Car designers increasingly love to integrate consumer electronics functions into their vehicles, but in the world of consumer electronics, design cycles are much too fast for automotive developers to keep up. Within the project TRACE, European carmakers, suppliers and semiconductor vendors are now investigating design methods and processes to make consumer devices safe enough for in-car deployment.
New smartphones and other coveted electronic gadgets hit the market in a rhythm of about six months. Cars, in contrast, still have design cycles of typically six years, including tests. In an environment where carmakers increasingly find their USPs in the electronic equipment of the vehicle, from ADAS to connectivity, carmakers and their suppliers are striving to keep up with the consumer design cycles, at least to a certain extend.
The problem: high-performance semiconductor components designed for consumer markets typically do not meet the stringent requirements for safety, reliability and ruggedness that vehicles have to meet. Adapting electronic components to the higher safety standards of the automotive industry, again, is a very time-consuming process, it is expensive and in many cases it would require a complete redesign.
The edaworkshop is a major German EDA event that offers prime opportunities for the publication and the discussion of EDA (Electronic, Design and Application) research results. The well-balance attendance from industry and research is an optimal opportunity for knowledge exchange between industry and research.
edaWorkshop further is the major event for German EDA research projects that are funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
The picture on the right shows Andreas Aal from TRACE partner VW AG in discussion with Dr. Jester from the German public authorities (BMBF)
On April 11 the Catrene project TRACE held its kick-off meeting at Robert Bosch GmbH in Reutlingen. The project intends to develop methods and processes to enable a qualified and secure transfer of leading-edge micro- and nano-electronic technologies from the consumer domain to the automotive and industrial domains.
The project team consists of more than 100 engineers from 35 project partners, originated from five the European countries Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden. It is coordinated by TRACE Partner Bosch and runs until April 2019. Project funding is provided by the respective national authorities in the context of the Catrene regulations.
Picture on the right: MinR Dr. Stefan Mengel from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
Innovative automotive systems require complex semiconductor devices currently only available in consumer grade quality. TRACE will develop and demonstrate methods, processes, tools to facilitate usage of CE components to be deployable more rapidly in the life-critical automotive domain. This requires cooperation along the automotive value chain. The project results will enable and accelerate AE technology, component and system developments for smart mobility and smart infrastructure as key to smart city solutions of the future and therefore ensure European automotive leadership.
