We propose in this project to develop a negative tone photoresist based on a versatile metal-oxo clusters (MOC) plateform for direct-write micro and nanopatterns by DUV lithography at room temperature. By mixing MOC with different compositions, the electrical properties of the final materials will be tuned from insulating to semi-conducting with adjustable parameters. The MOC will thus be the building block of the material allowing : - photopatterning - low temperature assisted by DUV irradiation curing leading to metal oxyde - semi-conductor properties for final properties We aim to address both fundamental and applied objectives through this project. At fundamental point of view, deeper understanding are needed to 1/ fully describe the synthesized metal-oxo clusters, 2/ understand the photoinduced material preparation, including the use of light for crosslinking the material and mineralize it at low temperature, 3/ build relationships between final properties (especially the electrical properties) and multiscale structure, 4/ extend the range of electrical properties, from insulating to semi-conducting materials, with adjustable parameters. Simple devices will be produced for validating the electrical properties of the material and demonstrate the possibility to fabricate operating devices by a simple low-temperature process. The key issue, reliability, of MOC-based transistor will also be investigated when tuning the MOC materials. Using this new material, direct-write oxide transistor on flexible substrate will be enable and will constitute one of main targets of the project. This project will be conducted by 2 partners having a strong interaction since more than 5 years. Dr Olivier Soppera at IS2M (CNRS UMR 7361), in France, and Prof Hsiao-Wen Zan at NCTU, in Taiwan had developed complementary research activities in this field. The PHOTOMOC project will be a unique opportunity to shear this expertise and boost up this research. Significant advances in fundamental research with applications in microelectronics, sensors or displays are expected from this work.

In the emerging IoT (Internet of Things) era, the wireless communication platform is expected to deliver new critical functions such as the real-time detecting of the key biochemical signal to establish the personal medical database through the big-data computation. The development of miniaturized and wearable devices for personalized and preventive medicine drives a great progress in sensor and analytical chemistry research. New challenges include a requirement for scaling down devices with micro/nanostructures, integrating the on-chip electronic systems with low power consumption, collecting and transmitting the sensing data through a wireless system, etc. To detect the biomarker in low concentration, sensors with micro/nanostructure is particularly important. The increased surface-to-volume ratio greatly enhances the sensitivity and lowers down the minimum detection limit. Simple solid-state devices with nanostructure or unique nanomaterial compositions can sense the critical breath markers down to a few particles per billion. Prior works, including the work of Prof. Zan, demonstrated that breath ammonia for hemodialysis patients correlates to the key parameter, blood urea nitrogen. The aim of NIRTRONIC project is developing new fabrication processes for advanced miniaturized (bio)sensors that will be useful for human being monitoring. We propose a technology that is based on solution process and laser curing for micro and nanopatterning. Such process will be used to fabricate field effect transistors (FET) and photodetectors (PD) that will be used for designing biosensors as end-product. We target a specific application that is a sensor for salivary urea, a key factor for chronic kidney disease patients. One of the main innovation relies on the amorphous metal oxides microstructures preparation. To achieve at the same time direct write process and suitable semi-conductor properties, we propose Near-InfraRed (NIR) laser irradiation to prepare in situ, in one-step, at room temperature the semi-conducting micro-nano-structures. The main advantage of NIR curing is that metal oxide material can be obtained at room temperature, which means that the structures can be fabricated on flexible plastic substrates or textiles. The solution-based materials associated to laser-processing makes this disruptive route a very suitable platform for fabrication of low-cost high-performance sensing devices. A functional hydrogel will be coupled to the active metal-oxide material to achieve the salivary urea sensor. NIRTRONIC project combines high level scientific and technological challenges, on several aspects: i) Chemistry of materials, photochemistry and ii) fabrication and evaluation of microsensors. This project will be led in collaboration between two teams that are each recognized at the international level for their research activities: The French team at IS2M is specialist of sol-gel materials, photochemistry and micro-nano-fabrication and will thus have in charge the development of the photopatternable semi-conductor material. The Taiwanese team at NCTU will investigate the electrical property of oxide materials by fabricating field-effect transistor (FET), photo detector (PD) and prototype of urea sensor. The international project is a unique chance to gather the scientific expertise of 2 renewed teams. The benefit for the French team to have a Taiwanese partner is to open possibilities to apply the concept to industrial application thanks to the dynamic microelectronic industry in Taiwan with whom Prof Zan have already contacts and collaboration. Licence of exploitation and/or further collaboration program will be envisaged in the last year of the project. NIRTRONIC project constitutes a unique chance to strengthen the fruitful collaboration between Prof. Zan and Dr Soppera teams initiated ca 10 years ago.

Achieving efficient wireless communications is widely believed to be pivotal in advancing important milestones in societies that value information and the environment. Such networks though, in the presence of a large number of users, can become an enormous environmental burden, given the massive amounts of power that is required both for transmitting signals as well as for supporting the intense computational process that take place. It has been well established that in such large networks, interference between nodes is a central bottleneck – which together with algorithmic complexity, take up the lion’s share of the power costs. The main volume of research in reducing user interferences has up to date focused on specifically exploring novel interference management techniques in settings that are simplistic, under very simplifying and extreme assumptions on the amount of channel knowledge at the nodes, and in the absence of considerations regarding implementation complexity which can often be entirely prohibitive. There are two major aspects that clearly set the IMAGE-NET research proposal apart from the existing volume of work mentioned above. The first aspect is the fact that we will take a unified view of interference and complexity, where all the interference management solutions will be done under strict delay and complexity constraints. This approach is imperative given that a large fraction of the current state of art in interference management is far from implementable. The second aspect that sets this proposal apart is that we plan to adopt a unified view of the different methods of interference management, each defined by varying degrees of channel knowledge at the interfering nodes, as well as by varying capabilities of the different nodes. At the two extremes of this spectrum lie powerful but impractical interference alignment solutions that often require astronomical complexity, and on the other extreme lie very rare instances were simple linear solutions result in optimal interference management. Our task is to view these jointly. These differentiating aspects hold the promise of jointly providing both theoretical tools for analysis-and-optimization in wireless networks of interfering users, as well as providing clear breakthroughs towards computationally efficient implementation of the novel interference management methods. To achieve this objective we identify three pertinent research areas related to the wireless networks. The study of fundamental tradeoff between interference management and feedback quality is proposed to evaluate the aspects related to tradeoff between the complexity of acquiring channel state information at transmitters (CSIT) and performance of interference management schemes, in particular the scenarios with no CSIT, reduced CSIT, and imperfect CSIT will be evaluated. We also look into the aspects related to the dissemination of CSIT in large networks to allow for network scalability. Thirdly we will also search for a unified view by studying the fundamental tradeoff between performance-delay-complexity in interference networks, and then proceed to propose algorithms that are simpler and under specific settings achieve optimal performance for interference management. Guided by this tradeoff we will seek to provide algorithms that are robust in the presence of imperfect CSIT and hybrid algorithms that combine some state of art interference management techniques to provide practical interference management solutions for networks.

Abstract: 5G-DIVE targets end-to-end 5G trials aimed at proving the technical merits and business value proposition of 5G technologies in two vertical pilots, namely (i) Industry 4.0 and (ii) Autonomous Drone Scout. These trials will put in action a bespoke end-to-end 5G design tailored to the requirements of the applications targeted in each vertical pilot, such as digital twinning and drone fleet navigation applications. 5G-DIVE’s bespoke design is built around two main pillars, namely (1) end-to-end 5G connectivity including 5G New Radio, Crosshaul transport and 5G Core, and (2) distributed edge and fog computing integrating intelligence located closely to the user. The latter pillar extends significantly beyond the EU- TW-Phase-I 5G-CORAL solution framework by adding support for automation based on artificial intelligence and distributed ledger technologies. The targeted intelligent tailored design is envisioned to achieve optimized performance and thus boost significantly the business value proposition of 5G in each targeted vertical application. 5G-DIVE trials target pilots running for several weeks on the premises of the vertical applications in real-life testbeds in Europe and Taiwan, leveraging noticeably the European 5G end- to-end facilities from ICT-17 call and Taiwan’s testbed facilities.

The 5G-CORAL project leverages on the pervasiveness of edge and fog computing in the Radio Access Network (RAN) to create a unique opportunity for access convergence. This is envisioned by the means of an integrated and virtualised networking and computing solution where virtualised functions, context-aware services, and user and third-party applications are blended together to offer enhanced connectivity and better quality of experience. The proposed solution contemplates two major building blocks, namely (i) the Edge and Fog computing System (EFS) subsuming all the edge and fog computing substrate offered as a shared hosting environment for virtualised functions, services, and applications; and (ii) the Orchestration and Control System (OCS) responsible for managing and controlling the EFS, including its interworking with other (non-EFS) domains (e.g., transport and core networks, distant clouds, etc.). Through the 5G-CORAL solution, several Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) can be achieved, notably an ultra-low end-to-end latency in the order of milliseconds. Moreover, new business prospects arise with new stakeholders in the value chain, notably small players owning computing and networking assets in the local service area, such as in shopping malls, airports, trains and cars. These environments will be used to validate the system in three complementary end-to-end large-scale testbeds in Taiwan, supporting innovative applications such as augmented reality, car safety, and IoT gateway.