IUMA obtains funding for scientific equipment for advanced chip packaging and health and wellness (LPM)

The Instituto Universitario de Microelectrónica Aplicada (IUMA) obtains funding of 365.059,97 Euro coming from the call for Scientific-Technical Equipment 2024 of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, for the Multidisciplinary Pilot Line for Chip Encapsulation and Proof of Concept in Health and Wellness (LPM). The project is led by Professor Juan Antonio Montiel Nelson, director of the Division of Microelectronics and Microsystems (DMEMS) at the IUMA.
This project focuses on the integration of advanced electronic systems, such as chips, sensors and bio-sensors, which will be applied in the field of health and wellness. It includes the development of "laboratories on chip" and the fabrication of human phantoms, allowing the development of both invasive (implants) and non-invasive (adhesives) devices. This equipment is essential for the ULPGC to face the new technological challenges in health.
LPM is a unique venture within the set of common services of the University Institute of Applied Microelectronics (IUMA) of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC). LPM upgrades the IUMA's current technological capabilities in order to meet the new challenges of the agenda ECS-SRIA (Electronic Component and System- Strategy Research and Innovation Agenda) with respect to the integration of heterogeneous systems. In this sense, nano- and microelectronics are key to achieving digital sovereignty in Europe and at the same time offer a whole set of solutions for a green and sustainable society. To this end, LPM includes the integration of semiconductor chips, sensors and bio-sensors, micro-channels and photonic devices on rigid, flexible and semi-rigid substrates.
The IUMA's common services, since its creation in 1998, have promoted the development and testing of customised integrated circuits, the design and manufacture of printed circuit boards, the manufacture and testing of complex electronic systems incorporating any type of component on the market, the electromechanical integration of opto-electronic devices and sensors. Its services form a unit of action that provides the University Institute with sufficient potential to compete at national and international level in the integral development of electronic systems aimed at research, instrumentation or consumer electronics.
The new equipment approved is a necessary upgrade for research and innovation in the field of semiconductor technology, and includes equipment for handling chips and their adhesion to packaging and flexible substrates, the connection by conductive wires from chips to packaging and/or flexible substrates, advanced printing on flexible substrates with conductive and semiconductor inks, and advanced printing of micro-channels for the integration of bio-sensors in smart embedded systems.