System integration and engineering: Current technology trends clearly show there is an urgent need for smaller, faster, and cheaper sensors that can be efficiently integrated with market-based applications. In addition to new modes of operation for conventional sensors, new sensors that are based on MEMS and nano technologies present significant integration challenges. If the burgeoning sensor and electronics.markets are ever to be brought to commercial success, the problems associated with system integration must be addressed. Many of these integration challenges can be tackled by designing effective packaging for the sensors and incorporating the packaged sensors into systems by using robust networking infrastructures. Specific challenges that must be addressed for system integration and mass market penetration to occur include powering sensor nodes, signal conditioning, monitoring the health of the sensor, networking and aggregating data from large numbers of sensors, and ensuring safe reliable operations in a spectrum of operating environments.

Through a state-wide network of industry, higher education, and government agencies, the proposed Wright Center for Sensor Systems Engineering (WCSSE) will strive to pull advanced sensor technologies and its electronic drivers into the marketplace by bringing together the top component and electronics; packaging; networking; and data management experts to develop sensor-based applications for specific market niches. By the end of this three year grant effort, the WCSSE will help bring to market products such as:

• a micro-sensor suite that will be capable of measuring ground water quality at the bottom of wells surrounding municipal and hazardous landfills;
• a handheld and in-line (i.e. vehicle- or pump-mounted) fluid condition monitoring systems that provides real-time feedback to users in the industrial automation or trucking industries;
• a family of semiconductor devices that would serve as an integrated interface from a sensor or network of sensors for use by electronic component manufacturers; and
• a high temperature sensor package that would be used by the military fighter jets.

The market for sensor-based applications is wide and diverse, dependent primarily on its end applications. For industrial automation and process control companies, advances in sensor systems will enable them to tap into markets growing annually by 9.10/0, including the food processing and beverages market ($4 billion in 2004, with an expectation of $7 billion in 2010); automotive markets ($5.5 billion in 2004, with an expectation of hitting $9.5 billion in 2010); and even dairy markets ($1 billion in 2004, doubling to $2 billion by 2010). Consumer electronics companies can expect to grab $22 million in smart sensor system revenues by 2010. Finally, for test and measurement companies, as they transition in their industries to include smart sensors in their systems, an opportunity to earn a share of the expected $104 million in revenues by 2010 is a near-term reality.

The Wright Center for Sensor Systems Engineering will bring together both small and large companies, industry and university researchers, and government agencies to attack this growing marketplace and in the process, strengthen and grow the vast industry in Ohio called instruments, controls, and electronics.