Global Momentum Across the Display Community

Prof. Raghuvir Tomar earned a B.Tech. (Electronics Engineering) from MITS Gwalior in 1975; an M.Tech. (Electrical Engineering) from IIT Kanpur in 1978 and a Ph. D. (Electrical Engineering) also from IIT Kanpur; in1983. Between 1984 and 1986 he carried out research work at post-doctoral level at the University of Ottawa, Canada. His industrial experience includes RF Engineer, Bolriet Technologies, Canada (Sept1986-Aug1988), Member of Scientific Staff, Bell Northern Research, Canada (Aug1988-May1992), Senior Engineer, NORTEL Networks, Canada (May1992-May1999), Senior Systems Engineer, EMS Technologies, Canada (May1999April2003), Visiting Scientist, Communications Research Centre, Canada (May2003-June2004) and Principal Engineer, NATEL Engineering Co., California, USA (June2004-Dec2005). In December 2005 he was appointed Professor at the LNM Institute of Information Technology, Jaipur. His long hands-on experience with microwave and wireless industry including defense industry spans a period of some nineteen years. He has authored more than forty-five research papers (nine in IEEE) and technical reports in peer-reviewed journals and forums of the highest international repute. He co-authored a book on millimeter-wave printed antennas published by Artech House, Massachusetts, USA. A second book titled ‘Fundamentals of Electromagnetic Theory’ is in progress.

This work presents the design and characterization of a state-of-the-art low-speed aeroacoustic wind-tunnel at Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK), which is a newly commissioned research facility for the experimental study of flow-induced noise generated from bodies placed in a flow field. This open-circuit, open-jet suction facility which is unique to IITK, is also the first aeroacoustic wind-tunnel in India. The facility is powered by large centrifugal fan of 75 KW rating which is controlled through a variable frequency drive. To achieve a low background noise, carefully designed parallel baffle mufflers (PBMs) are placed at the fan inlet and outlet. The inlet silencer is connected to lined diffuser and a bell-mouth collector which opens in a fully anechoic chamber made from metallic wedges, and its internal dimensions are 3.5 m × 3.5 m × 3 m. The chamber can provide a reflection-free environment beyond 250 Hz. A smooth contraction-nozzle of ratio 10:1 whose profile follows a fourth-order spline, and a settling-chamber with honeycombs and flow-screens is placed on the other side of the anechoic chamber. The test-section of size 600 mm × 600 mm is attached to the exit plane of the nozzle, and can provide flow speeds up to 45 m/s, where the maximum turbulence intensity was less than 1%.

Advances in photonics, flexible electronics, emerging memories, etc. and Si electronics' integration with these devices have enabled new classes of integrated circuits and systems with enhanced functionality, higher performance, or lower power consumption. Driving greater integration of such heterogeneous X-tronics can facilitate the continued proliferation of low-cost micro-/nano-systems for a wide range of applications. However, achieving their large-scale integration will require design ecosystem and design automation tools/methodologies much like those that enabled electronic integration in previous decades. In this talk, I will briefly introduce two recent Manufacturing Innovation Institutes, on Integrated Photonics and on Flexible Hybrid Electronics respectively, and a research center on developing 3D Hybrid CMOS-memristor circuits, which bring together academia, industry, and federal partners to increase U.S. manufacturing competitiveness in these areas. I will then focus on their design automation efforts and highlight the needs, challenges and opportunities of developing a robust design ecosystem for X-tronics integration. I will also share the educational challenges of talent development for X-tronics design automation.

In this project PARC and Energy ETC aimed to develop an ultra-low cost, size, weight, and power (SWaP) printed CO2 sensor system for occupancy detection to enable Demand Control Ventilation (DCV) on a per-room basis. The CO2 sensor technology is based on the temperature variation when CO2 reversibly physisorbs to a highly conductive and high surface area sorbent surface, and is compatible with integration with PARC innovations in printed sensors and flexible electronics, for which PARC is a globally leading research center. The printed CO2 sensor itself is designed to be compatible with PARC’s “peel-and-stick” platform of ultra-low power, low-cost, distributed sensors, and to facilitate real-time DCV based on overall indoor air quality (IAQ). Previously, PARC has developed flexible hybrid electronics (FHE) compatible materials to measure humidity, temperature, light, strain, and gases such as carbon monoxide, methane, ammonia, and hydrogen sulfide. Through this project, PARC developed FHE-compatible materials to measure CO2. Thus, with one <$15 FHE “peel-and-stick” based sensor node, a building management system (BMS) will be able to capture a complete picture of the indoor environment. This includes IAQ, light, temperature, and other comfort factors that impact building operations. Combined with optimized DCV, this low-cost sensor capability can be a key enabler of annual primary energy savings of ~ 0.3-0.4 Quad in commercial buildings while ensuring healthy IAQ. Energy ETC is a leader in supplier-agnostic BMS deployments and will design the commissioning and deployment procedures to maximize system interoperability.

Recently, advances in nano-material researches have opened the door for various transparent conductive materials, which include carbon nanotube, graphene, Ag and Cu nanowire, and printable metal grids. Among them, Ag nanowires are particularly interesting to synthesize because bulk Ag exhibits the highest electrical conductivity among all metals. Here we reviewed recently-published research works introducing various devices from organic light emitting diode to tactile sensing devices, all of which are employing AgNW for a conducting material. They proposed methods to enhance the stretchability and reversibility of the transparent electrodes, and apply them to make various flexible and stretchable electronics. It is expected that Ag nanowires are applicable to a wide range of high-performance, low-cost, stretchable electronic devices.

Within the electronic circuit board industry flexible circuit still cover a small the market share, however, with the fastest growth rate. The technology is increasingly used in automotives and aerospace, in handheld mobile appliances and many medical devices like pace makers or hearing aids [1,2]. Over past years a European consortium of research institutes and industry has explored the future technological potential of flexible printed circuits in the framework of the project SHIFT. One aspect was to investigate the frontiers of flexible circuit fabrication with respect to minimum feasible line width and pitch using different manufacturing methods. Still further beyond today mainstream flex fabrication technologies were the developments to integrate active and passive components into the buildup layers of flex circuits. In this way extremely high integration of electronic systems and highest functional densities can potentially be realized. Techniques and results of these developments will be presented in this paper. Embedded components in order to comply with the thin buildups of flexible circuits should be very thin as well. To this aim components were be mechanically thinned to 20 ptm. A dicing by grinding technique was applied using etched separation grooves on the wafer. Two technologies for embedding of ultra thin components were developed. The first one is thin flip chip assembly on inner layers of the flex and embedding by subsequent lamination of build up layers. The gap between chip and substrate was in the order of a few microns using either low profile solder or anisotropic adhesive.

Electronics that support aircraft, military, and space applications, as well as the consumer portables industry are increasingly calling for lighter-weight systems. With this, flex circuits are being used in lieu of heavier weight rigid circuit boards and flex is finding its way into increased applications. Flex offers a substrate material that is significantly lighter in weight, thinner, and more compliant than traditional rigid circuit board materials. Numerous methods of fabricating multilayer flex circuits exist; most of which involve using a n adhesive material to bond the individual patterned film layers together to create the multilayer circuit. Thus adhesives are commonly used to bond conductive foils to polyimide films, cover-layers to patterned circuits, and patterned films together to form multilayer circuits. However, adhesives can be problematic if they fail, ultimately leading to wrinkling, voids or delamination of the circuit. Numerous advantages can be gained from fabricating flex circuits without adhesives. Some of these advantages include: a reduction of materials and processing costs, lighter end-weight circuits, increased circuit flexibility, circuits with less z-axis expansion, and a matched coefficient of thermal expansion between the circuit layers. NASA Langley Research Center has developed a unique polyimide material called Langley Research Center - Soluble Polyimide or 'LaRC-SI' which can be used to make lightweight, adhesiveness flex circuits. LaRC-SI films can be bonded together simply by applying heat and pressure, and require no additional adhesive material for lamination. Once the LaRC-SI films are heated and pressed together, the individual films fuse together forming a monolithic film. Additionally, LaRC-SI flex circuits can be bonded directly to structures without the use of adhesives, simply by using a thermal compression technique. This technique provides a means of fabricating a multifunctional structure with many advantages, among the most obvious being optimized use of space.

Magnetoresistive (MR) sensors have been identified as promising candidates for the development of high-performance magnetometers due to their high sensitivity, low cost, low power consumption, and small size. The rapid advance of MR sensor technology has opened up a variety of MR sensor applications. These applications are in different areas that require MR sensors with different properties. Future MR sensor development in each of these areas requires an overview and a strategic guide. An MR sensor roadmap (non-recording applications) was therefore developed and made public by the Technical Committee of the IEEE Magnetics Society with the aim to provide an research and development (R&D) guide for MR sensors intended to be used by industry, government, and academia. The roadmap was developed over a three-year period and coordinated by an international effort of 22 taskforce members from ten countries and 17 organizations, including universities, research institutes, and sensor companies. In this paper, the current status of MR sensors for non-recording applications was identified by analyzing the patent and publication statistics. As a result, timescales for MR sensor development were established and critical milestones for sensor parameters were extracted in order to gain insight into potential MR sensor applications (non-recording). Five application areas were identified, and five MR sensor roadmaps were established. These include biomedical applications, flexible electronics, position sensing and human–computer interactions, non-destructive evaluation and monitoring, and navigation and transportation. Each roadmap was analyzed using a logistic growth model, and new opportunities were predicted based on the extrapolated curve, forecast milestones, and professional judgment of the taskforce members. This paper provides a framework for MR sensor technology (non-recording applications) to be used for public and private R&D planning, in order to provide guidance into likely MR sensor applications, products, and services expected in the next 15 years and beyond.

After decades of development, sports biomechanics analysis technology has become a crucial tool for competitive sports training and public health management. Traditional laboratory equipment and surface electromyography (sEMG) signals have provided scientific bases for optimizing athletes' movement patterns and studying the mechanisms of sports injuries. However, such equipment faces bottlenecks such as high costs, complex operations, and limited environments, leading grassroots sports teams and fitness institutions to rely predominantly on subjective observations or simple measurement tools. In recent years, breakthroughs in wearable sensor technology, through the integration of accelerometers, gyroscopes, and magnetometer modules, have significantly reduced equipment costs and support continuous monitoring in real-world scenarios such as sports fields and gyms. This paper aims to systematically review the innovative pathways of wearable technology in sports biomechanics analysis, construct a multidimensional evaluation framework for sports performance and injury prevention, and explore the challenges of technological transformation and the directions for standardization development. Method: 1) Analyzed global wearable sensor studies; 2) Tested multi-sensor devices on athletes in real-world settings; 3) Applied ML for biomechanical pattern decoding. 1) Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) and flexible electrodes enable precise biomechanical capture in dynamic environments; 2) Kinetics-kinematics-physiology framework resolves single-parameter limitations; 3) ML-driven systems achieve adaptive load control and preclinical injury detection, shifting training from experiential to predictive paradigms. (1) Specialized Evaluation: Establish biomechanics databases and verification systems for specialized sports such as track and field and ball games to unify wearable sensor data with laboratory standards. (2) Cross-domain Collaboration: Collaborate with research institutions, manufacturers, and data platforms to formulate standards for device compatibility, open-source algorithms, and data privacy, promoting technological transformation. (3) Multidisciplinary Integration: Integrate sports physiology, flexible electronics, and AI technology to construct a closed-loop system of "dynamic perception - intelligent analysis - autonomous regulation." For example, smart running shoes can dynamically adjust midsole cushioning performance based on real-time pressure distribution data, optimizing marathon runners' running economy. (4) Precision Training: Utilize wearable systems to quantify technical details, load intensity, and fatigue thresholds, enhancing athletes' technical efficiency. (5) Injury Early Warning: Develop predictive models based on biomechanical characteristics, shifting injury prevention from "empirical intervention" to "intelligent prediction."

Pennsylvania State and Cornell Universities have won the first awards in NSF’s Materials Innovation Platforms program. The universities will serve as research centers for materials scientists nationwide who want to use high-end instruments to study bulk and thin-film crystalline materials. “NSF is focusing on crystal growth because the U.S. has fallen behind in this area of science after having been a global leader in material synthesis,” says F. Fleming Crim, NSF assistant director for mathematical and physical sciences. The effort is part of the Materials Genome Initiative’s goal to halve the speed and cost of taking materials discoveries from the lab to industry. Penn State will develop instruments to study metal chalcogenide materials—such as sulfides, selenides, and tellurides—that are used in digital circuits and flexible electronics. Cornell is heading a multi-institution team that includes Johns Hopkins, Clark Atlanta, and Princeton Universities. It will focus on examining oxide and oxide-based two-dimensional

Flexible electronics covers a wide spectrum of applications including flexible display, flexible solar cell, printed RFID, flexible lighting and others. Currently, it has been estimated that there are about 1500 worldwide research units working on various aspects of flexible electronics. Market analysis estimates the revenue of flexible electronics can reach 30 billion USD in 2017 and over 300 billion USD in 2028. Region-wise, the research activities in Europe cover a wide range of topics - from materials, process, to system and applications. In the US, research is primarily driven by military applications. Asian companies invest heavily in flexible display. Based on the potential product categories, flexible display is expected to have 40% of the market share in 2019 and e-paper is a major product therein. Flexible photovoltaic will have about 30% market share. Both the above product categories are based on existing industrial infrastructure, e.g. the FPD and PV industry. The market share of printed RFID will shrink to only 10%~15%, much lower than four-year ago's optimistic estimation. Flexible lighting's share will be about 10%, whereas the major part will be OLED lighting in which research centers and companies in Europe and Japan have heavily invested. The remaining part, about 10%~15%, will be on sensors and batteries which are quite important for enabling new business. Examples in this category include large area flexible speaker, printed battery, etc. Based on the core technologies of flexible modules, ITR?s R&D strategy focuses on the integration of system and application capabilities to quickly demonstrate feasible products and scenarios. One of the examples, a paper-thin speaker has won 2009 Technology Innovation Award of Wall Street Journal in the consumer electronics category and also won the best of best Red dot design. The thickness of the speaker can be made under 1mm with a wide sound spectrum and high sound quality. Owing to its ultra thin feature, we integrated this new sound module into ceiling audio, automobile and 3C products, which creates a highly differentiated market segment from the traditional speaker market. Due to the immaturity of flexible electronics industry, venture capital has been approached to support commercialization in the early product stages. ITRI has designed a "virtual venture" mechanism which helps technical teams create new business. Although it is not yet mature, it has been expanding rapidly and dynamically. The keys to success include grasping the tempo, building up a complete value chain, and attracting the necessary entities to join the efforts and cooperate.

Carbon-based nanostructures have been the center of intense research and development for more than two decades now. Of these materials, graphene, a two-dimensional (2D) layered material system, has had a significant impact on science and technology in recent years after it was experimentally isolated in single layers in 2004. The recent emergence of other classes of two-dimensional (2D) layered systems beyond graphene has added yet more exciting and new dimensions for research and exploration given the diverse properties of these beyond graphene 2D systems. For example, hexagonal-BN a layered material closest in structure to graphene, is an insulator, while NbSe, a transition metal di-chalcogenide, is metallic and monolayers of other transition metal di-chalcogenides such as MoS <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> are direct band-gap semiconductors. The rich spectrum of properties that 2D layered material systems offer can potentially be engineered on-demand, and creates exciting prospects for using such systems in applications ranging from electronics, sensing, photonics, energy harvesting and flexible electronics in the coming years.

ABSTRACTCarbon-based nanostructures have been the center of intense research and development for more than two decades now. Of these materials, graphene, a two-dimensional (2D) layered material system, has had a significant impact on science and technology in recent years after it was experimentally isolated in single layers in 2004. The recent emergence of other classes of 2D layered systems beyond graphene has added yet more exciting and new dimensions for research and exploration given their diverse and rich spectrum of properties. For example, h-BN a layered material closest in structure to graphene, is an insulator, while NbSe, a transition metal dichalcogenide is metallic and monolayers of other transition metal di-chalcogenides such as MoS2 are direct band-gap semiconductors. The rich variety of properties that 2D layered material systems offer can potentially be engineered on-demand, and creates exciting prospects for their device and technological applications ranging from electronics, sensing, photonics, energy harvesting and flexible electronics in the near future.

Carbon-based nanostructures have been the center of intense research and development for more than two decades now. Of these materials, graphene, a two-dimensional (2D) layered material system, has had a significant impact on science and technology over the past decade after monolayers of this material were experimentally isolated in 2004. The recent emergence of other classes of 2D graphene-like layered materials has added yet more exciting dimensions for research in exploring the diverse properties and applications arising from these 2D material systems. For example, hexagonal-BN, a layered material closest in structure to graphene, is an insulator, while NbSe2, a transition metal di-chalcogenide, is metallic and monolayers of other transition metal di-chalcogenides such as MoS2 are direct band-gap semiconductors. The rich spectrum of properties that 2D layered material systems offer can potentially be engineered ondemand, and creates exciting prospects for using such materials in applications ranging from electronics, sensing, photonics, energy harvesting and flexible electronics over the coming years.

Flexible electronics is a fast emerging market and includes electronics fabricated on flexible substrates, large area displays, low cost and disposable electronics. Both research and commercial institutions around the world have been trying to develop low temperature processes which will enable fabrication of electronic devices on arbitrary substrates including glass and plastic. While most of these technologies are still in the research phase, many approaches have shown promising results. One such technology is being developed in DIMES, TU Delft which uses single grain silicon crystals to fabricate Single Grain Thin Film Transistors (SG-TFTs) at plastic compatible temperatures. SG-TFTs and other similar technologies can potentially enable fabricating electronics directly on arbitrary substrates. This would further enable integration of embedded intelligence in devices that would enhance the current functionalists of displays. This paper is an effort in this direction as it undertakes a study to design a flexible display with an integrated graphics rasterizor unit. The paper introduces the novel idea to move parts of the graphics pipeline from the CPU/GPU to the display. This will add intelligence to the display so as to realize a smart-display. The paper proposes several architectures for implementing a rasterizor unit on smart-display, conceptually fabricated on a flexible substrate using SG-TFT technology. While the transistors fabricated with SG-TFT and similar technologies are relatively slower than the standard CMOS, this paper proposes and concludes that a tile based system design can potentially result into enhanced system performance.