RESEARCH / PROMOTED PROJECTS – Selection of our current and past projects

indie Semiconductor is an innovative company that constantly tries to improve and gain cutting edge knowledge. This results in regular investment in research activities and exchange with other companiesdoing research. Here you will find a selection of our current and past projects, some of which are publicly funded.

Research Project BrainEpp – Bio-Interferometry for Epilepsy Diagnostics in Pediatrics

Objectives

The BrainEpp project (“Bio-Interferometry for Epilepsy Diagnostics in Pediatrics”) is intended to enable new contactless and stress-free epilepsy diagnostics in children from preterm to toddler age and leads to a functional demonstrator for testing in children with epilepsy of different ages.

The goal of indie Semiconductor is to develop sensors that can take the patient’s signals without contact, to determine the frequency of seizures for diagnostics and to generate warning signals after appropriate signal processing.

Partners

  • Lehrstuhl für technische Elektronik, Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
  • btu Cottbus, Allgemeine Elektrotechnik und Messtechnik, Cottbus, Germany
  • Klinisch-Experimentelle Forschung Paliativmedizin (FAU), Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
  • indie Semiconductor FFO GmbH Frankfurt (Oder), Germany
  • DeMeTec, Langgöns, Germany
  • 4PLUS, Erlangen, Germany
  • Geratherm Respiratory, Bad Kissingen, Germany
  • Neuropädiatrie Universitätsklinikum Erlangen, Germany

The BrainEpp project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

Research Project DIFFERENT – Digital beam forming for low-cost multi-static space-borne synthetic aperture radars

different

Objectives

DIFFERENT aims at building the foundation of a new generation of space-borne Synthetic Aperture Radars (SAR) with a significant reduction in cost, size, mass and power consumption, and enhanced performances with respect to systems currently available. The final product will be a compact, low costdual-band, dual-polarization radar with DBF capabilities and the highest level of integration where the radiating board is entirely integrated with digital and analogue chips in a single multilayer board.

DIFFERENT will achieve these results setting up a consortium between SMEs and research institutions todevelop and to exchange technologies and know how to improve competitiveness of SMEs.

DIFFERENT targets the full and stable integration of SMEs into the Earth Observation value chain by developing know how in the following key areas which are recognized as strategic for the future scientific and commercial missions

  1. Radiation hard SiGe BiCMOS integrated circuits
  2. Advanced integration techniques
  3. Digital Beam Forming techniques

Partners

indie Semiconductor as one of the partnering SMEs acts as the consortium leader in DIFFERENT. SMEs central position in DIFFERENT is supported by a number of main players having a leading role in the Earth Observation value chain.

  • Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Germany
  • Evatronix IP Spolka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Poland
  • Innovative Solutions in Space (ISIS), The Netherlands
  • IHP – Innovations for High Performance Microelectronics, Germany
  • University of Calabria, Italy
  • University of Kent, United Kingdom
  • indie Semiconductor FFO GmbH, Germany

The project is supported by a grant from the European Commission in 7th Framework Programme on SME space technology research and technology transfer.

Research Project ELIRAD – Everyday Life Radar Sensors for Transportation

EliRAD

Miniaturized radar front end with excellent performance – an all-rounder for a broad spectrum of applications.

Objectives

In front of the background of Internet of things countless autonomous transportation systems need to have precise information about surrounding obstacles and the velocity and direction of movement of it.
The problem: A huge number of emerging applications and markets will not see its take -off until a tremendously improved sensor technology is implemented.

Among these applications are:

  • Autonomous transportation systems (hospitals and logistic storage areas)
  • Blind spot detection and 360° surround view for heavy vehicles and special vehicles of agriculture
  • High precision distance sensors for gesture-based in-car HMI (or 3D augmented glasses)
  • Collaborative robots, domestic service robots &industrial sensors
  • Ambient living sensors for life signs detection (hard beat and respiration)
  • Security and surveillance systems
  • Civilly used unmanned aerial vehicles

All of such applications have special requirements in common:

  • highest possible miniaturisation and integration of functionality
  • low weight and material consumption
  • low power consumption
  • excellent measurement accuracy
  • robust measurement principle
  • low cost technology

In the course of SUCCESS (FP7 ICT project number 248120) indie Semiconductor successfully developed an ultra-compact 120 GHz radar front end. Together with its consortial partners, indie Semiconductor showed the feasibility of a silicon-based low cost radar front end with integrated antennas in an 8×8 mm package.The publications of the miniaturized front end were met by a huge wave of interest and demand from several transportation applications showing the enormous market opportunity.

Now, it is E L I R A D’s objective to reach the product status of the radar sensor and its commercialisation.

indie Semiconductor’s Contribution

indie Semiconductor is going to further develop the radar IC and to establish a testing process suited for low cost serial production. Furthermore, indie Semiconductor is going to commercialize the results of E L I R A D. indie Semiconductor’s Sensor will be the world-wide first on the market realizing following features:

  • Miniaturized light-weight radar sensor (in comparison to existing systems)
  • Which is available to all requesting transportation customers (not limited to military or automotive)
  • At real low cost (possible by using SiGe technology and low cost packaging concepts)
  • Providing excellent measurement accuracy (based on the 1 GHz bandwidth at 120 GHz ISM band)
  • With real low power consumption property (compared with existing discrete III/V solutions).

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 712491.

Read more about Horizon 2020’s SME Instrument. 

Fast Imaging

A new OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) MIMO (multiple input multiple output) radar system

Objectives

This new radar architecture has a very high potential to fulfil the requirements for high resolution imaging radars in regard to their real-time ability while maintaining small system cost and low hardware effort. Those properties of radar systems are demanded for future applications in the aviation sector (e.g. obstacle alarms for helicopters or collision avoidance for aircrafts on the runway), the security sector (e.g. surveillance of luggage, borders or buildings, people screening), and the automotive sector or in automation.

To reach these goals this project combines innovative approaches in order to develop a real-time capable high resolution radar system:

  • The single channels of the MIMO-radar are operated synchronized with OFDM-signals, so that a digital separation because of orthogonality is possible. By that the system becomes real-time capable.
  • By the use of our partner IHPs’ outstanding SiGe BiCMOS technology the operational frequency is designed to be adjustable in the ultra-wide band between 4GHz and 40GHz.

Therefore a best possible flexibility in terms of different requirements can be reached: the resolution of the imaging, miniaturisation and the systems’ options of integration, reach and national frequency regulations.

By combing the OFDM-MIMO radar architecture with the SiGe-technology a cost effective system solution can be achieved.
In the project indie Semiconductor develops the SiGe-circuits and the Frequency-Synthesizer.

Partners

  • IHP – Leibniz-Institut für innovative Mikroelektronik
  • Airbus Defence and Space GmbH (Airbus Group Innovations)
  • TU Dresden
  • indie Semiconductor FFO GmbH

This project receives funding from the initiative „Zwanzig20 – Partnerschaft für Innovation“ by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research Germany.

BMBF project EMPHASE

Energy-saving multi-processor platform for highly automated electric driving
Project duration: 01 / 2017 – 12 / 2019

Fulfilling contradictory requirements for automated driving requires innovative solutions for embedded systems in vehicles. High performance, maximum reliability and safety as well as low energy consumption cannot be achieved at the same time by using classical paradigms.

In addition, in particular for automated driving in complex traffic situations, it is profitable to use not only local sensor systems but also Car2Car and Car2X networked systems as part of a sensor fusion. As a result, dangerous situations such as ice-covered roads or dramatically deteriorated visibility can be detected by using the environment sensors of other road users.

With EMPHASE the development of innovative solutions for an energy-efficient and reliable environment detection in vehicles shall be made possible. The project is breaking new ground in terms of dynamic data acquisition, processing and communication on distributed hardware.

Objectives

The aim of the EMPHASE project is a computer system for sensor data processing in automated vehicles, consisting of customizable sensor and communication modules. These are networked in a flexible architecture and connected to a particularly reliable central control unit.

Sensor data can thus be processed dynamically and distributed throughout the system and also communicated to other road users. This promises both high reliability and energy savings, since individual components can be deactivated if necessary. The resulting, energy-efficient computer platform can also benefit, in particular, automated electric vehicles.

indie Semiconductor’s contribution

indie Semiconductor will contribute to the following work packages as part of EMPHASE:

  • Requirements analysis and architecture specification
  • Sensor development
  • Development and construction of a demonstrator

Partner

  • IHP – Leibniz Institute for Innovative Microelectronics, Frankfurt (Oder) (Project Coordinator)
  • indie Semiconductor FFO GmbH, Frankfurt (Oder)
  • SYSGO AG, Klein-Winternheim
  • Cadence Design Systems GmbH, Feldkirchen
  • Technical University of Braunschweig
  • Infineon Technologies AG, Neubiberg
  • DENSO AUTOMOTIVE Germany GmbH, Eching
  • AUDI AG, Ingolstadt
  • AbsInt Angewandte Informatik GmbH, Saarbrücken

The EMPHASE project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and is fully aligned with the research objectives in the field of “Electronic Systems for Fully Automated Driving (ELEVATE)” within the framework of the “IKT2020” funding program.

BMBF Project KameRad

Highly integrated camera radar module as a basic building block for autonomous driving Project duration: 01 / 2017 – 12 / 2019

Automated and connected driving is an essential component of future intelligent and sustainable mobility. The implementation of fully automated driving functions also depends in particular on technological advances in electronics and sensor technology. One of the challenges is to reliably detect the environment in all weathers, so that navigation and collision protection also work in complex driving situations.

Objectives

As part of the KameRad project, a highly miniaturized multi-sensor module for environment detection in autonomous driving is to be developed. The sensor module is to be equipped with embedded data processing so that part of the sensor data fusion and evaluation can be performed decentrally in the sensor module. System aspects and sensor components are considered, design technologies for heterogeneous system integration are developed and data processing algorithms are developed and investigated.

Thus, the consortium contributes to the safety of autonomous driving in an urban environment and to increasing the energy efficiency of transport.

indie Semiconductor’s contribution

indie Semiconductor will contribute to the following work packages as part of KameRad:

  • Specification of the sensor platform
  • Development of the sensor module (hardware)
  • Test and qualification of the sensor module

Partner

  • InnoSenT GmbH, Donnersdorf (project coordinator)
  • Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems (FOKUS), Berlin
  • Jabil Optics Germany GmbH, Jena
  • indie Semiconductor FFO GmbH, Frankfurt (Oder)
  • Technical University Berlin
  • Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration (IZM), Berlin
  • AVL Software and Functions GmbH, Regensburg
  • John Deere GmbH & Co. KG, Kaiserslautern

The KameRad project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and is fully aligned with the research objectives in the field of “Electronic Systems for Fully Automated Driving (ELEVATE)” as part of the funding program “IKT2020”.

Research Project EuroPat-MASIP

European Packaging, Assembly and Test Pilot for Manufacturing of Advanced System -In-Package Project runtime: 01 April 2017 – 31 March 2020

Objectives

The EuroPAT-MASiP project will consolidate and extend the European leadership in semiconductor processing know-how by developing and fostering packaging related technological and manufacturing building blocks, serving different (emerging) industrial sectors.

EuroPAT-MASiP will develop:

  • Modelling, design and simulation of packaging related key features and challenges
  • The key packaging technologies, equipment and materials
  • Heterogeneous (3D) integration of the smart system building blocks (More than More, MtM) and System in Package (SIP)
  • Test strategy including metrology, methods and equipment, reliability and failure analysis

EuroPAT-MASiP aims to:

  • Increase the competitiveness and the global market share of the European semiconductor industry
  • Foster the competence and capabilities of semiconductor packaging
  • Accelerate the manufacturing uptake of the new technologies and shortening time-to-market

indie Semiconductor will contribute to the following Work Packages:

  • Integration Concepts, Design, Modelling & Simulation
  • Packaging Technology, System Integration and Manufacturability
  • Metrology, Characterization, Test Strategy, Reliability and Failure Analysis
  • Dissemination and Exploitation

Learn more about the EuroPAT-MASiP project at www.europat-masip.eu.

EuroPAT-MASiP Consortium

The EuroPAT-MASiP project involves most of the semiconductor value chain, ranging from material suppliers to software design and packaging foundries to test houses.

This project has received funding from the Electronic Component Systems for European Leadership Joint Undertaking under grant agreement No 737497. This Joint Undertaking receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and Portugal, Austria, Netherlands, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, France, and Sweden.