MAY 2017EDITION

Preface May 2017 The 5 highlights of April

Imec looking for partners to combatchronic diseases

ExaScience Life Lab helps pharmacompanies dig for drug candidates inexisting data

A city full of energy Smart Education: catching up with thedigital revolution

New silicon photonics technologydelivers faster data traffic in data

centers

AZilPix: filming and broadcastingevents becomes a one-man show

Imec MagazineEdition | May 2017

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Sitting forever in the classroom?

We’re now into the final preparations for our imec technology forum (ITF). On 16th and 17th Maywe’ll be hosting some inspiring speakers from all over the world in the wonderfully refurbishedElizabeth Hall in Antwerp (Belgium), where a dedicated audience will be happy to return ‘to theclassroom’ for the occasion. During ITF you will be able to find out everything you need to knowabout the latest technological developments in the area of chip technology, technology for betterhealth, smart cities, the Internet of Things and much more. You can also see two of the expertsfeatured in this magazine, Chris Van Hoof and Jef Poortmans, at work – live – in Antwerp.Respectively, they will be talking about digital health coaches and a sustainable energy grid. And –even more important – you can also meet Chris and Jef and exchange thoughts with them. Becausethat’s also what ITF is all about: networking and swapping knowledge with the leading experts inyour particular area of interest.

I am currently working on my own presentation, which will be about the unseen opportunitiespresented by the fourth industrial revolution. We are, in fact, on the eve of a technology revolutionthat will radically alter our way of living and working. Concepts such as automation, interactionbetween humans and machines, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, big data and the waythat data is interpreted, will all be highlighted. These concepts will bring us many opportunities. Butas is the case with every (industrial) revolution, there is also a degree of fear about change. Thedoom-mongers are convinced that machines will take over all of the jobs from us humans. Which iswhy it is important for us to keep putting humans front and center with every technologicaldevelopment we make. The story that Chris Van Hoof has to tell us in this magazine is a goodexample: we will all have our own personal (digital) coach, who will get to know us in depththrough sensors and contextual information. This coach will help us to live more healthily and is agood example of how humans and technology can work together.

Edition | May 2017

Preface May 2017Each month, our CEO reflects on his life and work and discussesthe topics described in that month’s imec magazine issue.

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Another characteristic of this fourth industrial revolution is that technological developmentsfollow one another at astonishing speed. Did you know, for example, that supercomputers help usto develop medical drugs more quickly and that silicon photonics will enable us to exchange dataeven more quickly in datacenters? You didn’t? Well, you can read all about it in this magazine.

However, a rapidly evolving world also means that we have to keep on learning. We can do that byreading a lot, by attending conferences and lectures, or by doing courses online, etc. Spending ourwhole lives ‘in the classroom’ in other words.

But how do the young people of today fit in that picture? Those youngsters who are still in theclassroom, the way they were 100 years ago, jostling next to each other on the school bench infront of the teacher, from 8.30 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon, with just the lunch break tolook forward to… And anyone wanting to ask a question has to be brave enough to put their handup… So maybe there’s a way that technology can make the classroom a more dynamic place, withcustomized education and a greater degree of interaction? Imec believes there is.

For that reason, we opened the ‘Edulab’ in Kortrijk (Belgium) this month – part of the brand-newimec ‘Smart Education’ program, which you can also read more about in this magazine. Workingwith researchers from KU Leuven, UGent and VUB, as well as companies like Barco and Televic, andthe Flemish schools, our aim is to use technology to make schoolwork more interactive andcollaborative – both at school, but also in professional after-school education. Learning technologyenables you to take part actively in lessons at home via your laptop. Or you can ask the teacher a‘silent’ question online (anonymously and without having to put your hand up!) and have theamount of attention you are paying monitored, with the teacher being involved, too. And all thatcan be done based on imec’s technology and insights. So you can see how imec is laying thefoundations for a future in which lifelong learning plays a central part. Just like the telephone with adial or black-and-white television, ‘sitting in the classroom’ could soon become a thing of the past.

Luc Van den hove,President and CEO imec

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More than 50 demos selected for ITF Belgium

In the course of April, imec selected from among hundred entries more than 50 demos andprototypes to be showcased at the annual ITF Belgium conference on May 16-17. The demos haveimec technology inside, and show the latest developments in diverse applications domains,including smart cities, sustainable energy, smart health, smart industry, smart mobility and media. ITFattendees will be able to discuss the technologies with the researchers behind the demos, who arecurrently making the final preparations. On the website of ITF Belgium,you can find a foretaste of the selected demos. Not yet registered for ITF? Reserve your ticket via www.itf2017.be/belgium.

New record efficiencies for imec ’s perovskite andbifacial n-PERT solar cells

Imec achieved breakthrough results for two types of solar cells. On the one hand, imec, a partner inEnergyVille, realized n-PERT bifacial solar cells with a record-setting front side efficiency of 22.8%.These solar cells can harvest sunlight at both sides of the cell. The newly developed bifacial solarcell technology promises a low cost-of-ownership at module level. On the other hand, imec,partner in Solliance, developed a 4x4cm2 perovskite module with a conversion efficiency of 12.4%.Perovskite modules rely on a thin-film technology and could eventually be integrated in buildingmaterials. Imec not only demonstrated a very good performance, also the stability of the newperovskite module was outstanding. You can find more details on imec’s website .

Edition | May 2017

The 5 highlights of AprilLife is busy! So you might not always have the time to keep upwith imec's latest news and achievements. On this page you canfind a quick overview of what imec has been doing in the pastmonth.

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Smart shirt of imec and Holst Centre monitors breathing, cardiac activity andmotion

Monitoring your heart rate with a chest band or Holter monitor? You can do it in a morecomfortable way as well... At MedTech Europe in Stuttgart (April 4-6), imec and Holst Centredemonstrated a prototype smart shirt with integrated sensors that monitor breathing and motion,and enable a medical grade electrocardiagram monitoring. The sensors and electronics are printedon textile in thin layers of only 60 micrometer, and are up to 100% stretchable. The shirt iscompletely washable. Read the press release for more info.

Imec welcomes its core partners

Every six months, imec invites its core partners to learn about imec’s latest research results. In thelast week of April, imec welcomed about 500 people to attend presentations by imec’s scientistsand residents. The content-rich program included contributions on, among others, the latestmemory technologies and transistor architectures, the status of lithography, 3D integrationtechnologies, interconnect technologies, Si photonics and an update on imec’s GaN program. NextPTW (Program Technical Week) is scheduled for October 2017.

Eric Beyne receives European SEMI Award for 2016

Eric Beyne, Fellow and Program Director 3D System Integration at imec, is among the threerecipients of the European SEMI Award for 2016. Eric Beyne received the award in recognition ofoutstanding contributions in the field of 3D integration. Eric Beyne joint imec in 1986, mainlyfocusing on the development of advanced packaging and interconnect technologies. Also RolfAschenbrenner from Fraunhofer, Germany, and Gilles Poupon from CEA-Leti, France, were awarded.You find more info on the award and its recipients here.

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Plenty of exercise, healthy eating, not smoking and keeping your stress under control. We all knowhow things ought to be for healthy living. But it’s not because we know what’s right for us that weactually manage to apply it, too. Yet 80% of chronic diseases are linked to our behavior, whiletreating those diseases gobbles up 50% of the healthcare budget. So it’s high time for some goodintentions or, even better, for a system that helps us to put our good intentions for a long andhealthy life into effect.

Imec is building just such a system, based on sensors and the analysis of smartphone data. Chris VanHoof, director Wearable Healthcare at imec, talks to us about this major research program, whichincludes sensor technology, data science, extensive trials, developing business models and, mostimportantly, finding the right partners. Various hospitals are already involved in the program. Andbecause solid foundations have been laid for the program, Chris Van Hoof is now looking forinterested companies seeking ways of changing healthcare forever.

How does imec intend to tackle chronic diseases?

We all know that a healthy lifestyle is important. It saves us from obesity, cardiac and vasculardiseases, burn-out and depression, as well as certain forms of cancer. Yet it can be so enjoyable toeat a pizza or fries from time to time, or (even) to smoke a cigarette – and many people think thatstress is part and parcel of work anyway. Which is why imec is developing a system that willencourage us to live more healthily and help doctors in treating patients with depression, eatingdisorders and so on.

Edition | May 2017

Smart Health, Life sciences, CSR

Imec looking for partners tocombat chronic diseasesImec launches research program imec.iCHANGE to develop adigital coach for a healthier life, based on sensor technology anddata science.

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Van Hoof: “It all begins with collecting data. We take physiological data readings using sensors thatyou wear on the body (such as in a watch, incorporated into a T-shirt, etc.). This may involve allsorts of cardiopulmonary parameters and physiological information, including heart rate, ECG, skintemperature, skin conductance and so forth. We then gather contextual data using yoursmartphone: your location, the appointments in your diary, your activity on social media, ambientsounds, e-mail habits, etc. NB: just by way of reassurance, this data is made anonymous for privacyand security reasons.”

“We then apply smart algorithms to all this data, which gives us an insight into your behavior, habitsand ‘moments of weakness’. For example, you may always go for a smoke at around midday and fourin the afternoon, or your stress levels may rise when you have a meeting with a specific person, oryou may like to snack on something sweet when you get home from work. In this first phase, thesystem gets to know you, although feedback from the person is often still required. However, thisfeedback needs to be very user-friendly. It doesn’t make sense, for instance, to ask people who wantto lose weight to fill in an eating diary, because no one will keep it up. But if the system succeeds indeducing as much as it can from contextual information – and if the questions have simple Yes/Noanswers – then most people will find that acceptable. In fact, the better the algorithm gets to knowyou, the more focused the questions will be that you have to answer.”

Collecting and interpreting physiological and contextual data enables you to pick up on a person’shabits. This is the first step in the process of changing behavior.

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Once we have gathered all of the data we need and gained specific insights from it, what is the nextstep? Van Hoof: “People often know when they are having their moments of weakness, but this isnot enough to make them do anything about it. What they need is someone to support them duringthese vulnerable times. Think about the image of an angel and a devil perched on your shoulderwhen you want to quit smoking, eat less candy, etc. We want to put an additional angel in yoursmartphone to tilt the balance in your favor. So, imagine that you want to improve your fitness. Thealgorithms have already learnt what your current fitness levels are, whether you are a morning or anevening person and when you have time in your busy schedule. Based on this information, they cansuggest that you do certain exercises at certain times. Or maybe you want to stop smoking: thealgorithm has learnt where it is you go to have a cigarette and will send you a message as soon as itnotices you are heading in that direction. Or perhaps the algorithm has learnt that you alwayssmoke after visiting your mother-in-law. What it does is send you a message immediately after this‘risk time’ to convince you not to light a cigarette. This differs from the current applications, whichsend you general tips and advice at standard times. The key to success is to get to know the person,the way they spend their time and what their habits are, so that the right feedback can be given atthe right time. We supply the technology; the behavioral therapists provide their insights into howbest to help and guide a change in behavior.”

Five cases

A number of actual cases will be dealt with in the research program into technology for changingpeople’s behavior. Van Hoof: “We will develop technology and algorithms for stress management,quitting smoking, changing eating and drinking habits (e.g. for losing weight), as well as for improvingfitness. We know that there are already lots of fitness apps and activity trackers, but we believe thatwe can develop technology and algorithms that will make these products even better. So that theyprovide personal feedback, at the right times. The companies that make these types of apps aremore than welcome to work with us on finding solutions that make people genuinely healthier aslong as they live.”

“We start with ‘extreme’ cases so that we can learn things that can be used later in less extremecases. Example: for the stress management exercise, we work with patients who are being treatedby a therapist and who are struggling with burn-out or depression; for eating habits, we work withanorexia patients. If we can detect signals in these patients that are typical for their ‘disease’, at alater stage we will also be able to identify disorders that are less obvious and so take preventativeaction. If, for example, we are able to detect chronic stress at an early stage – before it developsinto burn-out or depression – we can protect the patient, doctor and healthcare budget from moresignificant problems.”

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Current results

The idea we are talking about here is not new for imec. We have written about it previously in imecmagazine (see article headed ‘A personal coach for everyone’, September 2015). But a lot hashappened since then. Van Hoof: “Last year, imec merged with the iMinds research institute. Theirresearchers have brought their knowledge about data science and security with them, which makesour program even stronger and more complete. We have also been running a large-scale trial (1000people) on stress for the past 18 months. We measure stress parameters in their daily lives andanalyze this data looking for a way to detect stress accurately and possibly to predict it. Thisenables us to subdivide people into various categories in relation to their ability to withstand stress.For this stress trial and also for projects on eating behavior among anorexia patients, we workclosely with psychologists and therapists. Setting up this form of collaboration provides theimportant foundation we needed before we were able to roll out a large-scale research program forindustrial partners.”

Imec already has a fine record in the area of sensor technology. This research was given an extraboost when the Holst Centre was set up in Eindhoven, 10 years ago now. The program has includedproducing a sensor module for cardiac and vascular diseases, an adhesive health bandage and anEEG headset as a demonstrator of imec’s unique low-power sensor technology. This sensortechnology has also already been picked up by commercial companies to be developed further intoactual products.

Examples of some of the demonstrator items developed by imec to illustrate its unique low-powersensor technology.

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Imec’s unique sensor technology has also been used already by a number of industrial partners.

What makes this program so unique?

Many companies and research organizations are involved with technology designed to improve ourhealth. What makes imec’s program so unique? Van Hoof: “The depth and breadth of the program isunique anywhere in the world. And the applications it will create will be unique in terms ofpersonalization for both detecting health problems and feedback.”

“By depth I mean the clinically relevant, scientific nature of the data gathered. Our sensors enableus to measure an enormous number of parameters. For example, in the stress test we use a sensorwristband and plaster to measure 3 physiological signals (skin conductance, ECG and temperature),from which we can calculate 20 parameters. In the trials we will typically measure as many signalsas possible so that we can then pick out the most relevant parameters for each specific application.The ultimate commercial product that will be developed by our partners may consist of just onesensor and one smartphone app, otherwise it would be too complicated for the user. In addition toour own sensors, we also include commercially available sensors from our partners in the trials.”

“The breadth of the program is also huge. We have psychologists and therapists working with us, aswell as people specializing in sensor technology, user interfaces, digital phenotyping, privacy andsecurity. Our work includes establishing living labs and trial organizations and developing the mostsuitable business models (subscription, hire, prescription by a physician, etc.). Our merger withiMinds has enabled us to expand our knowledge so that we now have a broad package that makescreating a total solution possible. But in the end, the success of the program will depend on thepartners we are able to convince to work with us.”

Are you the partner we ’re looking for?

As we have said, imec is currently looking for companies willing to work with it on this researchprogram. Van Hoof: “We want to develop an ecosystem that enables us to have all of the areas ofexpertise on board so that we can develop useful products for our partners to market and sell. Orperhaps interested companies already have products that they can improve on thanks to the resultsof this program. Because we will be setting up major trials and will be using the living labsmethodology, our partners will receive immediate feedback from the end-user about what worksand what doesn’t. This means they take much less of a risk when they bring a new product tomarket.”

So, if you are a company working with sensors, systems or apps relating to health or specificdiseases, or if you are a doctor or specialist or coaching company and are interested in imec’sapproach, please contact Chris Van Hoof (016/281815).

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Want to know more?

• On 16 May, Chris Van Hoof will be speaking in Antwerp at the Imec Technology Forum Belgium.More information from the ITF website.

• In October, imec is organizing ITF Health, an Imec Technology Forum dedicated totally to imec’shealthcare technology. If you would like to attend, you will have to travel to the US. Moreinformation from the ITF website.

Biography Chris Van Hoof

Chris Van Hoof leads imec’s wearable healthR&D across 3 imec sites (Eindhoven, Leuven andGent). Imec’s wearable health teams providesolutions for chronic-disease patientmonitoring and for preventive health throughvirtual coaching. Chris has taken wearablehealth from embryonic research to a businessline serving international customers. Chris likesto make things that really work and apart fromdelivering industry-relevant qualified solutionsto customers, his work has already resulted in 4imec startups (3 in the healthcare domain).After receiving a PhD from the KU Leuven in1992 in collaboration with imec, Chris has heldpositions as manager and director in diversefields (sensors, imagers, 3D integration, MEMS,energy harvesting, body area networks,biomedical electronics, wearable health). Hehas published over 600 papers in journals andconference proceedings and has given over 60invited talks. He is full professor at the KULeuven.

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Pharma companies test millions of molecules to find potential drugs for specific diseases. But theycould use the tests for a much wider screening, predicting the effect of the molecules for manymore biological processes and drug targets. One of the bottlenecks, however, is processing andmining the enormous amounts of available data. Roel Wuyts, a senior scientist at the imec-basedExaScience Life Lab, explains how he and his colleagues work to solve such computationalbottlenecks for life sciences applications. Starting from a recent project to repurpose the results ofhigh-throughput cell imaging, he shows how the expertise center unleashes the power of today’s(and tomorrow’s) high-performance computers to help improve people’s quality of life.

Sifting through millions of pictures

To fill their research pipeline with new drug candidates, pharmaceutical companies regularly screenthe effects that hundreds of thousands of candidate molecules have on cells, the basic buildingblocks of our body. To do so, they use plates that have hundreds of little wells. In each well, theydeposit a culture of the cells they want to look at. Then, to each well separately, they add one ofthe molecules for which they want to see the effect. They give it some time to react, add contrastand coloring liquids and make one or more high-resolution microscopy pictures of the wells.

Edition | May 2017

ExaScience Life Lab helpspharma companies dig fordrug candidates in existingdataHigh-performance computers process and mine the enormousamounts of data from molecule testing for drug discovery to getnew insights.

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These pictures are then automatically processed, looking at a number of morphologicalcharacteristics of the cells and their organelles that reveal what the effect is of the molecules thatwere added. Has the cell grown, or has it shrunk? Is the cell wall still intact, or does it showdamage? And what about the cell’s nucleus, where the genetic material is sitting?

“The process is called high-throughput cell imaging (HTI),” says Roel Wuyts, “and the tool that isoften used to sift through the pictures is the open-source CellProfiler software developed by theBroad Institute. CellProfiler was designed to enable biologists without training in computer vision orprogramming to automatically process large amounts of pictures, quantifying specificcharacteristics of cells. The CellProfiler script sets up a pipeline, calling a number of subsequentprograms, each taking as input the output of the previous program.”

These are elaborate tests, assays in pharma parlance. Usually they are set up to look at the effectsof a library of molecules on only one specific biological process, e.g. where a specific receptormolecule is lodged in the cell and how its distribution is influenced by adding the molecule. “Thatmakes it easy for the statistical methods used,” says Wuyts. “It only has to look at a handful of allthe available cell characteristics. But the downside is that it mines only a small portion of theinformation that is potentially available in those expensive pictures.”

Unlocking all the information

In a recent project, we collaborated with researchers from Janssen Pharmaceutica, the BroadInstitute, and a number of research partners to unlock the information content in such images byusing high-performance computing.

Each cell hosts thousands of biochemical processes and potential drug targets, all of which areexposed to the chemical compounds used in a specific assay. And apart from the specific processfor which the assay was set up, many other processes and targets also have an impact on the cellmorphology and can thus be studied from the images.

So the researchers wanted to see if it was possible to make an unbiased image-based fingerprint ofeach well, a fingerprint that could then be used to predict the activity of all tested molecules on agreat many processes.

One important difference between a single-purpose assay and an unbiased fingerprint is that eachhigh-resolution picture, and there may be millions in one assay, has to be scanned for hundreds oreven thousands of characteristics instead of only a handful. And that turns out to be acomputational bottleneck, a bottleneck that Roel Wuyts and his colleagues helped solve.

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“In this study,” says Wuyts, “we had a second look at the pictures that were taken to study theinfluence of half a million different molecules on H4 neuroglioma cells, a specific type of braintumer cell. The original goal was to see how the molecules impacted the move of glucocorticoidreceptors from the cell cytoplasm into the nucleus. This is a process that is called nucleartranslocation and that can be studied visually.”

“We received imaging data from close to 2,000 plates, each with 384 wells. So there were millionsof high-resolution pictures to process, totaling over 10 TByte of data. The goal was to useCellProfiler to extract quantitative data for about 1,400 features per image. But the CellProfilerscript originally developed at the Broad Institute was not optimized to analyze this quantity of data.More specifically, it was not able to make good use of a state-of-the-art high-performancecomputer infrastructure with an array of multiprocessor computers each hosting multiple multicoreprocessors. So running it took a prohibitively amount of expensive computer resources, which isone of the reasons why this kind of comprehensive analysis was never done before.”

Solving the computational bottleneck

The ExaScience Life Lab has a high-performance compute cluster with 32 processing nodes, eachconsisting of 36 cores. The lab’s data center is also certified by Janssen Pharmaceutica, a partner inboth the ExaScience Lab and this project. Such certification is a security prerequisite to process thistype of sensitive biological data.

“The challenge is to distribute the computation as efficiently as possible over all processors andnodes of the compute cluster”, says Wuyts. “One way to do that is to rewrite the programs, makingthem maximally suitable for parallel processing. We’ve done that with great success for a number ofother projects, but here we decided to stick to CellProfiler and adapt the way it is run. So ourexperts used a bag of tricks to run and distribute all processes over the available cores as efficientlyas possible, e.g. by setting up scripts that ran CellProfiler over all images in headless mode, withoutinteraction from a user, and splitting the total work in small chunks that can be executed onindividual processor cores. With these interventions we managed to cut the processing time on theLab’s supercomputer by almost two thirds, and we see potential for further gains.”

Of course, the image processing was only one step, albeit an important one, in the repurposingprocess. In their conclusions, the project’s researchers stated that their “results indicate that imagesfrom HTI screening projects that are conducted in many institutions can be repurposed forincreasing hit rates in other projects, even those that seem unrelated to the primary purpose of theHTI screen. Consequently, it might be possible to replace particular assays with the potentially morecost-efficient imaging technology together with machine learning models.”

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“Our lab was able to remove a computational bottleneck, making a sizable difference for thepractical feasibility of projects like these,” says Wuyts. “We have proven that with some careful andtargeted interventions, it is possible to slash the computer time for processing this amount ofimages substantially. And as computer time and the associated cost is often a prohibitive factor inlife sciences projects such as these, we believe we have enabled future projects that will improvethe health and wellbeing of many.”

Want to know more?

The Exascience Life Lab is an expertise center for high-performance and big-data computation inlife sciences. The lab is housed at imec and was started in 2013 as a joint initiative by Intel, JanssenPharmaceutica, imec, and all Flemish universities. Its core mission is to remove computationalbottlenecks in software applications, allowing them to be used to solve real-world problems in thelife sciences industry. This specific project was supported by research grants IWT130405 ExaScienceLife Pharma, IWT130406 ExaScience Life HPC, and IWT150865 Exaptation from VLAIO, the FlandersInnovation and Entrepreneurship agency.

Biography Roel Wuyts

Roel Wuyts is principal scientist at imec andpart-time professor at imec- DistriNet – KULeuven. His main research interest is in theruntime management layer of future high-performance computing hardware. Beforejoining imec, he was Associate Professor at theULB (Université Libre de Bruxelles). He obtainedhis PhD in computer science from the VUB(Vrije Universiteit Brussel). Roel Wuyts hasserved as member in various conferenceprogram committees such as ECOOP, OOPSLA,SC, Net.ObjectDays, or ESUG, organizedworkshops such as the DATE'08 Workshop onSoftware Engineering for Embedded Systems,and reviewed papers for TOPLAS or TOSEM.

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Coal extraction began about 100 years ago in Waterschei (Belgian Limburg) and the mines continuedoperating until 1987. It is at this symbolic site that the first stone was laid today for the secondbuilding in EnergyVille. EnergyVille is where researchers from KU Leuven, VITO, UHasselt and imecare working on making the transition from ‘black’ energy to a sustainable energy system. EnergyVilleis in the process of becoming one big laboratory, complete with solar panels, batteries, energy-generating bike paths, thermal and electrical power labs, energy networks between the buildings –and much more. Jef Poortmans, Scientific Director Photovoltaics at imec and R&D strategycoordinator for EnergyVille, explains what makes this project so unique.

A little bit of history

The EnergyVille buildings are located at the former Waterschei-Genk mine. The Waterschei coalmine was just one of seven mines in the Kempen coal mining basin where coal was extracted from1907 to 1987. The mine’s impressive main building is still there. Visitors are able to relive the mine’shistory by listening to the stories told by old mineworkers in the museum.

We now know that the extensive burning of coal – resulting in the release of CO2 – causes thetemperature to rise on Earth. In addition, the combustion of coal releases fine dust particles intothe atmosphere, which are harmful for our health. We also know that green energy – sun, wind,geothermal, etc. – is the future. For this reason, the former mine site has been transformed into anindustry park where researchers are able to work together on green energy in EnergyVille, andwhere energy companies can set up operations to create a single unified hotspot working on allthings related to energy.

Edition | May 2017

A city full of energyConstruction starts of second building of Energyville, a placewhere researchers from KU Leuven, VITO, UHasselt and imec willdevelop technologies for sustainable energy.

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The old Waterschei-Genk mine site

Imec to relocate its PV research to EnergyVille

EnergyVille is where researchers from KU Leuven, VITO, UHasselt and imec all work together. Eachorganization contributes its own area of expertise. KU Leuven, for instance, provides its knowledgeabout high-voltage DC networks, network design, modeling and control. VITO, on the other hand,has a great deal of expertise about thermal networks, monitoring systems, market organization andscenario development. And UHasselt uses its strong background in material synthesis (for PV,batteries) and reliability studies of components.

Poortmans: “Imec will be relocating its research into PV, batteries and power electronics toEnergyVille. For us, this move represents a unique opportunity to test out our advancedcomponents at a system level – and in doing so, we are able to make good use of our partners’knowledge. For example, we can see that it is becoming increasingly important for us to optimizesolar cells for ‘real life’ circumstances and not just for standard conditions. And that is somethingthat we can develop ideally in an environment such as EnergyVille.”

Last year, imec merged with the digital research center, iMinds. Poortmans: “By doing so, we broughtadditional areas of expertise on board that supplement the extensive range of technology andknowledge at EnergyVille: data communication, data-processing and security. In the energynetworks of the future, huge amounts of data will have to be exchanged so that we can establishthe status of the energy network and keep track of the way this distributed system is performing. Todo that, you need a high-performance data communication system. After all, one often tends toforget that data is not the same thing as usable information: you need to apply smart algorithms todata in order to be able to do something useful with it. And all of that needs to be carried outsecurely.”

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Unique in the world

The greatest strength of EnergyVille is also its greatest challenge. Poortmans: “This initiative isunique in the world. Nowhere else will you find a project that extends so broadly across the valuechain. We are going to develop a multi-energy network (electrical and thermal), from material tocomponent, on various levels (system, nanogrid, microgrid), up to and including a full-scale networkthat will be demonstrated on the campus itself. We will be building a city in miniature, includingfeatures such as energy-generating bike paths between the buildings. But at the same time, thebroad nature of this project is its greatest challenge. We will have to make the right choices, whichwill mean aligning our research efforts perfectly on every level.”

The first stone

The first building in EnergyVille – for KU Leuven and VITO researchers – opened in September 2016.It is an energy-neutral building, complete with laboratories and offices. In actual fact, EnergyVille isone big lab, featuring solar panels, battery (testing) systems, recharging terminals for electric cars, aweather station (for linking the weather conditions with the energy output of the PV modules), anelectric network emulator, a thermo-technical lab and so on.

Poortmans: “The first stone for EnergyVille II will be laid on 2 May. At the beginning of 2018 we willbe moving about 35 imec researchers to the new location, along with a number of UHasseltscientists. Once we are there, the projects we will be working on include developing innovativeinterconnection technology for PV modules (silicon and thin film); testing new materials for thin-film PV; and developing safe, reliable batteries with enhanced energy and power density. Thermaland electrical networks will also be installed between the two buildings, along with an energystorage system. We will be able to test all of the ideas and concepts produced by the researchpartners at EnergyVille I and II – and ultimately on the whole campus.”

EnergyVille I

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Bed & Breakfast

Poortmans appreciates the many opportunities provided by the EnergyVille collaboration andenvironment and is also working on the idea of building two model houses at the site: “I’ve giventhem the provisional names of E² and E³ houses. The EnergyVille researchers can use the facilities tocombine all of the various technologies to demonstrate to the public and the energy companieshow they view the future. Whereas the EnergyVille buildings are still mainly about demonstrationsand testing technology, the E² and E³ houses will need to be genuinely finished products, with theirown independent energy production, connections to the thermal and electricity networks, storagecapacity, etc. The houses may even have to be used to accommodate foreign guests or residentsfrom companies who stay on the campus. This will give them a real ‘touch and feel’ of thedevelopments at EnergyVille.”

Getting everyone up to cruising speed

This means that from 2018 onwards, all of the researchers will be located under one roof. YetPoortmans suspects that it may take until 2020 before they are fully up and running: “Of course itwon’t simply be enough to have everyone alongside each other physically. The biggest challengewill be to align all of the different research activities perfectly with each other and to reconcile thevarious ‘cultures’. For example, imec researchers typically work according to set programs, whereasour partners have a more project-based culture. It will be quite an exercise – based on a number ofclearly defined applications – to establish the right specs and gear the research we do to matchthose guidelines. But we have already begun this exercise and it is very important that we take thetime to get things right. That way we can all work toward clearly defined objectives.”

Although that promises to be a lot of work, EnergyVille will soon be ready to show the world thatnot only is green energy the future, but it is also economically achievable and livable.

Want to know more?

Stay up to speed with what’s happening at EnergyVille via their website.

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Biography

Jozef Poortmans received his degree inelectronic engineering from the CatholicUniversity of Leuven, Belgium, in 1985. Hejoined imec and worked on laserrecrystallization of polysilicon and a-Si for SOIapplications and thin-film transistors. In 1988 hebegan working on his PhD on strained SiGelayers. He was awarded his PhD in June 1993.Afterwards he joined the photovoltaics group,where he became responsible for the advancedsolar cell group. Within this framework hestarted the thin-film crystalline Si solar cellsactivity at imec. He also coordinated severalEuropean Projects in this area as part of the 4thand 5th European Framework Programs. In 2003he became cluster coordinator of Europeanprojects in the field of thin-film solar cells. In1998 he initiated the organic solar cells activityat imec, which was complemented by anactivity dealing with III-V solar cells, whichbegan in 2000. At the present time, Jozef isscientific director photovoltaics at imec.

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The emergence of chip and digital technology has changed our daily lives. Our communication hasbecome faster, our healthcare more personalized and efficient, and our jobs more flexible: we canwork (together) anywhere and at any time. But technology also offers new opportunities ineducation, e.g. by integrating educational games, language apps, interactive learning platforms, etc.However, to unlock the full potential of educational technology (EdTech), cooperation betweenteachers, researchers and the EdTech industry is essential. Imec’s newest research program, SmartEducation, provides the framework to make this happen. The central question that imec researcherswill answer in the next five years is: how can we use of the latest technological developments tomake education more efficient, interactive and personalized?

Education tailored to the modern student

Differentiation has become a key concept in education: offering all learners the exact same contentat the same time is a thing of the past. Technology offers us the tools to provide more efficient,personalized training. Thus, with its Smart Education program imec wants to contribute toeducation that caters to the needs of the so-called digital natives, both at school and in theworkplace. The aim is to use educational technology to stimulate interactive and collaborativelearning and to enable customized learning solutions.

Edition | May 2017

Smart Education

Smart Education: catchingup with the digitalrevolutionImec’s newest research program, Smart Education, will unlock thefull potential of educational technology (EdTech).

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The project focuses on four key components:

• Research on individual learning behavior, which should lead to the creation of tailor-madelearning solutions enabling learners to acquire knowledge in an optimal, personalized way.

• The development of smart education technologies – from sensors that capture neurologicaldata, to data analysis software and visualization and gamification technology.

• Living Lab research featuring real users in authentic learning environments – enabling neweducational technologies to be extensively tested and fine-tuned.

• Socio-economic valorization – not only by implementing smart education technology andknow-how in Flemish schools and training centers, but also by exporting the technology.

The aim is not to develop one specific solution, but a series of components (sensors, algorithms,learning insights, etc.) that industrial partners can then use to design and market concrete tools.These partners can either be established players or EdTech start-ups (supported through theimec.istart program).

Interactive and collaborative learning

On April 18, KU Leuven launched the Edulab test environment on its campus in Kortrijk (KULAK). Thisinteractive test environment is the result of a collaboration between Imec – ITEC - KU Leuven andtwo industry partners, i.e. Televic (multimedia and e-learning solutions) and Barco (display systems).KU Leuven’s KULAK campus functions as a unique living lab in which educational technologies canbe tested on a large scale.

The Edulab test environment focuses on interactive and collaborative learning and is therefore animportant driver for the Smart Education story. For example, in the Edulab students can share theirscreen with their peers and/or teacher during practice sessions or group work. This way they cangive each other specific feedback, ask more focused questions, and work together more efficiently.There is also an interactive learning platform which includes an app to make lectures moreinteractive. For instance, lecturers can create a poll or quiz that students can answer on theirsmartphones during class. The results are visible right away, so lecturers can adapt their approach tothe answers given by the students. Because students often find it difficult to ask questions in biglecture halls, the app also offers the opportunity to ask anonymous questions (‘silent questions’) viatheir smartphones. They can also 'like' each other's questions to indicate that several studentsstruggle with the same issue. In this way, lecturers get real-time feedback from their students, evenwhen teaching large groups.

In addition, the Edulab provides opportunities for distance learning, both in the form of remoteclassrooms (in which a second group of students in another classroom – or even another country –can become actively involved) and virtual classrooms (in which multiple individuals attend the samelesson from different locations). Due to the growing number of working students and internationalstudents, flexible education will become increasingly important in the future. Therefore, it isessential to make distance learning more efficient and interactive.

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Adaptive learning: the next step in e-learning

Another focal point of the Smart Education project is adaptive learning. Blended learning, which is acombination of face-to-face learning and e-learning, is already an established method in manyprofessional training courses, including imec.academy. But today learners usually still receive thesame input, with only limited possibilities for differentiation. One of the objectives of the SmartEducation program is to develop the supporting technology for advanced e-learning platforms thatenable adaptive learning; i.e. e-learning in which content is automatically adjusted to the individualstudent’s needs and interests. During the e-learning session, students will be asked a number ofquestions to evaluate how they are coping with the material provided. This score will then be usedto determine whether more basic or more advanced learning input is required. In this way, eachindividual can learn at his/her own pace.

This kind of platform is also interesting from a teacher’s point of view. Teachers can track theirstudents’ progress in real time and can use this data to optimize their e-learning content. Forinstance, they can see when students pause or rewind an e-learning video: where do they loseinterest? What do they find difficult? This data offers unique insight into the learning process andenables teachers to continuously monitor and enhance the quality of e-learning materials.

Tracking individual learning trajectories also offers possibilities for professional training. Companiesspend a lot of money on training employees, but often have no idea how effective these coursesreally are. By collecting real-time feedback during the learning process, the return on investment isimmediately visible and measurable, without the need for tests or exams.

Inside the learner’s head

Another way to analyze individual learning behavior is through sensors that measure learners’attention spans and stress levels. Imec already has the basic technology to do this. One potentialproject is to equip a mobile learning environment (i.e. a bus) with sensors that track students’attention and stress levels in real time. This way, we can truly get inside learners’ heads. When dothey become distracted? What can a teacher do to regain their attention? What creates stress?These insights can be then translated into concrete recommendations for schools and teachers.

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Within Flanders: creating a unique ecosystem for collaboration

One of the strengths of the Smart Education program is that it is a collaborative effort. The projectis supported by the Flemish government and brings together researchers from across imec(including research groups at KU Leuven, Ghent University and VUB), schools, teachers and theEdTech industry. Imec functions as the binding agent that makes this unique ecosystem work. HansDe Canck (imec HR Business Partner): “We are the hub in which all elements are brought together. Asa result, we can work on various levels and relate them to each other. For example, we do not onlydo strategic basic research, but we also validate the results in a real-life setting. We alsocommunicate feedback from the industry to the researchers. This way we can strengthen andaccelerate the loop between basic research on the one hand and the actual implementation ofEdTech in schools on the other hand.”

Implementing new EdTech developments in Flemish education is one of the key aims of the SmartEducation project. Therefore, close collaboration with the educational field is essential. As ofSeptember, schools can participate in imec.icon projects for the first time. This means that budgethas been made available to set up research and living lab projects in schools, making it easier forteachers to experiment with technology.

To further lower the threshold for teachers to use these newly developed EdTech tools, guidelinesand recommendations on how to integrate them in the classroom will be formulated. Moreover,within the Smart Education program, short-term collaborative projects will be set up that shouldlead to fast and visible improvements in the educational field.

Preview: imec.academy

Of course, the results and findings of the Smart Education project will also be implemented withinimec itself. Imec.academy already offers a wide variety of professional training courses onnanoelectronics and digital technology. These courses also attract international students and areoffered abroad, but as the number of specialized teachers is limited, so is the number of coursesthat can be offered. Lisbeth Decneut: ““If we only offer offline courses that require teachers totravel to other locations, then we cannot adequately disseminate our expertise internationally. Byusing smart educational technology and by expanding our current blended learning modules, wecan develop efficient and customized learning solutions that enable us to spread our knowledgeinternationally.”

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Today, the amount of data stored in the world is a thousand billion gigabyte and this will keep onincreasing exponentially e.g. with the internet of things. The capacity of data centers needs toincrease if we want to keep using all our current and future Internet applications. Silicon photonicsplays an important role in doing just that. It promises fast data traffic, with compact componentsthat consume little energy. And imec is investing heavily in this technology. In 2016, our researchersdemonstrated a unique germanium-silicon modulator with a 56Gb/s bandwidth. This modulatorenables compact, efficient optical links to be made for server-to-server communication in datacenters. Recently, this modulator was developed further and used into a 16-channel 896Gb/sprototype transceiver, integrated in a photonic chip measuring just 1.5mm². It has also beendemonstrated in conjunction with Ghent University that the modulation speed per channel can beincreased further to 100Gb/s. These results were recently presented at the prestigious OFCconference in Los Angeles, the leading forum for groundbreaking research into telecoms anddatacoms.

Making the cloud bigger

Every day we produce massive quantities of data. You only have to think of e-mails, text messages,pictures and videos posted on social media, data from your fitness watch, etc. to see why. And thequantity of data processed by companies such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon isgrowing exponentially. Then there’s the Internet of Things where all kinds of things will be equippedwith sensors taking measurements and communicating with one another. All of which means evenmore data.

Edition | May 2017

Silicon Photonics, Photonics

New silicon photonicstechnology delivers fasterdata traffic in data centersNew transceiver with 10x higher bandwidth than currenttransceivers.

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All of this data is stored and processed in the cloud – i.e. in a data center. Data centers are wherethousands of servers sit quietly in racks, all communicating with one another via a complex networkof optical fibers. To meet growing demand, this network also has to be upscaled exponentially. Theroadmap for this server-to-server communication is extremely ambitious: since 2016, the mostadvanced cloud data centers have installed optical links and transceivers with a capacity of 100Gb/s; By 2019 an upgrade to 400Gb/s is expected and by 2022, this will be upscaled further to 1.6 Tb/s.

Cloud data centers are also very large facilities and the optical links they contain need to have arange of at least 500 meters. The optical links for cloud data centers also need to be manufacturedin much greater volume and at substantially lower costs than the traditional telecoms solutions.

The complex network of optical fiber connections in a cloud data center (Facebook)

Silicon photonics

Silicon photonics is an interesting technology for integrating the essential building blocks requiredfor an optical link in a single chip. The big benefit of this technology is that the optical componentscan be produced using the same advanced devices with which microchips are also made. This makessilicon photonics components relatively cheap. Better still, they make a high integration densitypossible, while consuming less energy and guaranteeing a high yield.

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Imec has developed a platform for silicon photonics for high-speed optical links for data, telecomand sensing applications. voor hogesnelheid optische links voor data- telecom- en sensor-toepassingen.. It uses 200mm and 300mm SOI wafers (silicon-on-isolator wafers) as its substrate.The manufacturing process is based on a modified 130nm CMOS flow, expanded by 193nmlithography to produce the waveguides, using germanium for the photodetectors. An additionaloxide/poly-silicon stack provides greater freedom when designing the optical components. Thisstack is used to integrate passive components such as grating couplers for optical fibers,waveguides and multiplexer filters. With the integration platform, both passive and activecomponents (such as opto-electronic modulators, heaters and germanium-on-siliconphotodetectors) can be integrated. Electronic circuits (such as drivers and transimpedanceamplifiers (or TIAs)) can be made on a separate chip and assembled with the silicon-photonicscircuit using flip-chip techniques (packaged into one system). In these circuits, the driver converts astandard CMOS-bit signal into an electrical current that is compatible with the optical chip, whilethe TIA amplifies the photo-electric current into a standard CMOS-bit signal.

Imec’s 50Gb/s silicon photonics platform and devices

Very compact low-power transceiver with a 10x higher bandwidth than currenttransceivers

Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) and space division multiplexing (SDM) are two ways ofincreasing the bandwidth of optical links. With WDM, the signals are encoded onto different carrierwavelengths and all of these wavelengths are sent through the same optical fiber. This reduces thecost, especially over long distances. But there are also disadvantages: optical insertion losses andwavelength filters that are very temperature-sensitive, resulting in the power efficiency beingnegatively affected.

For this reason, SDM is a good alternative, certainly for short distances. Indeed, in this case, the costof the optical fiber is not of overriding importance. With SDM, a fiber is used with various coresthrough which light from one specific wavelength is sent in parallel. Today, four parallel single-mode fibers are used for 100Gb/s optical links.

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At OFC2017, the leading optical communication conference, imec exhibited a unique building blockfrom its silicon photonics platform, integrated into a very compact SDM transceiver. The totalbandwidth of this transceiver is 896Gb/s, while the transceivers in current data centers are onlycapable of 100Gb/s. This result indicates that photonics will play an important role in making itpossible to adhere to the ambitious roadmap for data centers.

The transceiver consists of a series of 16 GeSi electro-absorption modulators (EAMs) on thetransmitter side and 16 GeSi photodetectors on the receiving side, all integrated on to a single chip.All modulators have a bandwidth of 56Gb/s. The photodetectors are based on the same structureas the modulators, but work with a different bias voltage. The modulators and photodetectors arelocated very close to one another, at a distance of 100 micrometers, meaning that the transceiver isvery compact. The waveguides are also compact and tightly integrated, as are the power splittersand fiber grating couplers of the optical fibers. Because both the transmitting and receiving sectionsare made from the same GeSi material, production is very efficient and affordable.

Top: Scheme of compact 896Gb/s SDM transceiver (<1.5mm²) with an array of 16x56Gb/s GeSi NRZ-OOK modulators (transmitter) and photodetectors (receiver). Below: To test the quality of thistransceiver, the eye diagrams of all 16 modulators and photodetectors were examined. They are allnice, open eye diagrams, which show that the signal can be sent and received without any bit errors.

Single-channel 100Gb/s optical link with silicon photonics modulator

Working in conjunction with researchers from UGent, imec also demonstrated the first real-timesingle-channel 100Gb/s non-return-to-zero on-off-keying optical link in silicon photonics. The sameultra-compact GeSi modulator was used for this. It was combined with a transceiver chip designedby UGent in SiGe BiCMOS technology. The signal transfer via this optical link was tested over astandard single-mode optical fiber (SSMF) 500 meters long and a dispersion-shifted optical fiber(DSF) 2 km in length. This signal transfer was successful without any complex digital signalprocessing (DSP) being required. This result shows that silicon photonics is the right technology forproducing compact, low-power transceivers with scalable capacity for future server-to-serverconnections.

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Real-time 100Gb/s NRZ-OOK 1-channel optical link with the GeSi modulator.

Interested in silicon photonics components?

The GeSi modulator used in the two demonstrators above is available for companies and researchgroups, as are other components from imec’s silicon photonics platform. This can be done via theimec-ePIXfab SiPhotonics:iSiPP50G service, which is part of the Europractice silicon photonics multi-project wafer (MPW) service.

Want to know more?

You can retrieve the technical papers about the results mentioned above via imecmagazine@imec.be. The titles of the papers are ‘Ultra-dense 16x56Gb/s NRZ GeSi EAM-PD arrays coupled tomulticore fiber for short-reach 896Gb/s optical links’ and ‘First real-time 100Gb/s NRZ OOKtransmission over 2 km with a silicon photonic electro absorption modulator.’

Want to find out more about the silicon photonics multi-project wafer service? If so, pleasecontact Phillip.Christie@imec.be. Or if you would like more general information about the siliconphotonics prototyping service, then please contact Kenneth.Francken@imec.be

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Capturing (live) events is a costly and complex process. It requires highly specialized and sizeableteams of cameramen and technicians to make sure the on-site cameras capture the right things atthe right time. For organizers of large-scale events – such as the Premier League soccer or theEurovision Song Contest – this is typically not too much of a problem: they have the budget toinstall multi-camera set-ups, along with the necessary crew. But organizers of smaller productions(think of local music festivals or the yearly musical performed by the town’s high-school) are usuallyunable to record their events with the desired, professional quality. AZilPix, a brand-new start-upfrom imec and Hasselt University, has just launched a solution that addresses this need. ItsStudio.One system of high-resolution cameras, video processing servers and intelligent softwaremakes it possible to capture and edit complex events with a single operator – thereby finding theideal trade-off between quality, cost and ease-of-use. “We are the only ones who can offer thistoday,” the AZilPix founders claim.

Edition | May 2017

Image sensors and vision systems

AZilPix: filming andbroadcasting eventsbecomes a one-man showAZilPix, a brand-new start-up from imec and Hasselt University,has just launched a solution which makes it possible to captureand edit complex events with a single operator – thereby findingthe ideal trade-off between quality, cost and ease-of-use.

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Putting smaller events in the spotlight

Capturing complex events on camera is almost an art form. To offer viewers the most compellingexperience – and to make sure they don’t miss out on any action – cameramen need to be in theright place at the right time. Building on their experience, they can even anticipate the protagonists’moves to get the perfect shot in the best of angles. First-tier events, such as Formula 1 races ormusic festivals like Tomorrowland, have the financial means to hire these teams of highly-skilledoperators and supporting technicians. However, organizers of most mid-level events (local sportsevents, talk shows, conferences, etc.) lack the resources to do so… Best-case scenario, they canrecord what’s going on at one (or one part of the) stage.

Within this context, professor Philippe Bekaert (imec - Hasselt University), Jan Looijmans (former VPEMEA of Grass Valley), Michel de Wolf (former CTO of EVS) and Arjan Akkermans (CEO ofCarrosserie Akkermans) joined forces with AXON Digital Design. Together, they laid the foundationof AZilPix. Its mission: to bring efficient video capturing within the reach of organizations of all sizes.

A start-up from imec and Hasselt University, AZilPix builds on 15 years of research in video capturingand advanced pixel processing to fundamentally change how video content is captured anddisseminated – thereby finding the ideal trade-off between quality, cost and ease-of-use.

How it works

AZilPix’s Studio.One solution comes with major advantages. An array of high-resolution cameraswith wide-angle lenses registers any event from multiple angles – without the need for humanoperators. Features such as camera pan, tilt and zoom are altered during post-production. As such,it becomes possible to capture and edit complex events with just a single operator.

Concretely, Studio.One is a readily-deployable video capturing system that consists of three tightlyintegrated components: cameras, custom-built video processing servers and intelligent software:

• Sets of stand-alone, ultra-high-resolution cameras (equipped with wide-angle and/or fish-eyelenses) capture every aspect of a live event – something that used to require the skills of a smallarmy of cameramen.

• Custom-built video processing servers gather the cameras’ video streams and enable therecording and live processing of the data – thanks to a high-performance pixel processing enginewhich can process up to four billion pixels per second (almost two orders of magnitude morethan full-HD TV).

• Ultra-high performance algorithms correct lens and geometric distortions, take care of noisereduction, Bayer demosaicing and color processing, and provide ‘virtual camera’ crops.

And, finally, Studio.One has been extended with a very easy and intuitive user interface, allowing asingle operator to select, frame, crop and zoom in on the images in post-production.

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“With Studio.One we’re bringing to the market not just a better camera or a server with a highercapacity. It’s a radically new way of capturing events,” says Philippe Bekaert (imec - HasseltUniversity, and CTO of AZilPix). “Importantly, Studio.One is an open system that can easily beintegrated in existing production environments. It can even be controlled remotely if operatoraccess to the event site is undesirable – when the system is used to capture surgical interventions,for instance. And on top of traditional video broadcasting, Studio.One supports real-time 360˚video and virtual reality productions as well.”

Want to see how AZilPix works? Have a look at the following 1-minute video.https://vimeo.com/186470623A field-proven solution

Over the last couple of years, AZilPix’s Studio.One technology and its various components havebeen successfully tested in numerous venues – including the Main Square Festival (France) and the‘Dwars door Vlaanderen’ UCI World Tour bicycle race. On the market since September 2016,Studio.One has already secured its first customers. Digital & Media Solutions (D&MS), a Dutch-basedvideo production house, is one of them.

“We are using Studio.One for high-quality live broadcasts and streaming of events such as talkshows and university lectures,” says Jan Derksen, Managing Director at Digital & Media Solutions.“We opted for the Studio.One solution from AZilPix because of the quality of its cameras, itslimited latency, the flexibility that comes with its open architecture, and its one-man operation.Obviously, we compared Studio.One with other systems, but none have the same level of flexibilityor the open control structure. Also in terms of picture quality, no competitor comes close to whatAZilPix can achieve.”

Next steps

Market-wise, AZilPix’s primary focus is on both traditional and online video broadcasters. Parallel tothat, the company has also received a lot of attention from the health market – as Studio.Onecould for instance be used to broadcast surgical operations for education purposes. And severalsport events organizations have already shown interest in the company’s innovative product as well.

AZilPix’s small-size cameras and openness to third-party solutions also makes them an ideal partnerfor first tier events – increasing users’ immersive experience by enabling nonintrusive, close camerapositions.

“Supported by 15 years of intensive research and the unique expertise that is brought by each of thepartners, our solution is unique – even on an international level,” assures Jan Looijmans (CEO ofAZilPix). “We are currently in talks with potential clients in the US and the Middle East. We areready to go global.”

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Exemplary of Studio.One’s global potential is the fact that – on April 26 – it won the IABM GameChanger Award in the ‘Acquisition & Production’ category during the NAB Show in Las Vegas. Awardwinners have to demonstrate not only real innovation, but also deliver significant operational andbusiness benefits that open up new opportunities. According to the jury, Studio.One contains anexceptional feature set and comes with a significant reduction in cost of production as well. Theyclaimed that, in today’s world of remote control, AZilPix produced the ‘Mother of All Features’…

Meet the founders

Jan Looijmans is the CEO of AZilPix. Before launching the company in December 2015, he was VPEMEA region at Grass Valley, a Canadian manufacturer of television production and broadcastingequipment. He has been active in the media market for more than 30 years and is a highly-experienced business manager.

Philippe Bekaert is the CTO of AZilPix, being responsible for the underlying video capture and pixelprocessing engine technology. He is a full professor and project leader at imec - Hasselt University,where he has acquired around 15 years of research experience in media technology, image, videoand audio processing and broadcasting systems.

Michel Dewolf is AZilPix’s integration and interfacing responsible. He founded DWESAB engineeringin 1987, a company specialized in service and software R&D for operating workflows, reality-TV andmanagement of TV stations. After the company merged with EVS Broadcast Equipment (where heacted as CTO), in 2008 he launched DWESAM, focusing on creative engineering.

Arjan Akkermans is one of the co-founders of AZilPix. He is the CEO of the Royal CarrosserieAkkermans, a Netherlands-based coach work company and family business since 1811, whoseavailable products include broadcast vehicles, which are used by major television productioncompanies.

AXON is a world-leading broadcast network infrastructure products and solutions provider. Based inthe Netherlands, it’s one of the founding partners of AZilPix, focusing on broadcast sales andsupport.

Want to know more?

Learn more about AZilPix

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