I-Corps: Microscopic ID tags using optical wireless integrated circuit technologies

I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发一种新型智能、廉价和几乎不可见的识别标签。将实物与在线数字世界连接起来，是一种迫切的经济和社会需求。例如，假冒产品吸走了合法公司的收入，破坏了质量控制，有时甚至危及生命。每年大约有1.8万亿美元的假冒商品被售出，这个数字以每年15%的速度增长。假冒药品的市场规模为2000亿美元，电子芯片和半导体产品的市场规模为1700亿美元，珠宝的市场规模为500亿美元。该技术是解决这一紧迫问题的潜在有力方案，特别是对于那些由于RFID尺寸大、材料不兼容或成本高而难以或无法用射频识别RFID标签进行标记的物体。当用肉眼观察时，这个提议的标签将是一个斑点的大小。包括微电子元件、珠宝、化妆品、药品、手表，甚至子弹。这个I-Corps项目的基础是开发一种使用光学无线集成电路（OWiC）技术的新型身份标签。这些设备将硅微电子与光学元件结合起来，利用光来发电和通信。用于生产owic的技术可以将硅电子器件集成到小至100 μ m x 100 μ m x 10 μ m的远程访问封装中。这些百微米大小的身份标签：(i)实际上是看不见的；（ii）智能化，内置数以千计的板载晶体管，可提供安全的认证协议；（iii）集成，内置由光伏/微型led制成的光通信系统。每个标签的制造成本预计不到一分钱。这些特点使身份标签具有小型计算机的智能，以确保安全，合理的成本，鼓励广泛使用，占地面积小，以及一个简单的基于光的手持扫描界面。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a new class of intelligent, inexpensive, and nearly invisible identification tags. There is a compelling economic and societal need to connect physical objects to the digital world online. For example, counterfeit products siphon revenue from legitimate companies and undermine quality control, sometimes in life-threatening ways. Approximately $1.8 trillion of counterfeit goods are sold annually, a number growing at 15% per year. The market for fake pharmaceutical drugs is $200 B, electronic chips and semiconductor products is $170 B, and jewelry $50 B. The proposed technology is a potentially powerful solution to this pressing problem, especially for objects that are difficult or impossible to label with radio frequency identification RFID tags due to the RFID’s large size, incompatible materials, or cost. This proposed tag would be the size of a speck when viewed by the naked eye. includes microelectronic components, jewelry, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, watches, and even bullets. This I-Corps project is based on the development of a new class of ID tags that use optical wireless integrated circuit (OWiC) technologies. These devices combine silicon microelectronics with optical components to use light for power and communication. The technologies used to produce OWiCs have enabled integration of silicon electronics into remotely accessible packages as small as 100 µm x 100 µm x 10 µm. These hundred-micron-sized ID tags are: (i) effectively invisible; (ii) intelligent, with thousands of on-board transistors for secure authentication protocols; and (iii) integrated, with a built-in optical communication system made of photovoltaics/microLEDs. The cost to manufacture per tag is projected at less than a penny. These features give the ID tags the intelligence of a small computer to ensure security, a reasonable cost to encourage broad use, a small footprint, and a simple light-based interface for hand-held scanning.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.