Turning previously &lsquo;dumb&rsquo; LED streetlighting &lsquo;smart&rsquo; is one of the easiest cost-to-benefit propositions in smart city because it effectively pays for itself. And this is especially true with the advent of cellular IoT technology because it means the supporting infrastructure needed is already in place.The ubiquity and robustness of LED street lighting posts also provide an ideal physical platform upon which to build any other smart city capabilities.<h2>Smart pays with cellular IoT</h2>According to the UN&rsquo;s Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), seven in ten people will live in a city by 2050 and that mass migration is well underway.It therefore should come as no surprise town and city authorities around the world are already under severe pressure to provide more or better services with less per capita money as city populations swell. And today that increasing pressure includes demonstrably improving their Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) performance.That&rsquo;s a big ask. And why the smart city market is estimated to be on track to become a $7 billion sector by as soon as 2030.Thankfully, in the smart city arena, there is an obvious place to start saving on energy consumption and costs. And that is by making existing LED streetlighting smart.At the simplest level this involves making the streetlighting more responsive to actual local lighting conditions rather than switching on and off to a fixed schedule. On a bright, sunny day the lighting can stay off for much longer than, for example, on an overcast day.Or if pedestrian numbers or road traffic density is low, the lighting intensity or density may not need to be as high.<h2>Saving more than energy</h2>But the cost-saving potential of streetlighting reaches far further than minimizing energy consumption. Smart LED street lighting can also be continuously monitored. This opens up the capability of identifying and predicting streetlight faults.As a result, costly maintenance crews can be dispatched to work much more optimally by, for example, inspecting and repairing clusters of streetlights in one location. And because this reduces the number of kilometers they need to travel in their service vans, it also helps reduce pollution.Over time, the energy and maintenance cost savings of making LED streetlighting smart typically pays for the entire upgrade.<h2>The lightbulb moment</h2>But cost savings are not the only benefit of smart street lighting. Street lighting posts are located everywhere that humans go. They are physically robust (tall, weather-proof and secure), and they have a mains power supply in case battery power is not viable.This makes them an ideal platform for locating other smart city application sensors. Obvious examples include traffic optimization, air and noise pollution reduction, and pedestrian footfall monitoring.These smart city applications can potentially make towns and cities safer, greener, and more pleasant places to live.<h2>Accessing the benefits</h2>While the benefits of shifting to smart LED street lighting and smart city are becoming ever more clearly defined, the only downside is technological complexity.Most local town and city authorities are staffed by people who are not IoT or IT experts and don&#39;t want to be.Yet these are key decision-makers when it comes to street lighting and smart city. The easier smart city vendors make city staff lives, the easier it will be for them to decide to go down the smart city route.<h2>Urban Control</h2>One Nordic customer that completely understands this challenge is leading smart city device provider, Urban Control. The company has developed a retrofittable smart LED streetlighting luminaire controller that is said to be able to make any LED streetlight instantly smart with &#39;plug&amp;play&#39; simplicity. This includes using an industry-standard Zhaga LED lighting socket.In operation, the <a href="https://www.nordicsemi.com/News/2022/03/Urban-Control-has-specified-nRF9160-SiP-in-city-streetlight-LED-luminaire-controllers?utm_campaign=2021%20wevolver" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Urban Node 324</a> leverages a Nordic <a href="https://www.nordicsemi.com/Products/nRF9160?utm_campaign=2021%20wevolver" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">nRF9160</a> multi-mode NB-IoT/LTE-M SiP to provide the cellular IoT communication that enables the controller to be remotely operated by any smart city Central Management System (CMS) based on the common &lsquo;TALQ&rsquo; smart city standard.By using cellular IoT, the controller can leverage existing global cellular network infrastructure &lsquo;out-of-the-box&rsquo; just like a smartphone, as well as scale cost-effectively from one streetlight up to millions. It also eliminates the need for non-technical town and city authorities to have to worry about building and managing a specialized wireless IoT network.<h2>Home run for cellular IoT</h2>There is another final benefit of <a href="https://www.nordicsemi.com/Products/Low-power-cellular-IoT?utm_campaign=2021%20wevolver" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">cellular IoT</a> wireless technology in smart city that is often overlooked but equally vital: it avoids any concerns about technological obsolescence.Change is a given in any technology industry, and the pace of change only ever seems to increase. Wireless IoT is no exception. And over the typical two, three or even four decade lifespan of an urban streetlight, no one expects to wake up one day and find there is no cellular wireless network functioning outside their door.Cellular IoT provides future-proofing that is second-to-none when it comes to wireless IoT. With it, all the scalability, quality-of-service, security and reliability benefits the world has come to expect from cellular and rely upon.<hr>This article was first published on Nordic&#39;s&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.nordicsemi.com/getconnected" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" id="isPasted"></a><a href="https://blog.nordicsemi.com/getconnected?utm_campaign=2021%20wevolver" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Get Connected Blog</a>. &nbsp;

Turning previously ‘dumb’ LED streetlighting ‘smart’ is one of the easiest cost-to-benefit propositions in smart city because it effectively pays for itself.

Smart street lighting and cellular IoT is the gateway to the smart city

In this episode, we talk about how performance limitations of current microchips are being addressed by utilizing novel materials like graphene and bioinspired designs to address the needs of next generation computing and electronics. As always, you can find these and other interesting &amp; impactful engineering articles on Wevolver.com.&nbsp;<iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/4c563405-4ade-4b6a-9070-a75a7d327eef?dark=false" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true"></iframe><hr>This podcast is sponsored by <a href="https://www2.mouser.com/" id="isPasted" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mouser Electronics</a>. &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjU0MDAxNTk1MjgwLU1vdXNlci1zcG9uc29yLTEtYS5qcGciLCJlZGl0cyI6eyJyZXNpemUiOnsid2lkdGgiOjk1MCwiZml0IjoiY292ZXIifX19" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib"><hr>(3:46) - Graphene-hBN Computing(16:44) - Spiderweb MicrochipsEpisode 72 was brought to you by Mouser Electronics, Farbod &amp; Daniel’s favorite electronics distributor. Click <a href="https://www.mouser.com/applications/wide-bandgap-beyond-silicon/" target="_blank">here</a> to read the article discussing &nbsp;how scientists are looking beyond silicon for the future of computer chips.<hr>About the podcast:Every day, some of the most innovative universities, companies, and individual technology developers share their knowledge on Wevolver. To ensure we can also provide this knowledge for the growing group of podcast listeners, we started a collaboration with two young engineers, Daniel Scott Mitchell &amp; Farbod Moghaddam who discuss the most interesting content in this podcast series.&nbsp;To learn more about this show, please visit the <a href="https://www.wevolver.com/profile/the.next.byte" target="_blank">shows page</a>. By following the page, you will get automatic updates by email when a new show is published.Be sure to give us a follow and review on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/nl/podcast/the-next-byte/id1548255861?l=en" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Apple</a> podcasts, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6lPPsRtegnivsRUEsQ09R7?si=IPMiah7xT_apJtPjqvXMlA" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Spotify</a>, and most of your favorite podcast platforms!Take a few seconds to leave us a review. It really helps! <a href="https://apple.co/2RIsbZ2" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://apple.co/2RIsbZ2&nbsp;</a>if you do it and send us proof, we’ll give you a shoutout on the show.

In this episode, we talk about how performance limitations of current microchips are being addressed by utilizing novel materials like graphene and bioinspired designs to address the needs of next generation computing and electronics.

Podcast: Spiderweb Inspired & Graphene Enhanced Microchips

In this episode, we talk about how embedding information about products can change consumer insight regarding their purchases and the best way to make high quality, affordable, and flexible OLED screens. As always, you can find these and other interesting &amp; impactful engineering articles on Wevolver.com.<iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/5141d285-e7f7-4062-83fb-4e9e29407a6d?dark=false" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true"></iframe><hr>This podcast is sponsored by <a href="https://www2.mouser.com/" id="isPasted" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mouser Electronics</a>.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1645532225239-Mouser-sponsor-1-a.jpg" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib"><hr><h3 id="isPasted">EPISODE NOTES</h3>(2:22) - <a href="https://www.wevolver.com/article/invisible-machine-readable-labels-that-identify-and-track-objects" target="_blank">Invisible Machine Readable Labels</a>:(13:55) - <a href="https://www.wevolver.com/article/fully-3d-printed-flexbile-organic-led-display-hints-at-a-future-of-desktop-manufacturing" target="_blank">3D Printed Flexible OLED</a>:Episode 58 was brought to you by Mouser Electronics, Farbod &amp; Daniel’s favorite electronics distributor. Click <a href="https://www.mouser.com/news/methods/2021-3/mouser-methods-v4i3.html#p=1" target="_blank">here&nbsp;</a>to read the magazine discussing immersive technologies.<hr>About the podcast:Every day, some of the most innovative universities, companies, and individual technology developers share their knowledge on Wevolver. To ensure we can also provide this knowledge for the growing group of podcast listeners, we started a collaboration with two young engineers, Daniel Scott Mitchell &amp; Farbod Moghaddam who discuss the most interesting content in this podcast series.&nbsp;To learn more about this show, please visit the <a href="https://www.wevolver.com/profile/the.next.byte" target="_blank">shows page</a>. By following the page, you will get automatic updates by email when a new show is published.Be sure to give us a follow and review on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/nl/podcast/the-next-byte/id1548255861?l=en" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Apple</a> podcasts, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6lPPsRtegnivsRUEsQ09R7?si=IPMiah7xT_apJtPjqvXMlA" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Spotify</a>, and most of your favorite podcast platforms!

Offering a high refresh rate and surviving multiple bends, this fully-printed display surprised its creators.

In this episode, we talk about how embedding information about products can change consumer insight regarding their purchases and the best way to make high quality, affordable, and flexible OLED screens

Podcast: Metadata Embedded Hardware & Flexible OLED Screens

This article was discussed in our <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.wevolver.com/profile/the.next.byte&source=gmail&ust=1645483330039000&usg=AOvVaw3G1InVzNPFrh6EQN0Bd-pi" href="https://www.wevolver.com/profile/the.next.byte" id="isPasted" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Next Byte podcast</a>.&nbsp;<iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/5141d285-e7f7-4062-83fb-4e9e29407a6d?dark=false" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true"></iframe>The full article will continue below.<hr>3D printing is revolutionizing the fields of prototyping and manufacturing, scaling from hyper-local customized one-off creations to mass-produced buildings and more. The next logical step: To be able to print active electronics, creating complex devices in a single stage — something engineers from the University of Minnesota, some now at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, and the Pusan National University, claim to have achieved.In their paper published in <cite>Science Advances</cite>, the team has showcased an approach for manufacturing a functional display based on an 8×8 matrix of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) — without the need to perform any kind of manufacturing beyond two forms of 3D printing, both achievable using a customized table-top 3D printer.<h2 data-element-id="headingsMap-5-0">Printed electronics</h2>Printing solid objects and simple mechanical devices is a largely-solved problem, but making a 3D printer spit out functional electronics is considerably more challenging. Many approaches rely on partial 3D printing followed by the integration of electronics made in a more traditional manner, or limit the complexity of the components they can create.The display printed at the University of Minnesota, by contrast, is a surprisingly complex creation — and one the manufacture of which is typically restricted to clean-room environments and specialized equipment.“OLED displays are usually produced in big, expensive, ultra-clean fabrication facilities,” Michael McAlpine, professor and senior author of the work, explains. “We wanted to see if we could basically condense all of that down and print an OLED display on our table-top 3D printer, which was custom built and costs about the same as a Tesla Model S.”<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/k7KV_lOIp8o?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https://www.wevolver.com" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true"></iframe> While it’s true that a 3D printer as expensive as a Tesla Model S — just shy of $100,000 for the base trim at the time of writing — isn’t something most people will have in their office or garage, it’s considerably cheaper than the manufacturing facilities typically required for an OLED display panel.The printer, described by the team as a “‘one-pot’ 3D printing platform,” works through the combination of multiple processing approaches: Material extrusion, spraying, and mechanical reconfiguration — and all without ever requiring anything beyond the printer itself, small enough to sit atop a desk, and a day-long treatment in a vacuum desiccator to cure its functional inks.<h2 data-element-id="headingsMap-7-0">A successful display</h2>“I thought I would get something, but maybe not a fully working display,” says Ruitao Su, first author of the paper, of the device his team created. “But then it turns out all the pixels were working, and I can display the text I designed. My first reaction was ‘it is real!’ I was not able to sleep, the whole night.”While the display itself is rudimentary — an 8×8 matrix totaling 64 OLED devices offering a variable brightness across a single color — it’s an important proof-of-concept which brings a surprising advantage to the table: It’s flexible, bending and springing back into shape in a way which would make it well-suited to use in wearables and other devices with non-planar geometries.“The device exhibited a relatively stable emission over the 2,000 bending cycles,” Su explains, “suggesting that fully 3D printed OLEDs can potentially be used for important applications in soft electronics and wearable devices.”<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjQzNzQ0ODI4MzE2LTNkcHJpbnQyLmpwZyIsImVkaXRzIjp7InJlc2l6ZSI6eyJ3aWR0aCI6OTUwLCJmaXQiOiJjb3ZlciJ9fX0=" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="A figure from a scientific paper, showing: the six layers of a 3D-printed OLED display; the printing nozzles used; its schmatic; and its light emittence.">The six-layer display is entirely 3D-printed using a single customized desktop printer.The display is built up of six layers 3D-printed on polyethylene tetraphthalate (PET) film: An interconnect layer printed with conductive inks containing silver nanoparticles; a thin-film array of a conductive polymer as the anode structure; a thin-film array of an electroluminescent polymer which gives the display its glow; a silicone-based insulation layer; a droplet layer which is reconfigured by the printer to form the cathode structure; and a top interconnect layer. Finally, the whole device is encapsulated using an extrusion-printed silicone mold.The reconfiguration step is of particular interest. Described by the team as “analogous to conventional metal forging,” the droplets are compressed using a polypropylene nozzle mounted to the 3D printer. After tuning the compression rate, dwell time, and depth, the team found a way to reconfigure the droplets such that they had a similar height but exhibited an increased contact area with the layer below — solving one of the key difficulties which had previously plagued 3D-printed electronics.<h2 data-element-id="headingsMap-8-0">Real-world potential</h2>The approach taken by the team shows considerable promise, in particular because even expensive 3D printers are cheaper than traditional factories. “Our printing methodology for both thin-film and metallization layers circumvented the need for photomask sets, cleanrooms, or complicated circuit layouts involved in conventional microelectronics fabrication,” the researchers note.Performance of the resulting display — for all its low resolution — proves the concept still further: In testing, the 3D-printed display offered a response time of 0.2ms — “on the same order of magnitude,” its creators write, “as inorganic aluminum gallium indium phosphide (AlGaInP) LEDs and one order of magnitude faster than typical LCDs.”The device’s robustness, too, impresses, offering “relatively stable [light] emission over 2,000 bending cycles,” and successfully displaying text and images even when bent nearly completely in half.<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjQzNzQ0ODQyMzMzLTNkcHJpbnQzLmpwZyIsImVkaXRzIjp7InJlc2l6ZSI6eyJ3aWR0aCI6OTUwLCJmaXQiOiJjb3ZlciJ9fX0=" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="A figure from a scientific paper showing a 3D-printed OLED display and its performance while being bent in two directions. A smiley face is visible as the demonstration image shown on the display panel.">Printed onto a flexible substrate, the display is capable of operating while bent nearly double.It’s the manufacturing process that is the highlight of the work, though. “The ability to fabricate OLED displays entirely on 3D printing platforms represents a paradigm shift for the printing of optoelectronics,” the paper’s authors claim, “which will affect other types of active devices, such as image sensors, photovoltaics, and computation.”The team’s next step: Creating displays with improved resolution, improving the inks in use, and finding a way to integrated controlling circuits — including transistors and capacitors — to create a fully 3D-printed active-matrix display.The paper detailing the work is available under open-access terms in the journal <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abl8798" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><cite>Science Advances</cite></a>.<h2 data-element-id="headingsMap-9-0">Reference</h2>Ruitao Su, Sung Hyun Park, Xia Ouyang, Song Ih Ahn, Michael C. McAlpine: <cite>3D-printed flexible organic light-emitting diode displays</cite>, <cite>Science Advances Vol 8, Issue 1</cite>. DOI <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abl8798" target="_blank">10.1126/sciadv.abl8798</a>.

Using a modified 3D printer small enough to fit on a desk, a research team has successfully printed a fully-functional OLED display panel with impressive performance and flexibility.

LED

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