Dr M Raja
"Things that think" is the visionary goal of the PolyApply project. The project aimed at enabling a new generation of smart, ambient intelligent devices that integrate a range of electronic capabilities, including computation, sensing, and information storage, into a wide range of materials, including flexible or paper products, including consumer-goods packaging. The focus of the project was to develop low-cost applications for ambient intelligence that provide multiple ways of communication with the environment and can be integrated into an overall network in everyday life.
The easy-to-use and standardized interface of the devices will lead to numerous commercial, industrial and educational benefits. At the same time, the PolyApply project anticipates in increasing security and safety. Coordinated by STMicroelectronics, the PolyApply project involves 20 partners, including leading European polymer electronics players, global semiconductor manufacturers, and potential end-users of new technologies, as well as several research institutes and universities.
Vision of PolyApply
"Things that Think" and communication between people and objects in their environment critically depend on contactless communication technologies. Although many RF communication devices and protocols already exist, in their present form they cannot be used to allow communication with everyday objects on a large scale. The cost of the silicon technology employed to realize it is the fundamental stumbling block. Even the most optimistic projections project this cost to be at least one order of magnitude higher than the cost of a technology that has been proven to be truly ubiquitous, such as a barcode. Therefore, we envision a new generation of devices to enable ambient intelligence at the right cost, in order to be truly applicable everywhere and anywhere.
Aim of PolyApply
PolyApply aims to lay the foundations of scalable and ubiquitously applicable communication technology. The boundary condition is the cost of the microsystem, combining basic RF communication with sensor functions. The key to achieving a fundamentally different cost structure than what the evolution of existing technologies (e.g. CMOS) can achieve, is to resolutely move to a disruptive new manufacturing technology: going from batch processing to in-line manufacturing technology. The semiconductor system envisaged for this end is based on polymers. SiityScalability refers to PolyApply's plan to develop generic technologies with a meaningful impact in the mid- to long term, rather than propose a solution for a certain generation of RF communication devices useful at one point in time. In other words, the developed technologies will lead to an extendable family of products, ranging from "simple" RF tags at ultra-low-cost to RF communication devices with complex capabilities, such as integrated re-writable memory, sensory inputs, display, etc.
Structure of PolyApply
PolyApply is structured to allow objective- and application-driven research to be co-ordinated effectively. The core work package is the "reference design," where the specifications to applications are matched to the technological possibilities, including standardization. Technological developments are structured in two work packages: "manufacturing and processing," for the in-line manufacturing technology, and "materials, devices, and circuits," for the development of basic devices, materials, modelling, and packaging modules compatible with in-line manufacturing technologies. The reality check is done in work packages "reliability" and "recycling and life cycle". The "accompanying activities" include special work tasks such as "roadmapping," "training," and "dissemination." PolyApply foresees the accompanying activities as nurturing exchange of personnel and students within the consortium and in creating awareness outside the project for the disruptive new technologies to come.
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