A large-scale French collaboration aims to develop energy-free smart sensors for IoT applications.

SilMach, Supmicotech and the Université Marie et Louis Pasteur have started the Sami project for autonomous sensors for intelligent monitoring in the city of Besançon in eastern France.

With a total budget of €6m, the project is backed by the European Union, which is contributing €4.3m through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the Feder-FSE+ Bourgogne-Franche-Comté and Massif du Jura 2021-2027 programme, managed by the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region.

Sami positions itself at the intersection of technology and watchmaking excellence. It is based on the ChronoMEMS technology, developed by SilMach, which brings together the principles of micromechanics and manufacturing technologies to create autonomous smart sensors. These sensors do not require a power source, and operate by logging mechanical events, such as strain to and deformation of structures.

SilMach’s microsensors are already being used to monitor the integrity of infrastructure, being part of France 2030 through the Sircapass project, which uses SilMach’s ChronoMEMS technology to monitor the structural integrity of bridges.

“Sami is our pathway to conquering new industrial markets,” said Pierre-François Louvigné, CEO of SilMach. “Our energy-free sensors are now capable of communication, paving the way for ground-breaking applications.”

SilMach’s ChronoMEMS technology is backed by 68 patents in 17 countries.

Supmicotech and the Université Marie et Louis Pasteur are two universities in the region and are participating in the project through their joint laboratory, Femto-ST, with two research teams on the project.

“Sami demonstrates our vision of sustainable innovation, with our hybrid microsystems bringing together high-performance with respect for the environment,” said Pascal Vairac, Supmicotech’s director.

Macha Woronoff, president of the Université Marie et Louis Pasteur, added: “This project brings the synergy between academic research and industry to life, showcasing the French approach to innovation.”

Sami aims to develop generic, cost-effective and eco-friendly ChronoMEMS sensors, applicable to a wide range of sectors, including transportation, construction, healthcare and energy. These micromechanical sensors operate without an external energy source, tracking the deformation of the structure to which they are attached to detect and record mechanical events.

The components are inspired from the watchmaking industry such as micrometric gear systems and apply fundamental mechanical principles, for example ratchet wheels and mass-spring systems, to detect and log events. They are small using silicon-based cleanroom manufacturing technologies and hybridised with a human-readable interface through specialised processes developed by SilMach and Femto-ST.

A tool for threshold management, tracking events as fatigue monitoring or threshold breach detection, these sensors provide continuous, round-the-clock operational monitoring, a crucial feature for numerous industries.

The Sami project aims to reach a higher level of technological readiness (TRL5 to TRL7), paving the way for large-scale production. Until 2030, tens of thousands of sensors will be produced annually in the region, consolidating its role as an innovation hub.

Such production, automated in large parts, could actively contribute to the reindustrialisation of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region, reinforcing its position as a centre of excellence in microtechnology and smart sensors.

SilMach (www.silmach.com) was founded in 2003 in Besançon to bring to industrial life the first hybrid MEMS micromachines.

Supmicotech (www.supmicrotech.fr), formerly ENSMM, is a French graduate engineering school specialising in mechanics and microtechnology and is a constituent institution of the Marie & Louis Pasteur University.

The Université Marie et Louis Pasteur (www.univ-fcomte.fr) came from the transformation of the University of Franche-Comté and the Comue UBFC into an experimental public institution, bringing together two historic constituent institutions, UTBM and Supmicotech, along with six associated institutions.

Femto-ST (www.femto-st.fr) is a public research laboratory under the supervision of the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), the Université Marie et Louis Pasteur, and its two constituent institutions, Supmicotech and UTBM.

The Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Region serves as the managing authority for European funds. Under the 2021-2027 programming, the region has been allocated a budget of over €808m to support projects across its territory. For more information, see www.europe-bfc.eu.