In the context of Climate Change mitigations, of Resource Savings and of Environment Protection, there is a definite trend to monitor at the local scale all kinds of environmental phenomena, such as pollutant concentration in air or water (for Health and Environment protection), indoor temperature, hygrometry and CO2 levels (for smart housing), ageing of the road and level of traffic (for intelligent transportation systems), nutrients and contaminants in the soil (for farming applications) …
This is achieved through Sensors that are deployed throughout urban and natural environments and generate a wealth of data. This data is then collected by wireless sensor networks, by individually owned smart devices or by industrial automation systems. It is then used to act on the phenomena globally (for instance policies to improve air quality or traffic) or locally (for instance water purifiers, ventilation systems…). Actuators describe all engineered solutions that allow to act on environmental and urban phenomena, usually to minimize use of resources, cost of operation and environmental impact while maximizing quality of service.
The module aims at providing understanding of sensors and actuators (S&A), with a focus on their operating principles, on how to miniaturize them, and on the innovation trends, notably in the field of Nanotechnologies. The class targets four types of students: students interested in general public knowledge on S&A; students aiming at using S&A in their career and needing background technical knowledge; students aiming at developing innovative S&A-based products and needing in-depth technical knowledge and insight into research trends; students aiming at doing research on S&A.
The module is multidisciplinary, tackling topics related to Physics, Mechanics, Chemistry, Electronics, Nanotechnology, Data sciences, Bizdev, Social sciences… However, it does not require specialized knowledge on any of these things, as the basics are recalled at the beginning of each lecture. The module is split between lectures (1/3) and group projects (2/3) and includes a lab visit.
Projects are carried out in groups of 3 or 4. The groups’ goal is to design, size and price an innovative system based on S&A that answers specifications provided at the start of the module. Projects are all related Climate Change Mitigation and Digital Economy. For instance, year 2019 projects were related to Clean Transportation Systems and Smart Farming. Year 2020 projects were related to Healthy Ageing and Energy Efficient Buildings.
Language : English
Credits ECTS : 5
The transducer is the tool which converts the phenomena into a quantifiable information to be provided to the user (a sensor), or alternately converts a command from the user into an action on an external phenomena (an actuator).
The module first discusses the various principles behind transduction: electrical, optical, mechanical, chemical, biological, optoelectronic, electrochemical, electromechanical… with insight into the applications and the requirements for such systems.
Transducers are ubiquitous today: they can be counted by the dozen even in the most common place consumer goods, such as a dishwasher, by the thousands in high tech systems such as a car or a plane.
As a consequence, there is a definite effort to reduce cost and size of transducers. New technologies come in play to enable such evolution: micro and nanotechnologies.
The module presents case studies of the application of micro and nanotechnologies to transducer devices, highlighting the most prominent tools and strategies for micro and nanotransducer fabrications.
The impact of the move to micro and nanotechnologies for transduction is that the acquisition and command electronics have to evolve also. It also opens new opportunities, such as heavy multiplexing, but increases the need for signal processing, for instance to compensate for small signals. The module looks into some of the challenges of transducer end-to-end integration, at hardware and software level, from the lab to real life deployments.
The topic of calibration (namely how the outputs of the transducer correlates with the phenomena monitored or driven by the transducer) is also addressed in depth, as it is both critical to transducer operation and often overlooked.
Finally, reducing size and cost, the reliability of the transducers tends to be reduced also. The module addresses the concept of reliability at the multiscale, from system level to component level.
Notably, the focus is on the mechanisms of ageing and failure in micro and nanotransducers: first how to diagnose and then characterize these mechanisms, then how to mitigate them at the micro and nanoscale, then at the system scale.
The module will be split between lectures from various experts on transducers and practicals based on the exploitation of scientific and technical literature with the goal to design transducer systems for various applications.