Award Abstract # 2014984
SBIR Phase I: iD3: Intelligent, Invisible Electronic ID Tags

NSF Org: TI
Translational Impacts
Recipient: OWIC TECHNOLOGIES INC
Initial Amendment Date: May 14, 2020
Latest Amendment Date: May 14, 2020
Award Number: 2014984
Award Instrument: Standard Grant
Program Manager: Muralidharan Nair
TI
 Translational Impacts
TIP
 Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships
Start Date: May 15, 2020
End Date: November 30, 2021 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $225,000.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $225,000.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2020 = $225,000.00
History of Investigator:
  • Alejandro Cortese (Principal Investigator)
    alejandro.j.cortese@gmail.com
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: OWIC TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
350 DUFFIELD HALL
ITHACA
NY  US  14853-2700
(919)824-2809
Sponsor Congressional District: 19
Primary Place of Performance: OWIC TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
350 DUFFIELD HALL
ITHACA
NY  US  14853-2700
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
19
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): QJLKBLFKNJ58
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): SBIR Phase I
Primary Program Source: 01002021DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s): 4096, 8034
Program Element Code(s): 537100
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.084

ABSTRACT

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will be the demonstration of an innovative, broadly applicable unique ID technology to link physical objects to the digital world. The proposed technology could help prevent counterfeits, as well as providing a manufacturer information on the product's movement in the supply and distribution chains. The key limitation preventing broad use of unique ID tags is that many key products and components are difficult or impossible to label with existing technologies due to either security, size, or cost. These constraints dramatically limit the space of applications. The tag prototype developed in this Phase I project will advance the field of wireless electronics by demonstrating the first remotely accessible microscopic electronic package.

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will further the development of a new class of microscopic Optical Wireless Integrated Circuits (OWiCs). Specifically, this project will be focusing on developing a new OWiC specifically designed for use as a unique ID tag. The tag combines an all optical communication and power system with low-power integrated circuits in an effectively invisible package, too small to be resolved by the naked eye. This project will address the following technical challenges: 1) making a tiny wireless tag with complete functionality, 2) manufacturing at scale, and 3) using the tag. Each of these hurdles will be addressed in this project with low-power integrated circuit design, parallel all-lithographic nanofabrication techniques, and new methods for placement of tags.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT

Disclaimer

This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.

OWiC Technologies’ Phase I project was focused on developing a new class of tiny, intelligent tags called microLINKs. Using this technology, OWiC Technologies aims to make the physical world ‘clickable’, i.e., to seamlessly link relevant digital data to a physical object with an effectively invisible tag. Links on objects that connect to digital content are growing exponentially, rendering the world as clickable as a webpage. Such data can provide enormous value to stakeholders throughout the entire product life cycle, from supply chain tracking to maintenance records to customer engagement. In a decade, we predict nearly every manufactured object will have a clickable link, and we believe microLINKs are uniquely capable of enabling this reality. Achieving ubiquity offers tremendous opportunities for network-effect revenues in everything from advertising/sales to supply chain/product lifecycle management.

Phase I work allowed OWiC Technologies to take microLINKs from the idea stage to a real, operating prototype. A microLINK tag functions in a way analogous to an RFID tag but uses light for power and communication instead of RF. Under illumination, a microLINK will blink out a unique 64-bit ID that can be read out with a handheld reader. This ID is used to connect to a link to digital content that is then displayed on a smartphone or tablet. All of the optical components in a microLINK can be readily made less than 100 microns in size (the size of a fingerprint ridge) and the entire system fits into a package 300 microns in size. This is barely big enough to be resolved by the naked eye and which makes these tags completely unobtrusive. Furthermore, the tags are inexpensive to make and can be permanently attached to nearly every manufactured object at a minimal cost per item.

In Phase I, OWiC Technologies successfully designed and simulated the microLINK tag’s low-power (less than 10 microwatt) integrated circuit complete with unique 64-bit identification code and manufactured microLINK circuitry using XFAB’s SOI CMOS processes. We were able to integrate microLEDs/photovoltaics and packaged more than 1000 microLINK tags to demonstrate successful on chip microLINK tag operation using only light. This work allowed for the development of the final microLINK prototype. Using the prototype, we demonstrated the ability to (i) release tags from the substrate, (ii) securely affix them to a variety of objects (e.g., stickers, PCR tubes, a penny), and (iii) remain operational under various conditions, such as extreme heat or cold. Through this work, we met or exceeded all the technical objectives we set in the Phase 1 proposal.

Given this success at our core mission, the team pushed beyond the scope of the original NSF Phase I proposal and created a full prototype system, including a hand-held reader and app/data system. The goal was to show that these tags could function in a real-world setting, and to get these tags into the hands of potential customers. The reader we envisioned was a hand-held device the size of a television remote. It needs to illuminate the tag, then pick up tiny optical pulses emitted by the tag – on the scale of a few thousand photons per pulse—and convert it to a digital code, all in tens of milliseconds. After careful circuit design and dozens of iterations, we successfully built a demo hand-held reader that reads a tag with high reliability in a few milliseconds. It is also wireless, easily fits in your pocket, charges through a USB port, and communicates using Bluetooth Low Energy to a smartphone App. This involved state-of-the art engineering, but we emphasize that the real delineator for the OWiC system is the tags.

 


Last Modified: 11/12/2021
Modified by: Alejandro J Cortese

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