By Greentech Lead Team: Microsemi
Corporation, a provider of semiconductor solutions differentiated by
power, security, reliability and performance, announced it is participating in
a multi-disciplinary consortium tasked with developing innovative
CMOS-compatible, high-temperature sensors that help reduce carbon emissions and
drive energy consumption savings.
The European Union’s Seventh
Framework Programme (FP7ICT) is funding the majority of the SOI-HITS (Silicon
on Insulator High Temperature Systems) project. The project is scheduled for
completion by the end ofAugust 2014.
This Industry Consortium Tasked with
Developing Silicon on Insulator Sensors for Harsh Environments.
Microsemi will
lead and manage the SOI-HITS project, and be responsible for high-temperature
packaging and system integration activities.
SOI-HITS will develop sensors
with a built-in electronic interface designed to work in harsh high-temperature
environments, something that is difficult to achieve at the present time due to
the limits of conventional sensor and control electronics and packaging.
The development of a
high-temperature SIP (system in a package) will enable real-world technology
demonstrators with the capability of on-chip processing electronics, including
drive circuitry, filters, amplifiers, processing circuits and analog to digital
interfaces.
Additional members of the consortium
include Cambridge CMOS Sensors, Cambridge University, Cissoid,
Honeywell Romania, IREC, Universite Catholique de Louvain and Warwick
University.
Cambridge CMOS Sensors, a spin out
SME, will exploit the ‘revolutionary’ smart technology for gas sensors
developed by the Universities
of Cambridge and Warwick. Cambridge University will
provide overall scientific coordination and technical leadership for the nano
sensor design and fabrication within harsh environments;
Cissoid, a provider in
high-temperature semiconductor solutions, will design a high-temperature,
highly integrated, intelligent interface circuit for the gas sensor.
Honeywell Romania will be
responsible for the demonstrator design and testing; will oversee the
exploitation activities of the project; will be involved in gas sensors design
and fabrication, and in the numerical simulation of the sensors and sensing
system developed within the project.
IREC will be responsible for
scientific research related to gas sensing structures, design, numerical
simulations, test structure fabrication and sensing layer selection.
Universite Catholique de Louvain
will design and test a water vapor concentration sensor, a UV photodiode and
associated interface electronic circuits, for high temperature operation.
Warwick University, a world renowned
Microsensors & Bioelectronics Laboratory (formerly Sensors Research
Laboratory), will be responsible for the characterization and testing of the
gas sensors under harsh environmental conditions.
The extension of the platform to
optical detectors, such as ultra-violet (UV) photodiode flame detectors and
infrared (IR) combined sources/detectors, will also be explored.
Microsemi recently announced its new
high-efficiency Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) midspans at the Cisco Live London
show. The new PoE devices reduce energy consumption on network cables by as
much as 50 percent compared to alternative midspans and PoE network switches.