The consortium of the STREAMS project covers the whole value chain of microelectronics, from conception and design to full assembly and test. With one major European industrial in electronic field (STMicroelectronics) and three Research and Technology Organisations Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives (CEA), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS-LN2) and Hahn-Schickard-Gesellschaft fuer angewandte forschung E.v. (HSG), the project consortium has been designed to facilitate project exploitation. Furthermore, two academics Universidad de Lleida (UdL) and Albert-Ludwigs-Universitaet Freiburg (UFR-IMTEK) will collaborate to support the industrial and the RTOs for the first steps.
The project partner’s skills are complementary around the three developed functionalities:
- Anticipating thermal map: the two partners involved in thermal simulation have skills centered on finite-element simulation, either for microfluidic optimization (UdL), or thermoelectric devices optimization (CEA). STMicroelectronics will contribute through its know-hows in on-chip thermal monitoring, while IMTEK brings its know-hows in IC design for sensor read-out circuits.
- Versatile microfluidic actuation: each of the four partners participating in the development of the µfluidic cooling technology will contribute in its particular field of expertise: HSG for miniaturized pumps, CEA for µchannels fabrication at a pre-industrial scale, UDL for µfluidic fins, LN2 for µvalves and µchannel fabrication at laboratory scale. Based on this strong background in the field, LN2 will supervise the whole process from conception to tests of the microfluidic system.
- Thermal energy harvesting: one RTO (CEA) will focus on the active materials and device in collaboration with UdL for the cold source optimization, while the second academic partner (UFR-IMTEK) will lead the development of the associated electronic circuits.
The STREAMS consortium has been limited to 6 partners from 3 European countries: Spain, Germany and France, which have strong preexisting working relations : STMicroelectronics/LN2/CEA for the microfluidic development, LN2/UdL for the thermal simulation development, CEA/STMicroelectronics for the thermoelectric harvesting and sensing functionality, HSG/IMTEK for the microfluidic and associated electronics development. It will strongly reinforce the efficiency of the consortium in tacking the project challenges.