Manufacture Of Electronic Systems Research Articles

Self-Aligning Nanojunctions for Integrated Single-Molecule Circuits.

Robust, high-yield integration of nanoscale components such as graphene nanoribbons, nanoparticles, or single-molecules with conventional electronic circuits has proven to be challenging. This difficulty arises because the contacts to these nanoscale devices must be precisely fabricated with angstrom-level resolution to make reliable connections, and at manufacturing scales this cannot be achieved with even the highest-resolution lithographic tools. Here we introduce an approach that circumvents this issue by precisely creating nanometer-scale gaps between metallic carbon electrodes by using a self-aligning, solution-phase process, which allows facile integration with conventional electronic systems with yields approaching 50%. The electrode separation is controlled by covalently binding metallic single-walled carbon nanotube (mCNT) electrodes to individual DNA duplexes to create mCNT-DNA-mCNT nanojunctions, where the gap is precisely matched to the DNA length. These junctions are then integrated with top-down lithographic techniques to create single-molecule circuits that have electronic properties dominated by the DNA in the junction, have reproducible conductance values with low dispersion, and are stable and robust enough to be utilized as active, high-specificity electronic biosensors for dynamic single-molecule detection of specific oligonucleotides, such as those related to the SARS-CoV-2 genome. This scalable approach for high-yield integration of nanometer-scale devices will enable opportunities for manufacturing of hybrid electronic systems for a wide range of applications.

Catheter-Free Urodynamics Testing: Current Insights and Clinical Potential.

Lower urinary tract dysfunction not only interferes with the health-related quality of life of patients but may also lead to acute kidney injury and infections. To assess the bladder, urodynamic studies (UDS) have been implemented but the use of catheters leads to discomfort for the patient. Catheter-free long-term UDS would be useful and a potential solution could be ambulatory wireless devices that communicate via telemetry. Such sensors can detect pressure or volume. Numerous types of potential catheter-free sensors have been proposed for bladder monitoring. Despite substantial innovation in the manufacturing of implantable biomedical electronic systems, such sensors have remained at the laboratory stage due to a number of critical challenges. These challenges primarily concern hermeticity and biocompatibility, sensitivity and artifacts, drift, telemetry, and energy management. Having overcome these challenges, catheter-free ambulatory urodynamic monitoring could combine a synchronized intravesical pressure sensor with a volume analyzer but only the steps of cystometry and volume measurement are currently sufficiently reproducible to simulate UDS results. The measurement of volume by infrared optical sensors, in the form of abdominal patches, appears to be promising and studies are underway to market a telemetric ambulatory urodynamic monitoring system that includes an intravesical pressure sensor. There has been considerable progress in wearable and conformable electronics on many fronts, and continued collaboration between engineers and urologists could quickly overcome current challenges. In addition, to the diagnosis of UDS, such sensors could be useful in the development of a long-term closed-loop neuromodulation system. In this review, we explore the various types of catheter-free bladder sensors, inherent challenges and solutions to overcome these challenges, and the clinical potential of such long-term implantable sensors.

Printed Electronics Technologies for Additive Manufacturing of Hybrid Electronic Sensor Systems

Printed Electronics Technologies for Additive Manufacturing of Hybrid Electronic Sensor Systems

Printed Electronics Technologies for Additive Manufacturing of Hybrid Electronic Sensor Systems

AbstractRequirements for the miniaturization of electronics are constantly increasing as more and more functions are aimed to be integrated into a single device. At the same time, there are strong demands for low‐cost manufacturing, environmental compatibility, rapid prototyping, and small‐scale productions due to fierce competition, policies, rapid technical progress, and short innovation times. Altogether, those challenges cannot be sufficiently addressed by simply using either printed or silicon electronics. Instead, the synergies from combining those two technologies into so‐called hybrid electronics create novel opportunities for advanced capabilities and new areas of applications. In the first part of this review, printing and patterning technologies are presented with potential compatibility with conventional electronics manufacturing techniques. They can be utilized for the fabrication of highly complex structures. Nonetheless, up‐scalability, integration, and adaptation for industrial fabrication remain challenging due to technically limiting factors. Consequently, a special focus is placed on the up‐scalability, availability of commercial printing, and manufacturing machines, as well as processing challenges for high‐volume industrial applications. The second part of this review further provides an overview of exciting and innovative application possibilities of printed electronics, emphasizing sensor applications, as well as additively manufactured integrated circuits.

Self-powered sensor integration system based on thorn-like polyaniline composites for smart home applications

Self-powered sensors that can continuously and accurately detect physiological signals without an external power source are the key technology to realize wearable electronic devices as the next generation of sensors. However, the manufacturing of self-supporting electronic systems based on versatile materials is still facing significant challenges. Herein, we introduce a new one-body strategy, zinc ion battery (ZIB) is the technology of flexible sensor energy supply, the technology uses a rechargeable solid-state zinc ion battery with multiple charging modes as the energy supply unit (405.07 mAh g−1), and the electrode material is used as the sensitive layer of the flexible pressure sensor, which greatly improves the sensitivity (S=5.64 *105 kPa−1) of the pressure sensor through layer assembly technology. This pressure sensor possesses good flexibility, fast response/recovery time (60.0/80.0 ms), stable long-term response, excellent cycle stability (8000 times) and wide pressure detection (50 Pa-70,000 Pa). We believe that the design of the self-powered sensor integration system will open up a new and versatile platform for the next generation of autonomous power electronics in smart home applications.

Multitasking MXene Inks Enable High-Performance Printable Microelectrochemical Energy Storage Devices for All-Flexible Self-Powered Integrated Systems.

The future of mankind holds great promise for things like the Internet of Things, personal health monitoring systems, and smart cities. To achieve this ambitious goal, it is imperative for electronics to be wearable, environmentally sustainable, and safe. However, large-scale manufacture of self-sufficient electronic systems by exploiting multifunctional materials still faces significant hurdles. Herein, multitasking aqueous printable MXene inks are reported as an additive-free high-capacitance electrode, sensitive pressure-sensing material, highly conducting current collector, metal-free interconnector, and conductive binder. By directly screen printing MXene inks, MXene-based micro-supercapacitors (MSCs) and lithium-ion microbatteries (LIMBs) are delicately fabricated on various substrates. The as-prepared MSCs exhibit ultrahigh areal capacitance of 1.1 F cm-2 and the serially connected MSCs offer a record voltage of 60V. The quasi-solid-state LIMBs deliver a robust areal energy density of 154μWhcm-2 . Furthermore, an all-flexible self-powered integrated system on a single substrate based on the multitasking MXene inks is demonstrated through seamless integration of a tandem solar cell, the LIMB, and an MXene hydrogel pressure sensor. Notably, this integrated system is exceptionally sensitive to body movements with a fast response time of 35ms. Therefore, this multipurpose MXene ink opens a new avenue for powering future smart appliances.

(Invited) Evolutionary Parameter Extraction for Organic TFT Compact Models Including Contact Effects

The development of accurate and computationally efficient models is critical to reduce the cycle time between design, manufacturing and characterization of electronic devices, circuits and systems. The models must include degrading effects in order to better describe the performance of manufactured device. This is the case of contact effects in the modelling of organic thin film transistors (OTFTs). In fact, much effort was made to include contact effects into compact models. In this work, we consider a generic analytical model for the current-voltage (ID-VD) characteristics of OTFTs, valid for all the operation regions of the transistor, including the subthreshold region [1]. This model was later redefined with the inclusion of a model for the current-voltage (ID-VC) curves of the contact region, and a parameter extraction procedure, in which a sequence of iterative steps is carried out until a good agreement between experimental and simulated current voltage curves is obtained [2]. The parameter extraction procedure was accelerated in [3] with the proposal of an evolutionary procedure to extract the parameters that best fit experimental current-voltage characteristics. Later in [4], improvements over this evolutionary procedure were presented. Due to the explosion of different applications of OTFTs such as phototransistors and a wide variety of physical and chemical sensors, novel materials, contacts, and designs for transistor were proposed and used. For these applications, more accurate models and better extraction parameter procedures are needed. These new structures impose more requirements to the extraction methods and models, and therefore to the extracted parameters. From this point of view, the evolutionary extraction procedures proposed in [3, 4] are a good option to be used in combination with the above mentioned generic analytical model for the current-voltage (ID-VD) characteristics of OTFTs [1, 2]. In order to adapt both the compact model and the extraction procedure to new applications of the OTFTs, rules are added in form of optimization objectives and constrains for the different parameters. In this work, we present such rules applied to different sets of thin film phototransistors and sensors. In the first place, we consider the multi-objective evolutionary algorithm (MOEA), NSGA-II [5]. It was used in [3, 4], and seeks values of the parameter in the compact model that best meet some user defined objectives. In [3], two objectives were optimized, while in [4], four objectives were optimized, along with some defined constraints. It is known that classic MOEAs, such as the NSGA-II, have serious limitations when coping with more than three objectives. These problems are referred as many-objective optimization problems (MaOPs). Among the limitations of MOEAs to treat MaOPs are the selection operators, computational cost, visualization of the Pareto optimal front (POF), and more importantly, the convergence to an optimal solution. Recently, a many-objective implementation of the NSGA-II, the NSGA-III, was released [5]. NSGA-III was designed to specially deal with MaOPs, incorporating different operators to the ones used by its predecessor. Thus, in a second part of this work, we substitute the NSGA-II algorithm with the NSGA-III one for the characterization of the same sets of OTFTs. Finally, the results of using both algorithms are compared and will be discussed. Acknowledgments This work was supported by projects MAT2016-76892-C3-3-R and TIN2015-67020-P funded by the Spanish Government, European Regional Development Funds (ERDF) and the Canada Research Chair Program.

Should Ministry of Health ban manufacturing and sale of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) popularly called E- cigarettes - result of an online poll

Should Ministry of Health ban manufacturing and sale of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) popularly called E- cigarettes - result of an online poll

Highlighting two integration technologies based on vias: Through silicon vias and embedded components into PCB. Strengths and weaknesses for manufacturing and reliability

Manufacturers of electronic components and systems are currently undergoing profound changes. For foundry manufacturers, Moore's law is fast approaching, and they must find technological solutions to further densify their electronic circuits. For PCB (Printed Circuit Board) manufacturers, the change is even more important as they have to bury components inside their circuitry. In this paper we present physics analysis and simulations of copper via to study the impact of this kind of assembly process on the reliability of these new electronic circuits. Manufacturers can head towards the through silicon (TSV) via or embedded components. First, we present analysis made with the SAM (scanning acoustic microscope) using shear wave's generation to extract information about strain induced by the copper via in TSV. Finite element analysis shows the correlation between the two technologies. Secondly, we present finite element analysis made on embedded active components inside PCB and an evaluation of the fatigue lifetime on via. TDM (Topography and Deformation Measurements) are made to calibrate the model generated by finite elements. A discussion is then conducted to determine the weaknesses and strengths of each of these technologies in order to determine their long-term robustness.

Roll-to-roll processing of film substrates for hybrid integrated flexible electronics

Roll-to-roll (R2R) processing on film substrates has been demonstrated to have the potential for achieving high throughput manufacturing of organic electronic systems at low cost. However, the ever-growing mobile devices market accompanied by the developments in information and communication technologies require high performance systems at very low power operation, sometimes on larger substrates having sizes in the range of a few metres. Organic electronics often fall short of fulfilling the required computing performance and power requirements of most of the common use cases. Hybrid integration of inorganic monocrystalline silicon chips on polymer films is a means to fulfil the aforementioned requirements. In this context, it is opportune to report our recent activities on R2R processing of plastic films for hybrid integration of flexible electronics. Hybrid integration can be performed with conventional, rigid surface mount devices as well as flexible, ultra-thin bare silicon chips. The first section of the paper is dedicated to a brief overview of R2R manufacturing of electronic devices with an example of production of radio frequency identification tags as well as to a discussion emphasising the targets for hybrid integration. Then, detailed descriptions about our processes for R2R manufacturing of metal wiring lines on films and hybrid integration are included. Three-dimensional integration of films and a temperature sensor label manufactured using hybrid integration process are also elaborated on. Furthermore, key results from fatigue reliability assessment of R2R metallised wiring lines are reported. Finally, some of the challenges in transferring the R2R processes for hybrid integration on film substrates from research labs to industrial manufacturing are highlighted.

The Trend of Voluntary Warnings in Electronic Nicotine Delivery System Magazine Advertisements.

Some manufacturers of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) voluntarily carried health warnings in their advertisements. This study examined these voluntary warnings in magazine ads and plotted their trends between 2012 and early 2015. ENDS magazine ads were obtained through Kantar media and warnings were collected from the Chicago Public Library or the Trinkets and Trash surveillance system. The prevalence of voluntary warnings, warnings with the specific capitalized word “WARNING”, and MarkTen warnings were examined after being weighted using factors related to exposure between January 2012 and March 2015. Five brands (MarkTen, NJOY, MISTIC, and some Blu) carried warnings during the study period. The prevalence of warnings post 2012 that contained a description of nicotine did not significantly increase until the launch of MarkTen, which also happened several months before April 2014 when the U.S. food and drug administration (FDA) published its proposed deeming rule. In addition, none of these warnings met the criteria required by the FDA in the final rules. Voluntary warnings, particularly MarkTen warnings, significantly increased in ENDS magazine ads between 2014 and 2015. It is important to monitor how ENDS manufacturers will comply with the FDA regulation related to warnings and how this regulation will ultimately impact ENDS risk perceptions and use.

Hybrid additive manufacturing of 3D electronic systems

A novel hybrid additive manufacturing (AM) technology combining digital light projection (DLP) stereolithography (SL) with 3D micro-dispensing alongside conventional surface mount packaging is presented in this work. This technology overcomes the inherent limitations of individual AM processes and integrates seamlessly with conventional packaging processes to enable the deposition of multiple materials. This facilitates the creation of bespoke end-use products with complex 3D geometry and multi-layer embedded electronic systems. Through a combination of four-point probe measurement and non-contact focus variation microscopy, it was identified that there was no obvious adverse effect of DLP SL embedding process on the electrical conductivity of printed conductors. The resistivity maintained to be less than 4 × 10−4 Ω · cm before and after DLP SL embedding when cured at 100 °C for 1 h. The mechanical strength of SL specimens with thick polymerized layers was also identified through tensile testing. It was found that the polymerization thickness should be minimised (less than 2 mm) to maximise the bonding strength. As a demonstrator a polymer pyramid with embedded triple-layer 555 LED blinking circuitry was successfully fabricated to prove the technical viability.

A Systematic Study of Pattern Compensation Methods for All-Inkjet Printing Processes

Inkjet printed electronics is a promising technology for low-cost, flexible, and large area manufacturing of electronic systems. This paper presents a complete characterization methodology, automated and capable of extracting key technology parameters from a large amount of samples. We used this methodology to extract viable compensation strategies for a particular printer, ink, and substrate, analyzing more than a half million structures with a very low human interaction. The results show a promising improvement in yield and fidelity of printed patterns, when using an optimal compensation pattern. As an example, the fabrication yield for 120- $\mu \text{m}$ width—40- $\mu \text{m}$ separation structures raised from less than 10% up to 100% after applying compensations.

Genesis of a workshop

The LHC Electronics Review Board was created in 1994 to advise the LHC experiments Committee LHCC on rationalization measures in the fields of design, manufacture and operation of electronic systems for LHC experiments. To this end, the LERB found appropriate to launch a series of topical workshops in order to allow for open discussions on the issues at stake. This paper recalls related events and decisions that occurred between 1985 and the approval of the LHC in 1995. The LERB terms of reference and the outcome of the first workshop are presented.

From Printed Transistors to Printed Smart Systems

Printing as a manufacturing technique is a promising approach to fabricate low-cost, flexible, and large area electronics. Over the last two decades, a wide range of applications has been explored, among them displays, sensors, and printed radio-frequency identification devices. Some of these turned out to be challenging to commercialize due to the required infrastructure investment, accuracy or performance expectations compared to incumbent technologies. However, the progress in terms of material science, device, and process technology now makes it possible to target some realistic applications such as printed sensor labels. The journey leading to this exciting opportunity has been complex. This review describes the experience and current efforts in developing the technology at PARC, a Xerox Company. Printed smart labels open up low-cost solutions for tracking and sensing applications that require high volumes and/or would benefit from disposability. Examples include radiation tags, one-time use medical sensors, tracking the temperature of pharmaceuticals at the item level, and monitoring food sources for spoilage and contamination. Higher performance can be achieved with printed hybrid electronics, integrating microchip-based signal processing, wireless communication, sensing, multiplexing, as well as ancillary passive elements for low-profile microelectronic devices, opening up further applications. This technology offers custom circuitry for demanding applications and is complementary to mass printed transistor circuits. As an example, we describe a prototype sense-and-transmit system, focusing particularly on issues of integration, such as impedance matching between the sensor and circuits, robust printed interconnection of the chips, and compatible interface electronics between printed and discrete parts. Next-generation technologies will enable printing of entire smart systems using microchip inks. A new printing concept for the directed assembly of silicon microchips into functional circuits is described. The process is scalable and has the potential to enable additive, digital manufacturing of high-performance electronic systems.

Towards Realizing High-Throughput, Roll-to-Roll Manufacturing of Flexible Electronic Systems

High-rate roll-to-roll (R2R) tracker systems are utilized for large volume flexible electronic device manufacturing, and the current alignment mechanism between layers is mainly achieved by relying on passive techniques. In this paper, we present a machine vision based alignment strategy that is used to achieve precise registration for stacking multilayers. Based on this strategy, we demonstrate two-layer printing with alignment accuracy better than 100 μm in web moving direction and 200 μm in lateral direction at a web rate of 5 m/min.

Impacts: At the intersection between the worlds of consumer electronics and socioeconomics

In our last issue, i wrote about how we?d planned to expand the scope and audience of IEEE Consumer Electronics (CE) Magazine. After all, CE is not just about the design and manufacture of electronic systems and products. These devices and their ecosystems have been changing and altering our lives since the introduction of the TV set in the 1950s and 1960s.

Standards and Collaboration Perspectives: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow [Perspectives

This special issue of Design and Test displays and describes some of the standards that are in current use and ongoing development in our industry. This is a useful update on the standards activities that make our professional lives more understandable, productive and predictable; and that allow opportunity for our companies to expand markets and their position in those markets because they can design to known standards. It is worth noting, however, that this special issue of Design and Test is covering only one industry the Electronic Design Automation, albeit a very important one. Essentially, every industry, and in fact, every human endeavor seeks to organize its world in ways that make it more understandable, predictable, and dependable. It has been that way from the dawn of human existence (Calendars anyone?). A common, yet still fun example, is the ease of use that standard electrical wall sockets provide within a country, and the extreme annoyance and frustration caused by a lack of standards between countries. Yesterday, the IC industry was a community of relatively self-contained Integrated Device Manufacturers (IDM). Today, the industry has disaggregated into design companies, Intellectual Property (IP) component providers, EDA vendors, foundries, and Outsourced Assembly and Test companies (OSAT), and the scope addressed by IDMs continues to shrink.. This has created new interfaces in the supply chain and in the design flows that are used to develop the products. These new interfaces dictate that new standards be deployed throughout the development flow. Tomorrow, if the past is any predictor of the future, the number of interfaces will continue to increase and the standards that define the efficient use of those interfaces will grow in importance to the cost effective manufacture of electronic systems. Standards, either de-facto or de-jure, enable a high level of sophistication of integrated circuit design and manufacture of todays systems with todays supply chain and with an unprecedented level of reuse of partial or complete designs and design flows. This article will describe the lay of the land in standards to capture the current state and what the future portends. A key factor in development of standards is that they are driven by and drive the business interests of companies in the ecosystem. Any standard that misses this point is doomed to failure. Successful standards embrace it and their eventual adoption creates greater opportunities for the enterprises that apply them.

Characterization of the Evolution of IC Emissions After Accelerated Aging

With the evolving technological development of integrated circuits, ensuring electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) is becoming a serious challenge for electronic circuit and system manufacturers. Although electronic components must pass a set of EMC tests to ensure safe operations, the evolution of EMC over time is not characterized and cannot be accurately forecast. This paper presents an original study about the consequences of the aging of circuits on electromagnetic emissions. Different types of standard applicative and accelerated life tests are applied on a mixed power circuit dedicated to automotive applications. Its conducted emissions are measured before and after these tests, showing variations in EMC performance. Comparisons between each type of aging procedure show that the emission level of the circuit under test is differently affected.

Manufacture of electronic systems by mechanical systems based on multicoordinate executive devices

The use of multicoordinate executive devices in electronic manufacturing is considered. The performance of electronic equipment may be significantly improved by using l-coordinate devices. In contrast to traditional executive devices, these may function simultaneously as manipulators, transport systems, and vibration suppressors.