CURRENT TRENDS IN

DIGITAL DESIGN
LESSON 13
Intended Learning Outcomes

After this completing this chapter, the students will be able to:
 Know and identify the different trends in digital design and electronics
 Understand better about the new technologies
 IoT Platforms

 The Internet of things (IoT) describes the network of physical objects—a.k.a. "things"—that are
embedded with sensors, software, and other technologies for the purpose of connecting and exchanging data
with other devices and systems over the Internet.
 “The Internet of Things (IoT) is a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital
machines, objects, animals or people that are provided with unique identifiers and the ability to transfer data
over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction.”
 The Internet of Things is an expansive term that covers any number of web-connected technologies. While
many available platforms can be modified through accessories to make it a connected device, we are seeing
a plethora of devices enter the market with built-in networking capabilities
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 In addition to posting data to a web server, IoT devices are also capable of pulling data or responding to
push events, which means you can have projects perform real-world actions based on Tweets, emails, mouse
events on a website, etc.
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Top Internet-of-Things (IoT) Examples

 Connected appliances.
 Smart home security systems.
 Autonomous farming equipment.
 Wearable health monitors.
 Smart factory equipment.
 Wireless inventory trackers.
 Ultra-high speed wireless internet.
 Biometric cybersecurity scanners.
 IoT Command and Control Software

 As Internet-connectable hardware continues to become more affordable, the software tools we use to
interface with them will be a big part of what sets them apart.
 Software, apps, and browser-based dashboards that serve as a command, control, and monitoring base
for your connected device(s) will continue to innovate alongside all of the exciting new hardware that
launches in 2016. These tools can add versatility to programming, controlling, and/or observing your
project, by providing access from anywhere on the globe.
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 Smartphone apps in particular – whether platform-specific, like Particle’s Tinker, or something more
agnostic like Blynk – should have a big year. They’re a great introductory tool, as they require little-to-no
programming, and present a simple interface for toggling LEDs, monitoring sensors, or triggering servos.
 https://www.g2.com/categories/iot-device-management/free
 Smart Machines

 A lot of big players have been making investments in smart machines. A few examples include Intel, GM,
Toyota, and Google.
 In 2016 we will see advancements in systems and algorithms that allow machines and robots to understand
and learn from their environment and act autonomously.
Examples include:
 autonomous vehicles and driverless cars,
 virtual personal assistants (like Google Now, Microsoft’s Cortana and Apple’s Siri),
 drone-based delivery,
 and onsite monitoring
 2-D Electronics

 Interest in the field started with the discovery of graphene, a structural variant of carbon. Carbon atoms in
graphene form a hexagonal two-dimensional lattice, and this atom-thick layer has attracted attention due to
its high electrical and thermal conductivity, mechanical flexibility and very high tensile strength. Graphene
is the strongest material ever tested.
 In 2010, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics to Andre
Geim and Konstantin Novoselov for their “groundbreaking experiments” in graphene research.
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 Graphene may have started this 2D revolution in electronics, but silicene, phosphorene and stanene, atom-
thick allotropes of silicon, phosphorus and tin, respectively, have a similar honeycomb structure with
different properties, resulting in different applications.
 Several companies around the globe, including Samsung and Apple, are developing applications based on
graphene.
 With the rapid advancements in technology, there is an improvement in electronics and photonics with the
introduction of 2D electronics. 2D electronics are the advanced electronic devices made up by the
integration of electronic devices with 2D materials.
 2D electronics has optical, mechanical and electrical properties that enhance the performance of electronic
devices.
 . Less energy consumption is also a benefit of 2D electronics over other applications that will create huge
market opportunity.
 Organic Electronics

 The development of conducting polymers and their applications resulted in another Nobel prize in 2000, this
time in chemistry. Alan J. Heeger, Alan G. MacDiarmid and Hideki Shirakawa proved that plastic can
conduct electricity.
 Unlike conventional inorganic conductors and semiconductors, organic electronic materials are constructed
from organic (carbon-based) molecules or polymers using chemical synthesis. Organic electronics is not
limited to conducting polymers, but includes other organic materials that might be of use in electronics.
These include a variety of dyes, organic charge-transfer complexes, and many other organic molecules.
 In terms of performance and industrial development, organic molecules and polymers cannot yet compete
with their inorganic counterparts. However, organic electronics have some advantages over conventional
electronic materials. Low material and production costs, mechanical flexibility, adaptability of synthesis
processes and biocompatibility make organic electronics a desirable choice for certain applications.
 Memristors

 In 1971 Leon Chua reasoned from symmetry arguments that there should be a fourth fundamental electronic
circuit-board element (in addition to the resistor, capacitor and inductor) which he called memristor, a
portmanteau of the words memory and resistor.
 Although Chua showed that memristors have many interesting and valuable properties, it wasn’t until 2007
that a group of researchers from Hewlett Packard Labs found that the memristance effect can be present in
nanoscale systems under certain conditions. Many researchers believe that memristors could end electronics
as we know it and begin a new era of “ionics”.
 Memristors “memorize” and store information about the amount of charge that has flowed through them,
even when the power is off.
 Spintronics

 Spintronics, a portmanteau word meaning “spin transport electronics”, is the use of a fundamental property
of particles known as “electron spin” for information processing.
 Electron spin can be detected as a magnetic field with one of two orientations: up and down.
 This provides an additional two binary states to the conventional low and high logic values, which are
represented by simple currents.
 Carrying information in both the charge and spin of an electron potentially offers devices with a greater
diversity of functionality.
 Spintronics technology also shows promise for digital electronics in general. The ability to manipulate four,
rather than only two, defined logic states may result in greater information-processing power, higher data
transfer speed, and higher information-storage capacity.
 Molecular Electronics

 The ultimate goal of electrical circuits is miniaturization. Also known as single molecule electronics, this is
a branch of nanotechnology that uses single molecules or collections of single molecules as electronic
building blocks.
 Molecular electronics and the organic electronics described above have a lot in common, and these two
fields overlap each other in some aspects. To clarify, organic electronics refers to bulk applications, while
molecular-scale electronics refers to nano-scale, single-molecule applications.
 Another advantage of some molecular systems is their tendency to self-assemble into functional blocks.
Self-assembly is a phenomenon in which the components of a system come together spontaneously, due to
an interaction or environmental factors, to form a larger functional unit.