Enabling Electronic Devices, Materials, and Processes with Physically Flexible ICs

Rich Chaney

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Image from: theapplecollection.com

Image from performancemanagementcompany.com

Traditional “Crunchy”

(rigid)

Flexible

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Artistic Concepts

Image from raqwe.com Image from bgr.com

Samsung Galaxy Gear

Pebble Image credit: Todd Hamilton

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Image from softpedia.com

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Launched June 29, 2007

6.1 million units in 1st five quarters

By 2010 had 4% market share with more than 50% of total profit

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“Curved-screen smartphones are a solution looking for a problem”

LG's unveiled all the details for its often-leaked, curved screen smartphone. In comparison to Samsung's Galaxy Round, the screen on the G Flex arcs from top to bottom, not side-to-side, which at least makes a little more sense to us, hopefully fitting in better to the curvature of the users' face.

LG G Flex announced with

vertically curved 6-inch 720p screen

Samsung Galaxy Round hands on

We only found one application that takes advantage of the Galaxy Round's unique shape, which is the "Roll Effect" notification display. When the phone's on standby and facing upwards on a table, you can take a quick peek at the time, date, number of missed calls, number of unread messages and battery level by simply holding down one side of the phone.

“From a usability point of view, they don't really give much”

“I can’t see anything that makes me want to move to a curved screen from a flat screen”

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LG Chem has curved batteries in production, ready

for 'phones, watches and glasses'LG Chem, a leading battery manufacturer, is ready to unveil batteries that have not existed before. The types of LG Chem's future batteries can be categorized as the following. Stepped Battery, Curved Battery and Cable Battery.

Smartphone Makers Race to Build Flexible ScreensSamsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc. released curved-screen smartphones within weeks of one another, raising one obvious question: why would anyone want curves on their phone? The answer, it turns out, doesn't seem to matter much to the two South Korean technology giants themselves, who see curved-screen phones as a steppingstone to the real prize: mobile and wearable devices with completely bendable screens...

The Ecosystem for

Flexible Devices Exists Now!

LG confirms production of

'bendable and unbreakable' smartphone displays"The flexible display market is expected to grow quickly as this technology is expected to expand further into diverse applications including automotive displays, tablets and wearable devices.,“said Dr. Sang Deog Yeo, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of LG Display.

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Printed Electronics Not Suited to ICs

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Flexible Development Has Focused on Printed Technology

Printed is great for displays and sensors!

However…

Printed transistors are too big for ICsPrinted transistor dimensions are measured in microns; semiconductors are measured in nanometers

Printed transistors are not denseDense printed transistors are measured in tens or hundreds; ICs are measured in millions

Printed transistors are not fastICs for processors, memory, and SoCs must meet current and future consumer demands for functionality

Printed transistors are not low powerConsumers demand battery life

Organic Thin Film Transistors

101

100

10-1

10-2

10-3

10-4

10-5

10-6

1 10 100

Tim

e d

ela

y p

er

sta

ge (

s)

complementary circuits

n-channel circuits

p-channel circuits

PEALD ZnO TFTsElectron Devices, Feb. 2010

Supply Voltage (V) 10 10010.1

1.0E-12

1.0E-11

1.0E-10

1.0E-9

1.0E-8

1.0E-7

1.0E-6

1.0E-5

1.0E-4

1.0E-3

1.0E-2

1.0E-1

1.0E+00

1.0E+01

FleX CMOSFeb. 2011

Integrated Circuits v. Printed Transistors

Orders of magnitude faster, at lower voltage!

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Traditional ICs Not Suited to Flexible

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Traditional Semiconductors Are Not Compatible with Printed/Flexible

ICs are great for processors, memory, and SoCs

However…

Packaged ICs are relatively largeICs are thick and too big for flexible systems

Packaged ICs do not bend or conformICs are not designed for flexible electrical or mechanical connections

ICs are not flexibleSilicon IC die are fragile and not physically flexible

ICs are not suitable for large areasThe cost per area of silicon is high

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Physical Sensor

Display

BioSensor

Comm

ADCuCtrl

Data Bus or Wireless

FleX ICs can be used to create Flexible Hybrid Systems

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Printed Electronics• Sensors & Displays• Low Cost • Large Format• Roll-To-Roll (R2R) or• Screen Print

FleX-ICs• Logic, Memory, Signal Processing,

Communications• Physically Flexible CMOS• High Performance• High Density• Compatible with Printed Electronics

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Flexible Hybrid SystemsSpan Multiple Markets

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Physical Sensor

Display

Bio Sensor

Comm

ADCµCtrl

Data Busor Wireless

Flexible Hybrid System“Combination of flexible printed materials and

flexible silicon-based ICs to create a new class of flexible electronics.”

Printed ElectronicsLow Cost, R2R, Large Format

Flexible FleX ICsHigh Performance, High Density

Image courtesy MC10 Automotive/Aerospace:− Conformal− Structural Integration− Sensors− Fly-by-FeelSmart Cards:

− SIM/PIV/CIV − Identity− Finance− Contacted − Contactless

Consumer:− Tablets − Phones− Wearable− TVs− Gaming− Toys

Bio Medical:− Body Worn − Monitoring− Health & Safety

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FleX-IC™ Product Roadmap

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FleX-MCU™8-bit RISC, 1.2V core, 2.5V I/O, 8K SRAM, UART, I2C, SPI; Sampling 2014

FleX-MCU™ With FleX-ADC and FleX-RFIC onboard

FleX-ADC™8-bit Analog-to-Digital Converter100k samples/s, I2C, 2.5V; Sampling 2014

FleX-RFIC™860-960MHz (UHF) IP-X™ TTO RFID64-bit UID, 0.1m–10m range, Sampling 2014

FleX-LNA™ Low Noise Amplifier

FleX-NVM™Non-Volatile Memory

FleX-MCU™ Adds NVM

In Process In Development Planning

FleX-ASIC Custom IC

Chipset for flexible product demonstration

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FleX-MCU Testing

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Flexible Hybrid System Demo

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FleX-IC Chipset for Product Demonstration

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FleX-MCU™

Product Overview

• IP-X™ TTO protocol

• Programmable via 2-wire I2C

interface

• 860-960MHz (UHF)

• 64-bit unique identification

(UID) including 16-bit CRC

• 0.1m–10m read range

• 64kpbs or 256kpbs

• Anti-collision protocol

Product Overview

• LP-MCU, ~2.2M transistors

• Designed for SoP

• Physically flexible & conformal

Product Features

RISC microcontroller

ROM and SRAM

UART, I2C and SPI comm.

Multiple programmable timers

Multiple GPIO ports for sensor

data collection

picL supported by AFRL

FleX-RFIC™

Product Overview

• 8-bit ADC

• 2.5V

• Flexible and conformal

Product Features

8-bit Successive

Approximation ADC

8 input, 100k s/s

Single and continuous

2-wire I2C communication

FleX-ADC™ FleX-ASIC™Your Design as a Flexible IC

Product Overview

• MPWs in TowerJazz CS18/13

• High Volume Production

• Design Engineering and Support

Traditional Silicon Proven IP

Digital standard cell library

SRAM

Via-programmable ROM

Power-on-reset controller

Bandgap voltage ref. generator

On-chip oscillator

Soft Silicon Proven IP

8-bit RISC CPU with interrupt

controller

SPI

I2C

Timers with PWM

UART

Real-time clock

I/O Library

Available in 2014 Available in 2014 Available in 2014 Available Now

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Thank You!

Rich Chaney 16