The WEAF Mnecosystem: a Perspective of MEMS/NEMS Technologies as Pillars of Future 6G, Super-IoT and Tactile Internet

The future 6G, Super-Internet of Things (Super-IoT) and Tactile Internet (TI) are setting, already at present time, challenges falling way beyond what the 5G – today at its dawn – will manage to reach. Currently in use design approaches for devices and infrastructures will not fully address what the AI-driven (Artificial Intelligence) 6G network will be. This work intends to open and stimulate a discussion on novel strategies in thinking and designing Hardware-Software (HWSW) systems, having the target of making the AI-driven 6G real. At first, the limitations of the current HW-SW development methodologies are analyzed and grouped under the name of HW-SW divide. Then, a reformulation of the common concept of HW triggered by Micro/Nanotechnologies and Materials is proposed. In light of this context, the WEAF Mnecosystem, i.e. the Water, Earth, Air and Fire Micro/Nanotechnologies Ecosystem, is introduced, spinning off the similarity with the corresponding natural elements. As pointed out, the redefinition largely leverages Microtechnologies and Nanotechnologies (MEMS/NEMS), and some state of the art examples of current classes of micro/nanodevices that could be relevant in making the 6G real are also reported and discussed.