Microsystem technologies briefs: densification of physical edge devices

The Microsystem Technologies journal, since ever, has taken up the challenge of reporting and emphasizing the advancement of Microtechnologies and Nanotechnologies. After more than three decades, this task is far from being complete. The proliferation of application domains in which micro- and nano-structured Sensors, Actuators and Transducers (SAT) as well as new materials are being and can be employed, together with the advancement of technologies themselves, both intending Hardware (HW) and Software (SW) worlds, are making the scientific areas of Microtechnologies and Nanotechnologies lively as never before. Bearing in mind the just sketched context, the emerging scenarios of 6G, Future Networks (FN) – Beyond-6G (B6G), and all the related implications in terms of functionalities and intelligence distributed at the periphery of the network infrastructure, known with the broad term of Edge Intelligence (EI) – basically local Artificial Intelligence (AI) –, are setting a fertile ground for Microtechnologies and Nanotechnologies to further evolve and develop in the future to come. This editorial aims at picking one among the multiple and highly diversified technology trends, high-end requirements, and emerging functionalities, triggered by the wide application domains mentioned above, and sheds light on how Microtechnologies and Nanotechnologies bear the potential of meeting it. Densification of physical edge devices – A massive trend towards proliferation and capillarization of services is already evident today and is going to be even more radical and relentless in the time to come. Mentioning some numbers that, despite only being indicative, give an idea of the extent of the phenomenon at stake, back in 2020 the density of physical devices connected to the network per square kilometer was expected to ramp from 0.1 M/km2 under 4G, to 1 M/km2 with 5G, to rise to 10 M/km2 when 6G will take overFootnote1. Referring to more recent reference indications, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) standard indications for IMT-2030 (International Mobile Telecommunications) forecast the density of networked devices to step from 1 M/km2 under 5G up to 1-100 M/km2 with 6GFootnote2. These numbers represent a more than sufficient starting point to grasp the impact they will exert on HW technologies, as well as, from a different perspective, in catching the potential that Microtechnologies and Nanotechnologies bear in meeting such a challenge. The Microsystem Technologies journal, among other covered topics, welcomes submissions dealing with unprecedented developments and exploitations of physical devices leveraging Microtechnologies and Nanotechnologies in the emerging broad application fields mentioned above.