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In this work, two procedures for fabrication of polymeric microneedles based on direct photolithography, without any etching or molding process, are reported. Polyethylene glycol (average molecular weight 250 Da), casted into a silicone vessel and exposed to ultraviolet light (365 nm) through a mask, cross-links when added by a commercial photocatalyzer. By changing the position of the microneedles support with respect to the vessel, different shapes and lengths can be achieved. Microneedles from a hundred microns up to two millimeters have been obtained just tuning the radiation dose, by changing the exposure time (5–15 s) and/or the power density (9–18 mW/cm2) during photolithography. Different microneedle shapes, such as cylindrical, conic or lancet-like, for specific applications such as micro-indentation or drug delivery, are demonstrated.

The synthesis and physical characterization of a novel liquid crystalline epoxy resin, used as a matrix for carbon fiber‐reinforced composites is presented in this paper. The curing reaction was monitored by means of calorimetric and rheological measurements. Calorimetric analysis indicates that the presence of carbon fibers does not affect the reaction rate. A conventional isotropic epoxy resin is used as a model compound in the rheological analysis. According to the patent literature, two different formulations of the model compound were used, characterized by a stoichiometric ratio of epoxy and an epoxy excess, respectively, with respect to the curing agent.

Environment perception is crucial for the safe navigation of vehicles and robots to detect obstacles in their surroundings. It is also of paramount interest for navigation of human beings in reduced visibility conditions. Obstacle avoidance systems typically combine multiple sensing technologies (i.e., LiDAR, radar, ultrasound and visual) to detect various types of obstacles under different lighting and weather conditions, with the drawbacks of a given technology being offset by others. These systems require powerful computational capability to fuse the mass of data, which limits their use to high-end vehicles and robots. INSPEX delivers a low-power, small-size and lightweight environment perception system that is compatible with portable and/or wearable applications. This requires miniaturizing and optimizing existing range sensors of different technologies to meet the user’s requirements in terms of obstacle detection capabilities. These sensors consist of a LiDAR, a time-of-flight sensor, an ultrasound and an ultra-wideband radar with measurement ranges respectively of 10 m, 4 m, 2 m and 10 m. Integration of a data fusion technique is also required to build a model of the user’s surroundings and provide feedback about the localization of harmful obstacles. As primary demonstrator, the INSPEX device will be fixed on a white cane.

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The production of memories with bit density of the order of 10 11 cm −2 (projected to be possible within the current silicon technology in 2020 AD) seems now possible by exploiting the hybrid crossbar architecture. This new paradigm (that assigns to silicon the functions of power supply, addressing, sensing and writing, and to reprogrammable molecules the function of memory) requires the solution of a number of new problems not considered yet in integrated-circuit processing. In particular, the most advanced example of hybrid crossbars (Green J E et al 2007 Nature 445 414) does not yet consider the problems of hardware demultiplexing (the connection of wire arrays with a sublithographic pitch of 30 nm to lithographic contacts with pitch 90 nm), the covalent linkage of the functional molecules to the crossbar, and their insertion at the end of process. In this paper it is shown that the multispacer patterning technique (Cerofolini G F et al 2005 Nanotechnology 16 1040) can be adapated to solve all these problems.

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Abstract-The INSPEX H2020 project main objective is to integrate automotive-equivalent spatial exploration and obstacle detection functionalities into a portable/wearable multi-sensor, miniaturised, low power device. The INSPEX system will detect and localise in real-time static and mobile obstacles under various environmental conditions in 3D. Potential applications range from safer human navigation in reduced visibility, small robot/drone obstacle avoidance systems to navigation for the visually/mobility impaired, this latter being the primary use-case considered in the project.