IRT Nanoelec market-specific meeting on the automotive industry

IRT Nanoelec held its sixth market-specific meeting, this one on “Nanoelectronics and the cars of the future.”

The meeting brought in a large audience. Participants and speakers got a chance to share their insights on what the cars of the future will look like, focusing on the main technological hurdles and other challenges that the industry will have to address.

According to CEA Tech’s Ahmed Jerraya, Europe is clearly at the forefront of new advances in electronics for the automotive industry. He feels that the short-term business opportunities will definitely be in services, which account for just 15% of the automotive market today.

Inria’s Christian Laugier presented the latest research on real-time risk analysis technologies for driverless cars. The sensors and vision systems currently available can make perception and decision making more reliable. However, the systems’ performance and reliability must be validated in real-world conditions (integrated into commercially-available vehicles and road tested).

Schneider Electric’s Christian Girardeau highlighted the benefits of being part of a consortium like IRT Nanoelec, citing the development of the company’s fast-charging terminal prototype under the DC Hub project as an example.

Leti’s Thierry Bouchet pointed out the technological hurdles that remain to be overcome in the area of automotive power component manufacturing, with a focus on new GaN/Si components, which will provide greater power density, increase circuit frequencies, and, ultimately, lower component manufacturing costs.

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