ASCENT: Reconfigurable Metal-Free Microsystems with Alternative Power Sources

这个通过工程团队解决系统挑战（ASCENT）项目将为可持续的微纳米电子学发展提供一套技术。新兴的物联网以及实现完全“互联”的社会和基础设施的努力需要电子产品的大规模分布，而要以可持续的方式做到这一点，就需要开发环保的电子材料、电路和电源。研究小组将研究材料、低功耗电路和替代电源（即，用非电池来设计可重构的无金属微系统，可以用替代电源运行）。这些系统将(i)完全由碳基材料组成，（ii）由生物来源的电源运行，（iii）提供当地环境指标的持续记录，（iv）在其运行寿命结束时实现完全的生物降解或再循环。新型材料科学、电路设计和生物燃料电池的结合将使下一代绿色电子产品能够以更低的成本、更大的规模大规模生产，分布在我们的环境中，并且对生态的影响最小，同时与硅基微系统相比，实现了相当的性能。该项目的多学科团队战略性地将研究与增加工程课程的计划结合起来，与当地微电子工业合作，并支持国家基础设施和电子混合制造的努力。物联网的设备、微型和微系统应该部署在任何地方，可以随时随地访问。这些简单的先决条件意味着物联网电子产品的生产、分销和运营的可持续性面临重大挑战。值得注意的是，微系统的必要数量需要大量使用不可持续的材料和昂贵的制造工艺。此外，如果没有实现回收、环境整合或回收的手段，微系统的大量分布相当于通过电子废物造成大规模污染。为了应对这些挑战，该项目将设计由无金属、可生物降解材料、碳-生物-有机-聚合物装置和电路以及酶燃料电池组成的传感通信节点。柠檬酸基弹性体和纤维素纳米复合材料将用于生物可降解的弹性体电路板和封装。低功耗传感器和电路将由碳、生物、有机和聚合物为基础的设备开发。传感通信节点将包括一组有机电化学晶体管，分布在可生物降解的电路板上，以执行湿度、温度、pH值和挥发性有机化合物的连续监测。传感通信节点将由模块化生化燃料电池供电，该电池采用定制工程的直接电子转移型酶，将生态友好的燃料来源（如葡萄糖和乳酸）转化为合适的电能。这种完全不含金属的传感通信节点将被集成，与传统的商业现成系统进行基准测试，并在不同的模拟食品存储和供应链应用场景中进行演示。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。

This Addressing Systems Challenges through Engineering Teams (ASCENT) project will enable a suite of technologies for sustainable micro- and nano-electronics development. The emerging Internet-of-Things and efforts to realize a fully “connected” society and infrastructure requires the mass distribution of electronics, and to do this in a sustainable manner requires the development of eco-friendly electronic materials, circuits, and power sources. The research team will investigate the materials, low-power circuits, and alternative power sources (i.e., non-battery to engineer reconfigurable-metal-free microsystems that can operate with alternative power sources). These systems will (i) be completely composed of carbon-based materials, (ii) be operated from a bio-derived power source, (iii) provide sustained recording of a local environmental metric and (iv) achieve complete biodegradation or recycling upon the end of their operational lifetime. The combination of novel materials science, circuit design, and biofuel cells will enable the next-generation green electronics that can be mass produced at lower cost, at larger scales, distributed throughout our environment, and have minimal ecological impact, while achieving comparable performance when compared to silicon-based microsystems. The project’s multidisciplinary team is strategically set for integrating research with a plan for adding to the engineering curriculum, engaging with the local microelectronics industries, and supporting the national infrastructure and efforts for hybrid manufacturing of electronics.Devices and micros and microsystems for the Internet-of-Things are supposed to be deployed everywhere and to be accessed anytime from anywhere. These simple prerequisites imply significant challenges for the sustainability of the production, distribution, and operation of Internet-of-Things electronics. Notably, the necessary quantity of a microsystem requires the mass use of non-sustainable materials and expensive manufacturing processes. Moreover, the mass distribution of microsystems is tantamount to large scale pollution via electronics waster, if means for recapture, environmental integration, or recycling are not realized. In response to these challenges, this project will engineer sensing-communications nodes composed of metal-free, biodegradable materials, carbon-biological-organic-polymer devices and circuits, and enzymatic fuel cells. Citric acid-based elastomers and cellulosic nanocomposites will be developed for biodegradable elastomeric circuit boards and packaging. Low-power sensors and circuits will be developed from carbon, biological, organic, and polymer-based devices. The sensing-communications node will include an array of organic electrochemical transistors distributed across the biodegradable circuit boards to perform continuous monitoring of humidity, temperature, pH, and volatile organic compounds. The sensing-communications node will be powered by a modular biochemical fuel cell, which employs custom engineered direct electron transfer-type enzymes that convert eco-friendly fuel sources, e.g., glucose and lactate, to suitable electrical power. This completely metal-free sensing-communications node will be integrated, benchmarked against conventional commercial-off-the-shelf systems, and demonstrated in different simulated food storage and supply chain application scenarios.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.