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Internship offer
Design a serious game in microelectronics  (M/F)

Contexte :
Dans le contexte de la transition socio-écologique, le nombre d’étudiants intéressés par  l’électronique et plus particulièrement la microélectronique est très restreint. Cela se traduit dans  les écoles d’ingénieurs, notamment à Grenoble INP – PHELMA, par un nombre limité d’élèves  qui sont intéressées par les filières de l’électronique.
Cela a notamment été discuté lors du Conseil d’orientation de la filière SEI – Systèmes Electroniques Intégrés de Phelma en juin 2022  qui regroupait des représentants de différentes filières d’enseignement et industrielles en  électronique. Mais il s’agit d’une problématique nationale et européenne, comme cela a été  discuté lors de la Table ronde “The skills and attractiveness of microelectronics in Europe”, le  13 octobre 2022, dans le cadre du projet européen ECoVEM (“European Center of Vocational  Excellence in Microelectronics”) et Erasmus+.
Plusieurs méthodes peuvent être mises en œuvre pour motiver les étudiants y compris la classe  inversée, la schématisation, l’étude de cas, … Récemment, les jeux sérieux sont mis en place comme une approche prometteuse par une forme douce d’apprentissage.
Les jeux sérieux traditionnels sont souvent limités par le nombre de personnes ainsi que le nombre de questions/fonctions. Pour mieux sensibiliser les étudiants sur le problème de la  transition socio-écologique, des jeux sérieux modifiables/modulables sont nécessaires.

Objectifs :
Ce projet vise à concevoir un jeu sérieux à cartes. Le type et le format du jeu seront  communiqués au début du stage.
Le stage consiste à :

•  Faire une étude (benchmark) pour avoir une vue globale sur les contenus et les approches  de jeux similaires.
• Développer les questions du jeu en considérant différents niveaux de difficulté pour l’adapter à des étudiants de niveau Licence et Master/Ingénieur en électronique ou  microélectronique.

Profil recherché :

• Niveau d’étude : L3 ou M1 en électronique ou microélectronique.
• Compétences requises : Électronique de base, un goût pour les jeux sérieux sera apprécié.

Durée :
3 mois à partir de Avril 2023 ou 2 mois à partir de Mai 2023

Lieu de stage :
Grenoble INP – PHELMA, 3 Parvis Louis Néel, 38000 Grenoble.

Contact :
nhu-huan.nguyen@grenoble-inp.f

• Keywords : Engineering sciences, Electronics and microelectronics - Optoelectronics, FMNT, IMEP-LaHc
• Laboratory : FMNT / IMEP-LaHc
• CEA code : IMEPLAHC-CMNE-04-03-2023
• Contact : nhu-huan.nguyen@grenoble-inp.fr
• This Internship position has been filled. Thank you for your interest

MASTER INTERNSHIP – 2023

Title : Microwave measurements in living tissues –
models for determining blood glucose concentration

Keywords:
RF characterization, biomedical devices

Labs :
– Institut de Microélectronique, Electromagnétisme et Photonique Laboratoire d’Hyperfréquences et Caractérisation (IMEP-LaHC, GINP-CNRS-UGA-USMB)
Minatec – Grenoble, 3, parvis Louis Néel, BP 257
38 016 GRENOBLE Cedex 1

Supervisors :
XAVIER Pascal,  04.56.52.95.69
VUONG Tan-Phu, 04.56.52.95.65
LAVASTRE Olivier, 04 79 75 94 27
LACREVAZ Thierry, 04 79 75 87 46
LIVA Valentino, EURAMNET, LLC (Los Altos, CA – Etats Unis),

Candidate profile:
5 years of higher education or a Master’s degree in electronics, if possible with a focus on biomedical engineering or biophysics.

1. Scientific background
For many years, in the field of bio-electromagnetism, there has been an interest in conducting microwave studies (typically from 1 to 10 GHz) on samples of biological fluids and determining their characteristics at radio frequencies in order to better understand the behaviour of living media in response to RF waves and to deduce possible applications in human and animal health.

In particular, by extension, many studies concern interfaces such as skin-fat-biological fluids to determine the propagation, absorption, reflection and dissipation of energy in the media defined above as a function of the dosages or percentages of the components in the fluids (by “fluids” we mean the concentrations of water, glucose, lipids, etc. that circulate in the veins and arteries of living beings).

2. Objectives
The precise objective of the internship is to develop a simple prototype of a tool to test the glucose level in human or animal blood using commercial WiFi equipment. The general objective is to bring help to diabetic people and animals without carrying out an injection, that can also apply for controls
before the establishment of the disease.

At the beginning, after a thorough bibliography, the chosen model will have to be simple in order to eliminate the components that do not present or modify appreciably the results or measurements. The idea is to optimize the measurements by fitting the antenna on external tissue such as finger models or
a flat surface on an arm model or other surface model that presents little barrier to the blood vessel model. One possible model is to establish “skin-fat-fluid-bone” relationships with measurements on constructs that are as close to living as possible. This will be based on a glucose solution placed on
different filters which will simulate tissues (lipids, water, proteins, …).

For the antennas, our intention is to use 2-dimensional antennas, either single or double, to best target fluid access and measurement optimization. Indeed, a differential measurement will probably be more efficient, sensitive and discriminating than a single measurement in the absolute, so it will be
necessary to provide two antennas (one for the finger or the tube, the other in the air or on the reference liquid sample). The measurement frequencies considered are 2.4GHz, 5 to 6 GHz and 6 to 7.125GHz with RF components that exist in the market.

The tool can be calibrated with a common measurement method such as strip.

Finally, the objective is to conclude if the microwave blood glucose measurement methods will be viable or usable for routine measurements by any user or patient.

3. References
C. G. Juan et al., « Capteur de glucose biocompatible en technologie microruban inversée basé sur le facteur de qualité à vide Qu »,
XXIIèmes Journées Nationales Micro-ondes, Limoges, France, 2022

M. Srour, « Etude et réalisation de capteurs hyperfréquences : application à la détermination de la concentration en glucose » Thèse de doctorat en Electronique sous la direction de Cédric Quendo soutenue le 12-12-2017 à Brest

B. Potelon, et al., « Electromagnetic signature of glucose in aqueous solutions and human blood », Proc. MEMSWAVE Conf., La Rochelle, France, 2014.

• Keywords : Electronics and microelectronics - Optoelectronics, FMNT, IMEP-LaHc
• Laboratory : FMNT / IMEP-LaHc
• CEA code : IMEPLAHC-DHREAMS-09-11-2022
• Contact : pascal.xavier1@grenoble-inp.fr
• This Internship position has been filled. Thank you for your interest

MASTER INTERNSHIP- 2023

Effect of the different designs of a temperature sensor on the recovery of critical
metals by a bioleaching process

Keywords:
Sustainable electronics, electronic design, recycling, microbiological process

– Institut de Microélectronique, Electromagnétisme et Photonique (IMEP-LaHC, GINP-CNRS-UGA-USMB)
Minatec – Grenoble, 3, parvis Louis Néel, BP 257, 38 016 GRENOBLE Cedex 1
– Institut des Géosciences de l’Environnement (IGE, CNRS-IRD-UGA-GINP)
70 rue de la Physique, Bâtiment OSUG B , BP 53, 38 041 GRENOBLE Cedex 09

Supervisors:
XAVIER Pascal et GRENNERAT Vincent,  04.56.52.95.69
MARTINS Jean et SPADINI Lorenzo, 04.76.63.56.04

Profil du candidat :
Bac+5 en ingénierie biomédicale ou biophysique.

1. Scientific background
In 2021, the ECB classified climate change as a systemic risk and the recent IPCC report emphasized the indisputable role of human activities in global change. We need to cut our consumption of fossil fuels by more than a factor of three if we are to reverse the radiative forcing, which will also reduce the consumption of all resources. Some of these resources, called “critical materials”, such as certain metals and rare earths, are likely to be unavailable on the planet in the short term. The challenge for engineers is therefore to design systems offering the same services but with environmental impacts divided by at least three. At the same time, we must not seek to accumulate more services to avoid the rebound effect.

According to a recent report by Global Waste Electrical and Electronic (WEEE) Watch, we generated 53.6 million tons of WEEE in 2019. Its volume is growing at 5% per year, and the explosion of smart connected objects isn’t going to help bring those numbers down. So we literally have gold in our hands thanks to WEEE. It is important to ensure that the critical materials they contain stay in the loop as long as possible. This circular economy would be economical and,
of course, environmentally friendly.

2. General objective of the internship and research questions addressed
This project aims at developing a new concept that correlates the design and the recovery of critical materials at the end of the product’s life. This prospective work is part of the general issue of sustainable electronics put forward by Grenoble INP and Europe. It will serve as a starting point for a project at the European level and aims to initiate an interdisciplinary work between electronic engineers and microbiologists to determine which design choices of electronic circuits allow to optimize the recycling rate of critical materials in a recovery process by microbial digestion, while avoiding a degradation of the performances of the said circuits.

3. Work schedule
The electronic device chosen for the experimental tests will be a simple temperature sensor manufactured on the IMEP-LaHC technology platform using different types of substrates (epoxy, glass), housings and components. The integrated part on glass is a part of a water pollution biosensor being studied at IMEP-LaHC in the framework of a PhD thesis.
Three different versions of this sensor will be fabricated with different design choices in terms of materials and geometry, knowing that one of the important factors for a good metal recovery by the process is the effective surface of the metal tracks.

For this, a process under static conditions was developed in a previous internship at the IGE (batches). Several types of bacteria are used. They are first cultivated under controlled conditions and then used at variable concentrations and under different conditions to evaluate the extractability of the elements of interest contained in the electronic circuit studied. The contents of metal ions recovered in the leachates of the batches as well as their chemical speciation are
systematically quantified by ICP-OES or calculated by geochemical modeling to evaluate the efficiency of the bioleaching process.

Metal recovery will be tested without grinding the circuit. The “factor of merit”, performance x recovery rate of critical materials, will be calculated for each case and a first Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach will also be made with a tool provided by ADEME, in order to provide reliable and robust comparison elements. IMEP-LaHC will bring its expertise in circuit design and testing. IGE will bring its knowledge and know-how in the control of microbiological and physico-chemical parameters of bacterial suspensions and bioreactors and the physico-chemical analysis of leachates.

The first three months of the internship will be dedicated to the design and fabrication of the sensors, the next three months to the bioleaching tests.

4. References
– Desaunay A. and Martins J.M.F. Biosorption of Zinc by metabolically active and inactive cells of two contrasted Gram-negative bacteria: a subcellular distribution approach. Submitted to Intern. J. Environ. Res. Pub. Health. Special Issue “Microbial Biotechnology Products for a Sustainable Bioeconomy”.
-Desaunay A. and J.M.F. Martins. A physical cell-fractionation approach to assess the surface adsorption and internalization of cadmium by Cupriavidus metallidurans CH34. J. Haz. Mat. 273: 231-238. 2014.
– Arda Isildar. Biological versus chemical leaching of electronic waste for copper and gold recovery. Environmental Engineering. Université Paris-Est; Università degli studi (Cassino, Italie), 2016. English.NNT: 2016PESC1125. tel-01738056- Jadhav, U. and Hocheng, H. Hydrometallurgical Recovery of Metals from Large Printed Circuit Board Pieces. Sci. Rep.5, 14574; doi: 10.1038/srep14574 (2015).
– https://hal.univ-lorraine.fr/hal-02431903/document
– https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3715747/
– Abhilash et al. Microbial Processing of Waste Shredded PCBs for Copper Extraction Cum Separation—Comparing
the Efficacy of Bacterial and Fungal Leaching Kinetics and Yields. Metals 2021, 11, 317.
https://doi.org/10.3390/Met11020317
– HUBAU, Agathe, MINIER, Michel, CHAGNES, Alexandre, et al. Recovery of metals in a double-stage continuous
bioreactor for acidic bioleaching of printed circuit boards (PCBs). Separation and Purification Technology, 2020,vol.238, p. 116481. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seppur.2019.116481

• Keywords : Engineering science, Electronics and microelectronics - Optoelectronics, FMNT, IMEP-LaHc
• Laboratory : FMNT / IMEP-LaHc
• CEA code : IMEPLAHC-DHREAMS-11-09-2022
• Contact : pascal.xavier@univ-grenoble-alpes.fr
• This Internship position has been filled. Thank you for your interest

Master 2 internship topic

Conception, fabrication and characterization of devices dedicated to identification and
autthentication applications in THz domain

Subject :
THz spectroscopy (1 THz = 10¹² Hz), born in the 80s, makes it possible to probe, thanks to the use offemtosecond lasers (1 fs = 10-¹5s), the electromagnetic properties of materials between 100 GHz and 3500 GHz typically. IMEP-LAHC, with more than 20 years of experience, is today the leading French laboratory in
the field and has acquired international recognition.
This internship subject is offered as part of two research contracts funded by the AURA region (AUTHANTIC and PLATERA projects). These projects aim to provide solutions for identification and authentication in theTHz domain. The Master 2 internship will focus on the design of THID (TeraHertz Identification) tag structures based on 1D periodic structures of the diffraction grating type (see Fig. 1), which will have been previously simulated.

The project consists of:

1.  Simulate 1D periodic structures such as diffraction gratings in order to identify patterns and dimensions of interest. For this, digital tools developed in the laboratory (Modal Fourier Method or Differential Method) will be available and used during the course.
2.  Manufacture by 3D printing in-house (3D wire printer and UV polymerization) and by subcontracting the identified structures.
3. Characterize the fabricated structures using the laboratory’s THz spectrometers. To do this, we use technology of the “THz time domain spectroscopy” and “CW” (continuous waves) type which allow the former to obtain the signature of a device in a very wide range of frequencies, typically between 0.1 and 5-6 THz via a single measurement and for the latter to perform measurements with a much higher spectral resolution, of the order of 0.1 GHz.
4.  Analyze the simulated and measured signatures to be able to propose “optimized” structural patterns.

This subject has a strong experimental component as well as a theoretical component related to the modeling and identification of structures of interest.

Supervisors :
F. GARET, IMEP-LAHC, tél. 04 79 75 86 78 (frederic.garet@univ-smb.fr)
M. BERNIER, IMEP-LAHC, tél. 04 79 75 87 48 (maxime.bernier@univ-smb.fr)

Training place :
IMEP-LAHC ( Chambery and Grenoble sites / Minatec)

Grant:
About  550 €/month during the  stage (5 months)

Students mail area of expertise:
Optics, Optoelectronics, electromagnetism

• Keywords : Engineering sciences, Electronics and microelectronics - Optoelectronics, FMNT, IMEP-LaHc
• Laboratory : FMNT / IMEP-LaHc
• CEA code : IMEPLAHC-PHOTO-11-28-2022
• Contact : maxime.bernier@univ-smb.fr
• This Internship position has been filled. Thank you for your interest

Low frequency noise measurements under illumination
for defect characterization in photovoltaic cells

Photovoltaic technologies are among the least carbon-intensive sources of energy and are therefore a fundamental research area in the current context of energy transition. Increasing the performance of these devices and their operating lifetime is one of the main challenges in this field.
At the center of this dual challenge is the problem of defects in solar cells. Indeed, the presence of defects in the volume or at the interfaces of the junction, encouraging the recombination processes of the photo-generated carriers, strongly decreases the lifetimes of the latter, and so the efficiencies of photovoltaic cells. On the other hand, the progressive formation of these defects during the operation of the cell leads to a malfunction of the device. It is therefore compulsory to limit the presence of defects and their formation. However, before limiting them, it is necessary to be able to measure, identify and quantify them.

In this context, research is developed at IMEP-LaHC on the use of low frequency noise, a method used for several decades in the MOSFET transistor to extract defects densities at the interface between the conduction channel and the grid oxide in particular. The objective of this research is to apply this characterization method to photovoltaic cells.
A first PhD currently in progress has already demonstrated that this method is applicable to these components, and that it is a source of information on the nature of electronic transport mechanisms not accessible by conventional methods.
The objective of this internship is to go further on the use of low frequency noise, by exploiting the optical generation in the device during the measurement. Some experimental results recently published suggest that it is possible to optically and selectively stimulate certain defects at different energies, and to measure low frequency noise responses reflecting different signatures depending on the wavelength band used. Although promising, these published results are very partial and require a more detailed exploration of the potential of this electro-optical method.
The work required in this internship is therefore mainly experimental, focused on the measurement of low frequency noise, and instrumental, as it will be necessary to modify the current measurement bench to add light sources. Some manipulations in clean room to make samples are possible depending on the skills and interests of the candidate.

Contacts : Chloé Wulles : chloe.wulles@grenoble-inp.fr
Quentin Rafhay : quentin.rafhay@grenoble-inp.fr
Christoforos Theodorou : christoforos.theodorou@grenoble-inp.fr
Anne Kaminski : anne.kaminski@grenoble-inp.fr

Institute of Microelectronics, Electromagnetism and Photonics-Laboratory of Microwave and Characterization
Joint Research Unit 5130 CNRS, Grenoble INP, UGA, USMB

• Keywords : Engineering sciences, Electronics and microelectronics - Optoelectronics, FMNT, IMEP-LaHc
• Laboratory : FMNT / IMEP-LaHc
• CEA code : IMEPLAHC-CMNE-10-17-2022
• Contact : quentin.rafhay@grenoble-inp.fr
• This Internship position has been filled. Thank you for your interest