I-Corps: Microscopic ID tags using optical wireless integrated circuit technologies

Award ID: 2025040

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a new class of intelligent, inexpensive, and nearly invisible identification tags. There is a compelling economic and societal need to connect physical objects to the digital world online. For example, counterfeit products siphon revenue from legitimate companies and undermine quality control, sometimes in life-threatening ways. Approximately $1.8 trillion of counterfeit goods are sold annually, a number growing at 15% per year. The market for fake pharmaceutical drugs is $200 B, electronic chips and semiconductor products is $170 B, and jewelry $50 B. The proposed technology is a potentially powerful solution to this pressing problem, especially for objects that are difficult or impossible to label with radio frequency identification RFID tags due to the RFIDs large size, incompatible materials, or cost. This proposed tag would be the size of a speck when viewed by the naked eye. includes microelectronic components, jewelry, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, watches, and even bullets. This I-Corps project is based on the development of a new class of ID tags that use optical wireless integrated circuit (OWiC) technologies. These devices combine silicon microelectronics with optical components to use light for power and communication. The technologies used to produce OWiCs have enabled integration of silicon electronics into remotely accessible packages as small as 100 m x 100 m x 10 m. These hundred-micron-sized ID tags are: (i) effectively invisible; (ii) intelligent, with thousands of on-board transistors for secure authentication protocols; and (iii) integrated, with a built-in optical communication system made of photovoltaics/microLEDs. The cost to manufacture per tag is projected at less than a penny. These features give the ID tags the intelligence of a small computer to ensure security, a reasonable cost to encourage broad use, a small footprint, and a simple light-based interface for hand-held scanning. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Program Director: Ruth Shuman