IEEE Solid-States Circuits Magazine - Spring 2020 - 83

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electronics that pick up signals
distributed in a body. Eugenio's
group has investigated flexible
electronics to detect electromyo-
grams (EMGs), signals generated
by muscle contractions, and elec-
trocardiograms (signals generat-
ed by the heart). Eugenio's group
aims to fabricate intelligent patch-
es that can detect these biopoten-
tials and in the future even brain
signals while being unobtrusive.
Flexible electronics can also cover
large surfaces. Flexible displays in
smartphones are becoming more
and more familiar. These displays
can be made but so can flexible
sensors. Flexible electronics are
ideal for fabricating sensors to
detect quantities distributed on
surfaces, such as pressure and
light and especially forms of light
that cannot be easily focused, like
X-rays. Eugenio's group has been
working on finding applications
for these flexible circuits.
Electronics can be printed on plas-
tic foils by exploiting the same
methods employed in graphic
arts by using organic compounds
as semiconductors. An ideal ap-
plication of printed electronics is
to build sensors that are able to
monitor the quality of food in the
distribution chain, item by item.
"This is an application of flexible
electronics that is particularly
meaningful to me," Eugenio said.
"Indeed, monitoring the quality
of food during distribution would
drastically decrease food waste

SSCS membership
has given Eugenio
the opportunity
to meet new and
interesting people
and to be educated
and inspired by
them.
and could help us reduce our foot-
print on the environment."
The challenge for the groups
resides in the design of flexible cir-
cuits vis a vis the poor performance
of flexible transistors. These transis-
tors are slow and noisy, match poorly,
and are sensitive to environmental
aggression. Most flexible processes
offer only one type of channel, and
printed processes have a limited
yield. For these reasons, it is complex
to obtain good circuit performance.
An optimal design needs a careful
process in which different architec-
tural solutions and topologies are
compared critically to find the best
tradeoff between performance, reli-
ability, and yield.
Eugenio's group does not manu-
facture circuits. Instead, the group
has partnered with several research
institutes in Europe that make their
research and work possible. These
institutions include the Holst Center/
TNO in Eindhoven (Gerwin Gelinck
and Auke Kronemeijer), imec (Jan
Genoe and Kris Myny), CEA/Liten
(Micaël Charbonneau), FlexEnable
(Guillaume Fichet and May Wheeler),
Johanneum Research (Herbert Gold

The first printed ADC on foil. (Source: Bart van Overbeeke Fotografie, 2013; used with permission.)

FUN FACTS ABOUT EUGENIO
■
He

loves music, especially classical
and opera.
■
He plays the piano.
■
He loves anything related to problem
solving.

The article is part of a series highlighting an SSCS member in each issue of the
magazine. If you would like to nominate
a member to be featured or would like to
be featured yourself, please email News
Editor Abira Altvater (Abira.Altvater@
ieee.org).

and Barbara Stadlober), IIT (Mario
Caironi), the University of Bari (Luisa
Torsi), the University of Brescia (Fab-
rizio Torricelli), and many more.
Eugenio has authored or coau-
thored more than 200 papers in
journals and conference proceedings
and 13 patents. He was a guest edi-
tor for Journal of Solid-State Circuits
(JSSC ). He is currently an asso-
ciate editor of IEEE Transactions on
Circuits and Systems I. In 2006, he
received the International Solid-State
Circuits Conference (ISSCC) Beatrice
Award for Editorial Excellence and
was nominated to be in Scientific
American's top 50 list. He received
t he Ph ilips Rese a r ch Invent ion
Award in 2007, the Best Paper Award
from the European Solid-State Device

The first organic 64-b RFID connected to a capacitive antenna.

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IEEE Solid-States Circuits Magazine - Spring 2020

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