Technologies

Bivalve mollusc shells are made mainly of CaCO₃ (ca 95%), with a small fraction of organic material. If from these shells this mineral is retrieved, they could become a renewable and sustainable “mine” of a “blue” CaCO₃. Bivalve mollusc shells, also after the removal of the animal flesh, maintain a certain quantity of organic substances, part in the muscle and part in the shell.

The technology for organic thin film transistors (OTFTs) is suitable for large area electronics, disposable electronics and "Internet of Things" applications. Circuits employing OTFTs can be realized by using very cheap printing technologies. The electrical behavior of these devices is essentially different from the behavior of silicon MOSFETs and, in order to enable circuit design, compact models specific for OTFTs are needed.

The presented technology is an electrical compact model for OTFTs that:

B-ME developed the first thermoplastic composite electrode film based on bio-derived and biodegradable polyesters and carbon nano-fibers. It is metal-free, highly electrically conductive and possess good thermo-mechanical properties, a challenging combination of three features in a single product. This is the first-of-its-kind product, as, to the best of our knowledge, no thermoplastic biobased electrode film has been effectively produced and used so far.

Nowadays, to properly design and develop advanced materials capable to preserve for long times their performance under aggressive environments such as power generation plants, renewables, nuclear reactors and electronics of new generation, transport on ground and on space, aeronautics, catalysis, biomedical implants, the optimization of metallurgical processes involved is crucial.

CNR-ISTEC develops geopolymer composites for thermostructural applications, such as: self-supporting cavities; thermal and acoustic insulation; thermal and fire barriers; high temperature coatings and damping; molds and cores for foundry; foams and refractory linings. Geopolymers are chemically bonded materials at T <300 ° C. Being inorganic polymers without water in the structure, they tolerate high temperatures: they are incombustible, do not emit gas or fumes and do not explode.

Digital Eye is an innovative, rapid and high-precision intelligent computer vision system for the non-destructive and contactless evaluation of quality and shelf-life of whole or fresh-cut fruit and vegetables. It integrates advanced vision and artificial intelligence technologies to estimate parameters useful to evaluate the quality of fruit and vegetables, during both the harvesting phase and the cold chain.

Inert biomedical devices with modular load-bearing function designed with peculiar multi-domain composite microstructures. The reference compositional system is Zirconia-Alumina with a prevailing overall composition of customizable zirconia or alumina. Examples of devices are 3D structures consisting of parts with differentiated functional properties, due to different composition/microstructure/architecture, and further functionalizable ex-post to favor and improve the stabilization of the implantation by newly formed bone in superior quantity and quality.

Geopolymers are synthetic inorganic polymers obtained from an aluminosilicate powder and an aqueous solution of alkaline hydroxides or silicates. The material is mesoporous and a multidimensional and functional porosity can be generated through the addition of fillers or the use of specific techniques.

The mix-design of the mixture, pure or composite, allows to change the chemical-physical properties of the final material, also thanks to the nucleation of zeolitic phases. Geopolymers also possess ion exchange and electrostatic interaction capabilities.

This technology concerns the development of new eco-sustainable UV physical/mineral filters with the aim of offering important innovations per the cosmetic sector. This, encouraged by European initiatives in the Green-Deal context, is constantly looking for new components with improved protection of the human health and the environment.

We propose a compact innovative spectroscopy system operating in the UV range. In the actual version, designed for gas, it exhibits: an aluminium tubular optical chamber (length can be adjusted; currently is 20 cm); a cheap commercial UV LED; a SiC visible blind UV detector designed and manufactured at the CNR-IMM facilities. The team developed also the electronic chain for wireless remote real time read out; while able to deal with pA current levels, it uses very cheap components and construction technology.

We offer integrated tools for the acquisition, analysis, modelling and optimization of visitor flows in museums characterized by frequent congestion and/or complex geometries. Our intervention is divided into 4 phases:

1) Data acquisition related to the paths followed by visitors in the museum, number of visitors in the rooms, time of permanence, ... The acquisition is performed via a specific IoT system, smartphone app or manual counting.

Chemical solution deposition of metal-organic precursors have favoured the research and development of thin films of simple and complex oxides such as Pb(Zr,Ti)O3, and Al2O3, up to their industrial application in pyroelectric and capacitor devices. Deposition methods used are spin-on and dip-coating. The advantages of the techniques are:

(i) low cost of equipment and chemicals

(ii) large area deposition

(iii) low crystallisation temperatures

The NanoMicroFab infrastructure, support companies operating in the field of micro and nanoelectronics through the supply of materials, development of processes, design, fabrication and characterization of materials and devices. NanoMicroFab makes use of existing CNR facilities of the Institute of Microelectronics and Microsystems, the Institute of Photonics and Nanotechnologies and the Institute for the Structure of Matter and provides: • a complete line of development of devices based on wide band gap semiconductors.

The proposed technology offers a novel and versatile method for detecting cracks in insulating materials of electrically polarized metal devices, i.e. dielectric coatings on metals, especially in low-pressure gas environments. It uses an ionized plasma that interacts uniformly with the insulating surface, allowing to detect defects invisible to the naked eye. The detection occurs in a single test without changing the environmental conditions and without risking harmful electrical discharges.

The platform allows the deployment of a sensor network with peripheral nodes spread on the crop fields or on the environment for the monitoring of crop parameters/environmental parameters. The network architecture integrated LoRa peripheral nodes for short-medium range communication and star-center NB-IoT based for long range communication. It includes a web server and MySQL database for data storage and visualization. The network architecture is scalable to adapt to the area to monitor.