AMMTO Semiconductor Workshop 1
Workshop 1
Integrated Sensor Systems for Manufacturing Applications
January 25-26, 2021
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) held the first in its series of semiconductor research and development (R&D) workshops, on January 25-26, 2021. The semiconductor industry is critically important to the U.S. economy, both directly and as a key enabler for many other industries. This series of workshops will focus on different technical areas of semiconductors that have the potential to transform the efficiency and competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing.
This first workshop focused on R&D challenges around integrated sensor systems, with a particular emphasis on manufacturing applications. The workshop solicited feedback from a wide range of stakeholders, including input from potential users of integrated sensor systems on their needs and the researchers developing new sensors on their most pressing challenges.
AMO’s goals are to stimulate technology innovation, improve the energy productivity of U.S. manufacturing, and enable the manufacture of cutting-edge products in the United States. Industrial automation and smart manufacturing are key differentiators for U.S. manufacturing, and AMO recognizes that the in-situ, smart sensors that generate real-time process data are critical enablers of these differentiators, which improve efficient and competitive domestic manufacturing.
Manufacturing integrated sensor systems requires combining transducers, local analog and digital electronic signal processing and analysis, and distributed power conditioning and communication at the sensor location/environment. Each one of these technical areas has its own set of innovations (e.g. new materials, devices, designs, etc.) that can improve the entire system. At the same time, they face challenges in scaling up and integrating those innovations into larger systems. This workshop brought together experts in a wide range of fields to discuss these challenges and identify pathways to solving them.
