The FlexiiC spin-off aims to design system-on-chip (SoC) solutions applied to smart systems and the Internet of Things, and to reinvent the world of electronics through a revolutionary organic and flexible technology that will enable a new generation of sensors and logic circuits processed with functional inks at low temperatures on sustainable substrates. It is a success story of technology transfer from the Barcelona Institute of Microelectronics (IMB-CNM-CSIC), aimed at solving today's societal challenges.
Image of a FlexiiC chip.
Can you imagine a flexible and sustainable chip or integrated circuit? This is possible thanks to organic microelectronics, an innovative technology that eliminates the use of toxic and expensive materials in conventional manufacturing, allowing the creation of flexible, sustainable and very low-cost circuits. With the aim of revolutionising the market and committing to more sustainable electronics, FlexiiC (Flexible Integrated Circuits S.L.), the new spin-off of the Barcelona Microelectronics Institute of the CSIC (IMB-CNM-CSIC), has been created.
Organic integrated circuits do not use silicon, the material most commonly used in chips for all electronic applications, but are based on organic materials, mainly composed of carbon and other nanomaterials in solution form. Thanks to these characteristics, they are more flexible and lighter, allowing them to adapt to curved surfaces and to be applied to wearable devices, a growing trend in sports electronics, among other sectors.
In addition, their manufacture requires fewer process steps and does not require such pure environments as those needed for silicon chips, allowing their expected final cost to be less than one euro cent. However, being organic, they are less efficient and have a shorter lifetime compared to conventional silicon circuits.
‘FlexiiC takes advantage of these characteristics to focus its business model on the development of flexible integrated circuits for smart, disposable, short-life monitoring systems for medical, healthcare, packaging and environmental applications,’ says Eloi Ramon, one of the company's founders and principal investigator of the Integrated Circuits and Systems (ICAS) group at IMB-CNM.
‘The company will offer System-on-Chip (SoC) systems with customisable sensor interfaces, processing and data transmission capabilities, specifically designed for applications where low cost, single or transient use and sustainability are key factors,’ he adds.
Design and commercialisation of the first chips
The first marketable chip is expected by the end of 2025 and will be integrated into a food packaging monitoring system, which will include licensed technology that is currently being developed to reach higher technology maturity levels (TRL) in collaboration with IMB-CNM-CSIC. The licensed patent has been patented by CSIC together with the Universidad de Girona (UdG), the Universidade do Algarve (UAlg) and the Instituto de Telecomunicações (IT) de Portugal.
FlexiiC recently signed a multi-year agreement with UK-based Smartkem Ltd to develop custom integrated circuits using its organic thin-film transistor (OTFT) technology, which have the potential to revolutionise the market. These devices are expected to incorporate mixed-signal and digital circuits, such as RISC-V (free hardware instruction set architecture) cores, as well as integrate machine learning (ML), a type of artificial intelligence (AI) that allows machines to learn and improve from data without needing to be explicitly programmed to optimise signal processing.
FlexiiC's products will be manufactured at Smartkem's facility in Manchester, UK. The company also offers prototyping services at the Process Innovation Centre (PIC) in Sedgefield, UK, and has a field applications office in Taiwan.
Technology transfer to reach society
FlexiiC brings together research personnel specialised in organic electronics and chip design. ‘This agreement is the result of a joint effort that strengthens the ties links between Spain and Portugal in the field of research for innovation, and demonstrates our commitment from the public sector to knowledge transfer,’ adds Isabel Gavilanes, transfer manager at the CSIC's Vice-Presidency for Innovation and Transfer.
‘From our Vice-Presidency we promote innovative technologies in key sectors in Spain, such as microelectronics, photonics and quantum technologies, among others, and therefore we support the creation of new knowledge-based companies, such as FlexiiC. The CSIC will continue to collaborate with FlexiiC through new public-private collaboration projects that provide more value and benefit the end user: society,’ he concludes.
The IMB-CNM-CSIC is a world leader in the research and development of green
Pioneers in printed electronics research and development
electronics. The centre has an advanced Printed Electronics Laboratory for the development of printed devices and systems using technologies such as inkjet screen printing or digital dispensing. Its mission is to create flexible and environmentally friendly technologies. They recently presented the first guide for the design and manufacture of sustainable circuits. It is part of the Singular Scientific and Technical Infrastructure (ICTS) Micronanofabs, the Spanish distributed network of micro- and nanofabrication clean rooms, which includes the IMB-CNM-CSIC Clean Room.
Communication IMB-CNM-CSIC