Electronics experts at the University of Southampton are collaborating on a design tool that could help introduce interactivity into everyday objects such as smart packaging.

Researchers in the Sustainable Electronic Technologies Group are working with industrial partner PragmatIC to devise a Process Design Kit (PDK) that will expand the potential for its mass market uses of flexible electronics.

PragmatIC create ultra low cost flexible integrated circuits (FlexICs) thinner than a human hair that can be embedded into everyday objects. The technology enables concepts like smart packaging, which can personalise product information and promotional offers, and interactive toys that can track moving pieces and dynamically change rules during play.

The new PDK at Southampton is being tailored to be used with industry-standard tools, making the new technology available to a wider community of designers for future applications.

Project lead Professor Mark Zwolinski says: “We have been researching, developing and using Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools for many years in the School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) and this project benefits from over 30 years of expertise that includes student projects and design exercises. We are excited to be working with PragmatIC on this promising technology and look forward to seeing creative uses of its FlexICs in smart everyday objects in homes around the world.â€?

The collaborative project, known as a knowledge transfer partnership (KTP) and which is supported by InnovateUK, will make use of design tools that are already used in teaching and research in IC design within ECS. PragmatIC and ECS have worked together on several objectives in recent years, with this latest venture being sparked by joint work with tech giant Arm.

“Over the next three years we will develop a prototype PDK, together with examples of cells and applications such as cryptographic elements,â€? Mark says. “This knowledge transfer partnership offers a valuable opportunity for ECS to demonstrate real-world impact from our research, while our industrial partner benefits from access to the University’s expertise.â€?

PragmatIC VP Device Engineering, Dr Catherine Ramsdale, says: “PragmatIC is pleased to be collaborating with ECS at the University of Southampton through the KTP scheme. The prototype PDK developed through the project applies the ECS school’s world-leading design flow expertise to PragmatIC’s innovative flexible transistor technology, ultimately making FlexIC design more easily accessible to the wider design community. We are looking forward to developing our relationship with Southampton through this mutually beneficial partnership.â€?

Design Engineer Dr Waqas Mughal, KTP Associate for the project, says: “I am very pleased to be part of such a great collaborative project between ECS, PragmatIC and InnovateUK through this KTP programme. The process design kit will help the design community in making FlexIC design effortlessly. The KTP project is supporting me to improve my research and personal development and gives me an opportunity to learn new skills. In addition, there is a lot of support available for project completion. Overall, I am very excited about the development of a FlexIC PDK.’’

An international research collaboration led by the University of Southampton has demonstrated tiny vortexes of twisted light that will enable higher capacity data transmission in optical computing.

The innovation, which uses microgears to twist light around an axis much like a corkscrew, makes use of chemical element germanium that is compatible with the silicon used to make computer chips.

Southampton researchers together with partners from the University of Tokyo, Toyohashi University of Technology and Hitachi Ltd, all in Japan, have described the new light-emitting gears in The Optical Society journal Optics Express. With a radius of one micron or less, 250,000 of these gears could be packed into just one square millimetre of a computer chip.

Lead author Abdelrahman Al-Attili, of Southampton’s School of Electronics and Computer Science, explains: “Our new microgears hold the potential for a laser that can be integrated on a silicon substrate— the last component needed to create an integrated optical circuit on a computer. These tiny optical-based circuits can be based upon the principle of twisted light, which makes it possible to transmit larger amounts of data.â€?

In conventional computing, light is used to carry information by varying the number of photons emitted or switching between light’s two polarisation states. With twisted light, or orbital angular momentum, each twist can represent a different value or letter, allowing the encoding of more information using less light.

This new research, which was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), avoids the poor light emission efficiency qualities of silicon by expanding upon the material properties of germanium. The solution features microgears that are stretched by an oxide film.

“Previously, the strain that could be applied to germanium was not large enough to efficiently create light without degrading the material,â€? Abdelrahman says. “Our new microgear design helps overcome this challenge.â€?

The researchers used electron beam lithography to fabricate the very fine physical features that form the gears’ teeth. They then illuminated the gears with a standard green laser. After the microgear absorbed the green light it generated its own photons that circulated around the edges, forming twisted light that reflected vertically out of the gear by the periodic teeth.

The researchers optimised their design using computer simulations that model the way light propagates in the gears over a period of less than a nanosecond. By comparing a prototype’s light emission with computer simulation results, they were then able to confirm that the gears generated twisted light.

The researchers are now working to further improve the efficiency of light emission from the germanium microgears. If successful, this technology would make it possible to integrate thousands of lasers onto a silicon chip for transmitting information.

“Silicon fabrication technologies that were developed to make electronic devices can now be applied to make various optical devices,â€? Abdelrahman says. “Our microgears are just one example of how these capabilities can be used to make nano and microscale devices.â€?

Wireless communications expert Professor Lajos Hanzo has featured in Clarivate Analytics’ Highly Cited Researchers 2018 for the significant influence of his career over the past decade.

The Head of the Next Generation Wireless Research Group is one of 11 academics from the University of Southampton to be highlighted by the report, which recognises exceptional research performance from multiple papers that rank in the global top 1% by citations.

Lajos is among just 5 researchers based in the United Kingdom and only 96 worldwide included specifically for the field of Computer Science, although his subject is wireless communications.

He has built an international reputation for telecommunications in over three decades at Southampton’s School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) and Southampton is now the top-ranked university for Telecommunication Engineering in Europe according to the 2018 ShanghaiRanking's Global Ranking of Academic Subjects.

Lajos says: “It’s been a huge privilege to collaborate with a team of 119 talented PhD students in ECS and a similar number of academic colleagues over the decades – sincere thanks for the enlightenment I gained from our deep-routed discussions, in particular to Professors Sheng Chen (ISI Highly-Cited), Rob Maunder and Lie-Liang Yang, as well as to Drs El-Hajjar, Soon-Xin Ng and Rong Zhang.â€?

The Clarivate Analytics list of Highly Cited Researchers for 2018 identified scientists and social scientists across 21 fields used in Essential Science Indicators (ESI). The report surveyed papers published and cited between 2006 and 2016, ranking entries in the top 1% by citations for their ESI field and year.

The 2018 list contains 6,078 Highly Cited Researchers, including 2,020 researchers identified as having exceptional performance across several fields.

Two other researchers from Lajos’ Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences also appear in the list. Professor Mark Sullivan (who has recently been announced as the new Head of Physics and Astronomy) is featured in the field of Space Science, while Professor Nikolay Zheludev is honoured for his cross-field expertise within the Zepler Institute for Photonics and Nanoelectronics.

Lajos’ international career has included academic posts in Hungary, Germany and the UK. He has co-authored 18 John Wiley/IEEE Press books totalling around 10,000 pages on mobile radio communications. Earlier this year, he was awarded his second European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Fellow Grant totalling €2.5 million to contribute to the conception of the wireless Quantum Internet.