<h2 dir="ltr" id="isPasted">HVAC UV-C Air Purification</h2>Residential HVAC units are a natural place for UV-C air purifiers. With direct access to an entire building’s air, these in-duct HVAC UVC units are capable of protecting the entire residence from all kinds of harmful airborne pathogens without taking up an inch of floor space. The residential UV air purifier for hvac industry, and corresponding product offerings, has seen a massive boom since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and momentum isn’t slowing.<a href="https://islproducts.com/component/ballasts-for-uv-germicidal-lamps/" target="_blank">UVC ballasts</a> specifically designed for residential air purification systems are becoming a necessity. A UV air purifier for HVAC devices within a residential setting typically has a ballast that can be powered as a standalone device or it can be integrated by a certified electrician into the home’s existing HVAC controller, typically run on a 24VAC system. A UVC ballast is designed to operate special germicidal HVAC UVC lamps to their fullest potential. These germicidal UV lights for HVAC systems are often hidden inside the HVAC system, to prevent any occupants from looking directly at the harmful germ-killing UVC light. Residential HVAC UVC systems are becoming a vital part of our home lives and will continue to be used in homes around the world.<h2 dir="ltr">Overview</h2>One of our customers manufactures products for air and water purification via the use of germicidal lamps. We were asked to design a ballast that would power 425mA UVC lamps in residential HVAC systems. The integration needed to be simplified so it could be installed by the end consumer instead of by a licensed electrician, like previous ballasts required. They wanted a simple, plug-and-play solution.<h2 dir="ltr">Challenge</h2>The customer wanted us to build a ballast that would be wired directly to a residential HVAC air handler, 24VAC electrical system. The ballast was to be installed by the average consumer. The germicidal lamp our ballast was operating needed to survive at least 10,000 on/off cycles.The system is designed to turn on and off with the air handler within the HVAC system. The difficulty with such a system is the harsh start up conditions that the germicidal lamp is subjected to along with the frequency, being tied into the air handlers duty cycle.An air handler within an HVAC system can go on and off 30 or more times per day. That means that the UV lamp, similar to a fluorescent lamp, needed to have a pre-heat starting cycle and reach a strike voltage every time the lamp was lit. If this is done without considering the life of the bulb, the bulb could die after 1,000 starts.In order for the customer to get a full replacement warranty from the bulb manufacturer, the bulb manufacturer required the bulb to survive 10,000 on/off cycles.<h2 dir="ltr">Solution</h2>ISL collaborated with the customer’s lamp manufacturer to <a href="https://islproducts.com/case-study/electronic-ballast-for-hvac-purification-uv-germicidal-lamps/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">design this ballast</a>. This ballast features a Programmed Start feature which allows the lamp to start up and last over the 10,000 cycles without lamp burnout.&nbsp;We also designed a custom housing with an integrated lamp socket so that the ballast could be installed directly into the UVC air purifier, without any additional wiring. It’s a simple, plug-and-play design that simplifies the installation process making it a true DIY project for any homeowner.Once the design was complete and cycle testing was finished, ISL submitted the product through the safety agency for UL and cUL certification.

The power behind UV-C lamps that keep homes safe from airborne pathogens. 

24VAC Electronic Ballast for Residential HVAC Purification UV- Lamps

Hands free products have become increasingly popular and even more important during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ranging from an automatic paper towel dispenser to soap and hand sanitizer dispensers, people expect these types of products to be available in public areas.&nbsp;Typically, a touch-less paper towel dispenser is run by a 6V DC motor or gear motor. These applications are usually designed to run off of batteries. To maximize time between battery changes the motor must be extremely efficient.&nbsp;ISL Products offers low current draw, high torque 6V DC motor and gear motors designed specifically for battery powered devices. These efficient motors are not exclusive to paper towel dispensers, they are also great additions to other 6V appliances like:<ul><li dir="ltr">Soap Dispensers</li><li dir="ltr">Sanitizer Dispenser</li><li dir="ltr">Touch-less Faucets</li><li dir="ltr">Touch-less Sinks</li><li dir="ltr">Automatic Garbage Lid Openers</li></ul>These efficiency-focused motors are available as both DC motors or DC gear motors, making them ideal for most applications.&nbsp;<h2 dir="ltr">Overview</h2>A leading manufacturer of a battery-operated paper towel dispenser was experiencing shorter than desired battery life during product use. The dispenser was using a 6V DC spur gear motor that was drawing too much current, creating a significant drain on the product’s power bank of batteries.<h2 dir="ltr">Challenge</h2>The customer tasked us with developing a direct drop-in replacement<a href="https://islproducts.com/component/spur-gear-motors/" target="_blank">&nbsp;spur gear motor</a> that would draw 25% – 50% less current than their existing motor.During our investigation of the incumbent gear motor we found that the current draw was 800 – 850mA. Additional investigation of similar motors, from several manufacturers, showed a range of current draw under load from 800mA – 1400mA. The customer requested that we find a way to reduce that current down to 600mA or less.&nbsp;Another issue we came across was that, over time, excessive brush and commutator wear escalated the current draw problem even further.&nbsp;<h2 dir="ltr">Solution</h2>ISL Products International and our team of engineers tore down the incumbent motors and found a variety of factors that contributed to the higher current draw issue that our customer was experiencing. In addition to the excessive brush and commutator wear, in some cases we found foreign conductive material floating within the motor itself creating unwanted spikes in the current draw.The ISL engineers and our factory’s engineering department agreed on a methodology for improving the motor quality and bringing the current draw in line with the customer’s expectations. The current draw was reduced by improvements to the armature windings, and the addition of high-quality brushes increased longevity and removed the wear problem. Our factory's good manufacturing practices guaranteed precision tolerances and high quality material sourcing, as well as preventing foreign conductive material from floating in the motor like that found in the incumbent motor.&nbsp;Once the new motors were created they were tested and showed minimal wear patterns while having a current draw of 590mA.<h2 dir="ltr">Conclusion</h2>After implementing the ISL motor in their contact-less paper towel dispenser the client achieved the desired battery life of the device. The client was able to avoid designing and implementing a new battery system by replacing a single part in their device. This dramatically reduced the cost of increasing battery life and reduced service time by the end user.&nbsp;These motors have dispensed hundreds of thousands of paper towels in locations from airports to arenas and will continue to do so for a long time.&nbsp;If you are facing a component challenge, reach out to ISL Products so that you can discover a value-added solution.

Low Current Draw Gear Motor Designed with Efficiency in Mind!

6V DC Spur Gear Motor for Hands-Free Products: Automated Paper Towel Dispenser

<h2 dir="ltr">Introduction to Electronic Ballasts</h2>An electronic ballast is an electronic device that is used to regulate the current and voltage in an electrical circuit. Electronic ballasts are used in electrical assemblies containing gas discharge lamps (ie. Mercury, Amalgam, Fluorescent, etc). Older designs were magnetic, operating via magnetic induction. Most ballasts made today are electronic, making them more compact. They also produce very low noise, which greatly reduces pulsing from the lamp resulting in the longest lamp life possible.&nbsp; <div class="fr-img-space-wrap"><img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1624376403443-Wevolver+Image+BODY+Ballast+Basics.png" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Electronic Ballast for UV-C Germicidal Applications&nbsp;&nbsp;</div> <h2 dir="ltr">How Ballasts Function with UV-C Lamps</h2>Mercury and Amalgam based UV-C lamps need a high voltage applied between the electrodes to spark the lamp. The<a href="https://islproducts.com/component/ballasts-for-uv-germicidal-lamps/" target="_blank">&nbsp;uvc light ballast</a> ramps up the input voltage and has an output voltage high enough to spark the lamp. A ballast is needed due to the construction of the lamps, they have negative resistance between the two electrodes. Additionally, a large voltage difference between the electrodes is needed to spark the lamp. The ballast converts the input voltage to the 400 ~ 1,000 volts required to spark the lamp. Once the lamp is sparked and arc is achieved, the ballast limits the voltage to a lower working voltage to keep the lamp illuminated, whilst regulating the power draw of the lamp.&nbsp;Without the ballast, the current through the lamp would increase rapidly until it blew out because of the high voltage and negative resistance. The voltage drop once the lamp sparks is around 300V. This voltage can range up to a couple of thousand volts, depending on the assembly, making the operation voltage of the lamps quite low. In general, the overall current draw of a ballast/bulb system is relatively low.Within the<a href="https://islproducts.com/case-study/electronic-ballast-110v-240vac-for-uv-c-germicidal-lamps/" target="_blank">&nbsp;germicidal ballast</a> there is a combination of resistors, capacitors, inductors, and other printed circuit board level components that dictate the overall output characteristics of the ballast. The ballast converts a sinusoidal AC input, of around 50-60 Hz, and modulates it to a 20-80 kHz square or sine wave pulse output. This eliminates the flicker that was originally associated with gas filled lamps.<h2 dir="ltr">UV-C Applications</h2>UV-C purification has continued to gain popularity over the last few years. UV-C germicidal technology has been proven to be very effective in the<a href="https://islproducts.com/case-study/electronic-ballast-for-hvac-purification-uv-germicidal-lamps/" target="_blank">&nbsp;HVAC industry for air purification</a>. In the more commercial settings with higher foot traffic, surface disinfection is also a very important focus. New products utilizing germicidal ballasts are being developed every day.UV-C light is also used in ozone generation, which is used for air and water purification. When ozone is produced by a UV-C lamp, the ozone and the light work in tandem to destroy harmful pathogens.Another area where you will find UV light ballasts being used is in industrial pipe leak detection devices. Ballasts can also be used in various UV printing and curing applications.As a result of COVID-19 and other harmful viruses, UV-C technology has become a necessity in a variety of industrial, residential, commercial and healthcare environments. This has only increased the demand and sales for UV-C sanitation systems.As UV-C purification systems are implemented in more and more industries the demand for UV-C specific ballast continues to increase. If you would like to learn more about ballasts check out our article “<a href="https://islproducts.com/design-note/uv-c-ballast-start-types/" target="_blank">UV-C Ballast Start Types</a>” to see how you can maximize performance and ballast life in your applications.&nbsp;<div class="fr-img-space-wrap"><img alt="12V DC Ballast for UV-C Bulbs" src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjIzOTUwMjM4NTMwLTE2MjM5NTAyMzg1MzAucG5nIiwiZWRpdHMiOnsicmVzaXplIjp7IndpZHRoIjo5NTAsImZpdCI6ImNvdmVyIn19fQ==" class="fr-fic fr-dii" style="width: 372px;">12V Ballast for UV-C Bulbs &nbsp;</div>

As UV-C technology increases in popularity, the demand for UV-C specific ballasts have skyrocketed. Learn more about this vital piece of technology!

Ballasts for UV-C Lamps: The Basics

<h2 dir="ltr">The Light That Fights To Keep Us Safe</h2>Utilizing UV-C light to kill germs has made the headlines over the past year, specifically how it is being used to help destroy pathogens like COVID-19. UV-C light is contributing to a safer environment in a big way. Robots and other UV-C equipped devices can be found sanitizing New York City’s trains and buses, Fenway Park, as well as Long Term Care facilities. <a href="https://islproducts.com/the-history-of-ultraviolet-germicidal-irradiation/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">UV technology</a> has been around for a very long time though. The best way to understand how far UltraViolet Germicidal Irradiation (UVGI) has come is to look back at the beginning.&nbsp;It might surprise you that the first paper published about UV light and its relationship to microbial organisms was published in the 1870s. In fact, the 1903 Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded for the use of UV light to fight diseases like lupus.The theory all started with sunlight. Arthur Downes and Thomas P. Blunt published “On the Influence of Light Upon Protoplasms” in 1877. They discovered that sunlight was harmful to the growth of bacteria. It was already known that, unlike plants, bacteria didn’t need sunlight to grow. This was the first time it was recorded that sunlight was in opposition to bacteria growth.Niels Finsen was the first to begin using artificial UV sources. Finsen created an electric carbon arc light, which he named after himself, that operated in the blue “Chemical” light spectrum. He would put several of these devices together to treat lupus vulgaris, a tuberculosis of the skin. This type of treatment became known as Photobiomodulation, now known simply as Light Therapy, and won Finsen the 1903 Nobel Prize in Medicine.In the 1930s Harvard School of Public Health instructor William F. Wells had the idea of aerosolized infectious droplets in the air that spread disease and theorized that UV light would be able to kill them UV ventilation systems were installed on the upper walls of a few schools near Philadelphia for Wells to study. He recorded that rooms without the UV devices had a 53.6% measles infection rate, compared to rooms with the UV devices that had a 13.3% infection rate. Wells and his students continued these experiments and learned to optimize these devices so they worked on more diseases like Tuberculosis. <img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjIzNDUwNzc4ODEzLUhvcml6b250YWwgVVZHSSBUaW1lbGluZS5wbmciLCJlZGl0cyI6eyJyZXNpemUiOnsid2lkdGgiOjk1MCwiZml0IjoiY292ZXIifX19" style="width: 747px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib"> While UV water sanitization began in the 1950s, it gained major traction in the late 1990s. UV light is particularly good at killing Giardia and Cryptosporidium, both of which have strains that are immune to chlorine. While UV water filtration is more common in Europe, it’s becoming increasingly popular in North America in smaller groundwater plants. UV light is not only popular for it’s pathogen fighting characteristics, it’s also a cheaper alternative to chlorine based treatment options. As older chlorine systems are phased out, new UV-C systems are taking their place.UVGI gets re-examined every time there is a new global health threat, and COVID-19 is no exception. The only difference this time is that there is 100 years of medical and scientific knowledge to lean on.Some of this technology is familiar, like UV-C wall mount air disinfectors similar to what William F. Wells put in those Pennsylvania school houses 90 years ago. Others are more modern, like the autonomous UV-C sanitation robots being rolled out at most major sporting arenas. Some of these devices are not seen at all, like the devices being added to commercial and residential<a href="https://islproducts.com/case-study/electronic-ballast-for-hvac-purification-uv-germicidal-lamps/" target="_blank">&nbsp;HVAC systems</a> to clean the circulating air.Most of these systems are using mercury amalgam bulbs with quartz housings, very similar to Finsen’s lamp from over a century ago. But technology has made major improvements since then in terms of power delivery. UV-C specific ballasts allow bulbs to last longer and perform at peak efficiency. Ballasts tailored to each bulb and use case have allowed UV-C sanitation to perform leaps-and-bounds better than it did in Finsen’s time.&nbsp;ISL Products has been designing and manufacturing ballasts to help the growing UV-C market for over a decade. Read this design note on the <a href="https://islproducts.com/design-note/ballasts-for-uv-c-lamps-the-basics/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">basics of UV-C ballasts</a> for a better understanding of what's literally driving the UV industry.&nbsp;While UV-C light has had quite a year in the headlines, it has been working tirelessly to make the world a little safer for over a century. It has fought COVID-19, SARS, Giardia, Cryptosporidium, Measles, and Tuberculosis. Through tireless work by scientists and engineers the technology has improved to fight each of these diseases, and will continue to improve in preparation of the next big virus.

The use of UV-C light has made the headlines over the past year. While it may seem like UV-C is a relatively new technology, it’s actually been around for over a century.

The History Of Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation (UVGI)

When Ben Calhoun and Dave Wentzloff co-founded Everactive in 2012, analysts and tech companies were forecasting a massive increase in the number of internet-connected devices, collectively referred to as the internet of things (IoT). IBM, for example, predicted a staggering 1 trillion IoT-connected devices by 2015.But Calhoun and Wentzloff knew better. The pair, who’d met as graduate students researching ultra-low-power circuits in Anantha Chandrakasan’s research group at MIT, recognized that 1 trillion devices meant the near-impossible task of managing 1 trillion batteries to sustain all of the sensors needed to continuously collect, analyze, and send data.“Ben and I recognized that there was no way those IoT projections could happen if all of the devices had to run on batteries,” says Wentzloff. “We started Everactive with the collective vision of ridding the IoT world of batteries while ushering in the next era of self-powered computing systems.”Within an industrial environment like a manufacturing plant, there are often thousands of assets that require careful attention to ensure efficient operation. An effective real-time monitoring solution must continuously stream data from each of these points to keep information flowing in a timely fashion so that stakeholders can react quickly to any issues that might interrupt operation, damage equipment, or cause safety risks and environmental harm.But this is tough to do at scale. Existing solutions that rely on wired sensing are cost-prohibitive to deploy at all of the locations necessary to make them useful. The same is true for battery-powered solutions, especially considering our collective struggle with short battery life.“We’ve had customers in the industrial manufacturing context say they currently have a maintenance problem, but if they employ battery-powered solutions they’re just replacing their existing maintenance problem with a different maintenance problem of constantly replacing batteries across thousands of devices,” says Calhoun.Now imagine that issue spread across a world where we have 1 trillion IoT devices. Even if we do get to a point where we have an IoT battery with a 10-year lifespan (the current industry goal), we’d be looking at changing more than 270 million batteries every day.In addition to battery limitations, the scaling issues are compounded by existing wireless networking technology. To effectively address the needs of a manufacturing plant — let alone a 1 trillion-node world — we need extremely high-density sensor networks to communicate at relatively long range throughout environments that are notoriously inhospitable to wireless signals.Everactive’s innovation solves both of these problems, simultaneously getting rid of the battery and reinventing low-power wireless networking with its differentiating technology: ultra-low-power integrated circuits.Yes, the same technology Calhoun and Wentzloff researched as graduate students at the Institute. The same field they continued to work on as professors at their undergraduate alma maters, the University of Virginia and the University of Michigan, respectively. In fact, after completing their doctorates at MIT — Calhoun in 2006 and Wentzloff in 2007 — they maintained close ties and eventually began to cooperate across those university boundaries.Calhoun's research group focused on low-power digital systems, and Wentzloff’s group explored low-power communication. "Our specific areas of interest dovetail quite nicely to form complete solutions, so our groups started to collaborate — it became a very close connection,” explains Wentzloff.When the two technical co-founders looked to expand their startup, they tapped a collection of their newly minted PhD students who had the expertise of developing wireless system-on-chip technologies in the lab. Today, Everactive has expanded into a team of nearly 90 industry veterans and technical experts, including talented minds like Alice Wang, who joined up with Calhoun and Wentzloff in 2018 after successful stints with industry giants Texas Instruments and MediaTek. Another MIT alum, she now serves as VP of hardware for Everactive, directing both silicon and hardware systems design.“We’re exceptionally proud of the team that we’ve developed,” says Wentzloff. “I think a large part of why we continue to succeed is that we’ve done a great job of surrounding our core technology students with a broad set of talented industry leaders.”&nbsp;Thanks to their advances in ultra-low-power circuits and wireless communication, Everactive sells full-stack industrial IoT solutions powered by their always-on Eversensors, harvesting energy exclusively from the surrounding environment. The sensors can be deployed at a larger scale than battery-powered devices, and they cost less to operate. At the other end of their system, the Evercloud transforms new data into high-value, actionable insights.Their first product is a steam trap monitor. In a small factory, there might be hundreds of these mechanisms, while large oil and chemical refineries are often home to thousands of them.Steam may be an old technology, but it’s ubiquitous from an energy standpoint. We still use it in our power plants to generate electricity and it’s a common source of heat for our homes and buildings.“Steam is a great way to move energy around a large area, which is why it’s still used across so many application verticals and marketing segments,” explains Calhoun. In a steam distribution network, as energy is extracted from the steam it turns back into water. Steam traps function as valves that allow the condensed water to exit the system while keeping the steam inside.Their failure can lead to wasted energy, costly downtime if the process has to be taken offline, or even dangerous explosions. And monitoring thousands of steam traps for malfunctions is not that simple. “Some steam traps are buried in the ground, and some of them are located two or three stories up,” says Wentzloff. “It can be difficult to reach them. Hence, the manual inspection problem.”But Everactive’s solution can be deployed on every single steam trap in a steam distribution network for real-time assessment of the state of the system. This is why top industry players like Armstrong International, the second-largest steam trap manufacturer globally, has chosen to partner with them. “Armstrong was so impressed with what we have to offer that we’re now working together to bring Everactive's monitoring services to market, in conjunction with Armstrong's excellent steam traps,” says Calhoun.Successful case studies abound, which is a key factor in their being named to MIT STEX25. Just last year they deployed their sensors in an industrial facility with 1,200 steam traps. They saved that customer close to $2.5 million in energy costs and around 34,000 metric tons of CO2, “which is equivalent to about 7,000 passenger cars per year being taken off the road,” says Wentzloff. They also averted the loss of 60 million gallons of wastewater that would otherwise be leaking through failed traps.But the industrial space isn’t the beginning and the end for Everactive. Consumer electronics, particularly wearables, is often talked about when discussing the IoT, and it’s very much on Everactive's radar. Logistics is another area they are exploring. By adding localization technology to their next generation of sensors, Everactive could help provide the ability to track assets anywhere across the globe. “There's an unbounded list of industries and applications where we can apply this technology. We're really excited about what's coming ahead,” says Wentzloff.In the face of the coronavirus pandemic, businesses are reevaluating how they operate and how they will function going forward. With workforces reduced, especially in factory settings where Everactive’s clients are building products essential to the economy, it has become even more important to understand what’s going on in places that aren’t easily accessible.Intent on filling that need, Everactive expects to play an essential role in driving self-powered solutions to make ubiquitous remote monitoring possible. “At Everactive, we believe in a future where all of our environments and assets are monitored and smart, capable of providing information to computing systems to make our world more efficient, safer, and just better for the way we live,” says Calhoun. “We want to be a part of that, and we think our batteryless solution is the right path forward.”

Benton Calhoun SM '02 PhD '06 and David Wentzloff SM '02 PhD '07 are co-founders of Everactive, which uses wireless sensing to provide continuous remote monitoring for the industrial internet of things.

The future of the IoT (batteries not required)

In this episode, we talk about the benefits of an artificial nose, how to turn wastewater into energy while filtering it, and a proposal from ETH Zurich to change how we think about drought insurance. As always, you can find these and other interesting &amp; impactful engineering articles on Wevolver.com.<iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/cd91279d-e207-4c9c-bae3-e99bcbe0a0ea?dark=false" class="fr-draggable"></iframe>&nbsp;<h3>EPISODE NOTES</h3>(0:42) - : Electronic Nose:Pharmaceutical manufacturers are in need of a system capable of distinguishing different types of mint and researchers at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology believe their newly developed artificial nose could be the answer. The system uses changes in resonance of a quartz crystal and a machine learning algorithm to distinguish between various mints with high specificity.&nbsp;(6:15) -&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wevolver.com/article/wastewater-treatment-system-recovers-electricity-filters-water" target="_blank">Wastewater Energy Harvesting</a>:Microbial fuel cells have been around for quite some time and their purpose is simple: turn the organic waste into bioelectricity. Professor Zhen He at Washington University in St. Louis decided to build on this platform and developed a fuel cell that can generate electricity while filtering water.(12:35) -&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wevolver.com/article/insuring-crops-from-space" target="_blank">Farm Monitoring From Space</a>:Droughts can be disastrous for farmers and drought insurance is a tool that can help alleviate some of that burden; however, it is often riddled with bureaucracy and having to wait until your crops fail before a payout. Newly published research from ETH Zurich suggests that monitoring crops via satellites and creating insurance policies that payout automatically in response to real-time changes of drought parameters could be the future of agriculture.--About the podcast:Every day, some of the most innovative universities, companies, and individual technology developers share their knowledge on Wevolver. To ensure we can also provide this knowledge for the growing group of podcast listeners, we started a collaboration with two young engineers, Daniel Scott Mitchell &amp; Farbod Moghaddam who discuss the most interesting content in this podcast series.&nbsp;To learn more about this show, please visit the <a href="https://www.wevolver.com/profile/the.next.byte" target="_blank">shows page</a>. By following the page, you will get automatic updates by email when a new show is published.Be sure to give us a follow and review on&nbsp;<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/nl/podcast/the-next-byte/id1548255861?l=en" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Apple</a> podcasts,&nbsp;<a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6lPPsRtegnivsRUEsQ09R7?si=IPMiah7xT_apJtPjqvXMlA" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Spotify</a>, and most of your favorite podcast platforms!

The combination of sensors and materials enables the artificial sense of smell. (Photo: Amadeus Bramsiepe, KIT)

In this episode, we talk about the benefits of an artificial nose, how to turn wastewater into energy while filtering it, and a proposal from ETH Zurich to change how we think about drought insurance.

Podcast: Artificial Electronic Nose, Wastewater To Energy, Satellite Farm Monitoring

Understanding how light waves oscillate in time as they interact with materials is essential to understanding light-driven energy transfer in materials, such as solar cells or plants. Due to the fantastically high speeds at which light waves oscillate, however, scientists have yet to develop a compact device with enough time resolution to directly capture them.Now, a team led by MIT researchers has demonstrated chip-scale devices that can directly trace the weak electric field of light waves as they change in time. Their device, which incorporates a microchip that uses short laser pulses and nanoscale antennas, is easy to use, requiring no special environment for operation, minimal laser parameters, and conventional laboratory electronics.The team’s work,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41566-021-00792-0" target="_blank">published earlier this month</a> in&nbsp;Nature Photonics, may enable the development of new tools for optical measurements with applications in areas such as biology, medicine, food safety, gas sensing, and drug discovery.“The potential applications of this technology are many,” says co-author Phillip Donnie Keathley, group leader and Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE) research scientist. “For instance, using these optical sampling devices, researchers will be able to better understand optical absorption pathways in plants and photovoltaics, or to better identify molecular signatures in complex biological systems.”Keathley’s co-authors are lead author Mina Bionta, a senior postdoc at RLE; Felix Ritzkowsky, a graduate student at the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) and the University of Hamburg who was an MIT visiting student; and Marco Turchetti, a graduate student in RLE. The team was led by Keathley working with professors Karl Berggren in the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS); Franz Kärtner of DESY and University of Hamburg in Germany; and William Putnam of the University of California at Davis. Other co-authors are Yujia Yang, a former MIT postdoc now at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EFPL), and Dario Cattozzo Mor, a former visiting student.<h2>The ultrafast meets the ultrasmall — time stands still at the head of a pin</h2>Researchers have long sought methods for measuring systems as they change in time. Tracking gigahertz waves, like those used for your phone or Wi-Fi router, requires a time resolution of less than 1 nanosecond (one-billionth of a second). To track visible light waves requires an even faster time resolution — less than 1 femtosecond (one-millionth of one-billionth of a second).The MIT and DESY research teams designed a microchip that uses short laser pulses to create extremely fast electronic flashes at the tips of nanoscale antennas. The nanoscale antennas are designed to enhance the field of the short laser pulse to the point that they are strong enough to rip electrons out of the antenna, creating an electronic flash that is quickly deposited into a collecting electrode. These electronic flashes are extremely brief, lasting only a few hundred attoseconds (a few one-hundred-billionths of one-billionth of 1 second).Using these fast flashes, the researchers were able to take snapshots of much weaker light waves oscillating as they passed by the chip.“This work shows, once more, how the merger of nanofabrication and ultrafast physics can lead to exciting insights and new ultrafast measurements tools,” says Professor Peter Hommelhoff, chair for laser physics at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, who was not connected with this work. “All this is based on the deep understanding of the underlying physics. Based on this research, we can now measure ultrafast field waveforms of very weak laser pulses.”The ability to directly measure light waves in time will benefit both science and industry, say the researchers. As light interacts with materials, its waves are altered in time, leaving signatures of the molecules inside. This optical field sampling technique promises to capture these signatures with greater fidelity and sensitivity than prior methods while using compact and integratable technology needed for real-world applications.

As a laser illuminates these nanometer-scale devices (blue wave), attosecond electron flashes are generated (red pulse) at the ends of nanotips and used to trace out weak light fields (red wave). Credits:Image: Marco Turchetti

MIT researchers develop compact on-chip device for detecting electric-field waveforms with attosecond time resolution.

Nanostructured device stops light in its tracks

Promoted by the 150 companies forming the Zigbee Alliance, Project CHIP could play a pivotal role in invigorating the relatively young smart home sector.Despite the obvious promise, adoption of the smart home-inspired lifestyle has been sedate. To accelerate the vision, leading smart-home end product companies and trade associations representing various wireless technologies are starting to work together to make life easier for developers and consumers.<h2>A fragmented sector</h2>Industry analysts estimate the smart-home sector will be worth more than $50 billion by 2022. It’s a lofty short-term target, but not an overly surprising one given the wide-held expectation that smart-home solutions can significantly improve users’ lives. Smart-home technology—which includes advanced surveillance cameras, smart locks, connected lighting, speakers, pet feeders and many other hybrid solutions yet to be imagined—brings numerous advantages to the home. Examples of these benefits include energy efficiency, enhanced comfort and better security.But challenges remain, and different RF technologies is a dominant one. Well-established standards-based, short-range wireless protocols like Bluetooth LE, Thread, Wi-Fi and Zigbee are suited to particular smart-home use cases. A one-size-fits-all solution would be ideal for both application developers and end-users. Still, the competing wireless protocols trade off various technical parameters to target niche applications in the home.This fragmentation is mainly due to big companies backing different wireless technologies and application layers in an attempt to capture the whole smart-home market. For Apple, it’s Bluetooth LE (through HomeKit), for Google, it’s Thread and Weave, and for Amazon, it’s Zigbee and Zigbee clusters. Lack of interoperability between these products leads to frustration and, in turn, results in developers and consumers losing interest in smart-home products.<h2>Project Connected Home Over IP</h2>Internet Protocol (IP)—the most common network layer used in homes and offices—is ideal for delivering interoperability, end-to-end security, privacy, and Cloud connectivity between a wireless device and another device, app or service. Leading smart home industry stakeholders have realized that by creating a universal application protocol on top of the mature IP and lower layer protocols, they can ensure interoperability between devices, platforms and ecosystems.A key collaboration called Project Connected Home Over IP (CHIP) is formalizing the effort to bring about smart-home interoperability. Promoted by the 150 companies forming the Zigbee Alliance, Project CHIP could play a pivotal role in invigorating the relatively young smart home sector. The initiative plans to provide a standard application layer that can be used with a set of complementary wireless technologies agreed upon by the participants. At first, the focus will be on Wi-Fi, Thread and Bluetooth LE, followed by other IP-supporting protocols such as Ethernet and cellular.<h2>A meeting of giants</h2>Project CHIP brings together consumer products firms Apple, Google, Amazon, Samsung and Comcast, alongside several wireless chip vendors, including Nordic Semiconductor. The project aims to make it easier for manufacturers to create secure and reliable solutions that are interoperable with the major smart home ecosystems like Apple's Siri, Google's Assistant and Amazon's Alexa. End products like smart speakers and routers can then include support for the selected wireless technologies and the CHIP application layer.Beyond the home environment, Project CHIP also has an eye on the commercial landscape. Several companies, including Legrand, Qorvo, Schneider Electric and Nordic, have aligned to form the Project CHIP Commercial Strategy Group, which plans to address numerous smart home use cases applicable to commercial ventures. These include multi-tenant residential buildings, offices and hotels, supermarkets, warehouses and retail malls.<h2>Developer and end-user benefits</h2>Developers and end users stand to benefit from Project CHIP-enabled interoperability for smart-home (and commercial building) devices. The first CHIP release, which supports both Thread at 2.4 GHz and IP implementations for Bluetooth LE, will enable a simpler development process and provide a broader market for developers’ products.Today, manufacturers are forced to either choose to back one standard or produce multiple versions of a product to match each ecosystem. The first option threatens to limit market adoption, while the second is expensive and extends time-to-market. Project CHIP will allow developers to support different ecosystems and lower-layer protocols without needing to code multiple versions of their applications. Soon, one product will work with all ecosystems.The consumer will gain because a wide array of smart-home products may communicate with each other, including popular consumer devices such as Amazon Echo and Apple HomePod. A homeowner moving into a new property, for example, could continue using the existing smart thermostat even if the previous homeowner chose Apple’s Siri and the new owner prefers Amazon Alexa.The royalty-free CHIP connectivity standard is ambitiously targeting devices across categories such as lighting and electrical, HVAC controls, access control, safety and security, window coverings, TVs, wireless access points and bridges.<h2>Nordic support for standards</h2>Nordic’s short-range SoCs will be compatible with the new Project CHIP standards. These SoCs and Software Development Kits (SDKs) for protocols such as Bluetooth LE and Thread and software frameworks like HomeKit enable developers to make the most of smart-home interoperability.Widespread smart-home adoption is not quite here yet, but collaborations like Project CHIP will accelerate the dream of the connected home.<hr>This article was first published on Nordic's&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.nordicsemi.com/getconnected" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a><a href="https://blog.nordicsemi.com/getconnected?utm_campaign=2021%20wevolver" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Get Connected Blog</a>.

Promoted by the 150 companies forming the Zigbee Alliance, Project CHIP could play a pivotal role in invigorating the relatively young smart home sector.

Key collaboration fast-tracks smart home vision

"I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles."These are Christopher Reeve's words. The iconic actor portrayed Superman in the 1978 blockbuster and its three later sequels. Reeve himself had to endure such obstacles towards the end of his life after becoming paralyzed from the shoulders down following a horse-riding accident.Today, as life imitates art, a combination of adversity and technology creates the next generation superheroes. Like Limbitless Solutions, a non-profit organization spun-off from the University of Central Florida. The team of now former students is developing technology that empowers children with limb differences.Amongst a range of accessibility solutions, the company creates personalized 3D printed prosthetic 'bionic' arms. Customized to resemble popular superhero bodysuits from movies and video games, the prosthetic dramatically improve the wearer's life quality.<h2>Advanced electronics</h2>To make the limb work, non-invasive electromyographic (EMG) sensors pick up signals generated by muscle movements in the child's arm. The sensors are stickers placed on the upper arm above muscle groups that move when flexed. When an EMG signal is detected, the bionic arm actuates. Below this is a socket to hold the prosthetic in place, matched to the individual child, and it fits regardless of whether or not the elbow is present. The forearm section of the bionic arm contains a battery pack that powers the motors controlling the multi-gesture movements.The hand unit contains the core electronics and motors for the fine control of the individual fingers. This unit includes an Insight SiP ISP1507-AX RF module based on Nordic Semiconductor's nRF52832 SoC. It enables the bionic limb to be set-up, adjusted, and monitored wirelessly via an iOS or Android partner app. For example, by configuring the app, you can determine the degree of muscle-flexing required to generate a particular force in the fingers. The app also provides easy access to status information such as the battery level.<h2>Practice makes perfect</h2>Learning to use a new arm takes practice; determining the various thresholds of muscle strength, for example, is difficult. So to make it fun and engaging, Limbitless Solutions has gamified the process. The Nordic-powered Insight SiP module acts as the Bluetooth LE wireless controller for a computer- or tablet-based game. The games take a classic level-based approach, starting with simple gestures such as opening and closing the hand and then unlocking additional, more complex manipulations as each level is completed.In addition to the looking part, the prosthetic arm must be comfortable, lightweight, and easy to use. The miniaturized eight by eight by 1 mm module is suitable for this purpose as it is for any other space-constrained application. Meanwhile, the Bluetooth LE connectivity allows parents to easily calibrate and adjust the arm from their smartphone, using a wireless technology they readily understand.<h2>Affordable technology</h2>Cosmetically realistic myoelectric hands that open and close can cost $20,000 to $30,000 or even more, while a neuroprosthetic arm may cost as much as $100,000. By combining cost-effective 3D printing with affordable electronics and wireless technology, the company believes it can reduce production cost to as little as $5000 per bionic arm. Essential if the technology is to become widespread as children outgrow prosthetics quickly.As a natural next step, the company has expanded its vision to support adults with limb differences—particularly veterans and first responders—of which there are unfortunately many in the United States. According to the Amputee Coalition, nearly two million people live with limb loss in the U.S. Approximately 185,000 amputations take place each year, a number expected to double by 2050.<h2>Project expansion</h2>Through the process of a clinical trial, Limbitless Solutions has so far gifted 40 bionic arms to 36 children and teenagers. By expanding its R&amp;D and manufacturing capabilities soon, the company hopes to increase to 100 through gifts and donations. If successful, the project could give families and children hope worldwide and create thousands of more superheroes in the process.<hr>This article was first published on Nordic's&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.nordicsemi.com/getconnected" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a><a href="https://blog.nordicsemi.com/getconnected?utm_campaign=2021%20wevolver" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Get Connected Blog</a>.

By combining cost-effective 3D printing with affordable electronics and wireless technology, new accessibility solutions empower children with limb differences.

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