Periodic Reporting for period 3 - AEOLUS (An Affordable, miniaturisEd, clOud-connected system powered by deep Learning algorithms for comprehensive air qUality measurements based on highly integrated mid-IR photonic)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2024-01-01 al 2024-12-31
The quality of the air we breathe is a vital asset affecting human health and well-being, as well as environmental resources such as water, soil and forests. The grave consequences of air pollution are measured not only in terms of sickness and death, but also in terms of lost productivity and hampered economic growth due to significant additional operating costs imposed on business, industry, households, and public services. Currently, air pollution is measured regularly at selected locations, mainly at the largest sources of pollution and in city centres. Accurate air quality monitors are costly and bulky; therefore the number of air pollution stations is limited. To assess the spatial distribution of pollutants, dispersion models are used; however, their accuracy is restricted by virtue of variable traffic distribution as well as micro-meteorological effects of urban geometry such as street canyons. Hence it is imperative that dense pollution monitoring networks are deployed, working in tandem with dispersion models to provide real-time mapping of the spatial and temporal variations of urban air quality with high precision, enabling assessment of exposure at a localized/personal level. As the need to reliably monitor gas emissions is becoming more and more urgent in view of environmental challenges, the demand for ‘smart’, networked and truly affordable gas sensors will only grow.
AEOLUS aims to be the first to provide a field-tested holistic air quality solution that is affordable, cloud- connected and ‘smart’ as well as facilitating and encouraging citizen engagement and its widespread deployment into our communities, to meet the needs of Smart City applications and ultimately pave the way to effect necessary changes in our lives. Its objectives are to:
1. Capitalise on well-established Silicon (Si) platform, develop low cost and miniaturized, allowing for high integration sensing elements with enhanced performance
2. Leverage CMOS compatible Germanium on Insulator processes and extend detection range up to ~10 μm
3. Use wafer level processes to considerable minimize the sensor’s cost and footprint
4. Demonstrate a system on chip integrated photonic sensor for multiple gases
5. Use well established embedding PCB technologies to ensure proper thermal management
6. Develop and validate Deep learning models that will provide emerging patterns, accurate chemometric analysis and predictions
7. Leverage IoT testbed and demonstrate supporting IoT services, including air quality visualisation, real time health and safety security alerts, real time commands execution, and gamification
8. Validate and Demonstrate affordable AEOLUS multi- gas smart sensing system to TRL7, and propel its comprising technologies beyond the technological ‘valley of death’
9. Deliver a holistic roadmap and business plan analysis for the path to market of sensing platform and exploitation plan
AEOLUS aims to be the first to provide a field-tested holistic air quality solution that is affordable, cloud- connected and ‘smart’ as well as facilitating and encouraging citizen engagement and its widespread deployment into our communities, to meet the needs of Smart City applications and ultimately pave the way to effect necessary changes in our lives. Its objectives are to:
1. Capitalise on well-established Silicon (Si) platform, develop low cost and miniaturized, allowing for high integration sensing elements with enhanced performance
2. Leverage CMOS compatible Germanium on Insulator processes and extend detection range up to ~10 μm
3. Use wafer level processes to considerable minimize the sensor’s cost and footprint
4. Demonstrate a system on chip integrated photonic sensor for multiple gases
5. Use well established embedding PCB technologies to ensure proper thermal management
6. Develop and validate Deep learning models that will provide emerging patterns, accurate chemometric analysis and predictions
7. Leverage IoT testbed and demonstrate supporting IoT services, including air quality visualisation, real time health and safety security alerts, real time commands execution, and gamification
8. Validate and Demonstrate affordable AEOLUS multi- gas smart sensing system to TRL7, and propel its comprising technologies beyond the technological ‘valley of death’
9. Deliver a holistic roadmap and business plan analysis for the path to market of sensing platform and exploitation plan
During its first 18 months, AEOLUS has shown significant technical progress in several key areas including the definition of the targeted use cases and relative requirements, targeted gases and KPIs. The initial PIC fabrication process flow was also defined as well as the high-level full PIC layout, including the optical and electrical interfaces. Regarding the design and fabrication of AEOLUS photonic sensing system building blocks, during the first 18 months of AEOLUS test wafers have been fabricated with Si test structures. Optimised 2nd generation Si gratings have been designed and are being fabricated. Furthermore, the development of the broadband source has started as well as the design and fabrication of the graphene photodetector.
Moreover, grating couplers to be utilised as on-chip optical interfaces, have been designed and fabricated. A full PIC layout has been established which will act as a test vehicle for packaging as well as sensing experiments. In terms of packaging, electrical PCB design has started while two PCB integration scenarios have been selected in the project, the first one with all components assembled on the PCB and a second one with selected components embedded in the PCB for increased sensor module miniaturisation.
In addition, SEN has developed and provided to COSM CO2 sensing modules with GPS, temperature, pressure, humidity and PM2.5 sensing capabilities to enable COS & ACC to start their work on ML. The sensors have successfully been integrated in COSM’s testbed and are placed in COSM’s and ICCS’ campuses in Athens.
Finally, the AEOLUS consortium has taken significant actions for the exploitation of the project’s innovations and the maximization of its impact. Initial market analysis has been done and relevant business models are ongoing, while communication channels for dissemination have been setup, such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube and a project website. AEOLUS has also joined ECREAM, a H2020 project cluster related to environmental sensing, opening avenues for collaboration with stakeholders and key players in the field.
Moreover, grating couplers to be utilised as on-chip optical interfaces, have been designed and fabricated. A full PIC layout has been established which will act as a test vehicle for packaging as well as sensing experiments. In terms of packaging, electrical PCB design has started while two PCB integration scenarios have been selected in the project, the first one with all components assembled on the PCB and a second one with selected components embedded in the PCB for increased sensor module miniaturisation.
In addition, SEN has developed and provided to COSM CO2 sensing modules with GPS, temperature, pressure, humidity and PM2.5 sensing capabilities to enable COS & ACC to start their work on ML. The sensors have successfully been integrated in COSM’s testbed and are placed in COSM’s and ICCS’ campuses in Athens.
Finally, the AEOLUS consortium has taken significant actions for the exploitation of the project’s innovations and the maximization of its impact. Initial market analysis has been done and relevant business models are ongoing, while communication channels for dissemination have been setup, such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube and a project website. AEOLUS has also joined ECREAM, a H2020 project cluster related to environmental sensing, opening avenues for collaboration with stakeholders and key players in the field.
The success of AEOLUS exploitation strategy relies on the very same elements that make the project a strong candidate for putting the European industry in the driver’s seat of the smart environmental sensing market. AEOLUS introduces a clear technology path to deliver an innovative, cloud-connected, smart photonic sensing system with strong exploitation potential. The innovative approach proposed in AEOLUS, which answer directly to market needs and future roadmaps, and the strong commitment of the consortium’s industrial members are the key elements of AEOLUS for success. The holistic solution that is proposed is a breakthrough concept that relies on the evolution of individual, well-established technologies and universally accepted trends, thus offering the optimum balance of innovation and risk/maturity/time-to-market. AEOLUS recognizes the necessity to have a clear view of the trends, standards and roadmaps that shape the targeted market sector that will allow its consortium to better position AEOLUS in its likely market and better align the targeted specifications of the developed technology platform. AEOLUS value chain for bringing all project innovations to the market is in place, raising high prospects for rapid commercialization and acquisition of large market shares.
The envisioned industrialization and commercialization lines are associated with:
- Silicon-based gas sensing photonic element
- Germanium-based gas sensing photonic element
- MID-IR integrated broadband thermal source
- Graphene photodetector on silicon substrate
- Advanced modularization through heterogeneous integration of electronic components and functionalities
- Multi-gas detection sensor module
- Machine Learning algorithms
- Artificial Intelligence combination with data, analytics and automation
- IoT services and cloud-based solutions
The envisioned industrialization and commercialization lines are associated with:
- Silicon-based gas sensing photonic element
- Germanium-based gas sensing photonic element
- MID-IR integrated broadband thermal source
- Graphene photodetector on silicon substrate
- Advanced modularization through heterogeneous integration of electronic components and functionalities
- Multi-gas detection sensor module
- Machine Learning algorithms
- Artificial Intelligence combination with data, analytics and automation
- IoT services and cloud-based solutions