Package design for seamless integration of electronic systems into smart objects

摘要

The concept of ubiquitous intelligence has firmly surfaced in recent years [1-5] envisaging myriads of applications in areas such as the next generation home and business automation systems and smart medical appliances. By embedding intelligence in everyday objects and environments the efficiency, safety and comfort of our lives will be taken to another level. Smart objects of the future will incorporate physically unobtrusive, distributed, networkable sensing, computing and actuating systems providing a close connection between the physical world and virtual intelligence. To realise these smart environments, robust and reliable technology platforms facilitating seamless integration of packaged electronics into host materials and objects will be needed. Current approaches to creating digitally-enhanced objects usually work by developing the intelligent system and the object itself through separate processes and then integrating them at the latest stages of the development. A more effective and innovative approach would be to embed the digital systems into the material before making an object from it; this has now become possible due to recent advances in materials technology, context-aware software and system miniaturisation [6]. One of the key challenges with this concept is incorporating packaged distributed, networkable computing and sensing systems into various materials without compromising the desired performance and reliability specifications of the host materials and ultimately smart objects. In this scenario, the system's packaging becomes the main interface between the electronics and the host material and subsequently needs to be functional to both, the system inside and the bulk material outside. Existing standard electronics packaging solutions, the majority in a cubical shape, have not necessarily been developed with the purpose of embedding and as a result are mostly unsuitable for use in large scale embedded systems. In fact, no dedicated technology serving the above purpose exists to date. Therefore, new robust and reliable packaging design solutions and technologies for "seamless" integration of digital systems into materials will be needed to realise smart objects and environments of the future.