This presentation will tell the story of how a curiosity-driven, ferroelectric materials research topic developed into a $2 million p.a. business, manufacturing industrial ultrasound transducers for use under extreme conditions. On that journey we discovered some interesting materials science, we learnt how to process materials on the edge of instability, we overcame our academic sensitivities in order to finance a spin-out company and followed some unexpected paths to gain moderate commercial success. The talk aims to provide a contemporary and perhaps idiosyncratic view of both the science and business of piezoelectric materials.

BiFeO3-PbTiO3 is a ferroelectric solid solution with a morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) between the perovskite rhombohedral and tetragonal phases. It has a number of interesting features including the high Curie temperature (635°C at the MPB), an unprecedented spontaneous strain (≈20%) on the tetragonal side of the MPB and the >300 K discontinuity in the antiferromagnetic Néel temperature across the MPB. These features provide a number of exciting opportunities in terms of exploiting the high temperature piezoelectricity and coupling the antiferromagnetism to strain and electric field, whilst the extreme tetragonality provides challenges in materials fabrication. Whilst studying these features the Functional Ceramics Group at the University of Leeds discovered methods to overcome the technical barriers to exploiting the piezoelectric properties and to produce materials capable of “PZT-like” performance up to and beyond 500°C.

As most established piezoelectric materials producers felt that BiFeO3 might be a challenge too far, the University supported the founding of a company, funded by venture capital and private finance, to commercialise the new material. Although there was a market ready for devices spanning the materials’ temperature capability, no potential customers had the capability to build the material into high temperature transducers. Hence, what started as a materials company transformed into a device company, with products in the industrial ultrasound, automotive, aerospace and electronics sectors.

Ground penetrating radar is a successful development of ultra-wideband short range radar technology and has found application in many areas of the non-destructive examination of visually opaque materials. This presentation will cover its applications, environment, and targets as well as system design, propagation, antenna design and signal processing. GPR provides relative information on targets in the form of images which are often subject to operator interpretation. Many GPRs are essentially uncalibrated instruments providing relative information on target geometry and EM properties. A knowledge of the parameters that affect system performance is key to understanding the information obtained by the GPR. The presentation will reference the application of GPR to landmine detection and provide an update on research at the University of Manchester.

The Office of Naval Research Global was established just after the Second World War in London, UK.  Today is spans the globe as the international research arm of ONR.  Science Directors (SD) serve as Technology Scouts looking to connect the best of international research to partners in the USA.  Dr. Jay Marble is currently serving as a Science Director for Information, Cyber, and Spectrum Dominance from the London office.  An overview of ONR Global will be given along with highlights from the Electromagnetic Sensor Portfolio.

Semiconductors are crucial when it comes to tackling the environmental, technological and societal challenges of our time and shaping the green transformation. This is why Infineon is committed to actively driving decarbonization and digitalization. However, a commitment like this can only be successfully pursued together. With IPCEI, we want to leverage Europe’s resources and foster collaboration between universities, students, industry experts and start-ups. With our programs, we want to open doors for the bright minds of the future and support them by sharing our knowledge and offering valuable insights into our company. This is what we call our Mission Future! Learn about our IPCEI programs at Infineon Presentation and join our Mission Future.

In modern sensor and electronic technology, the integration of piezoelectric materials offers a multitude of possibilities. These materials exhibit unique electromechanical properties, which, when harnessed correctly, can significantly enhance the performance of various microelectronic devices. This 15-minute talk will delve into the interplay between piezoelectric anisotropy, materials composite structure, and ferroelectric domain configurations, and their crucial influence on the electric properties of sensors and microelectronic elements.

The advancements in MEMS ultrasound transceivers are opening new possibilities and are making existing applications more accessible. Expensive medical equipment like ultrasound imaging systems can now be replaced by small, portable, and affordable devices. However, this transformative progress comes with its own challenges, such as understanding and modeling MIMO systems as well as the design of MEMS, hardware, and software. New excitation methods in the GHz and THz regime enabled by advanced semiconductor technology improve sensory perception and performance to new heights. This talk wants to provide insights on the current trends and developments in this field, including educational initiatives which aim to prepare young engineers for what is to come; we will shed light on the facets and considerations necessary to adeptly navigate this dynamic and evolving landscape.

Plant-physiology, agriculture and forestry are searching for new field-instruments to study, quantify, and neutralize effects of ever-spreading seasonal droughts. An interesting non-invasive laboratory method used in early detection of hydraulic failure in drought-stressed vascular plants, is analysis of ultrasonic acoustic emissions (AE) occurring due to drought-induced xylem cavitations. An overview of our ongoing research efforts in transferring AE sensing from plant physiologist’s laboratory test-bench into the field will be given. The first part of the talk describes our design of a wireless energy-autonomous embedded system for in-field AE acquisition and on-board processing. Next, motivated by lowering the power requirements and dimensions, the second part of the talk shows technological research on designing MEMS AE sensors, enabling passive micro-mechanical sorting of AE events by their signal frequency, and integration with low-power electronic detector circuitry.

Microsensors and other micro/nano devices aimed to be operated at very high temperature (500°C to >1000°C) requires considering the use of ultra-refractory conductive and insulating substrates and thin films for their design and fabrication. This rises various new technological and characterization challenges that must be overcome. This will be illustrated in the case of ZrC substrates and Zr-based oxide, nitride and carbide films deposited by sputtering, reactive sputtering and co-sputtering. It will be notably shown that elaboration of stoechiometric films with suitable mechanical, electrical and properties is hard to achieve for many reasons related to film composition measurements, to oxygen gettering effect by zirconium, to residual and thermomechanical stress, to abnormal film composition, etc. Solutions investigated to characterize and solve these various issues will be discussed.

We present Nutrico ET, a single-channel low-power temperature and vibration logger with an average power consumption of around 25 μW. This device is a part of an innovative logistic cold chain system used to supply the end users with fresh and highly nutritious food products at their workplace. Such a cold chain is by law required to provide data on perishable goods temperature during transport and storage, which is achieved using this device. The low power consumption and small log sizes allow the devices to function uninterrupted for long periods of time, while its small size and mass, along with its waterproof casing make it practical for use with any type of perishable goods packaging.

At X-Logic, we have developed the Road Monitor, a low-power wireless sensor node for monitoring the structural integrity of road surfaces. Using two accelerometers buried at different depths, the Road Monitor is able to monitor the deflection of both the surface layer and the subgrade of the road caused by passing vehicles, sending the collected data to a server via NB-IoT. In contrast with the methods currently used for road deflection measurement, the sensor node is fully embedded into the road surface, enabling long-term continuous monitoring without impeding traffic. By continuously monitoring road conditions, road maintenance can be realized before visible damage occurs, leading to increased road safety and lower repair costs. 

Magnetic field measurements have garnered significant interest across various application fields, including environmental monitoring, localization, security, and medical applications. Within the realm of medical applications, a particularly compelling focus lies in utilizing these measurements for the diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases. In this context, the application of RTD-Fluxgate technology to measure the concentration of iron in the human brain holds great promise.It is important to emphasize that this approach enables the estimation of iron concentration, which in turn facilitates the diagnosis of conditions like Parkinson's disease, as well as the monitoring of degeneration in patients. This method not only holds potential for early disease detection but also offers the ability to track iron accumulation, providing crucial insights into disease progression. Furthermore, emerging solutions with a stronger focus on environmental sustainability, through the adoption of living sensors, will be presented for measuring physical quantities of interest, encompassing static and quasi-static magnetic fields. These innovative solutions play a crucial role in advancing measurement techniques, thereby improving their precision and reliability across various applications.

Machining technology performs a major role in modern manufacturing industries. A key bottleneck associated with any type of machining is the accelerated tool wear and the resulted reduced tool life. Most of the drill-bits made by conductive materials and as a result the eddy current testing method (ECT) can be applicable. Depending on the mechanical and physical properties of the workpiece, different drill-bits are used with the greatest differences between them being their core material and their coating. The ECT measurements produce very informative results. The signal’s amplitude and the phase lag give a lot of information about tools edge condition. Moreover, the good agreement between experimental and simulation results extract conclusions that allows the use of theoretical research for new sensors development and in addition, to understand better the influence of the tool wear as well the method limitations in the drill-bit tools ECT inspection.

A prototype system has been built and tested to enable identification of different classes of non-ferrous metals using magnetic induction spectroscopy on an industrial conveyor system. Results from a non-moving static test system has shown recovery and purity rates typically >80% for various types of waste streams. In contrast, preliminary tests on a moving system have shown somewhat degraded results with the best class of metals (stainless steel) having purity and recovery of ~60%. This presentation covers some of the recent improvements aimed at increasing the performance of the conveyor-mounted system whilst looking forward to another trial to test the capabilities. Also shown are ideas for where to go next with improving the discrimination capabilities for non-ferrous metals.

In this talk, we will provide an overview of our computational approach to accurately and efficiently compute the Magnetic Polarizability Tensor (MPT) spectral signature characterisation of different metallic objects, for application in metal detection inverse problems. This will include combining a hp-finite element methodology with a proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) reduced order modelling technique for fast computation of spectral signatures and the handling of highly conducting and magnetic objects with thin skin depths using prismatic boundary layer approaches. Realistic examples will be included as well as a brief overview of our open-source MPT-Calculator software.

Magnetic induction sensors have produced promising results when classifying scrap non-ferrous metals of different conductivity. However, magnetic induction struggles to separate metals of similar conductivity. A camera used to extract the colour of the metal pieces has been shown to improve the classification of metals with similar conductivity due to the colour contrast. The camera and induction sensors must communicate in real-time and have all the measurements sent to the STM32 microcontroller, where the machine-learning model is processed. This process continuously occurs while the conveyor moves 2M/s with different metals of shape, size and surface contamination.

An overview of the fields of application of energy harvesting technologies, with the emphasis on its importance and integration into sensor nodes, will be provided in this talk. An in-depth presentation of the possibilities of using kinetic energy harvesting, in the form of piezoelectric devices, will follow. Aspects related to the respective solutions implemented in structural health monitoring, river pollution monitoring, tire pressure monitoring and biomedical application will be given. Issues concerning the modelling of the behaviour of the considered class of devices, of the optimisation of their performances and of the experimental assessment of the resulting power levels will also be provided.

Thanks to the remarkable advancements in Automotive Radar systems and technologies, the development of mmWave Excitation and modulation has witnessed great progress, pushing towards higher frequencies in the THz regime.

Making use of SiGe Technologies, circuits are able to achieve noticeable output power, efficiency and noise characteristics. By harnessing modulated mmWaves as information carriers, intriguing possibilities arise, bridging the gap between fiber optics and wireline communication systems. In this talk, we will present the outcomes of communication demonstrators which leverage Polymer Fiber Technology in 60-80 Ghz and 150 Ghz; these findings carry significant implications for Datacenters and other emerging tools. Furthermore, considering the high interaction of mmWaves with biological matter, we will provide an overview of sensor-related opportunities for biological applications.

Our research focuses on the development of a compact two-dimensional micro-hydrogen fuel cell using SU8 photoresist. Our home made proton exchange membrane hydrogen fuel cell (PEMFC) has hydrogen and oxygen channels on the same side of the electrolyte membrane. The channels (200 μm in width) with a total volume of about 2.4 mm3 are separated by a 120 micrometer thick wall and covered with a membrane. Through experimental investigations, we have obtained promising results for the performance of the fuel cell. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of our two-dimensional micro-hydrogen fuel cell. The compact integration of channels on one side of the electrolyte membrane enables the future development of 2D fuel cell stacks. This research contributes to the advancement of sustainable hydrogen-based energy conversion technologies, with potential application in low power microelectronics.

Fringe projection profilometry (FPP) is a popular technique for non-contact measurement of the 3D surface profile of an object. In FPP one or more fringe patterns are projected onto the object and the 3D surface profile is then reconstructed from the observed deformations of the projected fringe pattern. Important questions of interest in FPP scanner design among others are: What is the practical optical setup or how to spatially arrange cameras and projectors? How to select fringe parameters to improve both accuracy and robustness? How to tackle unwanted interferences including ambient light and multiple reflections? This talk will give a short overview of common approaches to resolve these challenges in FPP scanner design and will discuss the related open research questions. An emphasis will also be placed on the underwater FPP 3D scanning which is in the current research focus at the University of Zagreb.