro.
Further information on IMEC can be found at www.imec.be.

IMEC is a registered trademark for the activities of IMEC International (a legal entity set up under Belgian law as a "stichting van openbaar nut"), IMEC in Belgium (IMEC vzw supported by the Flemish Government), stichting IMEC Nederland (IMEC-NL) and IMEC Taiwan Co. (IMEC-TW).

Contact:
IMEC : Katrien Marent, Director of External Communications, T: +32 16 28 18 80, Mobile : +32 474 30 28 66, katrien.marent@imec.be
Holst Centre: Koen Snoeckx, Communication Manager, T: +31 40 277 40 91, Mobile: +31 612 719843, koen.snoeckx@holstcentre.com

Necklace for long-term and robust cardiac monitoring in daily life

wo, 02, sep, 2009 09:59:00

Leuven, Belgium & Eindhoven, The Netherlands – September 2, 2009 – IMEC presents a prototype of an electrocardiogram or ECG necklace at the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Conference (EMBC) in Minneapolis, Minnesota (USA). The technology, developed within the Holst Centre Technology Integration Program on Baody Area Networks, enables long-term monitoring of cardiac performance and allows patients to remain ambulatory and continue their routine daily activities while under observation. The embedded beat detection algorithm copes with the artefacts inherent to ambulatory monitoring systems.

The ECG necklace is easy to use and characterized by a low power consumption ensuring 7 days autonomy. It contains IMEC’s proprietary ultra-low power analog readout ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit), and relies on a low power commercial radio/microprocessor platform. A wavelet-based heart beat detection algorithm is embedded in the processor that ensures the accurate computation of the instantaneous heart rate, even under high level of noise. A second ultra-low power microcontroller unit controls the wireless transmission of the ECG data to a computer within a range of 10m. An optional memory module enables data logging for applications in which the receiving computer is not in the neighborhood.

Ambulatory cardiac monitoring systems today suffer from inaccurate measurements due to artefacts which are inherent to ambulatory situations. The embedded beat detection algorithm has been optimized for robust heart beat detection. It copes with baseline wander, EMG (electromyogram) and motion artefacts, and high and variable electrode impedance. Heart beat is detected with 1 sample resolution. The algorithm achieves best-in-class performances, with 99.8% sensitivity and 99.77% positive predictivity on both the MIT-BIH database and a proprietary database of ambulatory ECG recordings. A satisfactory performance is achieved until 0dB SNR (signal to noise ratio).

With the Human++ program, IMEC and Holst Centre aim to leverage their expertise in nanoelectronics and nanotechnology to develop solutions for a more efficient and better healthcare. Our generic technology for wireless ECG systems, such as the new ECG necklace prototype, can be used for permanent screening of people at risk of cardiovascular disorders, heart beat and beat analysis information for fit & healthy people and therapy compliance and follow-up for people under cardiovascular treatment. Industry can get access to the technology by joining the Human++ program as research partner or by licensing agreements for further product development.
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Wireless sensor systems enable a better sleep

wo, 02, sep, 2009 09:57:00

Leuven, Belgium & Eindhoven, The Netherlands – September 2, 2009 – Today, at IEEE EMB Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota (USA), IMEC presents the clinical validation of a wireless sleep staging system developed within the Holst Centre Technology Integratino Program on Body Area Networks. The miniaturized wireless system allows patients to wear the device in the comfort of their home, thus enabling early screening of abnormal sleep profiles outside clinics. The sleep staging system has been validated in the sleep laboratory at the University Hospital Center (CHU) in Charleroi, André Vésale Hospital (Belgium), against a commercially available reference system. With this validation, the technology is ready for product development at industry opening new perspectives for remote and comfortable sleep monitoring.

Sleep disorder is a major health problem. 10% of the population of the U.S. is affected by sleep apneas, and 1 billion people worldwide experience some kind of chronic nasal congestion during sleep. The demonstrated wireless sleep staging system, which is light weight, wearable and miniaturized, can drastically increase the comfort of sleep disorders tests. The system consists of a head band with three sensor nodes measuring 2 EEG-channels (electroencephalogram) to monitor the brain activity, 2 EOG-channels (electro-oculogram) to monitor the eye activity and 1 EMG-channel (electromyogram) to monitor the chin muscle activity. These 5 signals provide the required information for sleep staging according to the Rechtschaffen and Kales standard. The sensor nodes integrate IMEC’s proprietary ultra-low power biopotential read-out ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) to amplify and filter the 5 different ExG signals. The measured ExG signals are wirelessly transmitted to the recording computer. No additional wires from the head to the body or from the head to the recording device are needed, making the system comfortable to wear. The system is optimized for low power resulting in 12 hours autonomy.

The system has been validated in a controlled clinical environment and benchmarked with state-of-the-art ambulatory monitoring equipment. 12 healthy volunteers were enrolled in the study, and were monitored for a complete night using the wireless and the reference systems set-up in parallel. At the end of the study, the signals were given to a sleep expert for blind scoring, leading to two hypnograms for each subject. From the hypnograms, sleep statistics such as percentage of sleep time in each stage were deducted, and compared for the two systems. Hypnograms were also compared directly for similarity. The analysis proved the potential of wireless sleep staging systems to replace the current monitoring systems.

Within the Human++ program, IMEC and Holst Centre aim to develop solutions for an efficient and better healthcare. Wireless sensor nodes in intelligent body area networks may provide more comfortable healthcare systems by enabling home monitoring of patients. Home monitoring does not only increase the comfort of the patient, it is also a cost-efficient solution for expensive and time-consuming monitoring in hospitals. Moreover, wireless monitoring systems provide more natural daily life monitoring results. Industry can get access to the technology by joining the Human++ program as research partner or by licensing agreements for further product development.

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PRESS RELEASE (Dutch): Van Mexicaanse griep naar Europese koorts

di, 28, jul, 2009 00:00:00

Eindhovense Holst Centre scoort bovengemiddeld in Europese onderzoeksprogramma’s

EINDHOVEN (NL) – 28 juli 2009 - Begin juni kwam het Eindhovense Holst Centre nog in het nieuws met drie gevallen van Mexicaanse griep onder de werknemers. Met dat achter de rug gaat het onderzoekscentrum, een initiatief van TNO en het Belgische IMEC, een zomer van Europese koorts tegemoet. Europese experts keurden namelijk de helft van de ingediende projectvoorstellen van Holst Centre goed. In vergelijking met een gemiddeld goedkeuringspercentage van rond de tien procent is dit een uitzonderlijke score.

Het zevende kaderprogramma en een aantal andere initiatieven verdelen Europese onderzoeksgelden voor maatschappelijk relevante thema’s. Dit om ervoor te zorgen dat Europa een koppositie kan innemen in het wereldwijde onderzoek. Bij elk thema hoort een oproep waar iedereen vervolgens projectvoorstellen voor kan indienen. Onafhankelijke experts beoordelen de inzendingen en kennen de fondsen toe aan de hand van een rangorde. Van de circa twintig ingediende voorstellen waarin Holst Centre betrokken was, werd de helft goedgekeurd. Een aantal eindigde in de top-3 of zelfs als beste in hun categorie.

Paul Blom, Wetenschappelijk Directeur bij Holst Centre: “Voor Holst Centre is dit een bevestiging dat we er in korte tijd in geslaagd zijn om samen met onze partners kennis te ontwikkelen die toonaangevend is in het domein van flexibele elektronica en draadloze sensoren. Bovendien laat het zien dat onze technologie aansluit bij thema’s die relevant zijn voor het maatschappelijk welzijn.”

Flexibele elektronica en draadloze sensoren, daar is het bij Holst Centre allemaal om te doen. Bijna vier jaar terug riepen TNO en het Belgische onderzoekscentrum IMEC het nieuwe initiatief in het leven, in de overtuiging dat deze technologiedomeinen een enorm potentieel hebben. Het Nederlandse Ministerie van Economische Zaken deed een duit in het zakje en meer dan twintig toonaangevende bedrijven tekenden in op de gezamenlijke onderzoeks-programma’s. Tevens zet Holst Centre ook in Europa verdere samenwerking op. En met succes, blijkt nu uit de tien toegekende projecten. Een aantal daarvan is al gestart en anderen zullen dat de komende maanden doen. Voorlopig dus geen gebrek aan werk in gebouw 31 van High Tech Campus Eindhoven.

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PRESS RELEASE: Bright European summer for Holst Centre

di, 28, jul, 2009 00:00:00

Outstanding acceptance rate and individual scores of project proposals illustrate success of open-innovation initiative

Over the past weeks, Holst Centre, an open innovation initiative by IMEC (B) and TNO (NL), received positive news about a large number of European project proposals. With an acceptance rate of around 50%, it harvests the fruits of an intense period of submitting close to twenty proposals. The high success rate and good individual scores illustrate that Holst Centre has built a leading expertise in its domain over the three and a half years of its existence.

During the first half of 2009, Holst Centre submitted around twenty proposals for the 7th European Framework Program (FP7), Artemis, Eniac and Marie Curie. After independent peer review, almost half of them were accepted; an astonishing number compared to an average overall success rate below ten percent. What’s more, most of the proposals were ranked top-3 and some even best in class in relation to competing proposals in their domain.

Paul Blom, Scientific Director Systems-in-Foil at Holst Centre: “We are extremely proud of this result. It confirms that the expertise of Holst Centre and its partner network holds a leading position in Europe and the world. It also proofs that our research focuses on the topics that are relevant for the societal challenges identified by European policy makers.”

For Holst Centre, the opportunity to participate in European projects not only strengthens the relationship with existing partners; it also opens possibilities towards new partnerships. European project teams are typically balanced between larger companies, SMEs, research institutes and universities. This perfectly matches with Holst Centre’s position in the value chain to bridge the gap between academia and industry. It also supports its open-innovation business model of joining forces in a pre-competitive stage to bring innovative products faster to the market.

Typically, European projects run for three to four years. Some of the recently approved programs are already running and others will kick-off later during summer. In total, Holst Centre now participates in close to twenty projects, for five of which it s also taking up the role of project coordinator.
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PRESS RELEASE: ASM, MiPlaza and Holst Centre join forces on ALD for MEMS applications

do, 18, jun, 2009 00:00:00

Today, ASM, Holst Centre and MiPlaza officially present a newly installed atomic-layer deposition (ALD) tool that will support the activities on ultra-low power sensors and other MEMS applications. It is the centerpiece of a joint development project that can open new application domains for ALD.

In CMOS processing, atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a proven technique for depositing ultra-thin layers of for example insulating high-k gate materials. Also in other domains, such as the production of hard disks and storage media, ALD is already used. For the domain of MEMS processing however, examples of deploying ALD are virtually non-existent.

At Holst Centre, an open-innovation initiative by IMEC and TNO, the opportunities will be investigated for ALD to contribute to the research programs on Micropower Generation and Storage and on Ultra-Low Power Sensors and Actuators. As one example, ALD might be a candidate to deposit thin functional layers determining the sensitivity of a sensor for a gas or other compound. While this is the initial focus of Holst Centre research with the tool, programs in the Systems-in-Foil domain are also being assessed.

For ASM, already a member of the IMEC Leuven partner network for several years, involvement in the research at Holst Centre holds promise of opening new markets. The outcome of research conducted with the ALD tool will allow the leading semiconductor equipment vendor to get insight in the requirements of these new application fields of MEMS and ultra-low power sensor applications.

MiPlaza, part of Philips Research, is involved in two ways. First, it provides the clean room facilities where the tool is located. Second, MiPlaza will bring this new capability to the attention of its existing clients and partners for possible use in their research programs, enabling the ALD tool capacity to be optimally utilized. Moreover, it brings a complementary area of expertise to MiPlaza’s service portfolio in the domain of nanotechnology. MiPlaza and Holst Centre are close neighbors on High Tech Campus Eindhoven, a setting that stimulates joint collaboration and partnership.

By sharing high-tech expertise, equipment and infrastructure, the entire project illustrates how joint collaboration can generate fruitful outcomes. Such collaboration is particularly relevant in these times of economic crisis, showing that combining forces can yield mutual benefit for the wider research community.
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Contact
Holst Centre
Koen Snoeckx
Communication Manager
E-mail: Koen.Snoeckx@holstcentre.com
T: +31 (0)40 277 40 91
M: +31 (0)612 71 98 43

PRESS RELEASE (Dutch): Lichtgevend behangpapier stap dichter

di, 26, mei, 2009 00:00:00

Nederlands-Belgische doorbraak in flexibele verlichting dankzij nieuw materiaal en vereenvoudigd proces

Mortsel (B) en Eindhoven (NL) – 26 Mei 2009 - Onderzoekers van het Eindhovense Holst Centre, Philips Research en het Belgische Agfa Materials hebben een doorbraak gerealiseerd in flexibele OLED verlichting (OLED = Organische LED of organische lichtgevende diode). Voordat OLEDs doorbreken op de verlichtingsmarkt is een manier nodig om ze goedkoop in grote aantallen te produceren. Dankzij de technische doorbraak in materialen en processen komt dit doel een stap dichter.

Lichtgevend behangpapier, videoschermen in textiel en flexibele zonnecellen zijn toepassingen die werkelijkheid worden als zogenaamde organische (of plastic) elektronica doorbreekt op de markt. Het doel is om organische elektronica te printen aan de lopende meter, vergelijkbaar met de manier waarop kranten gedrukt worden. ‘Roll-to-roll’ heet dat in vakjargon. Je laat daarbij een folie door een printmachine lopen die er laagjes op aanbrengt. De vorm, materialen en volgorde van die laagjes bepalen het uiteindelijke product.

Bij het Eindhovense Holst Centre, een initiatief van TNO (Nederland) en IMEC (België), hebben onderzoekers een OLED ontwikkeld die op dergelijke roll-to-roll machines zal gemaakt kunnen worden. Het gaat om een buigbare lichtgevende tegel van 12 bij 12 centimeter. Een elektrisch hooggeleidend kunststof van Agfa Materials vervangt in deze tegel twee bestaande lagen. Een laagje minder betekent goedkopere productie. Tegelijk slaagden Holst Centre en zijn partnerbedrijven erin om delen van de OLED te printen met inkjet technologie. Totnogtoe gebruikten de meeste onderzoekscentra complexe (lithografische) belichtingsprocessen. Inkjet printen is eenvoudiger en goedkoper.

Uitdaging is nu om deze processen toe te passen op roll-to-roll machines. Dan kunnen OLED rollen van 250 meter of langer gemaakt worden. Daarvoor werken Holst Centre onderzoekers samen met onderzoekers uit de industrie. Naast materiaalleveranciers als Agfa Materials werken ook bedrijven als Philips mee aan de verdere ontwikkeling. Het is uiteindelijk aan die bedrijven om te beslissen wanneer de technologie op de markt komt. Voor ‘lichtgevend behangpapier´ zou dat binnen een vijftal jaar mogelijk moeten worden.

Meer informatie

Beeldmateriaal

"Witte flexibele OLED tegel van 12x12 centimeter gemaakt in de laboratoria van Holst Centre (Eindhoven)." Hoge resolutiefoto kan je hier downloaden.

"Bekijk de video waarin een OLED in twee geknipt wordt." (Kan als ruw beeldmateriaal of als gemonteerde video bezorgd worden (DVD, .mov of ander gangbaar formaat). Zelf beelden maken kan ook, na afspraak met de communicatiedienst van Holst Centre.

Wat is een OLED?

OLED is een broertje van de LED-lampjes die we overal zien opduiken. Het is zuiniger dan klassieke verlichting, kan zowel warm als koud licht uitstralen en heeft geen opstarttijd zoals een spaarlamp. Bovendien is het een oppervlakte lichtbron en geen puntbron, wat bijvoorbeeld voor sfeerverlichting een pluspunt is. OLEDs op glas zijn al op de markt (www.lumiblade.com). Een volgende stap naar lage kost en grootschalige toepassing is om de OLEDs op folie te produceren.

De structuur van een OLED kan je vergelijken met een sandwich. In het midden zit een polymeer dat licht geeft als je er elektrische spanning op aanbrengt. Boven en onder heb je een elektrode die deze elektrische spanning doorgeeft. Tenminste een van de elektrodes is transparant, zodat het licht uit de OLED kan. Met twee transparante elektrodes kan je zelfs een OLED maken waar je doorheen kan kijken.

Over Agfa

De Agfa-Gevaert Groep is één van ‘s werelds toonaangevende bedrijven in de imaging- en informatietechnologie. Agfa ontwikkelt, produceert en verkoopt analoge en digitale systemen voor de drukindustrie (Agfa Graphics), de zorgsector (Agfa HealthCare) en specifieke industriële toepassingen (Agfa Materials).
Agfa's hoofdkantoor is gevestigd in Mortsel, België. De onderneming is aanwezig in 40 landen en heeft agenten in nog eens 100 landen over de hele wereld. De Agfa-Gevaert Groep had in 2008 een omzet van 3.032 miljoen Euro.
Meer informatie: www.agfa.com.

Over Holst Centre

Holst Centre ontwikkelt zich in snel tempo tot een internationaal erkend centrum voor “open innovatie” dat technologie ontwikkelt voor intelligente, draadloze, sensorgebaseerde microsystemen en voor “systems-in-foil”. Holst Centre werd in 2005 opgericht door het Vlaamse IMEC en het Nederlandse TNO met de steun van het Nederlandse Ministerie van Economische Zaken en de Vlaamse Overheid. Holst Centre ontwikkelt technologie waardoor de industrie nieuwe producten sneller en efficiënter op de markt kan brengen. Vanaf de start kon Holst Centre rekenen op de steun van enkele vooraanstaande bedrijven. Ondertussen telt Holst Centre ongeveer twintig industriële partners waaronder grote, middelgrote en kleine bedrijven. Daarnaast wordt intensief met universiteiten samengewerkt. Meer informatie: www.holstcentre.com.

Contact

Holst Centre
Koen Snoeckx
Communicatie Manager
E-mail: Koen.Snoeckx@holstcentre.com
T: +31 (0)40 277 40 91
M: +31 (0)612 71 98 43

Agfa Materials
Dirk Bollen
R&D Manager / e-Consumables / Orgacon Electronic Materials
E-mail: dirk.bollen@agfa.com
T: +32 (0)3 444 7244

PRESS RELEASE: Low-cost, large-area production of flexible OLEDs a step closer

di, 07, apr, 2009 00:00:00

Mortsel (B) and Eindhoven (NL) – April 7, 2009 - AGFA Materials and Holst Centre demonstrate world's first ITO*- and litho-free OLEDs on foil.

Agfa Materials, part of the Belgian Agfa-Gevaert Group, Philips Research, and Holst Centre, an open-innovation initiative by IMEC (Belgium) and TNO (The Netherlands) demonstrate the world’s first large-area flexible OLED tile that does not require ITO as transparent electrode and has printed shunting lines. The result, partly funded by the EU FP7 Fast2Light project, eliminates costly material and lithography process steps. It is therefore a significant improvement towards low-cost, high volume and large-area manufacturing of flexible OLED lighting.

For OLED lighting to become producible at low cost, simple system design and compatibility with roll-to-roll processing are a must. To achieve low cost, elimination of transparent conductive oxides as the high-conductive and transparent anode layer is the preferred way to go. Up till now, ITO was needed as supporting layer for the PEDOT/PSS* anode layer with lower conductivity. Thanks to Agfa’s high-conductive transparent polymer Orgacon^TM, a PEDOT/PSS-based solution with six orders better conductivity than its predecessor, the use of ITO can now be avoided. Proof is the latest OLED lighting demonstrator of Holst Centre’s shared programs: a homogeneous white OLED tile of 12x12cm² without the use of ITO.

However, to obtain homogeneous light distribution over large surfaces like this, some kind of additional current distribution is still needed. Even in the presence of ITO, a grid of metallic shunting lines is needed. In conventional designs, ITO, shunting lines, and insulation lines covering the shunting lines are patterned using photolithography steps. Holst Centre and its partners have succeeded in direct patterned deposition of these shunting lines by inkjet printing, and combining it with PEDOT/PSS without the need for any photolithography steps. To our knowledge, this is the first time that ITO-free flexible OLEDs are demonstrated in combination with printed shunting lines, which is an important step towards low-cost manufacturing. According to recent reporting, OLED lighting is expected to hit the market already in the course of 2011.

The demonstrator is displayed at the Printed Electronics Conference in Dresden (April 7-8) and the technical details will be presented during the SPIE Optics and Photonics Conference in San Diego (August 2009). The results were obtained thanks to the combined expertise in the Holst Centre program on Flexible Organic Lighting and Signage and in the EU FP7 Fast2Light project. In these programs, Holst Centre researchers collaborate in mixed teams with academics and resident researchers from industrial partners, like Agfa and Philips Research.

* ITO= IndiumTinOxide / PEDOT(/PSS)= Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (/poly(styrenesulfonate))

Picture

High-resolution version can be found here

“OLED lighting foil with printed shunting lines and Agfa’s transparent conductive polymer OrgaconTM, avoiding the need for photolithography and ITO.”

More information
About the Agfa-Gevaert Group
The Agfa-Gevaert Group is one of the world's leading imaging and information technology companies. The Agfa-Gevaert Group develops, manufactures and markets analogue and digital systems for the printing industry (Agfa Graphics), the healthcare sector (Agfa HealthCare) and film related products and specific industrial applications (Agfa Materials). The Agfa-Gevaert Group has its headquarters in Mortsel, Belgium. The company is present in 40 countries and has agents in another 100 countries throughout the world. The Agfa-Gevaert Group achieved a turnover of 3,032 million Euro in 2008.
For more information on Agfa, visit www.agfa.com.

About Agfa Materials
Agfa Materials has a leading position as a low cost producer of film and related products and serves not only Agfa Graphics and Agfa HealthCare, but also third parties in the printing and medical sector. It plays a prominent role in industrial markets outside printing and healthcare, such as the printed circuit board industry, aerial photography, motion picture film and e-consumables (e.g. conductive polymers, identity & security systems). At the same time, Agfa Materials will continue to invest in and develop new applications, such as functional foils.

About Holst Centre
Holst Centre is an independent open-innovation R&D centre that develops generic technologies for Wireless Autonomous Transducer Solutions and for Systems-in-Foil. 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 145 employees from 25 nationalities and a commitment from close to 20 industrial partners.
Visit us at www.holstcentre.com

Contact
Holst Centre
Koen Snoeckx, Communication Manager
Tel: +31 40 2774091
koen.snoeckx@holstcentre.com

Agfa Materials
Dirk Bollen, R&D Manager / e-Consumables / Orgacon Electronic Materials
Tel: +32 (0)3 444 7244
dirk.bollen@agfa.com

PRESS RELEASE: Novaled and Holst Centre to cooperate on Organic Electronics

di, 24, mrt, 2009 00:00:00

Dresden, Germany and Eindhoven, The Netherlands - 24th March 2009 -Novaled AG announces that it will work together with Holst Centre on Organic Thin Film Transistors (OTFT) using the Novaled PIN OLED® technology and materials.

Novaled AG, leading provider of technology and materials for energy saving and long living Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs) for a new generation of lighting and display products, and Holst Centre, an independent open-innovation R&D centre developing generic technologies for Wireless Autonomous Transducer Solutions and for Systems-in-Foil, have decided to collaborate under a joint development agreement.

Target is to investigate the feasibility and benefits of Novaled’s dopants in Holst Centre’s organic thin film transistor technologies qualified for displays and circuits.

Novaled's doping technology contributes to very high power efficiencies and long lifetimes in OLEDs by improving charge carrier injection and transport in the organic layers. Novaled has shown that these effects are also relevant for organic TFT as the carrier injection from drain and source into the organic material has a major influence on the device performance. Novaled currently develops dopant and host materials which can be processed both in vacuum and in solution.

“We are quite pleased to work closely together with Holst Centre on organic TFTs based on the Novaled dopants”, says Jan Blochwitz-Nimoth, CTO of Novaled AG. ”In future OTFTs can be integrated in display backplanes and other driving electronics like organic RFID (radio-frequency identity tags). They will change the way we use electronics today through several advantages of organic electronic devices such as large area compatibility, reduced costs, easy manufacturability and environmental sustainability.

Gerwin Gelinck, Program Manager Organic Circuitry at Holst Centre, says: “Our mission is to work together with leading companies like Novaled to combine their unique materials with our know-how in process integration. It is our strong believe that only through this type of collaboration, cutting edge processes and prototypes are developed that will accelerate introduction of organic transistor products to the market place. For the other Holst Centre partners in our Shared Program the joint development project with Novaled offers a unique opportunity to evaluate the potential of this approach at first hand.

About OTFTs
Organic Transistors (OTFT’s) are semiconductor devices that use organic materials to conduct charges between source and drain electrodes which are controlled by a third gate electrode. The production costs of OTFTs for large areas are expected to be low enough to address broad fields of applications for which simple electronics are appropriate. Thus OTFTs are perfectly suited for applications like flexible displays, intelligent food packaging and paper identification (ID) documents. To pave the way for a broad deployment of OTFTs there are major challenges to be overcome. Two key challenges are to push the transistor performance using state of the art semiconductor materials that can be processed at low temperatures and to integrate the transistors in increasingly complex organic circuitries.

About OLEDs
OLEDs (organic light-emitting diode) are semiconductors made of thin organic material layers of only a few nanometers thickness. They emit light in a diffuse way to form an area light source. In a fast growing display market OLEDs are key part of a revolution: the dream of paper-thin, highly efficient displays with brilliant colors and great flexibility in design is becoming reality. OLEDs represent the future of a vast array of completely new lighting applications. By combining color with shape, organic LEDs will create a new way of decorating and personalizing people’s surroundings with light. At the same time OLEDs offer the potential to become even more efficient than energy-saving bulbs.

About Novaled
Novaled AG is a world leading company in the OLED field specialized in high efficiency long lifetime OLED structures and an expert in synthetic and analytical chemistry. The company offers complete solutions to the organic electronic markets, commercializing its Novaled PIN OLEDR technology along with its proprietary OLED materials. Novaled has developed long term partnerships with major OLED players worldwide. Based on more than 440 patents granted or pending, Novaled has a strong IP position in OLED technology, and was named No. 1 on a list of coming world market leaders by the German newspapers Handelsblatt and Wirtschaftswoche. Main investors are eCAPITAL, Crédit Agricole Private Equity, TechnoStart, TechFund and CDC Innovation. www.novaled.com, anke.lemke@novaled.com

About Holst Centre:
Holst Centre is an independent open-innovation R&D centre that develops generic technologies for Wireless Autonomous Transducer Solutions and for Systems-in-Foil. 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 at High Tech Campus in Eindhoven, Holst Centre benefits from the state-of-the-art on-site facilities. Holst Centre has over 145 employees from around 25 nationalities and a commitment from close to 20 industrial partners. http://www.holstcentre.com/

PRESS RELEASE: Austrian SME plastic electronic joins Holst Centre research network

di, 17, mrt, 2009 00:00:00

Eindhoven – March 17, 2008 - Partnership opens window of opportunities to get flexible electronics faster to the market

The systems-in-foil research program of Holst Centre welcomes plastic electronic, Austrian producer of plastic thin film hybrid electronics, in its network of industrial and academic partners. Initial focus of the partnership will be on high-precision interconnection and lamination of foils with various functionalities. The partnership tightens the relationship between R&D and commercialization of flexible electronics. It will also help existing partners in Holst Centre bringing their products sooner to the market.

Systems-in-foil is one of the markets that are predicted to boom over the coming decade. Just think about organic photovoltaics (OPV), organic lighting and signage (OLED), flexible displays, RF-identification tags (RFID) etc. Whereas mayor progress is being made in the laboratories, only few products have already hit the market and the search continues for processes that get the most out of the low-cost potential of organic electronic products.

Austrian SME plastic electronic globally is one of the pioneers in commercializing various thin-film hybrid electronic products. Its existing product portfolio contains devices on plastic films such as pressure sensors, touch elements and memories all based on capacitive technologies. The company not only designs and markets its own products, but is also looking for clients for which they can operate as a “foundry” for systems-in-foil. In a first stage, plastic electronic will join the Holst Centre activities on high-precision interconnection and lamination.

Within its shared research programs, Holst Centre - an open-innovation initiative by TNO (The Netherlands) and IMEC (Belgium) - gathers the entire value chain of companies in the systems-in-foil industry; ranging from foil and materials manufacturers, to equipment suppliers and IDMs. Together, they search for optimized processes, such as precision lamination, interconnection, heterogeneous integration and laser processes including roll-to-roll schemes. The development of novel processes and unique novel tools will allow low-cost, large-area manufacturing of flexible electronics.

For plastic electronic, joining Holst Centre in the first place means having access to knowhow in these low-cost manufacturing processes. Moreover, it gives the Austrian company an opportunity to meet with possible future clients and exchange ideas on Holst Centre’s neutral ground. For existing partners in the Holst Centre programs, the participation of plastic electronic possibly means lowered time-to-market of their next-generation products by gaining easier access to a fully installed production line.

The contract was signed between Plastic Electronic and TNO, coordinator of the systems-in-foil program of Holst Centre.
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More information
About plastic electronic
plastic electronic is engaged in one of the most promising technology fields these days: flexible, extremely thin and lightweight, but robust and cost-efficient mass-producible electronic components on plastic films. These printed and hybrid electronic components enable applications that haven’t been realizable until now and dramatically improve a lot of electronic products in several industrial fields like packaging, logistics, consumer electronics or automotive.

plastic electronic’s technology utilizes scalable production techniques like printing and coating technologies as well as specific techniques to assemble functional plastic films and to embed standard electronic components in plastic films.

plastic electronic’s business approach is strictly market oriented and concentrated on reaching early applications. Products like the printed pressure sensor on plastic film, the printed capacitive touch on plastic film and the printed memory on plastic film are purchased and used by worldwide leading companies. These products give prove of the competitive benefit of plastic electronic’s innovative technology.

plastic electronic was founded in 2005 as a spin-off from the Johannes Kepler University, Linz/Austria, and is managed by Philipp Weissel, an experienced serial entrepreneur and Andreas Tanda, an engineer with profound industrial background in informatics and electronics. Details are available at www.plastic-electronic.com.

About Holst Centre
Holst Centre is an independent open-innovation R&D centre that develops generic technologies for Wireless Autonomous Transducer Solutions and for Systems-in-Foil. 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 the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven, Holst Centre benefits from the state-of-the-art on-site facilities. Holst Centre has over 140 employees from 25 nationalities and a commitment from close to 20 industrial partners.

Primary contacts for the collaboration with plastic electronic on “Integration Technologies for Flexible Systems” are Program Manager Andreas Dietzel, who combines his position at Holst Centre with a part-time professorship at the TU Eindhoven, and Jeroen van den Brand, Senior Scientist Advanced Packaging.

More information: www.holstcentre.com

Contact
Holst Centre
Koen Snoeckx
Communication Manager
E-mail: Koen.Snoeckx@holstcentre.com
T: +31 (0)40 277 40 91
M: +31 (0)612 71 98 43

Plastic electronic
Philipp Weissel
CEO
philipp.weissel@plastic-electronic.com

PRESS RELEASE: Holst Centre reports major step towards organic RFID

ma, 09, feb, 2009 00:00:00

Eindhoven - February 9, 2009 - At this week’s International Solid State Circuit Conference, Holst Centre - founded by the Belgian nanoelectronics research center IMEC and the Dutch research center TNO - presents world’s first 128 bit organic RFID transponder chip with Manchester encoding, anti-collision protocol and record high data rate. The reported RFID transponder chip is a major step towards the application of organic RFID tags in electronic product coding (EPC).

State-of-the-art organic RFID transponder chips do not yet meet the specifications of EPC, which is one of the major target applications. However, with a record data rate of 2kb/s, Manchester encoded data, the implementation of ALOHA anti-collision protocol to enable readout of multiple organic RFID tags, a ROM memory capacity of 128 bit and additional WORM (write-once read-many-times) memory, Holst Centre’s RFID research demonstrator chip approaches EPC application.

The organic 128b transponder chip is fabricated on a 25µm thin plastic substrate using organic bottom-gate thin-film transistors. The design of the chip was limited to p-type only logic. The chip requires a supply voltage of 20V to 24V which can be generated on a tag equipped with a plastic double half-wave rectifier and an antenna of 6 to 7 windings.

The transponder chip contains a 33-stage ring oscillator which generates the clock signal. The clock signal drives the output register, the 3 bit binary counter and the 16 bit line-select. The 16 bit line-select chooses a row in the code. A bit in this row is selected by the 8:1 multiplexer, driven by the 3 bit binary counter. This bit is transported to the output register, which sends the bit to the Manchester encoder. The latter encodes the data and sends it to the load modulator of the plastic RFID tag. To enable the readout of multiple organic RFID tags at once, the ALOHA basic anti-collision protocol (tag-talks-first protocol) is added to the chip.

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.

PRESS RELEASE: DuPont Teijin Films joins Holst Centre research program on Systems-in-Foil

di, 04, nov, 2008 00:00:00

DuPont Teijin Films, the world’s leading differentiated producer of PET and PEN polyester films, joins the Systems-in-Foil program of Holst Centre, a research initiative of the Flemish and Dutch research centers IMEC and TNO. By getting a major substrate vendor on board, Holst Centre gathers the entire ecosystem of industrial players around its Systems-in-Foil program line.

Flexible, large-area, low-cost electronics have a huge market potential. Studies indicate that the organic electronics market will even exceed the size of the silicon semiconductor market as it is today. One of the two program lines at Holst Centre (The Netherlands) focuses on processes and technologies for Systems-in-Foil, such as large-area printing, electrodes and barriers etc. A.o. Organic Light-Emitting Diodes (OLEDs) are used to demonstrate the progress and possibilities of the investigated technologies.

Dupont Teijin Films joins the Holst Centre program on Flexible Organic Lighting and Signage by bringing in its know-how on foil production. The aim of this Holst Centre program is to design and optimize OLED device concepts and processes that are compatible with roll-to-roll fabrication for lighting and signage applications.

By bringing together equipment and materials suppliers with system integrators and device manufacturers around a well-defined roadmap, interactions originate that would not be possible in a scenario where each party sticks to in-house R&D. The agreement was signed between Dupont Teijin Films and TNO, coordinator of the Systems-in-Foil activities in Holst Centre.

Dave Wall, Techology Manager of DuPont Teijin Films: ”We recognize the opportunity to participate in the creation of new technologies and markets via the open innovation model operated by Holst Centre. This collaboration will help us to further develop and optimize our products for this emerging area of organic electronics”

Ton van Mol, Program Manager Flexible Organic Lighting and Signage: “We already have leading industrial players on board like Philips, Solvay, Akzo Nobel and Agfa. Closing the agreement with Dupont Teijin Films, the number one in foil production, acknowledges that the business model proposed by Holst Centre is seen as having the potential to produce added value for the industry. Hopefully, this will trigger even more companies to become interested in our activities.”

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About Dupont Teijin Films

DuPont Teijin Films is the world's premier producer of PET and PEN polyester films, specializes in film products and related services for the speciality, industrial, packaging and advanced magnetic media and photo systems, electrical and electronics markets. The company has reported sales of $1.4 billion and employs about 4,000 people with dedicated marketing, technical and manufacturing operations in every region of the world. Brand names include Mylar®, Melinex®, and Teijin® Tetoron® PET polyester film, and Teonex® PEN polyester film. The business includes existing joint ventures with DuPont-Hongji Films Foshan Co., Ltd., in China. As DuPont Teijin Films offers the broadest portfolio of polyester films of any supplier in the industry and has an unmatched technology platform to continue bringing the most innovative solutions to serve customer needs, it is uniquely positioned to meet the requirements of markets ranging from packaging to industrial, electronics and specialities. Because DuPont Teijin Films seeks to grow and evolve in a way that justifies the trust of its shareholders, customers and the public at large, the highest priority is placed on safety and the preservation of our natural environment. DuPont Teijin Films is a 50:50 joint venture between DuPont and Teijin Limited.

About Holst Centre

Holst Centre is an independent open-innovation R&D centre that develops generic technologies for Wireless Autonomous Transducer Solutions and for Systems-in-Foil. 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 the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven, Holst Centre benefits from the state-of-the-art on-site facilities. Holst Centre has over 100 employees (growing to over 200 by 2010) and a commitment from over 15 leading industrial partners. More information: www.holstcentre.com Contact

Holst Centre
Koen Snoeckx
Communication Manager
E-mail: Koen.Snoeckx@holstcentre.com
T: +31 (0)40 277 40 91
M: +31 (0)612 71 98 43

Dupont Teijin Films
Angela Gardner
Marketing Assistant, Displays
E-mail: Angela.Gardner@gbr.dupont.com
T: +44 1642 572117

PRESS RELEASE: Solvay joins Holst Centre research program on Systems-in-Foil

do, 23, okt, 2008 00:00:00

Eindhoven/Brussels - October 23, 2008 - The international chemical and pharmaceutical group Solvay today signs an agreement to become part of the research network of Holst Centre, an open-innovation initiative by IMEC (Belgium) and TNO (The Netherlands).

Flexible organic electronics – or systems-in-foil – will in the future be driven by an industry producing, laminating and combining a variety of smart foils. As an example, one can envisage light-emitting foils, memory- and processing foils being powered by a battery- or organic photovoltaic (OPV), forming products like intelligent wall-paper, smart bandages and smart windows. This requires an entire chain of production, involving companies with dedicated knowhow in one or some of the intermediate steps. Getting a systems-in-foil product efficiently to the market will therefore require insight in the vast number of possible technologies and solutions. Also, this allows industrial standardization being set-up in an early stage.

To support this vision, Holst Centre gathers an entire ecosystem of materials suppliers, equipment vendors and integrated device manufacturers around a shared research program with a well-defined central roadmap. Solvay is the newest partner joining in the Systems-in-Foil program. It thereby adds another impressive name to a list of world-leading partners (both large multinationals as SMEs): ASML, Agfa, Akzo Nobel, Bekaert, Huntsman, Merck, NXP, Orbotech, Philips, Polymer Vision and Singulus Mastering.

The contract is signed between Solvay and TNO, coordinator of the Systems-in-Foil program. By joining the program, Solvay will actively take part in the research on-site of the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven, where Holst Centre is located. Industrial residents of Solvay will join forces with the interdisciplinary teams of Holst Centre researchers, PhDs and industrial residents of the other program partners.

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About Solvay
SOLVAY is an international chemical and pharmaceutical Group with headquarters in Brussels. It employs more than 28,000 people in 50 countries. In 2007, its consolidated sales amounted to EUR 9.6 billion, generated by its three sectors of activity: Chemicals, Plastics and Pharmaceuticals. Solvay (NYSE Euronext : SOLB.BE - Bloomberg: SOLB.BB - Reuters: SOLBt.BR) is listed on the NYSE Euronext stock exchange in Brussels. Details are available at www.solvay.com.

Contact
Holst Centre
Koen Snoeckx
Communication Manager
E-mail: Koen.Snoeckx@holstcentre.com
T: +31 (0)40 277 40 91
M: +31 (0)612 71 98 43

Solvay SA
Edouard Brachet
Communication NBD
Email : Edouard.Brachet@solvay.com
T : +33 1 4075 8142

PRESS RELEASE: Body area network monitors arousal level

di, 14, okt, 2008 00:00:00

In the framework of Holst Centre, IMEC developed an ambulatory arousal monitor. The new research concept uses a combination of body parameters to monitor a person’s arousal level. The compact form factor and the long battery lifetime allow the use of the arousal monitor in new application domains such as mobile gaming and clinical trials.

Being able to measure and analyze the emotional state can be of great value for a variety of applications in the entertainment and medical sector. For example, online avatars can automatically adapt to a player’s state of mind without him having to actively indicate it in a game menu. Or, in drugs screening, being able to objectively quantify parameters such as stress can complement the more subjective indication and gradation of traditional tests.

IMEC’s approach within its Human++ program at Holst Centre uses a body-area network that measures four body parameters to detect a person’s emotional state. The body-area network consists of two small wireless sensor nodes that communicate to a PC acting as a base station. The wireless sensor nodes take care of ultra-low power digital signal processing and wireless communication of the measured data. The first wireless sensor node is integrated in a chest belt and measures respiration and ECG (electrocardiogram or heart activity) based on IMEC’s proprietary single-channel biopotential ASIC. The second node is integrated in a wristband and consists of a commercial sensor for skin temperature and a dedicated circuit board measuring the galvanic skin conductance between two fingers. The physiological measurements are combined and interpreted in the software running on the base station where an indication about the person’s arousal is derived in real time.

The entire system consumes twenty times less power than a comparable Bluetooth device, allowing several days of autonomy on a commercial prismatic Li-Ion battery. Future research will focus on making the system fully autonomous, e.g. by using energy harvesters that produce electricity from body-heat; increasing the amount of local computing done within the sensor nodes; increasing the amount of parameters that can be measured; improving the robustness and reliability and including ultra-low power wireless RF communication.

IMEC’s platform serves as a research demonstrator to showcase and evaluate the underlying technology and building blocks. Partner companies – and possible other interested parties – can use and commercialize the technology in future product generations, which can be situated in all sorts of other scenarios and domains than the ones named above.

PRESS RELEASE: Record power for micromachined piezoelectric energy harvester

di, 14, okt, 2008 00:00:00

Eindhoven - October 14, 2008 - In the framework of Holst Centre, IMEC achieved a new record for micromachined piezoelectric energy harvesters, now delivering an output power of 60µW. The harvester can be realized with a simple, low-cost CMOS-compatible production process by using aluminum nitride (AlN) as piezoelectric material. The low resonance frequency of only 500Hz makes the device widely applicable. The output power of 60µW is sufficient to drive simple wireless sensors that intermittently transfer sensor readings to a master. Potential applications include tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) or monitoring of industrial equipment.

Energy harvesters convert ambient energy – light, heat, or vibrations – into electricity. They are indispensible in situations where batteries cannot be replaced easily. Examples are autonomous sensor networks that are distributed over large areas and in locations that are difficult to access. IMEC’s new energy harvester is a micromachined device converting vibration energy through a piezoelectric transducer. It can be used to generate energy for sensors in, for example, planes, vehicles, or vibrating industrial equipment.

For the new harvester, an experimental output power of 60µW was measured with an input acceleration of 2g at a resonance frequency of 500Hz. It consists of a piezoelectric capacitor formed by a Pt electrode, an AlN piezoelectric layer and a top Al electrode. The capacitor is fabricated on a cantilever which has a mass on its tip. When the harvester vibrates, the mass on the cantilever causes the piezoelectric layer to be stretched, inducing an electrical power. The use of AlN as piezoelectric material makes the device compatible with CMOS processes, allowing production at a lower cost.

Last year, IMEC already showcased a piezoelectric harvester with a reported 40µW output power. But this device had a piezoelectric layer fabricated with PZT. The current AlN layer has the advantage that it can be made in a simpler deposition process. Moreover, the PZT device operated at 1.8kHz. The lower resonance frequency of the new harvester – 500 Hz - corresponds with vibration frequencies in, for example, industrial equipment or car tires. This greatly enlarges the field of application for this harvester.

PRESS RELEASE: eHealth closer to reality thanks to real-time relevant medical data extraction

wo, 20, aug, 2008 00:00:00

Eindhoven - August 20, 2008 - In the framework of Holst Centre, IMEC – Europe’s leading independent nanoelectronics research institute – has broadened the functionality and scope of its wireless health monitoring technology by linking it to real-time extraction of relevant medical data. The new technology builds upon the “knowledge streaming” concept of i.Know – a Belgian SME specialized in intelligent applications for automated knowledge extraction and representation. The system takes a central position in the future scenarios of eHealth and personalized medicine.

The rising cost of healthcare in developed countries calls for alternative ways of increasing efficiency, productivity and usability. Future health monitoring systems will deliver intelligent services in chronic disease management, assisted medical diagnostics, patient compliance monitoring and emergency response. In all of these scenarios, the availability and interpretation of personal medical data plays a crucial role.

Within its Human++ research program at Holst Centre, IMEC already focuses on building blocks for miniaturized wireless sensor nodes allowing comfortable and continuous measurement of body parameters. Thanks to the collaboration with i.Know, the Human++ program moves one step further in the chain and also develops technologies that allow fast and accurate interpretation of the collected data.

The technology developed by IMEC and i.Know is illustrated for the case of ambulatory cardiac monitoring (ECG). Based upon an incoming stream of ECG signals, relevant features are extracted and associated with an objective interpretation. For example the heart rhythm and the shape of an ECG peak allow the system to detect abnormal physiological events. As a consequence, a doctor or a call centre can be alerted to diagnose the status of the monitored patient.

Now that the concept is proven, IMEC and i.Know will further enhance the system by associating it with external databases such as electronic patient records and PubMed. By doing so, the detection of abnormal events can be enriched with contextual data (such as the medication history of the patient). This will e.g. allow doctors to easier find their way in an abundance of data and support their diagnosis. Future research also targets the integration of data from multiple sensors such as EEG, EMG, physical activity monitoring and temperature, allowing more precise interpretations. The concept of knowledge streaming provides a generic framework for data fusion and context-aware monitoring, possibly applicable in domains other than healthcare and medicine.

The complete news release with contact details and pictures can be downloaded from the IMEC website.

PRESS RELEASE: ECN and Holst Centre sign cooporation agreement on organic photovoltaics

do, 03, jul, 2008 00:00:00

Eindhoven / Petten (The Netherlands) – July 3, 2008 - ECN, the largest research centre in The Netherlands in the field of energy, and Holst Centre, an open-innovation initiative by TNO (The Netherlands) and IMEC (Belgium), signed an agreement to offer a joint research program on Roll-to-Roll organic photovoltaics (OPV) to the industry. The aim of the program is to transfer lab-scale processes to low-cost, large-area processes compatible with Roll-to-Roll production.

Although intrinsically less efficient than Silicon, organic materials have entered the photovoltaics world because of their low-cost fabrication potential and possibility to manufacture flexible solar cells for emerging applications (smart textiles…). At ECN, organic photovoltaics are being researched for almost a decade. The knowledge of materials, system designs and production processes has come to a point where transition to large scale manufacturing has to be envisaged.

At Holst Centre, the recently opened Roll-to-Roll research line for printed electronics will be used to complement the knowledge of ECN and support the further research towards low-cost, large-area manufacturing. To guarantee the low-cost potential, the upscaling will initially be done with active materials that are abundantly available, although an eye will be kept on new high-performance materials. In a first phase the investigated processes will be slot-die coating and gravure printing. Within the ECN labs, efficiencies of over 4% have been obtained. Aim is to at least sustain this level of efficiency when going towards roll-to-roll production.

Being research centres, ECN and Holst Centre will not take any of the technology in production themselves. The open-innovation program aims at industrial parties to subscribe and assign resident researchers to join the research teams on site. A free non-exclusive license on the generated IP is given to all partners participating in the program. The OPV program aims to gather the entire value chain of materials suppliers (foil manufacturers, ink suppliers…) equipment manufacturers and device integrators.

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More information
About ECN
The Energy research Centre of the Netherlands conducts pioneering research with great impact on energy transition. The research institute develops high-quality knowledge and technology for the transition to a sustainable energy supply, and brings the technology to the market. In R&D, ECN aims at pushing back energy demand through energy saving, an increased use of sustainable energy sources and the efficient and clean use of fossil fuels. This has lead to increased economic activities of third parties. ECN works by order of (European) governments as well as companies, employing around 630 highly educated people.
More information: www.ecn.nl/en

Contact
Holst Centre
Koen Snoeckx
Communication Manager
E-mail: Koen.Snoeckx@holstcentre.com
T: +31 (0)40 277 40 91

ECN
Paul Pex
Manager thin-film pv
E-mail: pex@ecn.nl
T: +31 (0)224 56 4640