Periodic Reporting for period 2 - NEMF21 (Noisy Electromagnetic Fields - A Technological Platform for Chip-to-Chip Communication in the 21st Century)
Reporting period: 2016-10-01 to 2018-09-30
NEMF21 focuses on the specific problem of how to model from an ElectroMagnetic (EM) point of view, such an environment: chips mounted on a PCB communicating wirelessly (Chip-to-Chip: C2C). Until now, little investigations have been performed regarding this aspect. This does not only include the mathematical modelling of such complex EM scenarios but also the measurement technologies involved. In order to develop a correct model, one also has to measure the EM-fields propagating around/over a PCB. C2C-communication is complicated further by the fact that in the real world the communication is always jammed (polluted) by other unwanted EM-signals, also called noise. This kind of noise can be caused by PCB power lines, other communicating components on chips, reflections, and external wireless devices, just to list a few examples.
The following points are therefore addressed within NEMF21:
o Mathematical modelling of an EM noisy environment with respect to maximizing the data throughput.
o Measuring EM-fields propagating across a PCB (and between PCB’s).
o Designing & manufacturing antennas and antenna arrays for C2C-scenarios to optimise data throughput and minimising the influence of noise .
o Extending commercial EM field solving tools with noisy EM-signals supported by measurements tools.
These investigations aim at providing a new tool box and design guide lines for developing future state-of-the-art C2C PCB’s: the guidelines will give the initial blue print for i) where to mount the chips on the PCB and ii) with which antennas arrangement to work with in order to achieve maximum connectivity between chips. The tool box provides the means to design the PCB in detail accordingly.
in high throughput wireless sensor networks as well as in any other wireless network architectures operating in the presence of a harsh medium.
Understanding how to configure and perform a multi antenna communication within complex environments will certainly pave the way for a better control of EM wave fields. The ability of allocating physical communication channels dynamically through coding schemes informed by the space-time physics of propagation will lead to potential implications in the reduction of unintended environmental interferences and thus mitigation of human exposure.
Presently, it is too early to speculate about potential commercial or socio-economic impact; we are looking forward to present this at a later stage of the project in more details.