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Learn how to reduce your electricity bill by using the latest kind of energy monitorIn today’s data-centric, energy-conscious age, seeking to reduce your electricity bill and greenhouse gas emissions is quite common. But if you’re trying to decide which device to switch to an energy-efficient mode, how can you figure out which uses the most energy? Trying to compare products’ energy use labels is often fruitless and overly complex, as those actual figures vary depending on how old a product is and how your local climate fares, among other things. However, thanks to MIT’s research and software, a much easier method for determining how much power each device uses is approaching.While developing devices to screen electricity use is not new, MIT’s plans of a stamp-sized energy monitor have some ideal advantages. Involving no complicated installation, the process doesn’t require disconnected wires, and you don’t have to be overly careful when placing sensors over an incoming power line. The system is designed as self-calibrating and processes comprehensive information about voltage and current patterns. Such detailed readings allow one to differentiate every kind of light, motor, and device in the home to determine when certain products are used.MIT’s system is also arranged so that all of this specific information remains within the home and does not run at risk of someone else accessing your power. The research team is also developing customized apps that could provide in-depth analysis of a user’s specific power-related needs. These apps could help the entire system become even more useful, as tests of it have proven successful. Testing has also shown when heating is excessive, as seen with an installation at a military base where large tents were heated during the day despite usually being empty at that time.“For a long time, the premise has been that if we could get access to better information [about energy use], we would be able to create some significant savings,” said Steven Leeb, MIT professor of Electrical Engineering and one of the research paper’s authors. The required information has grown more attainable as the years go by, firstly needing the skill to supervise changes in voltages and current without disabling main power lines to a home or connecting each appliance to a monitoring device. Systems that previously tried to use wireless sensors for determining faint magnetic and electric fields had dubious performance because fields would cancel out each other. MIT found a solution by applying an array of five offset sensors and a calibration system that determines the strongest sensor signal.With this sensor system in place, MIT researchers then had to find a way to analyze data flooding in from the sensors. Because every energy appliance has different performing speeds and voltage variances, a database of these differences is key to understanding products. MIT was able to develop such a catalog of appliances’ “signatures,” then having to display the data in a decipherable way. The team created an interface that permits users to “zoom in” on time segments and explore things such as when a fridge turns on and how often a water heater switches on and off.MIT plans to develop the system commercially, only pricing it at about $25 to $30 per home. As the device is a non-contact sensor, someone could even install it without any outside help. William Singleton, an engineer at the U.S. Army Fort Devens Base Camp Integration Laboratory who wasn’t involved in the experiments, said the system is “an excellent example of how theoretical scientific and mathematical principles can be brought to bear on real world, practical, problem-solving applications. Significant potential savings in fuel, water, and equipment maintenance can be realized.”Source:TechXplore , New Atlas         By Kristen Perrone 

TechInsights discusses which wafer bonding technology hints at a possible future for stacked dies.Samsung’s S7 smartphones are offered with several unique builds depending on the country of use. For example, the US models sport the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor and the European versions that we at TechInsights bought contained the Samsung Exynos 8 Octa processor. Both of these processors were fabbed by Samsung using its 14 nm Low Power Plus (LPP) process. Other chips in the phones were dual sourced as well, including their 12 megapixel CMOS image sensors. We knew that Sony was one vendor and Samsung the other, but how was the split done and what technologies were used?Figure 1 shows the US (SM-G930A) and European (SM-G930F) smartphones with their cover plates removed to expose their circuit boards and camera modules. The layout of the two circuit boards is quite similar but we note small differences in the metal housings used by the two image sensors. We originally thought this to be a marker for the Sony and Samsung variants, but this turned out not to be the case.Figure 1 Samsung S7 with cover removed SM-G930A US model left, SM-G930F European model right (Source: TechInsights)Figure 2 shows the camera modules from the US sourced Smartphone (left) and the European model (right). The US model has ‘SONY’ printed on its flex ribbon and our examination of the die confirms it to be the Sony IMX260 12 megapixel backside illuminated CMOS image sensor. Our first sample of the European phone’s module revealed it to be the Samsung S5L2L1 backside CMOS image sensor, but our remaining six European S7 phones housed the Sony image sensors. This was a surprise as we had assumed that Samsung would do a geographic split for the image sensors, much like they did for the Qualcomm Snapdragon and Exynos processors.Figure 2: CMOS Image Sensor Modules (Source: TechInsights) SM-G930A US model left, SM-G930F European model rightFigures 3 and 4 are die photographs of the Sony IMX260 and Samsung S5k2L1SX 12 Mp backside illuminated (BSI) CMOS image sensors (CIS), respectively that were removed from the two phones. We have removed the organic microlenses and color filters that cover the two dies so that we can get a better view of the pixel array size, and in the case of the Samsung die, the layout of through silicon vias (TSVs) that are used to connect the CIS die to an underlying control ASIC.The two dies are the same size and their array sizes are essentially the same size as well. No surprise here as the two dies use what appear to be the same optical housings in the European versions of the phones.Sony had used TSVs in their earlier CMOS image sensors and we had expected the same for the IMX260. But we don’t see them, as they have been replaced by a direct wafer bonding process that we will discuss later.The Samsung CMOS image sensor has arrays of TSVs along its perimeter and these are used to make the electrical connections to the underlying ASIC.Figure 3: Sony IMX260 CMOS Image Sensor (Source: TechInsights)Figure 4: Samsung S5k2L1SX CMOS Image Sensor (Source: TechInsights)

Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a flexible wearable sensor that can accurately measure a person's blood alcohol level from sweat and transmit the data wirelessly to a laptop, smartphone or other mobile device. The device can be worn on the skin and could be used by doctors and police officers for continuous, non-invasive and real-time monitoring of blood alcohol content.The device consists of a temporary tattoo—which sticks to the skin, induces sweat and electrochemically detects the alcohol level—and a portable flexible electronic circuit board, which is connected to the tattoo by a magnet and can communicate the information to a mobile device via Bluetooth. The work, led by nanoengineering professor Joseph Wang and electrical engineering professor Patrick Mercier, both at UC San Diego, was published recently in the journal ACS Sensors."Lots of accidents on the road are caused by drunk driving. This technology provides an accurate, convenient and quick way to monitor alcohol consumption to help prevent people from driving while intoxicated," Wang said. The device could be integrated with a car's alcohol ignition interlocks, or friends could use it to check up on each other before handing over the car keys, he added."When you're out at a party or at a bar, this sensor could send alerts to your phone to let you know how much you've been drinking," said Jayoung Kim, a materials science and engineering PhD student in Wang's group and one of the paper's co-first authors.Blood alcohol concentration is the most accurate indicator of a person's alcohol level, but measuring it requires pricking a finger. Breathalyzers, which are the most commonly used devices to indirectly estimate blood alcohol concentration, are non-invasive, but they can give false readouts. For example, the alcohol level detected in a person's breath right after taking a drink would typically appear higher than that person's actual blood alcohol concentration. A person could also fool a breathalyzer into detecting a lower alcohol level by using mouthwash.Recent research has shown that blood alcohol concentration can also be estimated by measuring alcohol levels in what's called insensible sweat—perspiration that happens before it's perceived as moisture on the skin. But this measurement can be up to two hours behind the actual blood alcohol reading. On the other hand, the alcohol level in sensible sweat—the sweat that's typically seen—is a better real-time indicator of the blood alcohol concentration, but so far the systems that can measure this are neither portable nor fit for wearing on the body.Now, UC San Diego researchers have developed an alcohol sensor that's wearable, portable and could accurately monitor alcohol level in sweat within 15 minutes."What's also innovative about this technology is that the wearer doesn't need to be exercising or sweating already. The user can put on the patch and within a few minutes get a reading that's well correlated to his or her blood alcohol concentration. Such a device hasn't been available until now," Mercier said.How it worksWang and Mercier, the director and co-director, respectively, of the UC San Diego Center for Wearable Sensors, collaborated to develop the device. Wang's group fabricated the tattoo, equipped with screen-printed electrodes and a small hydrogel patch containing pilocarpine, a drug that passes through the skin and induces sweat.Mercier's group developed the printed flexible electronic circuit board that powers the tattoo and can communicate wirelessly with a mobile device. His team also developed the magnetic connector that attaches the electronic circuit board to the tattoo, as well as the device's phone app."This device can use a Bluetooth connection, which is something a breathalyzer can't do. We've found a way to make the electronics portable and wireless, which are important for practical, real-life use," said Somayeh Imani, an electrical engineering PhD student in Mercier's lab and a co-first author on the paper.The tattoo works first by releasing pilocarpine to induce sweat. Then, the sweat comes into contact with an electrode coated with alcohol oxidase, an enzyme that selectively reacts with alcohol to generate hydrogen peroxide, which is electrochemically detected. That information is sent to the electronic circuit board as electrical signals. The data are communicated wirelessly to a mobile device.Putting the tattoo to the testResearchers tested the alcohol sensor on 9 healthy volunteers who wore the tattoo on their arms before and after consuming an alcoholic beverage (either a bottle of beer or glass of red wine). The readouts accurately reflected the wearers' blood alcohol concentrations.The device also gave accurate readouts even after repeated bending and shaking. This shows that the sensor won't be affected by the wearer's movements, researchers said.As a next step, the team is developing a device that could continuously monitor alcohol levels for 24 hours. Provided by: University of California - San Diego