Improving the performance of power electronics components is a major challenge for reducing our energy consumption. The diamond material has several extreme characteristics, such as a wide band gap and high thermal conductivity which are far superior to those of other semiconductor materials. In spite of these promising characteristics for future high performance power devices, electronic components made of diamond have not been realized on an industrial scale. One limit is that commercially available diamond is much smaller with a higher cost than other semiconductor materials. The TRANS-DIAM project intends to focus on a consortium rich in complementary knowledges around the diamond material, from the physics of solids, the growth, the development of transfer processes to the fabrication and characterization of electronic power components. In TRANS-DIAM project, an innovative diamond transfer process based on the Smart Cut™ technology is combined with the fabrication of state of the art Schottky diamond diode to demonstrate the first diamond component directly reported on an appropriate host substrate. Besides the fact that we consume very few diamond material without altering its qualities, such an innovative integration scheme will lead to better electrical performance. The ambition of this project is to demonstrate an unprecedented technology on an international scale, allowing to glimpse answers to the needs of a clean, safe and effective energy.

Communication systems for both civilian and military applications tend to cluster multiple standards and incorporate software reconfiguration techniques. The multiplication of standards, always more numerous, is in contradiction with the requirements of miniaturization of the terminals. To make the latter more compact, it may be envisaged to provide the transmission chain hardware reconfiguration capabilities to cover all communication protocols. Antennas and filters are the most critical extreme elements of the radiofrequency frontends with respect to miniaturization and agility, so the CODIFIANT project proposes to address this issue via an original approach of joint design of filter-antenna device. Indeed, rather than tackling the problems of miniaturization and reconfiguration by individual constitutive elements of the radiofrequency frontend, the project proposes a global approach of the filter-antenna subsystem present at the extremity of the frontends. The underlying strategy is then to share design constraints and find new combinations and compromises to optimize global performance. CODIFIANT is a fundamental research type project that aims at three main objectives and differentiating with respect to the state of the art. The first concerns the development of tools for analysis and joint design of filter-antenna device for their optimization. The second is the miniaturization of the filter-antenna device by rethinking and reorganizing the design options of the overall device (use of the fundamental limits of miniature antennas). A filter-antenna device smaller than the tenth of a wavelength will be searched. Finally, the last and most important objective of the project concerns the development of frequency reconfiguration properties of compact filter-antenna devices. It is based on the extension of the models and the co-design approach developed in static configuration. Frequency excursions of more than 25% of compact narrow band antenna devices (1 to 4 MHz band) will be targeted. The project is organized into five sub-projects: the first includes project coordination, dissemination and valorization; the second is dedicated to advanced tools for analysis and co-design of filter-antenna device; the third deals with the co-design of static compact filter-antenna device; the fourth concentrates the co-design developments of frequency agile antenna filter devices. The last is interested in the realization of demonstrators of filter antenna filter devices highlighting the progress made in the project. The total effort planned to carry out the work program is 101 people.month over a period of 36 months. The consortium brings together two reserch laboratories (CEA Leti, XLIM) whose fields of expertise are perfectly complementary and adapted to the research theme. CEA Leti and XLIM have been developing joint design approaches for RF front-ends since 2005. The two institutes have been cooperating more closely on the specific filter-antenna topic since 2012. This project is part of the thematic axis 3 "acoustic and radio waves" of the ASTRID 2019 call for projects and aims at developing tools for the co-design and the realization of compact and reconfigurable filter-antenna devices that will equip next generation of radio frequency terminals.

We propose a near zero-power digital circuit topology by combining gradual transitions and electrostatic interactions between logic states by introducing new device type. As transistors are not adequate candidates for this new logic paradigm, we introduce an electrostatic-controlled MEMS devices in a dielectric liquid to obtain leakage-free, high-dynamic, high-density and energy-reversible variable capacitors. These devices must be combined to form the basement of a future energy-aware processor by introducing a flexible trade-off between computation speed and energy dissipation. Further fundamental advances are awaited such as a better knowledge of the dielectric liquid at micro-scale or the fringe-field effect in micro-scale electrostatic actuators.

Novel applications in the biomedical field could come from exploiting the electroactive properties of conducting polymers and the biocompatibility and biodegradability of natural polysaccharides towards the development of flexible, stretchable and bioresorbable electronic biointerfaces. Such devices are promising for electrical stimulation and recording in vivo, because of their mechanically permissive structures that conform to curvilinear structures found in native tissue. Moreover, their transient character enables opportunities to develop advanced biomedical devices such as monitoring systems that eliminate risks associated with surgical explantation, stimulators to accelerate tissue repair and temporary drug delivery systems. The main goal of the STRETCH project is to design and study new electrode materials, of which originality lies in the combination of two crosslinked polysaccharide networks incorporating a conducting polymer. These all-polymeric materials will be integrated in an implantable electrode array dedicated to neurophysiological monitoring. The focus on such an application will allow close collaboration with clinicians, guaranteeing consideration of the physico-chemical and biological requirements early in the design stage of the materials. For this specific application, the new device is expected to i) optimize tissue integration mainly due to its ability to mechanically match its biological environment; ii) operate over a short period of time (about 3 weeks) and dissolve afterwards to generate biologically safe products. The strategy for material selection focuses on designing water-borne dispersions based on poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT), a biocompatible and electrically conductive polymer, and photocrosslinkable sulfated polysaccharides (sulfated dextran (DexS) and sulfated hyaluronic acid (HAS)) to obtain processable polymer formulations ("inks") combining conductivity, printability, controllable biological and degradation properties. Besides acting as dopant and dispersing agent of PEDOT in water (instead of commonly used poly(styrene sulfonate)), these functional polysaccharides will allow i) the design of conductive tracks showing self-healability, ii) the fabrication of soft conducting hydrogels with properties beneficial for interacting with living systems, and iii) the processing and integration of these active components into a bioresorbable electrode array. Here, crosslinked chitosan (CHI) thin films will be used as the insulating material taking advantage of the low conductivity, biocompatibility, biodegradability, adhesive and film-forming properties of CHI. The proposed method to engineer the STRETCH electrode array involves the chemical modification of dextran, HA and CHI, the development of new photocrosslinkable PEDOT/DexS and PEDOT/HAS inks and their localized deposition on soft CHI substrates, and the device integration combining microtechnology and photolithography techniques. Fundamental studies will be performed to fully characterize the different materials in terms of mechanical properties, electrical conductivity at rest and under stretching, bioresorption in physiological media and stability to sterilization conditions. The biocompatibility and behavior (adhesion, proliferation, spreading) of cells cultured on these hybrid materials will also be investigated in vitro and the best candidates will be selected to assess their performance in vivo in a cortical rodent model.

While low power communication has evolved towards multi-kilometer ranges and low bit-rate schemes in recent years, triggering increasing interests, a trade-off must still be made between power consumption and latency. Using pure-asynchronous communication allowed by emerging Ultra-Low-Power (ULP) wake-up receivers (WUR), WakeUp aims at proposing a low latency and energy efficient network architecture composed of heterogeneous radio nodes (long-range communication and ULP short-range WUR) with dedicated access and network protocols. This project is the fruit of joint reflexions of French research groups on Systems-on-chips (GDR Soc-Sip) and on Networking (GDR RSD) that made indeed emerged the wake-up radio as the technology that will surely change network paradigm for the next decade. A two-way cross layer optimization is envisaged in WakeUp, since on the one hand these heterogeneous network higher layers will take into account the specificities of the wake-up radio to optimize energy and latency, and on the other hand some recurrent application constraints will lead to specific wake-up radio designs. Our balanced consortium is composed of two academic partners (University of Rennes and University of Strasbourg), one state-owned industrial and commercial establishment (CEA LETI) and one SME (Wi6Labs). The consortium will address these scientific challenges at both the node and the network level, with controlled (FIT IoT Lab) and real-field experimental validations.