Tag Archives: Technische Universität Berlin

June 7 – 10, 2022 in Grenoble, France, a conference and a 6G summit to explore pathways to 6G, ‘Internet of Senses’, etc.

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As far as I can tell, 5G is still not widely deployed. At least, that’s what I gather from Tim Fisher’s article profiling the deployment by continent and by country (reviewed by Christine Baker; updated on June 2, 2022) on the Lifewire website, Note: Links have been removed)

5G is the newest wireless networking technology for phones, smartwatches, cars, and who knows what else, but it’s not yet available in every region around the world.

Some estimates forecast that by 2025, we’ll reach 3.6 billion 5G connections, a number expected to grow to 4.4 billion by 2027.

…

I skimmed through Fisher’s article and the African continent would seem to have the most extensive deployment country by country.

Despite the fact that we’re years from a ubiquitous 5G environment, enthusiasts are preparing for 6G. A June 1, 2022 news item on Nanotechnology Now highlights an upcoming conference and 6G summit in Grenoble, France,

Anticipating that 6G systems will offer a major step change in performance from gigabit towards terabit capacities and sub-millisecond response times, the top two European conferences for communication networks will meet June 7-10 [2022] to explore future critical 6G applications like real-time automation or extended reality, an “internet of senses”, sustainability and providing data for a digital twin of the physical world.

The hybrid conference, “Connectivity for a Sustainable World”, will accommodate both in-person and remote attendance for four days of keynotes, panels, work sessions and exhibits. The event is sponsored by the IEEE Communications Society and the EU Association for Signal Processing and will be held in the WTC Grenoble Convention Center.

“The telecom sector is an enabler for a sustainable world,” said Emilio Calvanese Strinati, New-6G Program director at CEA-Leti, which organized the conference. “Designed to be energy efficient, with low carbon footprints, telecoms will be a key enabler to reduce CO2 emissions in the ICT sectors. For example, 6G targets multi-sensorial virtual reality, e.g. the metaverse, and remote work and telepresence, which enable people to interact without travelling.”

The conference also will explore new smart network technologies and architectures needed to dramatically enhance the energy efficiency and sustainability of networks to manage major traffic growth, while keeping electromagnetic fields under strict safety limits. These technologies will form the basis for a human-centric Next-Generation Internet and address the European Commission’s Sustainable Development Goals, such as accessibility and affordability of technology.
The Grenoble gathering is the 31st edition of the EuCNC [EU-China Commission] conference, which merged two years ago with the 6G Summit. The joint conference was established by the European Commission for industry, academia, research centers and SMEs from across the ICT and telecom sectors to cooperate, discuss and help realize the vision for European technological sovereignty. It is intended to be held for in-person attendance, with remote attendance in a hybrid mode.

“The EuCNC and 6G Summit members are playing an important role in supporting the EU’s goal of European Sovereignty and cybersecurity in 5G and 6G in parallel with the French microelectronics industry’s support of the European Chips Act,” said Calvanese Strinati, who will help lead a workshop, “Semantic and Goal Oriented Communications, an Opportunity for 6G?”, on June 7.

Keynotes (all times CEST) [Central European Summer Time]

“Shaping 6G: Revolutionizing the Evolution of Networks”
Mikael Rylander, Technology Leadership Officer, Nokia/Netherlands
June 8: 9:15-10:00 am

“6G: From Digital Transformation to Socio-Digital Innovation”
Dimitra Simeonidou, Director Smart Internet Lab, Co-Director Bristol Digital Futures Institute, University of Bristol, UK
June 9: 8:30-9:15 am

“Going Beyond RF: Nano Communication in 6G+ Networks”
Falko Dressler, Professor, Technische Universität, Berlin
June 9: 9:15-10:00 am

…

For the curious, CEA-Leti, the organizing institution, is “a research institute for electronics and information technologies, based in Grenoble, France. It is one of the world’s largest organizations for applied research in microelectronics and nanotechnology.” (See the entire description in the CEA-Leti: Laboratoire d’l’électronique des technologies de l’information Wikipedia entry)

As for the ‘internet of senses’, perhaps I missed seeing it in the programme?

The co-chairs Pearse O’Donohue and Sébastien Dauvé offer a welcome on the 2022 conference/summit homepage that touches on current affairs, as well as, the technology,

We would like to welcome you to this edition of the conference, which is for the second time putting together two of the top European conferences in the area of communication networks: the European Conference on Networks and Communications (EuCNC) and the 6G Summit. After two years of restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are delighted to host this hybrid conference in the city of Grenoble, located in the French Alps and recognised internationally for its scientific excellence, especially in the area of electronics components and systems. This is a testimony of the increased importance of microelectronics for European technological sovereignty and cybersecurity in 5G and 6G, in line with the European Chips Act recently proposed by the Commission.

The Russian war against Ukraine has disrupted the lives of millions of Ukrainians. Recognising the importance of connectivity, in particular in times of crisis and under these exceptional circumstances, the EU in cooperation with key stakeholders has taken measures to alleviate the consequences of the humanitarian crisis. These include resilience of networks within the country, free or heavily discounted international calls and SMS to Ukraine or free roaming to Ukrainian people that fled the war.

In the longer term, we need to make sure that trust, security and competitiveness of future technologies such as beyond 5G and 6G are ensured.

6G systems are expected to offer a new step change in performance from Gigabit towards Terabit capacities and sub-millisecond response times. This will enable new critical applications such as real-time automation or extended reality (“Internet of Senses”) sensing, collecting and providing the data for nothing less than a digital twin of the physical world.

Moreover, new smart network technologies and architectures will need to drastically enhance the energy efficiency of connectivity infrastructures to manage major traffic growth while keeping electromagnetic fields under strict safety limits. These technologies will form the basis for a human-centric Next-Generation Internet and address Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) such as accessibility and affordability of technology.

This year is an important milestone in the European research, development and innovation sphere towards 6G communications systems as it has seen the kick-off of the activities of the European partnership on Smart Networks and Services (SNS). This strategic public-private partnership has been established in November 2021 as one of the Horizon Europe Joint undertakings. The SNS partnership should enable European players to develop the technology capacities for 6G systems as basis for future digital services towards 2030. Its focus extends beyond networking, spanning the whole value chain, from components and devices to the Cloud, AI and Cybersecurity.

In January 2022, the first SNS JU [Joint Undertaking] calls for proposals has been launched, with a total budget of EUR 240 million. It sets out main complementary work streams spanning from 5G Evolution systems, research for radical technology advancement in preparation for 6G, proof of concepts including experimental infrastructures; up to large scale trials and pilots with vertical industries. We are excited and cannot wait for the selected projects to be launched next autumn, thus joining the big family of the EU projects that you will be able to discover and liaise with during this conference.

…

Karl Bode’s June 2, 2022 article, “6G Hype Begins Despite Fact 5G Hasn’t Finished Disappointing Us Yet,” on Techdirt offers a more measured response to the 6G hopes and dreams offered by O’Donohue, Dauvé, and the others hyping the next technology that will solve all kinds of problems.

Watching buckyballs (buckminsterfullerenes) self-assemble in real-time

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For the 5% or less of the world who need this explanation, the reference to a football later in this post is, in fact, a reference to a soccer ball. Moving on to a Nov. 5, 2014 news item on Nanowerk (Note: A link has been removed),

Using DESY’s ultrabright X-ray source PETRA III, researchers have observed in real-time how football-shaped carbon molecules arrange themselves into ultra-smooth layers. Together with theoretical simulations, the investigation reveals the fundamentals of this growth process for the first time in detail, as the team around Sebastian Bommel (DESY and Humboldt Universität zu Berlin) and Nicola Kleppmann (Technische Universität Berlin) reports in the scientific journal Nature Communications (“Unravelling the multilayer growth of the fullerene C60 in real-time”).

This knowledge will eventually enable scientists to tailor nanostructures from these carbon molecules for certain applications, which play an increasing role in the promising field of plastic electronics. The team consisted of scientists from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, Universität Tübingen and DESY.

Here’s an image of the self-assembling materials,

Caption: This is an artist's impression of the multilayer growth of buckyballs. Credit: Nicola Kleppmann/TU Berlin

Caption: This is an artist’s impression of the multilayer growth of buckyballs.
Credit: Nicola Kleppmann/TU Berlin

A Nov. 5, 2014 DESY (Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron) press release (also on EurekAlert), describes the work further,

The scientists studied so called buckyballs. Buckyballs are spherical molecules, which consist of 60 carbon atoms (C60). Because they are reminiscent of American architect Richard Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic domes, they were christened buckminsterfullerenes or “buckyballs” for short. With their structure of alternating pentagons and hexagons, they also resemble tiny molecular footballs. [emphasis mine]

Using DESY’s X-ray source PETRA III, the researchers observed how buckyballs settle on a substrate from a molecular vapour. In fact, one layer after another, the carbon molecules grow predominantly in islands only one molecule high and barely form tower-like structures..“The first layer is 99% complete before 1% of the second layer is formed,” explains DESY researcher Bommel, who is completing his doctorate in Prof. Stefan Kowarik’s group at the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. This is how extremely smooth layers form.

“To really observe the growth process in real-time, we needed to measure the surfaces on a molecular level faster than a single layer grows, which takes place in about a minute,” says co-author Dr. Stephan Roth, head of the P03 measuring station, where the experiments were carried out. “X-ray investigations are well suited, as they can trace the growth process in detail.”

“In order to understand the evolution of the surface morphology at the molecular level, we carried out extensive simulations in a non-equilibrium system. These describe the entire growth process of C60 molecules into a lattice structure,” explains Kleppmann, PhD student in Prof. Sabine Klapp’s group at the Institute of Theoretical Physics, Technische Universität Berlin. “Our results provide fundamental insights into the molecular growth processes of a system that forms an important link between the world of atoms and that of colloids.”

Through the combination of experimental observations and theoretical simulations, the scientists determined for the first time three major energy parameters simultaneously for such a system: the binding energy between the football molecules, the so-called “diffusion barrier,” which a molecule must overcome if it wants to move on the surface, and the Ehrlich-Schwoebel barrier, which a molecule must overcome if it lands on an island and wants to hop down from that island.

“With these values, we now really understand for the first time how such nanostructures come into existence,” stresses Bommel. “Using this knowledge, it is conceivable that these structures can selectively be grown in the future: How must I change my temperature and deposition rate parameters so that an island of a particular size will grow. This could, for example, be interesting for organic solar cells, which contain C60.” The researchers intend to explore the growth of other molecular systems in the future using the same methods.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Unravelling the multilayer growth of the ​fullerene C60 in real time by S. Bommel, N. Kleppmann, C. Weber, H. Spranger, P. Schäfer, J. Novak, S.V. Roth, F. Schreiber, S.H.L. Klapp, & S. Kowarik. Nature Communications 5, Article number: 5388 doi:10.1038/ncomms6388 Published 05 November 2014

This article is open access.

I was not able to find any videos of these buckyballs assembling in real-time. Presumably, there are technical issues with recording the process, financial issues, or some combination thereof. Still, I can’t help but feel teased (tongue in cheek) by these scientists who give me an artist’s concept instead. Hopefully, budgets and/or technology will allow the rest of us to view this process at some time in the future.