GE Research

The FLEX Conference, held again this year in conjunction with SEMICON West 2023, provided numerous examples of continued developments in flexible, printed, and flexible hybrid electronics technologies applied to sensing, robotics, communications, and other applications.

More consumer and industrial products may emit volatiles that now are known to be harmful, including furniture, passenger cars, and industrial trucks. Interest in detecting and measuring the gaseous pollutants is growing in order to create effective responses to reduce or eliminate health risks. 

Areas packed with dense foliage. Mile-deep mines and tunnels. Urban canyons. Indoor environments. Global Positioning System (GPS) technology has long been a boon to location tracking of aerial, terrestrial and aquatic vehicles — as well as to people in motion — but in many cases it can’t function with a high degree of reliability, either because the GPS signal is somehow obstructed, or worse, is jammed or spoofed. Delivering higher precision and higher reliability in GPS-denied environments — as well as immunity to jamming and spoofing — positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) represents the next evolutionary step in location positioning and tracking. With PNT so critical to a range of defense, commercial and industrial applications — and with sensors the building blocks of PNT solutions —the MEMS Sensors Industry Group, a SEMI Technology Community, is ensuring that our members play a transformative role in PNT innovations. We’ve secured $14.9 million in research dollars for PNT R D over the past 18 months, marking Phase I of a project funded through a public-private consortium with the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL). With the typical funding structured as a 50/50 cost share with the industry participant, the research dollars go farther, and the level of commitment that each recipient makes is more pronounced. As we look ahead to Phase II of the MSIG PNT R D project, the details of which we’ll announce later this year, we’d like to reflect on the companies and research labs that won bids through a competitive process supported by the SEMI-MSIG PNT Technical Advisory Council and the SEMI-MSIG PNT Governing Council. Winners submitted proposals that both met our criteria for advancing PNT technologies relative to mobility, size and weight, and that laid a path toward greater cost efficiency and lower product price. “PNT doesn’t displace GPS,” said Tim Brosnihan, executive director of SEMI-MSIG. “Rather, getting the two technologies to work together improves position and tracking. While current PNT solutions use inertial measurement units, or IMUs, to effectively maintain positioning accuracy in the absence of a GPS signal, it’s also true that accumulated bias and noise-related errors in the IMUs make positional determination unreliable. Like most great pairings, GPS and PNT can work together. We can use IMUs when GPS is unavailable, and when GPS returns, it can be used to reset the IMU errors. So when the GPS signal is lost again, the IMU can maintain navigation and location. “We’re focusing this PNT project on technologies that will allow accurate positional determination in the absence of a reliable GPS signal for prolonged periods,” added Brosnihan. Here are snapshots of the 10 companies and research institutions that won awards for their PNT-focused developments. Analog Devices is developing an optimal size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) solution for applications requiring high-accuracy navigation and uncompromised reliability. The company’s mode-matched navigation-grade gyroscope with system ID leverages an innovative sensor and its associated process design, a robust high-volume manufacturing flow, and system-control algorithms to achieve very high-performance (0.01 degree/hour bias instability and 0.005 degree/√hr angle random walk). Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is developing a CMOS MEMS high-stability accelerometer through machine learning (ML). If embedded in footwear, these ML-optimized accelerometers could be used in personal navigation. If embedded in a golf ball, baseball or hockey puck, the accelerometer could extract the trajectory of the object in motion by measuring its shock (force). The CMU device validates state-of-the-art performance of the university’s high-dynamic-range accelerometer systems-on-chip. It also validates and tests ML models by measuring the accelerometer and auxiliary sensor output over long time periods (e.g., 1 hour, 10 hours, days) to collect independent long-duration time-series data. By modeling drift from environmental influences — along with possible overall system changes from extreme events, such as high-temperature excursions and shock — designers can dramatically reduce navigation errors to support more accurate navigation over longer time periods. GE Research is developing a novel MEMS gyrocompass that will enable high-end north-finding systems, traditionally unaffordable for automotive and consumer applications. The device will be available in mass-market applications such as robotics and autonomous vehicle navigation in GPS-denied environments. The MEMS gyrocompass enables a 10x reduction in SWAP-C with high accuracy. An additional benefit of this work is that GE will offer a foundry service process development kit (PDK) for its Polaris MEMS process, speeding the development and manufacture of MEMS devices in an advanced processing facility. Georgia Institute of Technology is developing high-aspect-ratio monocrystalline silicon carbide-on-Insulator (SiCOI) MEMS devices that will reduce navigation angle errors, potentially making widescale pedestrian navigation available in mass-market applications such as smartwatches and smartphones. The platform for ultra-high-performance bulk acoustic wave (BAW) gyroscopes and timing resonators will feature material properties that allow a much better structural symmetry and a higher-resonant quality factor (Q) than silicon MEMS (Si MEMS). Honeywell is working to enhance the navigation accuracy of commercial and military vehicles in GPS-denied environments through an innovation that dramatically improves the performance of a MEMS IMU by both refining candidate ML algorithms, including recurrent neural networks (RNNs), and by combining deep neural network (DNN)-based calibration and sensor fusion algorithms. PARC is developing a new materials platform for photonic integrated circuits (PIC). Aluminum gallium nitride (AlGaN), an ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor, is epitaxially grown to produce single-crystal layers for fabrication of optical components, such as waveguides and micro-ring resonators for optical signal processing. The project includes design and fabrication of specialized laser diodes at wavelengths needed to probe qubits based on atomic ions (e.g., strontium and ytterbium). The new platform offers several benefits: low optical loss from the ultraviolet (UV) to infrared spectral bands excellent non-linear optical properties for efficient frequency-generation processes (e.g., optical frequency combs); and enabling technology to realize compact, field-deployable quantum systems for PNT applications, such as ultra-fast distance measurements, microcombs for optical atomic clocks, photonic radar, optical coherence tomography, and coherent communications — all applications that benefit from the lower cost and small chip size of these integrated photonic circuits By expanding its proprietary EpiSeal encapsulation process to include new materials and topologies, SiTime is developing low-impedance and low-noise MEMS resonators with an ultra-stable wafer-level package. Because these novel MEMS resonators are highly reliable and very compact — while using less power and providing lower RF noise — they’re ideal for 5G RF timing applications, IoT devices, and smart vehicles. Teledyne Scientific Imaging (CSAC project) is conducting a study to identify paths to reduce the cost of battery-operated chip scale atomic clocks (CSAC) that provide affordable precision timing for denied environments. The project goal is to identify viable paths of reducing cost by an order of magnitude, without sacrificing performance. In addition to exploring design and manufacturability solutions, project researchers are performing short loop experiments as proof-of-concept validation. Through a second award, Teledyne Scientific (IMU project) is advancing packaging and integration for compact, navigation-grade six degrees of freedom (DOF) MEMS IMUs. Featuring reduced bias instabilities associated with packaging stresses and ambient temperature influences, the Teledyne Scientific IMUs promote environmentally robust low-stress packaging of wafer-level vacuum packaged (WLVP) MEMS gyro resonators, facilitating a lower-cost, smaller and more accurate IMU for performance-driven PNT applications. Twinleaf is developing a new light source module ideally suited for integration directly into quantum sensors. This project integrates a bright, tunable distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) near infrared (IR) 795nm wavelength laser made by the project’s subcontractor (Photodigm) into a package that locks the laser to an atomic reference line in a microfabricated vapor cell. The laser module’s high-output intensity and low magnetic signature will enable breakthrough performance levels for Twinleaf’s magnetometer and other quantum sensors requiring the light source integrated into the sensor module. Request for Proposal for Phase II of SEMI-MSIG PNT Program Opens Q4 2021 SEMI-MSIG will accept request for proposal (RFP) submissions for Phase II of its PNT program starting in Q4 2021. This year, in addition to funding IMU and timing device projects, MSIG will also consider proposals on imaging-based navigation solutions. If you’d like to submit for Phase II, sign up to receive more information on the RFP by visiting SEMI’s R D Programs page. You can also connect with Paul Carey by email, [email protected] or LinkedIn. Paul Carey, Ph.D., is the director of the MEMS Sensors Industry Group. With deep domain expertise in X-ray imaging backplane platforms — and their supply-chain technologies such as flexible substrates, laser annealing for semiconductors and silicides, thin film transistors (TFT) for flexible OLED displays, and polysilicon-on-plastic TFT technology — Carey has held technical leadership positions at dpiX, Applied Materials, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He received a double-major B.S. from UC Berkeley in Electronical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), and Materials Science and Engineering (MSE). Carey holds an M.S. in EECS from UC Berkeley and a Ph.D. in MSE from Stanford University.

Why do we need environmental air pollution sensors?Today we need environmental air pollution sensors more than ever to ensure that we have clean and safe outdoor and indoor air. Although federal rules have improved air pollution over the past several decades, more than 110 million Americans still live in counties where air quality is below national standards. An estimated 100,000 Americans die prematurely each year of illnesses caused or exacerbated by polluted air.“Cars and trucks are much cleaner than they were, power plants are cleaner, industrial operations are cleaner,” said Paul Billings, Senior Vice President Advocacy for the American Lung Association. But cleaner air is not clean air.”While scientists have long known that air pollution may exacerbate asthma and other respiratory illnesses, new data suggests polluted air leads to higher COVID-19 higher death rates and brain inflammation that can contribute to dementia and autism.To understand the importance of air quality and how we can apply existing sensors and develop new ones, we look both outdoors and indoors (see Figure 1). Outdoor air quality relates to gaseous and particulate pollutants, defined by the Air Quality Index (AQI). The AQI became a standard based on regional thresholds for a set of key outdoor pollutants: four gaseous pollutants (sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, ozone) and particulates (PMs) of different sizes such as 10 μm (PM10) and 2.5 μm (PM2.5). At present, the AQI is measured using traditional analytical instruments. Despite their high acquisition and maintenance costs, these instruments are the only solution to accurately measure these pollutants in the presence of variable environmental background.Figure 1. Examples of outdoor and indoor air quality markers Indoor air quality (IAQ) is also of growing concern. Formaldehyde, benzene, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide are some of the key pollutants with restricted concentration levels in residential, office and industrial buildings. Sources of these and other gaseous pollutants include building materials and equipment, workplace cleansers, and building occupants. Regulatory agencies and building occupants use different methodologies to estimate IAQ using gaseous and particulate pollutant analyzers. These estimates also consider air humidity and temperature that affect indoor air quality. Where are we today with environmental sensors?The top three requirements for modern gas sensors include: the sensor reliability to provide accurate readings in diverse environmental conditions over desired period of use low power, to extend battery life or to eliminate its need, and low cost, to facilitate their ubiquitous deployments. Advances in electronics, microfabrication, and packaging have delivered recent important developments in reducing the power consumption and miniature packaged solutions. Recent R D efforts are also increasing the number of successful gas sensor field deployments for outdoor and indoor air quality monitoring. Figure 2 illustrates three examples of recent developments in gas sensors that meet requirements of diverse customers.Electrochemical sensors from SPEC Sensors were collocated with EPA instruments for monitoring of NO2 and O3 in Chicago’s Array of Things Project. Figure 2A shows that these new cost-effective sensors track well the EPA instruments. Advancements in circuit quality, sampling, enclosure design, and initial calibration/compensation were all essential in achieving these results. While this example clearly demonstrates the usability of these sensors in this particular application, the expectations that low-cost, off-the-shelf sensors will match the performance of EPA reference systems that cost 50x-100x more must be adjusted. A micropackaged sensor suite from Bosch Sensortec includes sensors for total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs), temperature, humidity, and pressure. TVOC measurements are needed according to the guidelines by the German Federal Environmental Agency. To report TVOC, the sensor algorithm tracks the TVOC-related resistance of the metal oxide sensor, corrects sensor resistance for ambient temperature and humidity, and outputs the TVOCs Index of Air Quality between 0 (clean air) and 500 (heavily polluted air) as shown in Figure 2B. A recent GE-developed dielectric excitation scheme of metal oxide sensing materials provided a highly desired and long-awaited calibration stability of sensors for monitoring of fugitive methane gas emissions in all-weather conditions. These sensors were used in several field validation campaigns in Oklahoma, North Dakota, Arkansas, and British Columbia and had stable performance after more than 400 days, as compared to an initial calibration (see Figure 2C). Such stable sensor performance has become possible by switching from the conventional resistive mode of operation of metal oxide sensing elements to the dielectric excitation scheme. Figure 2. Examples of applications of contemporary gas sensors based on different detection principles.(A) Outdoor performance of NO2 and O3 electrochemical sensors versus EPA-validated instruments.(B) Calibration results of a BME680 metal oxide gas chemiresistor upon exposures to TVOCs (blue stair-profile) and its ± 15% confidence interval band as the Index of Air Quality.(C) Calibration stability of a sensor with an innovative dielectric excitation scheme implemented for monitoring of fugitive methane gas emissions after multiple uses in diverse field validation campaigns. Key challenges and solutions toward realizing new applicationsIn this era of data-on-demand, environmental sensors could enable countless new applications. Imagine you have a gas sensor conveniently integrated into a smartphone or a watch. You are commuting to work, and your sensor alerts you that the subway station through which you are traveling has very poor air quality. How might this alert affect your behavior? Would you put on a mask, change your commuting route to a twice-longer one, or petition the city? What if you are attending a parade downtown with your asthmatic child, and your device informs you that the air is clean? Would you skip the parade if you knew that your sensor was only 10% accurate? How would you avoid a risk of ending with your asthmatic child in a hospital?Design principles of modern sensors originate in the 20th century for detection of high gas levels from leaks, but they did not anticipate the applications proposed now. By design, existing sensors have only a single output – e.g. resistance, voltage, current, light intensity – that mathematically cannot correct for the sensor instabilities caused by the complex chemical background and variable temperature and humidity conditions. Thus, often these simple sensors perform best when pollution levels are high and when the compound of interest swamps others. As a practical example, there are dozens of gaseous pollutants in ambient air with their toxicity that differ 1,000-10,000 fold. Often, the insufficient reliability and accuracy of existing sensors in the field conditions is a significant bottleneck toward the broad adoption of gas sensors. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the correlation between readings of low-cost sensors versus reference monitors varies widely from 1% to 80%. The EPA also states that no low-cost sensors meet Regulatory Monitoring requirements, and the World Meteorological Organization emphasizes that “low-cost sensors are not currently a direct substitute for reference instruments, especially for mandatory purposes.” However, we now have the increasing number of examples of reliable operation in complex environments (Figure 2) in addition to important advances in reduced power and size of contemporary sensors. Still, the key challenges to realize new applications are often the lack of required accuracy and reliability of available sensors for new contemplated applications.Is it possible to offer low-cost sensors for at least some applications and some gases with the degree of accuracy approaching more expensive specialized instruments? We, the SEMI-MSIG Device Working Group, are saying: Yes. To deliver on this bold statement, our SEMI community brings new technological solutions to the 100-year old general design of gas sensors.Our next blog What is in the Air will provide details on our activities of SEMI-MSIG Device Working Group to establish standards and new measurement schemes to reduce effects from uncontrolled ambient conditions and to improve stability, limit of detection, and dynamic range of environmental sensors. Also learn how new MSIG members can impact this important working group. The MEMS Sensors Industry Group (MSIG) is a SEMI technology community that enables the MEMS and sensor industry to address common challenges, innovate and accelerate business results.Radislav A. Potyrailo is Principal Scientist, Micro Optoelectronics Gas-Chem-Bio Sensors Systems, at GE Research; Ed Stetter is General Manager at SPEC Sensors, LLC; Ryotaro Sakauchi, is Senior Manager of Business Development at Bosch Sensortec; Merry Smith is a Product Manager and Senior Scientist at C2Sense, Inc.; and Sreeni D. Rao is Senior Director of the MEMS Business Group at TDK Corporation.

Humanity has survived almost unimaginable challenges over the past 5,000 years of documented human history. From war, famine and natural disasters to the first global pandemic in the last 100 years, more often than not, people have relied on one another to survive and thrive again. As the industry association representing the global microelectronics industry, SEMI has similarly made collaboration and community integral to the fabric of its organization. From helping members to succeed through the COVID-19 pandemic to facilitating member-driven industry standards around environmental health and safety, materials, and manufacturing capabilities, this approach shows members that standing together is better than standing alone.On the eve of the 50th annual SEMICON West (July 20-23, 2020) — the first virtual edition in SEMI’s history — I spoke with SEMI’s vice president of technology communities, Michael Ciesinski, about the role of SEMI in tackling big challenges through an active member community intent on solving problems through collaboration.SEMI: How long have you worked with SEMI and in what capacity?Ciesinski: In January 2016, I started my second tour at SEMI when FlexTech, the industry consortium I’d been leading, became SEMI’s first strategic partner. Nearly two years into that role, SEMI President CEO Ajit Manocha asked me to form Technology Communities to engage members with common interests. After FlexTech, we brought on the Fab Owners Alliance, then MEMS Sensors Industry Group (MSIG), and later the Electronic System Design Alliance (ESD Alliance).SEMI now has more than 20 communities in all, including Smart MedTech, Smart Data AI, Smart Manufacturing, Electronic Materials, and Integrated Packaging, Assembly and Test.SEMI: What is your role with Technology Communities — and how do members stand to benefit?Ciesinski: The leadership of Technology Communities ensures that SEMI’s benefits and services align to our members’ interests so we can provide member benefits that matter most. This spans forming communities where people hold common interests (e.g., advanced packaging) to facilitating standards that will promote intelligence in manufacturing (e.g., data standards for AI and machine learning) as well as providing R D funding.I’m especially proud that over the past three years, SEMI has brought more than $40 million in R D funding to our members, with most grants in the $500,000-$1 million range. We’ve been especially successful in securing funding in flexible hybrid electronics (FHE) through U.S. Army Research Laboratories (ARL), a model we first developed through FlexTech.Two recent recipients of FHE funding, GE Research and ITN Energy Systems, show how the grants are spawning partnership opportunities among commercial enterprises, R D organizations and universities. In developing lightweight, non-invasive wearables, including a human-performance sweat-monitoring patch that remotely analyzes sweat to detect hydration levels and other vital signs, GE Research is using key components such as sensors and lightweight batteries in its designs.ITN Energy Systems designed a flexible all-solid-state lithium battery that’s printed on light, flexible substrates to power small and incredibly thin applications.Universities are also benefiting by plugging into the SEMI ecosystem. In fact, 40-50 percent of funded projects are seeding commercialization by universities. This is another validation that SEMI’s collaborative, community approach to microelectronics is working.SEMI: Position, Timing and Navigation (PNT) is another hot area where SEMI has secured ARL funding. What makes this funding different and why is it important?Ciesinski: The PNT grant makes ARL funding available to the MEMS Sensors Industry Group (MSIG) members through SEMI for the first time. If you’ve ever lost GPS signal while coming out of a tunnel, you know how frustrating that is. For us, that’s an inconvenience, but for a healthcare worker in a remote location who’s waiting for a delivery of medication by drone, it could be life-critical. While that’s just one example of why we need PNT to operate when GPS isn’t available, I can imagine dozens of other important dual-use cases, including autonomous driving.SEMI: How else do Technology Communities benefit under SEMI?Ciesinski: Technology Communities need access to diverse resources to spur continuous innovation. Electronic Materials Group participants, for example, need to stay informed on regulations coming out of Asia, the U.S. and Europe that may affect their businesses. Where else other than SEMI can like-minded stakeholders congregate with people up and down the supply chain to determine whether industry-wide action is needed on regulation?SEMI: What is the importance of SEMI’s global footprint?Ciesinski: I’ve worked with many associations and managed major industry consortia. The clear advantage of SEMI is our global footprint. And that’s vital because microelectronics is a global industry involving a multitude of stakeholders that play essential roles in the supply chain.Let’s say you want to discuss EU regulations on hazardous chemicals. Rather than decipher these complexities alone, you can pick up the phone to speak with someone on SEMI’s European team to learn what’s critical.What if you’d like more information on the 20-plus new fabs that are going up in China? You can explore that question with our SEMI China or SEMI Industry Research and Statistics teams.SEMI: How has SEMI evolved over the years?Ciesinski: SEMI has a long history of providing what the industry cares about. We started in trade shows and pivoted to industry standards. We began with small silicon wafers and wafer carriers, and now within the span of 50 years we’re working on data-format standards that will support the application of AI and machine learning (ML) in the semiconductor industry.While highly varied today, data-format standards will help component manufacturers refine processes to create more efficient solutions. This ARL-funded program, which pairs SEMI members with the grant recipient, Cornell University, may offer dramatic gains in the productivity of semiconductor manufacturing.SEMI: How does SEMI’s approach to COVID-19 reflect core values of collaboration and community?Ciesinski: Together with Ajit Manocha, CMO Terry Tsao and other team members at SEMI, we pulled together a task force to help SEMI members navigate the pandemic.We tapped two existing groups, Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) and Information Technology Leadership (ITL) from the start, documenting their strategic and tactical approaches to help all members through the COVID-19 resource section of our website. The EHS section provides tips on facilities and meetings, employee policies, business travel and communications, while the ITL section lists insights on computing hardware for staff, licensing, networks, security and employee policies.Our EHS leadership team, which includes Entegris, Axcelis, Versum, and Intel, immediately started sharing best practices for sanitizing facilities. As a result of team meetings, SEMI EHS shared best practices on keeping the workforce remote and guidelines for returning people to work safely. From securing PPE and safeguarding employees and visitors by performing thermal scanning to outlining communications around potential employee exposures, EHS has provided meaningful resources for the benefit of all members.SEMI also took immediate steps in the area of advocacy. Our advocacy team in Washington, D.C., together with regional SEMI presidents around the world, have ensured that semiconductor facilities were and still are considered essential businesses in the U.S., Europe and Asia. That’s because microelectronics are foundational to fighting the pandemic.Microfluidics are critical to the Reverse Transcription (RT) Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests most commonly used for COVID-19. Sensors are embedded in the pulse oximeters that allow patients and healthcare professionals to monitor a vital rubric: oxygen saturation level. If oxygen saturation level drops into the low 90 percentiles or below, it may be time to go to the hospital for treatment.Microcontroller units are essential components in a wide range of hospital equipment, including the ventilators that may make the difference between life and death in the most seriously ill patients.SEMI: How can the ingenuity realized through microelectronics continue to help us tackle other big problems? Ciesinski: We have MEMS and sensors to thank for distributed intelligence, giving us the ability to put sensors anywhere, locally based in the field or in the packaging house.Food production is a prime example. Leveraging miniaturized wirelessly connected sensors, we can trace food through the entire production lifecycle, from the seed in the ground to the food in the warehouse and, ultimately, to the product that lands on the table.From larger enterprise such as IBM Food Trust to small startups, we’re using MEMS and sensors to improve crop yields so we can feed a human population that’s growing each year.There’s a sustainability piece as well. We’re using MEMS and sensors to reduce the amount of fertilizer or other nutrients or chemicals in the soil. That’s good for the environment and for the agricultural workers who labor in the fields.MEMS and sensors can also condense the time it takes to perform a specific task, conserving human resources.SEMI: Where do you think SEMI will go in the next decade?Ciesinski: Ten years from now, I believe we will still have our global footprint in place. I expect it will expand, particularly in Asia.We may also expand into new areas such as Latin America and Central America, which would provide at least two major benefits: People working in microelectronics would, I hope, have access to better quality of life. And diversifying the supply chain would allow nations and regions to have more control over the products they need, from PPE to medications, which may help us to better manage through the next pandemic.I am also hopeful that SEMI will be on the leading edge of helping our members communicate in much different fashion from what we have today. We’re already expanding beyond the paradigm of in-person meetings for standards meetings and conferences. As we move forward, I think we’ll see a hybrid solution to doing business, combining in-person meetings with virtual conferences and digital content that’s available 24/7.Whatever changes we see in SEMI, I’m confident that we will continue to see a global footprint in an industry association that prioritizes connections among members.Engage in the SEMI experience at upcoming SEMICON WestRegister today to hear from keynote speakers such as environmental advocate and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, futurist and author Steve Brown, and IBM Research senior vice president and director Dr. John E. Kelly III, and Lea Gabrielle, special envoy of the Global Engagement Center for the U.S. State Department, at SEMICON West , July 20-23, 2020. Content will be live streamed and available on-demand. Michael Ciesinski is vice president of Technology Communities for SEMI, the global microelectronics industry association, appointed in August 2018. At SEMI, he directs activity for more than 20 industry groups, oversees the association’s R D funding program, and develops new technology initiatives to serve SEMI’s 2,400 members. Prior to re-joining SEMI, Ciesinski was president/CEO of FlexTech Alliance, an industry consortium focused on new methods of creating electronics. From 1995-2008, Ciesinski served in a similar role at the U.S. Display Consortium (USDC), a private/public partnership chartered with building the infrastructure for electronic display and flexible electronics manufacturing. Both FlexTech and USDC annually sponsor multimillion dollar technology development programs and provide industry technical, financial and market services. Ciesinski is a graduate of the University of Albany, NY, and a former member of the Dean’s Advisory Committee at California Polytechnic State University.Maria Vetrano is a PR consultant at SEMI.

“A hundred years from now, someone’s going to look back and say, ‘Can you believe they waited until you got a disease, and then they did something?’” This observation from Dr. William Hait, the leader of Johnson Johnson’s External Innovation program, crisply sums up the SEMI Smart MedTech Summit, a two-day program at SEMICON Europa 2019, sponsored by GE Research and imecBenjamin Wiegand, PhD of Johnson Johnson, cited the quote in his opening presentation and added another pertinent question: “What if we could predict who was going to get a disease and then preempt it from happening?” Weigand’s conclusion is the first of six key takeaways from the summit.1. Accomplishing this vision could lead to a world without disease. Developing a disease-free world by exploring how the integration of advanced electronics and medical technology (MedTech) can enable new healthcare solutions is the very mission of the SEMI Smart MedTech Initiative. Various experts speaking at the MedTech Summit delved into a range of topics, from pan-European medical initiatives and artificial organs to new sensors and systems and start-ups’ need for funding and partners.2. All of us will have a digital twin (avatar), bringing together all relevant data that can impact our health and well-being.Several speakers illustrated the advantages of a digital human avatar that would start with an individual’s unique physical data and then be continuously updated with new data tracked by body-worn devices and from ongoing research findings. This would enable healthcare providers to extract insights and predict future physical performance or health issues.While, technologically, the avatar can already be constructed, the ability to make real changes to future human behavior is a significant outstanding question. Multiple speakers highlighted the various benefits of digital avatars at the MedTech Summit. 3. The MedTech sector’s need for cybersecurity looms large, as it does in every other digitally-driven, IOT-based framework.Further exploring the human-to-digital interface, Anthony Mathur of Bart’s Heart Center in the UK pointed to the importance of strict laws for safeguarding patient privacy, a cornerstone of healthcare digital policies, and the critical need for cybersecurity. He warned against an all-digital action network, citing the virus attack that shut down the UK’s National Health Service, rendering all patient records inaccessible for more than two weeks.4. MedTech devices, systems and other tools will radically change healthcare in the not-too-distant future.Almost every speaker touched on this point, including Franz Laermer of Bosch in his presentation The Future of Personalized Treatment. Laermer explored devices that will drive more patient-centric healthcare in areas including asthma therapy and molecular diagnostic testing and highlighted innovations in monitoring oncology therapies more effectively, less invasively and more accurately. Other presenters showcased their work in areas including silicon-based microfluidics, next-generation DNA sequencing and synthesis, lab-on-chip and cell arrays. 5. Startups and well-established companies will help advance digital tools and data to keep us healthier, happier and safer. Among the MedTech Summit highlights, several start-ups presented their business, financial and go-to-market plans. Notably, continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) is an especially active area of investment and innovation, as diabetes is among the world’s most widespread chronic diseases. The industry’s goal is to develop a non-invasive platform as a replacement for today’s prick-and-test approach to measuring blood sugar levels.6. Pan-European organizations are working to coordinate efforts and investments in digital healthcare. The European healthcare sector is large and diverse, as shown in the following slide provided by the organization MedTech Europe. Every country has its own legal framework, infrastructure, and health service structure medical technology companies must navigate. More than 27,000 medtech companies are located in Europe – 95% of them small to medium size businesses. Michael Stubin and Patrick Boisseau from MedTech Europe said concerted efforts to coordinate research and structural changes across the EU are underway to help spur medtech innovation and, with healthcare accounting for 10% of Europe's GDP, drive more market opportunity. This table shared by MedTech Europe points to the wide range of medical systems by country across the continent. Next StepsIs your company applying microelectronics innovations to change the way we approach medical care? If so, you’re invited to share your mission, roadmap and collaboration needs at a future MedTech Initiative Forum. For regular updates, join the MedTech interest list. In addition to the SEMI MedTech Initiative, our Nano-Bio Materials Consortium (NBMC) brings together scientists, engineers and business development professionals from industry, government and universities to collaboratively initiate research and development of electronic technologies to improve human performance monitoring and performance augmentation. Find out more at www.semi.org/collaborate/communities/NBMC.Michael Ciesinski is the Vice President of Technology Communities at SEMI.