Smartflex - Laminated MEMS and Microfluidics

传感器是我们生活的日益互联的环境的关键推动因素，充当着物理世界和网络世界之间的纽带。他们正在创造第四次工业革命和物联网(IoT)，这些革命集中依赖于通过传感器获取的数据，预计到2020年将有超过300亿个互联对象。这些传感器通常由封装了其他芯片(微处理器、无线电)的MEMS(微电子机械系统)传感器和无线电源组成。然而，电源仍然是创建真正无线和持久的分布式传感器的关键障碍，因为有线安装或定期更换电池的部署成本很高。因此，通过从环境中获取能量来为传感器节点供电的方法目前正在开发中，例如将废热转化为电力。虽然计算和传感功能通常可以通过硅片制造实现微型化，但能源收集需要表面积。因此，当使用传统的硅片制造来制造收集元件时，不可能具有成本效益。此外，封装芯片、互连芯片和为无线传感器节点提供外壳的成本通常远远超过半导体芯片的成本。因此，实现物联网低成本、无处不在的无线传感器愿景的限制因素不一定是MEMS本身，而是封装和电源。需要一种范式转变，将传感器开发的重点重新放在电源和封装上，而不是围绕MEMS和微电子芯片来构建。我们提出了一个传感器制造平台，灵感来自于柔性电路板，但其中柔性层集成了能量收集功能以及芯片。该SmartFlex平台还将支持在层内直接实施传感和驱动功能，例如用于大面积传感器阵列(智能皮肤)和机器人抓取执行器。实现该平台的三个主要挑战是：1)在层叠的柔性薄板中创建释放结构和柔性互连，以实现可靠的互连和具有可变形结构的嵌入式传感/采集；2)通过薄膜沉积、模塑和拾取放置嵌入功能材料，以添加转换机制以及热或电传导路径；3)形成密封的微通道、填充和密封方法，以便在柔性叠层中进行流体集成。工作范围涵盖新材料和工艺，从设计、制造到表征，并将在MEMS、先进封装和印刷电子技术的交叉点培训HQP，为交付未来做好准备。

Sensors are key enablers for the increasingly connected environment that we live in, acting as the link between the physical and cyber worlds. They are creating the fourth Industrial revolution and the Internet-of-Things (IoT), which rely centrally on data acquired with sensors, with over 30 billion connected objects expected by 2020. These sensors typically consist of MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) transducers packaged with other chips (microprocessor, radio) and a power source to be wireless. Power however remains a key roadblock to create truly wireless and long lasting distributed sensors due to the high cost of deployment for wired installations or regular battery replacements. Approaches to power sensor nodes by harvesting energy from the ambient are therefore currently under development, such as converting waste heat into electricity. Although computing and sensing functions can typically be miniaturised using silicon wafer manufacturing, energy harvesting requires surface area. It is therefore not possible to be cost effective when making the harvesting element using traditional Si wafer manufacturing. In addition, the cost of packaging the chips, interconnecting them and providing an enclosure for the wireless sensor node are typically well beyond the cost of the semiconductor chips. The limiting aspects to realise the vision of low cost, pervasive wireless sensors for IoT is therefore not necessarily the MEMS itself, but the packaging and power. A paradigm shift is required to re-center the sensor development on the power and packaging, instead of building around the MEMS and microelectronic chips. We propose a sensor fabrication platform inspired from flexible PCBs, but where the flex layers integrate the energy harvesting functions, as well as the chips. This Smartflex platform will also enable the direct implementation of sensing and actuation functions within the layers, such as for large area sensor arrays (smart skin) and robotic grasping actuators. The three main challenges to enable this platform are to: 1) create released structures and flexible interconnects within a layered stack of flexible sheets to allow reliable interconnects and embedded sensing/harvesting with deformable structures; 2) Embed functional materials by film deposition, molding and pick-and-place to add transduction mechanisms as well as thermal or electrical conduction paths; 3) Form hermetic microchannels, filling and sealing methods for fluid integration in the flexible stacks. The scope of work covers novel materials and processes, design, fabrication to characterisation, and will train HQP at the intersection of MEMS, advanced packaging and printed electronics, ready to deliver the future.