Bits&Chips 2 | 1 May 2020 | From idea to industry by Bits&Chips

1 MAY 2020 | 12 JUNE 2020

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Opinion

CORONA Paul van Gerven is an editor at Bits&Chips.

There’s an app for that

he corona pandemic seems to be bringing out the authoritarian in me. I simply cannot wrap my head around why anybody would refuse to sacrifice a little privacy if that means we can better control the spread of the virus. Don’t people want to lessen their chances of infection? Wouldn’t they like to leave their houses more often? And, more importantly, don’t they want to keep their jobs? Aren’t these the same people that are more than happy to hand over their data to Google and Facebook for services that are trivial compared to containing a pandemic? Before you ask: yes, I did read George Orwell’s Nineteen eighty-four. And I know that China’s rulers are now trying to copy it. But we don’t live in Oceania or China. We live in a country that’s capable of striking the right balance between deploying technology to contain the virus and shoring up some civil liberties, now that these most extraordinary of circumstances call for it. Enter Bluetooth tracking, which has been put forward as a relatively privacy-friendly way of detecting possible infection events. Using anonymous identifiers, smartphones would detect which other smartphones they get into proximity with, and keep a local record of about 14 days (the maximum incubation period of the virus). When a person tests positive, his or her identifier is released to the public, allowing all users to scan for that ID in their database. If it’s in there, you know you might have been exposed, but not where, when and by whom. Sounds good, right? It’s largely an autonomous process that doesn’t hand over location data to the gov-

ernment. Unfortunately, it will be impossible to forego middlemen entirely, since an authority is required to sign off on a positive test before it gets fed into the system. Otherwise, trolls will have a field day. But as much as it pains me to say this, there are two major problems with this system. First of all, what happens when someone gets alerted of an exposure? Will he promptly give up his new-found freedom and voluntarily self-quarantine for two weeks, or until he can get tested? Will there be even enough capacity to do all those tests? Forcing isolation is way too 1984’ish, obviously. This open end is even more relevant when the reliability of the system is considered. As University of Twente professor Bram Nauta explained in NRC Handelsblad, there

posure events while avoiding a lot of false positives. Together, these problems call into question whether the tracking system would be worth it. If a certain threshold of effectiveness and reliability cannot be met, it’s better not to rely on it for loosening lockdown restrictions. It wouldn’t be worth the false sense of security nor the eventual backlash from the general public. So, as things stand now, it’s the technology that throws a wrench into the works, not civil rights.

There are serious limitations to Bluetooth tracking are serious limitations to Bluetooth tracking. With signals bouncing off surfaces, while being absorbed by or passing through others, it’s very hard to reliably detect events that actually represent an exposure risk. You could be close enough to an infected person and never get an alert, or you could get a warning even though you were never close enough. Reliability might be enhanced using characteristics like signal strength and the duration and/or frequency of encounters, but it seems hard to detect a majority of true ex2

CONTENTS IN THIS ISSUE OF BITS&CHIPS

News

Theme From idea to industry

Taking off might have been the easy part for CITC

Multibeam SEM shifts 3D cell imaging into top gear

The Chip Integration Technology Center plane has taken off. ‘Captain’ Barry Peet explains how he intends to fill the seats.

TU Delft is teaming up with a consortium of enterprises to develop an innovative device: a multibeam scanning electron microscope.

8 News 7 8 9

12 14 19 46 47 57 58

Corona crisis sparks Flemish fever scanner demand

Corona noise Corona crisis sparks Flemish fever scanner demand Chip-based diagnostics device from Leuven could detect future outbreaks Taking off might have been the easy part for CITC ISSCC 2020: what did the Low Lands come up with this year? Merger of European T&M providers powers Electro Rent’s global ambition Thousands of beams light the way to the automotive big league Envision sees clearer with Google Glass integration TUE researchers squeeze light from silicon Secure communication with 7 bits per photon

ISSCC 2020: what did the Low Lands come up with this year?

Opinion 3 11 18 33 41 48

There’s an app for that – Paul van Gerven The headhunter – Anton van Rossum Shortening Wi-Fi product design cycles with integrated filtering – Cees Links Inventions are not the outcome but the starting point – Wim Bens A kite needs headwind to take off – Harmke de Groot It’s all about cycle time and yield – Han Schaminée

Background

21 Semicon market screams for innovation in chip testing 42 NLR takes the controls to bring propeller noise down 54 Software savvy in the digital era

2020

UPDA TED

EVENT CALENDAR

23 SEPTEMBER 2020, ’S-HERTOGENBOSCH

Theme From idea to industry

From Engineer of the Year to bankruptcy All lights were on green, everyone loved the product and still, Maja Rudinac’s care robot Lea didn’t make it.

Saving Europe from digital colonization

7 OCTOBER 2020, EINDHOVEN

4 NOVEMBER 2020, EINDHOVEN

Theme From idea to industry 25 28 30 34 38

Multibeam SEM shifts 3D cell imaging into top gear ItoM Medical transplants its biometric sensing platform to a chip Reducing an optical sensor interrogator to the size of a memory stick From Engineer of the Year to bankruptcy Helping breakthrough startups across the valley of death

Interview

49 System requirements deﬁned by cascades of creativity 51 Saving Europe from digital colonization 60 Hittech wants employees to drive their own success

4 NOVEMBER 2020, EINDHOVEN

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BENELUX R F CONFERENCE

NOVEMBER 2020, NIJMEGEN

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INDUSTRIAL 5G CONFERENCE

DATE TO BE ANNOUNCED, EINDHOVEN

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In 1 design, both electrothermal effects and structural deformation are at play.

Visualization of the thermal expansion, electric field, and surface current patterns in a microwave cavity filter.

Microwave transmitters rely on filters to maintain a desired frequency output, but thermal drift can affect their operation. In order to optimize the design of these components, engineers need to predict their performance under real-world conditions. Multiphysics modeling can be used to evaluate the electrothermal and structural effects of microwave filters â&#x20AC;&#x201D; simultaneously. The COMSOL MultiphysicsÂŽ software is used for simulating designs, devices, and processes in all fields of engineering, manufacturing, and scientific research. See how you can apply it to microwave designs. comsol.blog/microwave-filters

NEWS

CORONA NOISE

Quantum technology

current economic and health crisis, it’s not likely that companies would be too keen on making such large investments. That being said, the current global quandary is only highlighting the industry’s dependence on international trade. Fortunately, additive manufacturing could enable companies to remove bottlenecks and react flexibly to volatile requirements. JV

Free quantum computing for corona responders

Credit: D-Wave

ence with quantum computing. That’s why D-Wave has graciously reached out to customers and partners, asking them if they’re willing to help out as well. PvG

Education

Dyson spoils home-bound young engineers

Many parents will wonder what they should let their children do on yet another schoolless day. The James Dyson Foundation is here to help. If you’re wondering why that name seems familiar – yes, it was created by a famous vacuum cleaner designer. On its website, the foundation has released a series of do-try-at-home experiments specifically for curious, inventive children. Their 44 challenge cards conists of construction experiments and physics tests, all of which

Semicon Credit: James Dyson Foundation

Is quantum technology mature enough to contribute to helping out with the COVID-19 crisis? D-Wave Systems thinks it is. The Canadian company has opened up its Leap 2 quantum computing cloud service free of charge to work on a response to the pandemic. D-Wave thinks that its particular flavor of quantum computing, which couples simulated qubits to actual qubits, could support scientific endeavors such as the development of vaccines or treatments, as well as help out with epidemiological modeling studies. Applications that D-Wave’s technology is already being used for, such as logistics, are relevant too. One caveat is that many interested parties have zero experi-

can be carried out using ordinary house and garden equipment like strings, spaghetti and PET bottles. The experiments are designed for children from 7 years of age and up. The cards contain technical instructions and a scientific explanation on each task. Judging from comments, parents and older siblings are enjoying the experiments as well. So why not indulge in some educational activities with your children? Who knows, you might subtly seduce them into becoming an engineer. JV

Corona’s silver lining for the chip industry

With more than a third of the global population under some level of a stay-at-home order, due to the coronavirus, businesses and markets are getting thrashed. But after several weeks with millions of people working from the safety of their homes, it seems even this cloud has a silver lining. According to a report by Reuters, the chip market is seeing a spike in demand – particularly as the need for laptops and network supplies is surging. While many companies are sounding the alarm on forecasted earnings, others seem to be faring well. Memory chip juggernaut Samsung recently reported a jump of 20 percent in semiconductor exports. Additionally, as the number of connected users

3D printing

Corona crisis, a boon for additive manufacturing?

The foundry industry – the one that produces metal castings – is suffering from the decline in production in the automotive industry. However, as demand for metal components is waning, it appears the additive manufacturing industry could get a boost. By using additive manufacturing, smaller quantities can be produced economically. It also has the advantage of flexibility in shape and material usage, as well as a fast manufacturing process. It’s especially useful for filling gaps in the supply chain – a problem many manufacturers face nowadays. On the flip side, additive manufacturing requires investments in equipment such as printers and materials, which may slow down the spread of the technology. Given the

continues to climb, data centers and cloud service providers are driving the demand for server chips. Recently, UBS forecasted that DRAM chip prices could go up 10 percent from Q1-Q2, led by a 20 percent jump in server chips, with further demand of DRAM expected to rise as much as 31 percent in both 2020 and 2021. CA 2

NEWS HEALTHCARE

Corona crisis sparks Flemish fever scanner demand As the corona crisis develops, Belgian Avalasia is being ﬂooded with orders for its fever scanner. The camera, combined with heat vision, can measure the body temperature of individuals within large crowds. Originally marketing it as military equipment, the company couldn’t have predicted the sudden demand. Jessica Vermeer

s many companies struggle to continue with operations, some are experiencing unprecedented activity. One such company is Belgium’s Avalasia, which develops and sells ‘fever scanners’. These scanners can be used to measure the body temperature of individuals, in order to identify possible illness within large crowds. In the second week of March, the Menen-based company sold dozens, valued at 25,000 euros apiece. CEO Nico Ramacker: “I used to struggle to convince possible clients that checking their employees for body temperature was necessary. That hesitance has vanished completely.” They never meant to make a profit out of the crisis, emphasizes Ramacker. “The scanner was already our core business. We’re just trying to fill this sudden need for detecting fever.” Ramacker explains that right now, they’re solely in reactive mode. “We couldn’t have predicted this sudden demand.” Ramacker first had the idea for the fever scanner during the 2002-2003 SARS epidemic in China. He stayed in Shanghai at the time and experienced the events first-hand. In 2011, Avalasia was founded, at that time serving as a small enterprise active in the security sector. Over the past few years, the company specialized in heat vision cameras, as well as security solutions.

Military equipment

In 2018, Avalasia first attempted to integrate its fever scanner system into regular cameras. This enables security guards to identify heightened body temperature of individuals in a crowd. A possible use is antiterrorism, as nervousness also causes a slight increase in body temperature. 8

Credit: Avalasia

After a year-long development phase, Avalasia presented the product at Milipol, an expo for homeland security and safety, in November 2019. The scanner itself consists of an IR camera that continuously calibrates with a regular video camera. The hardware is imported from China, whereas the software is developed in house. The heat camera identifies the individuals with heightened body temperature and then points them out on the regular image made by the video camera. The system can also be integrated into existing CCTV solutions. This means people won’t have to stop to be scanned. A large crowd can just pass the camera and a security guard can cherry-pick the outliers.

Crazy times

In 2019, Avalasia realized a turnover of 1.5 million euros. Naturally, the company expects to grow in 2020. “These are crazy times for us.” Most customers, especially in Belgium and the Netherlands, are in the food industry. “It makes sense that they’re

more cautious. However, we’ve also received orders from, for example, IT companies.” All these clients want to check their own employees when they come to work. “But outside of the Benelux, the scanners are also used in public areas.” In November, the focus was still on antiterrorism and security. “Now, all other projects are paused as we try and meet the demand for fever scanners.” At this time, Avalasia’s biggest bottleneck lies in logistics. “We need to get our products up and running at the customers’ locations.”

Awareness

Avalasia is currently looking into a collaboration with Imec in Leuven, to help improve user experience. Ramacker hopes the corona crisis will increase public awareness of viruses. “That’s something I noticed when I was in China. Their awareness of hygiene and contamination is much larger than ours.” For now, he wants to help face the crisis at hand. “We’ll have to work with what we have.”

NEWS HEALTHCARE

Credit: Midiagnostics

Chip-based diagnostics device from Leuven could detect future outbreaks

Midiagnostics recently received a 14 million euro investment to bring its chip-based diagnostics platform to the market. The technology from Leuven allows users to obtain rapid test results for acute, chronic and epidemic diseases, such as future pandemics. Jessica Vermeer

“B

y making diagnostics easily available in airports and at border control, virus outbreaks such as the current corona pandemic can be prevented in the earliest stage, which is especially helpful if carriers aren’t showing symptoms,” explains Midiagnostics CEO Nicolas Vergauwe. “If you want to detect a sudden rise early on, you need proper technology that can be used outside classical laboratory settings. We’re fighting fires, where we should have installed smoke alarms.” Leuven-based Midiagnostics is developing such a smoke alarm: a chip-based diagnostics platform that allows users to obtain rapid test results for acute, chronic and epidemic diseases, such as future pandemics. It recently received a 14 million euro investment to bring its solution to the market. The primary new investors are Rudi Pauwels, Belgian pharmacologist, serial entrepreneur and the company’s chairman, and Urbain Vandeurzen, one of Belgium’s leading business entrepreneurs and chairman of VMF Invest.

Diagnosis on a chip

The main goal of Midiagnostics is to make diagnostic information as readily available as news articles on your smartphones. Cur-

rently, diagnostics requires large facilities to execute sampling and tests. The Leuven outfit has miniaturized this to the microchip level, executing all the steps sequentially by inventive usage of the capillary effect: the chip has a very precise geometry of tiny canals, which manipulates the fluids to move in a specific way. The resulting nanofluidic processor, as Midiagnostics calls it, is embedded in a test card, which is about the size of a credit card. The compact reading system, a cube measuring 10 cm on all sides, can measure virtually any biomarker in an easily accessible sample. The device allows for analysis of different sample types, with drops of blood being the most common. From these samples, it can detect several types of biological particles. Depending on the target molecule, the reader is equipped with a simple optical module consisting of a light source and a camera chip, which is used to detect cells, proteins and small molecules. Nucleic acids are detected directly on the chip using an electrical readout that’s fully compatible with the optical method, allowing for the development of a single reader. The biggest advantage of the Midiagnostics solution is the elimination of sample preparation, which is a complicated,

time-consuming process. Vergauwe compares his company’s chip technology to a line of dominos. “You just give the initial push by loading the sample and all steps will automatically follow.” Midiagnostics is a spinoff of Johns Hopkins University and Imec. It was founded in 2015 as a private company based in Leuven. At that time, it was still exploring the capabilities of its silicon chip technology. “Too early for Urbain Vandeurzen to invest,” says Vergauwe. “Now, we’re ready to enter the development phase for mass production.” He emphasizes R&D will still play an important role within the company, but the initial invention is ready for the next step.

Early outbreak detection

Meanwhile, even though the coronavirus outbreak cannot be prevented anymore, test capacity remains relevant. “The current test paradigm relies on central laboratory testing. The big disadvantage is that early detection isn’t straightforward. As a consequence, you’ll start doing massive testing when it’s actually too late. Using our technology at places that allow for early detection, like airports, enables us to detect the metaphorical smoke when another house catches on fire.” 2

Credit: Maxwaves

“By using adaptive power control we can reduce the wasted system power, which helps in terms of sustainability,” explains CEO Ronis Maximidis.

low-frequency channels, the signals can travel further and are more resistant to inclement weather. But as the next generation network moves toward the higher,

millimeter-wave frequencies, the distance that the signal can transmit is a real concern. Adding environmental factors, like bad weather, will only complicate the equation and further diminish the propagation. “Rain and wind can really attenuate the signal in a significant manner. When using high-gain reflective antennas, that’s always going to be an issue,” explains Maximidis. “We developed our focal-plane-array-fed antenna with automated alignment capabilities. This provides the system with the capacity to conduct limited scanning, allowing it to automatically counteract the wind’s twist-and-sway effect on antenna masts. Furthermore, our ability to adjust the power output means we can compensate for the adverse effects of rain, making the Maxwaves solution a viable option even in poor environmental conditions.” Recently, Maxwaves took to the rooftops of the TUE campus to put its prototype to the test. Looking to validate its technology, Maximidis’ team placed a transmitter and receiver on the top of the Vertigo and

Spinoff or startup? At its inception, Maxwaves was slated to be a spinoff from Eindhoven University of Technology. With a recent tweak in the system’s design, the company is no longer utilizing IP from the university and Maxwaves will now be launching as a startup. Flux buildings, on opposite ends of the campus, and successfully linked the two using its electronically controlled beam-steering method. “These tests show that our FPA offers enhanced beam-steering capabilities for point-to-point links at longer distances,” boasts the CEO. “Typical market solutions can go about 5 km in ideal conditions. When the high-frequency waves are restricted, they shift back to the lower bands, but that significantly restricts the bandwidth. With our technology, we believe we can double that and hit 10 km, while still offering the 10 Gb/s speeds – in all weather.”

TECHNO-ADV-FEB2020-CONT-190x115.indd 1

28-02-20 11:18

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1 53

pinion

THE HEADHUNTER Anton van Rossum anton.van.rossum@ir-search.nl

Ask the headhunter E.K. asks: As the managing director of an American high-tech company, I’ve been struggling for some time to find the right person for a sales management vacancy in the EMEA region. Recently, I thought I’d found the ideal candidate. He had twenty years of sales experience in our specialist industry and a large international network. He scored well in all respects: technical interest, social qualities and the ambition to build something beautiful at our company. After extensive interview sessions – in which he spoke to all key people within our organization – we offered him a contract. We quickly agreed on the terms. The only adjustment he demanded was that he got a permanent appointment instead of a one-year contract. It’s our standard procedure to check references. We also did that in this case. Not that I have any doubts about his abilities, but more backgrounds about his personality from professional practice can help me get him up to speed better and faster. Strangely enough, he saw little point in a reference check. He pointed to his recommendations on Linkedin, stating that this should be enough. His colleagues from more than ten years ago might not remember enough of him and his current coworkers aren’t allowed to provide references due to company policy. I’m not comfortable with this, but I don’t want to lose him as a future sales director. What can I do to get more background information about him?

The headhunter answers: To be frank, since the introduction of the GDPR, checking references without the candidate’s consent has

become a legal minefield. Requesting and providing backgrounds is a form of screening. References say something about an applicant and directly or indirectly identify him or her. This means that they can be regarded as personal data and thus the GDPR applies. The main rule is that you can only request references if the GDPR requirements are met. In short, the

Approaching the former employer without consent may violate the GDPR screening needs to have a legitimate purpose and has to be necessary for that purpose and the applicant must be informed. Furthermore, there must be a processing basis (as stipulated in GDPR Article 6). Conclusion: the applicant (former employee) needs to give permission to approach the sponsor (former employer) for references. Approaching the former employer without this consent may violate the GDPR. The same applies to the former employer providing references without permission. The question remains how this ‘consent requirement’ relates to the position of the Dutch Data Protection Authority, according to which permission in principle cannot be used as a valid processing basis in the relationship between a potential employer and an applicant.

It goes without saying that this legislation facilitates fantasists, cheaters and hard-core liars. Talking about future or former employees without permission can potentially lead to very unpleasant legal consequences (ie high fines). In practice, however, information is obtained from candidates daily without permission having ever been given (backdoor reference checks). As soon as a résumé pops up in the inbox, the sender’s Linkedin profile is viewed for common contacts, skills & endorsements and recommendations. To avoid legal issues, many US companies have very strict reference policies. Some won’t invite you for interviews if you haven’t provided a list of references. To get more backgrounds about your candidate’s personality, you can also consider having him psychologically examined. This usually produces very reliable and useful information.

2 11

NEWS CHIPS

Taking off might have been the easy part for CITC The Chip Integration Technology Center (CITC) plane has taken off, but there are a lot more seats to fill. ‘Captain’ Barry Peet explains how he intends to do so. Paul van Gerven

he initial team has been assembled, the lab space is filling up with tools, experiments are being conducted and Fieldlab status has been awarded: the Chip Integration Technology Center (CITC) at the Novio Tech Campus in Nijmegen is up and running. There even was an opportunity to celebrate the occasion. On 5 March, four days before the Dutch people stopped shaking hands, a crowd of industry executives and government officials gathered to see the proverbial ribbon cut. The event must have felt like a bit of a personal victory for Barry Peet, who as managing director of the Business Cluster Semiconductors (now called Holland Semiconductors) put a lot of effort into getting the open-innovation center off the ground. After getting companies, governments and partner institutes on board, Peet now gets to head up CITC. A little over a week after the event, however, Peet is primarily interested in looking towards the future – he has to, he explains, because his mission is far from over. “I’m happy with our expeditious start, but I consider CITC still to be a startup. Over the next few years, it’s imperative that we attract additional customers, broaden our scope and, above all, prove we have something to contribute,” says the managing director.

World-class player

CITC focuses on the final stages of the chip manufacturing process, referred to as the back-end. Traditionally, this involves wrapping freshly baked chips with a protective wrapper while also taking care of the electrical connections to the outside world. Though a crucial part of making a functional chip, these processes have lived a life in 12

the shadows for a long time. Cutting-edge lithography or the black arts of material composition and deposition – such frontend issues catch the imagination.

Semicon hotspot Nijmegen

“Nijmegen is evolving more and more into a substantial health and high tech hotspot. It’s one of the places to be as a semiconductor company. The open technological innovation center CITC is, therefore, a welcome and valuable addition to the city and will amongst others be working on technological innovations that contribute to worldwide connectivity and health,” explains Rikus Wolbers, program manager of Briskr, the consortium of organizations that supports health and high-tech companies in the Nijmegen region.

Over the past decade, however, the interest in – and glamour of – packaging has been growing rapidly, for a variety of reasons. One of them is simply the advance of semiconductor technology in general. As elements within a chip kept shrinking and its functionality expanding, chipmakers ran out of room for the electrical connections. New packaging techniques were required to make them fit. Another reason is size: smartphone manufacturers want to keep making their products better but not bulkier and more power hungry. Naked chips are generally as small as they can get, so packaging has to step up. For example, multiple chips can be combined – or integrated – in a single package, thus reducing size, as well as overall power consumption. This isn’t just of interest to smartphone manufacturers; many applications stand to benefit from such advanced integration. The Internet of Things will never happen without it.

Emerging applications, in general, drive the need for new or better-performing semiconductor technology. The range of an electric car partly depends on the performance of the power electronics on board, and the performance of those chips partly depends on their packaging. This is also the case in the RF (wireless) domain, for example in 5G’s rollout. A complete list of advanced packaging and integration technologies would fill many pages, and CITC will cover only a few of them. “It would be impossible to cover the entire back-end and become a worldclass player. We need to focus,” explains Peet. “Besides, we don’t want to compete with any existing activities. Imec, for example, also has advanced packaging programs. It would make no sense to start competing with those.” Imec does serve as CITC’s inspiration, in terms of both the status the Leuven institute has achieved in the semiconductor industry and its business model. The Nijmegen center, too, will be working with companies, universities and research institutes to bridge the gap between basic research and corporate R&D. Any technology CITC develops, will be shared among participants. CITC launched with three customers onboard: Ampleon, Nexperia and NXP. Your programs in the packaging of highpower and RF electronics appear to be neatly tailored to their needs. Isn’t that a rather narrow focus? Peet: “We needed a couple of large customers to get going. Next, we need to attract more companies. Eventually, we want to

Four packaging technologies and two additional missions the CITC focuses on (or intends to focus on in the near future). Credit: CITC

cover the whole value chain, so we’re reaching out to material suppliers and equipment manufacturers, for example. Based on whatever needs and opportunities arise along the way, we’ll expand our programs. It’s a step-by-step process.” Do these prospective customers include SMEs? “Absolutely, this is a high priority. But first, we have to find the right proposition for SMEs. Clearly, no SME will join a four-year program that costs 50-100k per year. We might be able to help out smaller companies with specific, well-defined issues. We’re considering voucher arrangements, for example, to make that happen.” That sounds a lot like you’ll be providing services. Shouldn’t that be left to commercial parties? “We need to be very careful about that. First of all, we might become too dependent on the fees, which is a risk. Secondly, we don’t want to compete with existing companies. On the contrary, whenever a company has a service available that CITC needs, we’ll cooperate with that company.”

Credit: CITC

An SME packaging company, Sencio, is located literally one hundred meters from CITC, yet it’s not involved. Why not? “I really would like to have Sencio onboard, it’s a matter of finding a way that works for us both. Surely having an advanced packaging research institute in its backyard is an advantage for a company like Sencio. For example, we could develop technology together for a customer with special requirements, where they can take care of volume production.” Past experiences have shown that open-innovation institutes struggle to be of relevance for SMEs. In the end, they need the deep pockets of large companies, often from abroad. Will it be different with CITC? “I don’t think we can afford to sidestep world-class players if we want to become world-class ourselves. And, indeed, in our line of business, these players are in Asia.” If that’s the case, aren’t you running the risk of developing technology that’s subsidized by the Dutch taxpayer but primarily monetized abroad? “Our mission is to make sure everyone involved reaps the rewards from the collaborative effort. I’m aware who’s funding us, and what’s expected in return. I strongly believe CITC can deliver because of the opportunities that collective R&D activities provide. I don’t mind becoming an R&D vehicle for a company, as long as additional parties stand to gain from our work.” Some of the subsidies that were provided to start CITC are a one-time deal. As time passes, you will be expected to get by on less public financing. How will you manage? “I’m optimistic about finding funding, because our government, as well as the European Union, are increasingly emphasizing the importance of Key Enabling Technologies. We should be able to draw upon those funds.” More customers, relevancy for SMEs without competing with them and funding: clearly, Peet wasn’t exaggerating. He’ll need to shake a lot more hands over the next few years. 2 13

NEWS CHIP DESIGN

ISSCC 2020: what did the Low From a cryogenic CMOS controller for quantum computers to an ultra-low-power transceiver for ingestible electronics pills – our small corner of the globe again came up with a lot of top-notch IC design. Paul van Gerven

he International Solid-State Circuit Conference (ISSCC) is a mecca for the international IC design community – both from academia and industry. Getting a paper accepted is the highest honor that can be bestowed on an chip designer. This year’s edition, held 16-20 February in San Francisco, featured eight papers from researchers working at Dutch universities (seven from Delft and one from Twente), one from NXP (and another one in collaboration with Delft) and five from Imec (including Imec Netherlands, which participates in Holst Centre). We asked the honorees about their work. NXP, unfortunately, was unable to contribute.

Delft University of Technology The world’s first cryo-CMOS controller for spin and superconducting qubits Paper: A scalable cryo-CMOS 2-to-20 GHz digitally intensive controller for 4×32 frequency multiplexed spin qubits/transmons in 22nm FinFET technology for quantum computers Researchers: Bishnu Patra, Jeroen van Dijk, Edoardo Charbon, Fabio Sebastiano and Masoud Babaie Collaborators: EPFL, Intel, TNO What is your paper about? What did you design? The paper proposes Horse Ridge, the first cryo-CMOS controller IC for spin and superconducting qubits, the core computational units of quantum computers. Cryo-CMOS means that the CMOS IC operates at cryogenic temperatures, in this case 3 kelvin (-270 degrees Celsius). This means that the controller can be placed inside the cryogenic vessel of the quantum computer where the qubits reside. This in turn enables unprecedented levels of miniaturization, paving the way for scalable architectures that can handle larger and larger number of qubits – which are required to make quantum computers practical. What applications could it be used for? All quantum devices requiring a very precise arbitrary waveform with gigahertz fre-

quencies and extremely precise phase and amplitude control can benefit from Horse Ridge. Quantum computing is the main application, obviously, but new applications in quantum communications and quantum sensing are also expected to emerge. Why is it superior to previous designs? This design achieves a much larger number of channels than previously achieved, ie it can control many more qubits simultaneously. In addition, Horse Ridge has a very sophisticated way of suppressing interference between qubit controls, thereby allowing for more reliable control of a larger number of qubits. Finally, the chip has a rich micro-instruction set, thus enabling easy programming of qubit operations from a higher level of the quantum stack. Why is this contribution ISSCC worthy? It was selected because of the compelling architecture based on digitally-intensive design with a clear roadmap for extension in the near to medium term to achieve scalable quantum computers thanks to localized qubit control at cryogenic temperatures. In addition, the performance of the chip and its design for use at 3 K was a strong argument in favor of presenting the work at the conference in an all-quantum session. This trend, with a second keynote speech on quantum computing in three years, attests to the growing interest of the solid-state IC community in quantumrelated problems.

Lands come up with this year? A most versatile cryogenic oscillator Paper: A 200 dB FoM 4-to-5 GHz cryogenic oscillator with an automatic common-mode resonance calibration for quantum computing applications Researchers: Jiang Gong, Masoud Babaie, Fabio Sebastiano, Edoardo Charbon Collaborators: EPFL, Intel What is your paper about? What did you design? We proposed a digital calibration loop that automatically adjusts the oscillator common-mode resonance at twice the oscillation frequency to ensure that the oscillator always operates near its optimum performance. This technique suppresses the oscillator phase noise at 100 kHz offset frequency by more than 10 dB over the temperature range from 4-300 K. What applications could it be used for? The proposed calibration is a general technique to reduce the oscillator phase noise. Consequently, its applications are broad, ranging from wireless communications to quantum computing, where low-power and high-accuracy frequency generation is required.

Why is it superior to previous designs? Our design simultaneously achieves lower phase noise and lower power consumption compared with the state of the art. It’s enabled by a digital calibration technique, which ensures that the oscillator’s capacitor configuration is optimal. Furthermore, the proposed circuit dramatically reduces the design costs and time-to-market since any off-chip factory-level calibration is avoided. Why is this contribution ISSCC worthy? This work will enable the realization of cryogenic low-power low-jitter frequency synthesizers required for the control and read-out of quantum bits. Additionally, RF oscillators are the heart of any communication system. Our digital calibration automatically adjusts the oscillator configuration such that the oscillator operates near its optimum performance across different process, voltage and temperature variations. An RC frequency reference with quartz-like accuracy Paper: A 16 MHz CMOS RC frequency reference with ±400 ppm inaccuracy from -45 °C to 85 °C after digital linear temperature compensation Presenters, group leader: Cagri Gurleyuk and Sining Pan, Kofi Makinwa Collaborator: Infineon What is your paper about? What did you design? Our paper describes a CMOS frequency reference that achieves high accuracy about 400 ppm around its nominal 16 MHz output frequency after an industrially feasible

two-temperature trim. Since most of the remaining error is systematic, this can be reduced to below 100 ppm with the help of a one-time batch calibration. The frequency reference works by locking an inaccurate ring oscillator to the well-defined time constant of an RC filter. A high-resolution resistor-based temperature sensor then compensates for the filter’s residual temperature dependence.

What applications could it be used for? All communication standards require a frequency reference. Our work allows wired communication standards such as CAN or LIN to be fully realized in a system-onchip, obviating the need for external quartz or MEMS oscillators. This is industrially attractive because it reduces component count and board area, thus reducing manufacturing cost. Why is it superior to previous designs? It achieves best-in-class accuracy, over a statistically relevant number of samples and over multiple batches. Also, while previous designs relied on expensive multitemperature calibration, our work only requires a simple two-point calibration, which can be combined with a one-time batch calibration if more accuracy is required. Why is this contribution ISSCC worthy? Our design achieves the best reported accuracy for an RC-based frequency reference and as such, it will be a benchmark for future designs. It’s also the first one that does this with an industrially feasible calibration methodology and with low area and power dissipation.

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NEWS CHIP DESIGN

University of Twente

An amplifier for better ultrasound images of the heart

An IoT design Don Quixote wouldn’t be able to resist

Paper: A 2 pA/√Hz transimpedance amplifier for miniature ultrasound probes with 36 dB continuous time-gain compensation Presenters, group leader: Eunchul Kang and Mingliang Tan, Michiel Pertijs Collaborator: Vermon What is your paper about? What did you design? Our paper describes a low-noise amplifier of which the gain can be smoothly varied over a 40 dB range. The amplifier is designed for integration in a miniature ultrasound probe, in which it’s responsible for amplifying the received echo signals from which the ultrasound images are reconstructed. It compensates for the decaying amplitude of the received echoes with time, thus saving substantial power by relaxing the dynamic range requirements of the rest of the receive chain. What applications could it be used for? Our design is intended for use in miniature ultrasound probes, such as intra-cardiac imaging catheters, in which many tiny transducer elements emit sound waves and receive echo signals to make a real-time image of the body. Together with our collaborators from Vermon, a leading manufacturer of ultrasound probes, we incorporated the new amplifier into a prototype of a 64-element intra-cardiac imaging probe.

Paper: A 370 µW 5.5 dB-NF BLE/BT5.0/ IEEE 802.15.4-compliant receiver with >63 dB adjacent channel rejection at >2 channels offset in 22nm FDSOI Researchers: Bart Thijssen, Eric Klumperink, Philip Quinlan, Bram Nauta Collaborator: Analog Devices

Why is it superior to previous designs? The presented amplifier is unique in that it provides continuous smooth gain control, leading to improved image quality compared to earlier designs that use discrete gain steps. With a chip area of only 0.12 mm2, the presented amplifier is small enough to be integrated directly underneath a transducer element. The realized functionality was previously only available in amplifiers used in ultrasound imaging systems, which are too large to be integrated in a miniature probe and consume far more power. Our low consumption of about 5 mW per amplifier is crucial in probes that operate within the human body, since their power consumption needs to be minimized to avoid overheating. Why is this contribution ISSCC worthy? The presented amplifier employs a new circuit topology consisting of a capacitive ladder feedback network and a current-steering circuit to obtain an accurate linear-in-dB variable gain. It’s the first time that this functionality is reported in a design that’s suitable for integration into a miniature probe. We’ve integrated the amplifier in a 64-channel ultrasound transceiver ASIC and combined this with a CMUT transducer array in a prototype catheter-based intra-cardiac probe. B-mode images of a tissue-mimicking phantom are presented that show the benefits of the amplifier scheme.

What is your paper about? What did you design? We presented a 2.4 GHz multi-standard Internet-of-Things (IoT) wireless receiver fabricated in 22nm FDSOI. The receiver can be used for multiple IoT applications such as Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and Zigbee. In addition to careful design across the entire receive chain, we included two main innovations: an analog finite-impulseresponse (FIR) filter and a novel frequency divider architecture. The analog FIR filter acts as channel selection filter and improves the receiver’s blocker resilience. This analog implementation of a conventional digital filter allows for very strong filtering while also reducing the power consumption. Furthermore, the requirements on a subsequent analog-to-digital converter (ADC) can be relaxed without compromising flexibility. Our wireless receiver requires 25 percent duty-cycle clock phases at 2.4 GHz to downconvert the received RF signal and convert this signal to bits. The standard approach is to divide a differential 4.8 GHz clock signal by two to create four 25 percent duty-cycle phases at 2.4 GHz. We invented a novel frequency divider architecture to accomplish this with reduced power consumption. We named it the “Windmill divider”, after its architecture and the rotating nature of the outputs. In contrast to prior art, the Windmill divider contains only a single gate between the local oscillator input (LO+/LO-)

and the 25 percent duty-cycle outputs (Qx, x = 1..4). In this way, we combine a very low-power consumption (41 µW) with low phase noise and mismatch. What applications could it be used for? Our design can be used in a wide range of IoT devices, such as wireless earbuds, smartwatches and sensor networks, as well as wireless devices such as keyboards and mice. Why is it superior to previous designs? The analog FIR filter makes the receiver over one hundred times more blocker resilient than state-of-the-art designs, which means that the receiver will hold its own in an increasingly crowded wireless environment. On top of that, the total power consumption of the receiver is 370 µW, which is more than two times lower than prior art. Why is this contribution ISSCC worthy? Thanks to several innovations, we achieved unprecedented performance combined with ultra-low power consumption – making our design very relevant for the semiconductor industry. As recognition for this work, Bart Thijssen received the Analog Devices Outstanding Student Designer Award – making him the European designer to receive this award.

Imec First millimeter-scale wireless transceiver for electronic pills Paper: A 3.5 × 3.8 mm crystal-less MICS transceiver featuring coverages of ±160 ppm carrier frequency offset and 4.8-VSWR antenna impedance for insertable smart pills Presenter, group leader: Minyoung Song, Christian Bachmann Collaborator: University College Dublin What is your paper about? What did you design? Imec presented the first fully-integrated mm-scale wireless transceiver for smart insertable pills. The wireless transceiver is implemented in 40nm CMOS and includes an on-chip tunable matching network (TMN) that enables a miniature 400 MHz antenna, and as such avoids external and bulky matching components.

What applications could it be used for? Autonomous ingestible sensors can measure health parameters such as gut health and transmit in real time the data outside the body. Compared to current procedures like endoscopic inspection and stool sample analysis, this new type of health tracker will make diagnoses of digestive processes and gastrointestinal diseases more comfortable for patients while collecting information over a longer period of time. Why is it superior to previous designs? One of the challenges in realizing electronic pills is developing a wireless link that meets the volume, power and performance constraints for reliable data transmission during the period of time that the sensor is collecting data inside the body. Imec’s new wireless transceiver supports the medical 400 MHz frequency bands such as MICS (Medical Implant Communication Service), MEDS (Medical Data Service) or Medradio (Medical Device Radiocommunications Service). The whole transceiver module including antenna occupies a volume of less than 55 mm3, which is up to thirty times smaller than state-of-the-art devices. The whole wireless module occupies an area of 3.5 by 15 mm2, including a 3.5 by 3.8 mm2 PCB and a miniature 400 MHz antenna. The small form factor is realized thanks to a new crystal-free transceiver architecture, alleviating the need for an off-chip crystal device, and a 2 mm2 transceiver IC with the on-chip TMN. Small area is further achieved by a TX/RX shared matching network with only one on-chip inductor and a single-branch phase-tracking RX. Why is this contribution ISSCC worthy? It’s a first breakthrough in realizing autonomous ingestible sensors that can measure health parameters such as gut health and transmit in real time the data outside the body. Ultra-sensitive and low-power radar Paper: A 12 mW 10 GHz FMCW PLL based on an integrating DAC with 90 kHz rms

frequency error for 23 MHz/µs slope and 1.2 GHz chirp bandwidth Presenter, group leader: Pratap Renukaswamy, Barend van Liempd Collaborator: Vrije Universiteit Brussel What is your paper about? What did you design? A novel low-power and extremely accurate phase-locked loop (PLL) for frequencymodulated continuous-wave (FMCW) radars. The radar RF front-end is fully integrated in a 28nm CMOS chip. What applications could it be used for? This PLL will be the key building block for a mm-wave motion detection radar at 60 GHz. It can detect movements, recognize gestures and even measure someone’s heartbeat.

Why is it superior to previous designs? In order to accurately determine the distance and velocity of a target using a FMCW radar, you need a PLL that generates fast and highly linear chirps. You also need to reach a high modulation bandwidth, which determines the resolution of the radar. The big challenge was to design a PLL that meets all these conditions without consuming too much power. We designed a PLL that achieves the performance targets while consuming only 12 mW power consumption. The PLL generates modulated waves centered around 10 GHz, the frequency of which increases by 1.2 GHz (or 12 percent) in just 51.2 microseconds. The linear increase of 23 MHz per microsecond has an uncertainty (rmsdeviation) of 90 kHz. In its fastest mode, the same bandwidth is covered in only 12.8 microseconds with a rms frequency error of 168 kHz. Why is this contribution ISSCC worthy? This low-power PLL is a significant step in the development of a low-power 60 GHz radar, of which this PLL is a part. The transceiver details will be published later this year. 2 17

pinion

WIRELESS Cees Links is a Wi-Fi pioneer and the founder and CEO of Greenpeak Technologies and currently General Manager of Qorvo’s Wireless Connectivity business unit.

Shortening Wi-Fi product design cycles with integrated filtering

ne of the most fundamental changes of recent history is that the internet has become nearly ubiquitous. Initially connecting computers, it now connects homes and buildings. And with the advent of wireless technology (Wi-Fi, LTE), access to the internet changed from a technology into a commodity – and, for some people, a number one ranking on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Today, any given Wi-Fi network is likely providing simultaneous wireless internet access for multiple laptops, smartphones, tablets and electronic gaming consoles, not to mention the ever-growing installations of smart home or smart business IoT applications. So, it’s no wonder that interference and coexistence are still the main pain points, more specifically in the area of 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi. The sheer volume of surrounding signals from other wireless products such as Bluetooth speakers, security cameras, smart home devices, remote controls and microwaves is a challenge. The only way to address this interference is by using RF filter technologies. The companies that make these Wi-Fi-based products depend on quality of service (ie performing well, with few interference issues) to sell their solutions. Products with a high quality of service generate the largest revenue, by reducing the costs of service calls, truck rolls and additional hardware/software solutions needed to solve user experience concerns. Take, for example, a company that manufactures and sells in-

door/outdoor wireless speakers. It’s imperative to have a high quality of service to transmit at long range and without interruption. Other adjacent signals like Bluetooth or cellular bands must be attenuated to mitigate interference. For 2.4 GHz, so-called band edge and coexistence filters are required to solve the issue. For example, discrete band edge filters help to create steep skirts and high attenuation in the out-of-band regions – though with

FEMs with integrated BAW filter technology check off the expectations the tradeoff of providing insertion loss. There are also complete solutions using LTE coexistence filtering and/or band edge filtering, fully integrated in a single front-end package for Wi-Fi 802.11 systems. A good fully integrated front-end module (FEM) will ideally have a small form factor, high transmit/ receive gains and an integrated high-performance, temperaturestable bulk acoustic wave (BAW) filter. BAW is a technology with superior filtering capabilities. It also provides LTE coexistence receive immunity, maximizing Wi-Fi range and

coverage. There are also integrated FEMs that include a transmit and receive 802.11ax module with a band edge BAW filter, regulator, transmit/ receive switch, along with an LNA with bypass opportunity. Today’s device manufacturers need component products to be plug-andplay and work without extra design effort. This way, they can meet their tight schedules and easily pass regulatory certification. FEMs with integrated BAW filter technology check off these expectations. Additionally, BAW filters resolve interference, and when manufacturers place them in their small, sleek products, they can be assured they’ll meet stringent design criteria when operating at temperature swings of -40 to +105 ºC. All in all, the opportunities are exciting and vast. Yet, the development of Wi-Fi products is increasing in complexity and the demands on developers to rapidly deliver higher-performance products in aesthetically pleasing designs are growing immensely. No matter the obstacle, developers can achieve their design cycles when they use solutions made to address technology complexities. Just remember, devices such as FEMs with integrated filter technologies are here to help.

Credit: Electro Rent

NEWS TEST & MEASUREMENT

Merger of European T&M providers powers Electro Rent’s global ambition Recently, it was announced that three European electronics testing and measuring (T&M) equipment companies were joining forces. Now that Electro Rent Europe, Microlease and Livingston have consolidated, what impact will it have on Benelux customers? Collin Arocho

ust a couple of years ago, you may have heard, NPO 2’s Top 2000 radio show received a typical call from a group of excited listeners. As it turned out, this call was anything but ordinary, it was a group of laboratory engineers from NXP calling in to say they were tuning in on the most expensive radio in the country. The callers explained they were using a large network analyzer and amplifier to demodulate the radio signal and amplify it across speakers in the lab – estimating that, in total, their radio was using around half a million euros worth of surplus equipment.

Apparently, the test project they were conducting had ended, but the no-longer-used equipment was just in storage. “It was told as a funny story, but this shows exactly what type of issues with inventory management many companies are facing,” describes Reinier Treur, Electro Rent’s VP of EMEA Product Management & Sourcing. “Companies are purchasing high-end pieces of equipment for projects lasting only half a year. But as the technology develops, it moves on or gets outsourced and the expensive equipment ends up just sitting in a warehouse.”

Asset optimization

As part of Electro Rent’s rebranding, the T&M equipment provider is keen on expanding its scope from a rental company to a total solutions provider. Electronics becomes ever more complex and specialized testing equipment is exceedingly more important – and expensive. But for companies, managing inventory is a chore. This is where Electro Rent believes it can make a difference. “We operate heavily in the telecom sector, but more recently, we’ve expanded to the semiconductor, aerospace and defense industries that use high-end equipment in the RF micro 2 19

NEWS TEST & MEASUREMENT

space,” explains Nigel Lawton, VP of Sales Northern Territories. “A lot of the companies in this area have vast amounts of equipment, which is often not optimally utilized. We find that sometimes customers struggle to know what they’ve got, who’s using it or where it’s stored, which makes lifecycle management virtually impossible.” To remedy this, Electro Rent has created a new asset management tool called Leo. Leo gives customers the ability to fully track available assets, ongoing projects and equipment locations, all within the new online portal. By optimizing inventory and providing customers with an alternative to the high cost of purchasing equipment that’s only used for a short time, Electro Rent is looking to drive down costs. “For customers like NXP, where we offer 5G R&D test solutions that they use to test their chips, they need equipment that’s very expensive – up to one million euros in acquisition costs. So, it’s easy to see the value of our services in providing rental options instead of only purchasing,” illustrates Gert Vluymans, Sales Manager of the Benelux region. “Also, for our Benelux customers like Ampleon, Nexperia and the technical universities, where there’s a lot of R&D happening. Technologies are changing so fast these days, so they don’t always want to buy a unit and be stuck with it for years. They’d rather have a flexible plan that allows them to change the technology as needed, which fits in perfectly with our model.”

“A lot of the companies have vast amounts of T&M equipment, which is often not optimally utilized,” explains Electro Rent’s Nigel Lawton. Credit: Electro Rent

lars. Before the merger, there was no way we could ever think about buying one to offer for rental,” says Treur. “Now, we have six or seven deals pending in Europe, and we’ve already purchased the first three or four. It’s this ability to invest in this highend equipment that’s perhaps the biggest benefit for our customers here.”

Corona

Electro Rent’s current rebranding campaign is nearly two years in the making, since the actual merger took place. The announcement, however, has been somewhat over-

shadowed by the coronavirus pandemic. Bits&Chips asked how exactly the current health crisis is affecting the business. According to Electro Rent, there’s some risk in terms of equipment delivery from suppliers. “Very luckily, at the beginning of the year, we placed some very large orders with our vendors, and most of this equipment was delivered just before the escalation of international coronavirus restrictions and measures, which means our stock position is quite strong at the moment,” explains Treur. “What we’re noticing is that business in Europe isn’t slowing as expected. In fact, we’re even getting requests from Italy. It appears, at least for now, the economy in Europe is still working, though if this continues for another 3, 4 or 5 months, then we should definitely expect a decline.” Another reason Electro Rent is remaining optimistic is because of its stance in the telecom sector. “A number of our customers are sending critical supply letters, particularly around emergency services and telecommunication networks, both the existing 4G networks and in the development of 5G,” highlights Lawton. “Basically, they’re saying that these infrastructures need to continue and have been confirming the role we play. As such, both we and our customers are actively in communication with the Belgian and UK governments confirming that our supplies are essential for those sectors.”

Expanded offerings

In addition to driving down costs, Electro Rent’s Benelux customers will also notice unprecedented access to inventory. With the unification, and in conjunction with the Electro Rent Corporation based in the US, the company has opened to the door to a new global infrastructure for its clientele. In fact, customers can now gain access to a global inventory valued at over 1 billion euros, with more than 300 of the top brands in test equipment, all from a single source. “By far, one of the biggest additions to our offerings is in our extended range of instruments. For example, Keysight’s new flagship UXR series oscilloscopes, which cost between 500,000 and a million dolCredit: Electro Rent

B a c kg r o u n d

Test & measurement

Semicon market screams for innovation in chip testing When testing their chips, semiconductor manufacturers have to ﬁnd a balance between developing their own equipment and purchasing solutions. Those who lead the way are faced with difﬁcult choices. Innovation is the message, as demonstrated by the Salland Engineering test symposium. René Raaijmakers

“I

’d like to challenge the vendors of automated test equipment who are here.” Peter Crabbe, director of operations at Austriamicrosystems (AMS) Sensor Belgium, took a provocative stance at a recent symposium for IC testing, organized by Salland Engineering in Zwolle. Crabbe told the test technology vendors present that AMS Sensor from Antwerp is still testing 80 percent of its image sensors with its own equipment. This is partly for historical reasons. Cmosis, incorporated by the Austrians in 2015 and now part of their sensor division, developed all its test systems itself. While many chip manufacturers are moving their testing activities to Asia, where they’re much cheaper to perform, AMS continues to test its image chips in Europe. “To a large extent, we do this to protect our knowledge,” says Crabbe. “Also, manufacturing a test system yourself is still significantly cheaper than buying one from an ATE supplier,” he confronted his audience, which consisted largely of manufacturers of test equipment. He challenged them to innovate more. But Crabbe does see the advantages of purchasing equipment. “Because of the way ATE manufacturers feed the information back, chip designers can learn a lot more.” Instruments made in-house usually

focus on only one thing, namely, to decide whether or not a chip is good. Commercial ATE testers, on the other hand, are heavy computers that extract large amounts of information from chips via their bonding pads. This allows for much more than just selecting between good and bad. Improving designs is an advantage, but with good

1.7 billion AI engine startup Graphcore plugs into Dutch test technology tests, it’s also possible to identify ‘secondchoice’ samples. It’s expected that the ATE industry will make great strides in the near future based on this data in combination with machine learning techniques and advanced algorithms. Crabbe, a former COO of Salland in Zwolle, at the end of his presentation: “When we buy test equipment, we always want to be able to fall back on instruments we’ve developed ourselves. After all, the imaging market is very innovation driven. We’re constantly pushing back frontiers

and we have no guarantees that we’ll be able to buy the necessary test technology off the shelf.” “You always have to make a careful consideration,” explains Paul van Ulsen, director of Salland Engineering and organizer of the test symposium. “Developing IC tests is simply quite expensive. However, some tests have to be developed by chip manufacturers themselves, because the market simply doesn’t offer anything yet.” Van Ulsen sees Crabbe’s comments mainly as a call to test suppliers to come up with new solutions more quickly. “That’s also why we’re organizing this symposium. To bring the whole chain together: from design to chip production to test instruments and their users.” With Salland Engineering, the Netherlands now has a good position in the testing world. Van Ulsen: “The fundamental testing technologies we develop are used by various chip manufacturers and ATE suppliers.” With state-of-the-art test hardware and software, the Zwolle-based company serves 95 percent of the global ATE manufacturers.

Biggest chip

It comes as no surprise that as the complexity of the components increases, the testing costs go up as well. Paul Elford of UK-based 2 21

B a c kg r o u n d

Test & measurement

Paul Elford, Graphcore: “We have a data management problem instead of a straight test problem.”

Graphcore presented an extreme example of this at the test symposium. Graphcore recently received 200 million dollars in additional funding from investors including BMW and Microsoft. This brought the 3-year-old company to a total funding of 300 million dollars and an estimated value of 1.7 billion dollars. Graphcore develops chips for applications ranging from identifying cancer to helping online media to figure out which adverts to send to you. The Graphcore chip is a parallel array of 1,280 processors, each with a computing power of 100 gigaflops. This so-called “intelligence processing unit” (IPU), is made up of 26 billion logic transistors and 2.6 billion memory bits. The IPU is actually the biggest die that foundries can produce in one lithographic exposure. “We went to TSMC and asked what the biggest chip would be they could produce. Their response was 25 by 32 millimeters. We took that size and crammed it with everything 22

we could. Given that size, there are only 66 dies in a wafer,” Elford explains. The chip broke records when it was produced last year. “If you look up Moore’s Law on Wikipedia, you’ll see a timeline with all kinds of processors,” Elford says. “You’ll find our GC2 IPU in the top right of the graph,” he proudly adds. In the test process, all 85,000 processors on a wafer are probed. A certain degree of redundancy ensures that not all cores have to be functioning. Even a die with four defect cores will still work. Five probe tests yield about 19,000 test results per die. Elford: “We have to store this data to compare it to other stages in the test program. Actually, we have a data management problem instead of a straight test problem. We’re constantly gathering, comparing and making decisions: can I repair this chip, or does it have to go in the bin?” The data also helps to improve yield. “We have 10 percent loss on a wafer, and we

feed that back to TSMC. If we show them the patterns with hot spots, they can build a much better picture of what happened on the die and they can improve their process. They’re able to see error patterns that they never would have seen if we just reported some dies failing.”

AMD, Intel and Nvidia

Elford, who’s in charge of production test outsourcing, explains the problem that Graphcore has with scale. “To connect all these processors, we have exchange blocks that enable any of the 1,280 processors to talk to any other processor on the chip.” To take care of off-chip communication, the IPU has twelve 8 Gb/s Serdes ports to talk with any other processor in a system. Graphcore actually doesn’t sell its IPUs as components but produces line cards with two of these processors. Computer makers like Dell use the building blocks to make cloud servers. Elford: “The cards speak to

Peter Crabbe, AMS: “We always want to be able to fall back on instruments we’ve developed ourselves.”

any other line card in the system and in this way, you can quickly build up a huge amount of processing power.” While competitors like AMD, Intel and Nvidia have lots of experience and knowledge in-house, Graphcore concentrates on its core technology and relies heavily on its network of suppliers. “We use some of the best technology suppliers in the world: TSMC for production, ASE for packaging and Teradyne for ATE testers,” Elford states. “Each of them helps us in one specific area.” Salland Engineering has developed the hardware and software for a test interface card with 7,000+ probe needles to check over 27,000 bumps that are available on the UPI for I/O and power. “We coordinate and keep the global view,” Elford explains his role. “However, it’s not quite that easy. This is a very demanding industry and we’re stumbling upon quite some engineering problems.” As an example, he mentions the problems that

arise with short-circuiting. “This is a standard issue, but where do you start? We’re the coordinator for everything, so we have to go to every subcon to figure out where the problem is: the card, the tester, the test hardware, the silicon, the package – or does something just need a cleaning?” As an example of the test challenges, Elford shows what can happen when following a procedure that’s quite standard in the market. “If we want to stress the chip, applying a high supply voltage is an easy thing to do. But to raise the supply voltage to 1.5 times the average, the heat that’s generated can quite quickly result in a meltdown.”

Optical techniques

New frontiers were also touched upon in Zwolle. Just as AMS needs light to test its image sensors, so will special optical technology have to be developed to validate components with integrated photonics.

“Everyone talks about it, but a lot is still unclear,” says Van Ulsen. “How are we going to handle and measure it in high volume?” At Salland’s test symposium, German Ficontec and Taiwanese Chroma ATE showed that they’re now applying optical techniques in practice. Chroma talked about test experiences with diode lasers, Ficontec discussed the development of machines and precision technology for photonic chips. The challenge there is to achieve a high throughput. While probe cards for electrical testing may contain thousands of contacts, high-throughput test systems do not yet exist. The German company already makes systems in which a few laser beams touch optical chips, but scaling up to tens or hundreds of beams still has a way to go. Ficontec’s Stefan Schlörholz: “It’s not just a challenge to find the probe surfaces we need to irradiate but also the points where we need to read the signals.” 2 23

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Credit: multibeam SEM consortium

THEME FROM IDEA TO INDUSTRY

MULTIBEAM SEM SHIFTS 3D CELL IMAGING INTO TOP GEAR Medical and biological scientists are eager to create 3D images for their research at nanometer resolution. However, without an efficient technique to make the scans, the process is difficult and painfully slow. To make this research feasible, Delft University of Technology is teaming up with a consortium of enterprises to develop an innovative device: a multibeam scanning electron microscope. Antoinette Brugman

aking a detailed 3D image of cells or tissues is very interesting for research in life science domains like cell biology and medical tissue biology. This would provide researchers with both an overview of tissues and detailed information on a nanoscale. Creating

such 3D images requires taking very thin slices of the cell structures or tissues and then scanning them in order to build a 3D reconstruction. This method requires a device that’s able to scan each slice separately and in detail. Until now, this device was the difficult part. A ‘nor-

mal’ light microscope can produce a picture of the sample directly. However, with a maximum resolution of only about 400 nm, it’s just not detailed enough. With a resolution of about 1 nm, a traditional scanning electron microscope (SEM) does provide sufficient detail; however, scan2 25

THEME FROM IDEA TO INDUSTRY

ning all slices pixel-by-pixel would take months or years to complete.

With its host of knowledge and experience in building SEMs, Thermo Fisher provides the infrastructure for the new device. Technolution mainly focuses on the sensors and the data acquisition and processing. It’s responsible for the entire data stream, from reading out the data, to image processing and data storage. Delmic is taking care of sample handling, detector optics and software integration of the system, as well as being concerned with selling the product to customers.

User friendly

Thinking there had to be a better way, a group of Dutch organizations, including Delmic, Technolution and Thermo Fisher, joined forces with Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) to establish a consortium to create a new type of SEM – a multibeam SEM. The aim of their endeavor was to build an innovative device with a high resolution and a strongly increased throughput, in order to speed up the scanning process and bring measurement times down to days or even hours. Features that make the multibeam SEM a suitable large-volume technique for research in the life-sciences domain. “We were aiming to develop a device that would be a hundred times faster than the traditional SEM and with a very high resolution,” says Andries Effting, CTO at Delmic. “At the same time, we wanted to develop a user-friendly system that would be able to run with minimal user input – more or less, working independently. Last, but not least, we wanted to achieve this at a reasonable cost for our customers.” Since the consortium started two years ago, the partners have made a lot of progress. Together, they’ve built an alpha and a beta system. These systems provided proof-of-principle and were necessary steps to see whether there were no design faults in the engineering part. At the moment, collaborators are working on the final design of the multibeam SEM – a fast, user-friendly device with a resolution of 4 nm – to be launched at the end of this year. Each consortium member brings in its own specialties. At TU Delft, researchers have already been working on a multibeam SEM technique for over ten years. Currently, a series of PhD students are doing research to make the multibeam system usable. 26

64 CRT TV screens

A SEM produces images of a sample by scanning the surface with a focused beam of electrons. The electrons in this beam interact with the sample in a variety of ways, resulting in three different populations that can be detected. In a traditional SEM, two of these are usually measured with detectors mounted above the sample:

Image of a rat pancreas section. Sample courtesy of Ben Giepmans, Cell Biology University Medical Imaging Centre UMC Groningen

the secondary electrons, which provide information about surface features, and the backscattered electrons, which provide information about the composition of the material. The third population can be detected in a setup known as a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM). In such a device, a detector underneath the sample identifies electrons that pass through. For the imaging of biological samples, the transmitted electrons provide valuable information, as they enable visualization of local differences in densities inside the sample. A STEM detects both the amount and the energy of the electrons passing through the sample, thereby providing information about the local density. The number of electrons passing through depends on the sample’s structure. The denser the material, the more electrons are scattered and do not reach the STEM de-

tector. This results in a lower intensity of the transmitted electron beam. Scanning the sample pixel-by-pixel produces an image that shows the local density differences of the tissue structures. As life-science researchers are particularly interested in imaging cell membranes, they stain these membranes to enhance the contrast in their samples. Marc van Eert, an applied scientist at Technolution, explains: “Normally, a STEM uses only one electron beam. We’ve developed one with several beams, scanning different parts of the sample at the same time. This is possible because, in transmission mode, the secondary electron beams can be measured separately. Our device is designed with a grid of eight beams by eight beams, so 64 in total. This speeds up the process enormously. You can compare our system with 64 CRT TV screens writing their images at the same time and each showing one section of the bigger picture. However, in our case, we’re not writing an image but reading a sample with 64 electron beams at the same time. Each beam scans a different part of the sample – an area of 3.2 µm by 3.2 µm. Subsequently, the information of all 64 separate beams is combined to compose one image out of it.”

Imaging on demand

Although this sounds rather easy, there were many technical challenges in designing the new device. “We couldn’t realize this kind of system in an evolutionary manner – by doing some incremental changes – because we needed to adapt all parts of the system at the same time to convert it into a multibeam machine,” explains Van Eert. “This wouldn’t have been possible without using systems engineering. In fact, we reshuffled the existing SEM system completely and brought it to a new operational principle. So, we worked on it in a more revolutionary way. As a result, we also managed to design a system with a shorter dwell time per pixel – the exposure time needed for the electron beam to scan one pixel of the sample. This also speeds up the process substantially.” Working with many electron beams at the same time brings two obvious challenges: limiting crosstalk between adjacent beams and finding a smart way of using all beams to compose one picture that covers the whole sample surface. As the electron beams operate very closely to each other, one beam signal may influence neighboring signals. This crosstalk effect had to be minimized, to get the right information from all individual

The system has been completely reshuffled and brought to a new operational principle. Credit: multibeam SEM consortium

beams. The partners have achieved this by very accurately aligning the beam optics with the detector. During the acquisition process, the alignment is continuously monitored and adjusted when necessary. Composing one image with information derived from all 64 electron beams requires each beam to scan its own area, including some pixels of neighboring beams. This overlap is necessary to get a complete picture out of all beam signals and thus to be sure no information is missing. By calibrating the system, it’s possible to determine how the different images should be composed to make one image out of them. “In fact, the whole concept has changed compared to a traditional SEM,” Van Eert clarifies. “As scanning with a traditional SEM is rather time consuming, the researcher needs to operate the device himself to carefully select the specific part of the sample he’s interested in. Because the multibeam SEM enables scanning of a large area independently and in a reasonable amount of time, it’s possible to do the whole sample at once and make a smaller selection of this area later. The multibeam SEM can thus be used by a technical operator, who just facilitates scanning of the samples and delivers the image data to the specialist. This way of operating even opens the door to realizing scan centers, which – just like copy centers delivering copies to their customers – carry out imaging on demand.” Another challenge is the sheer amount of data the system produces, Effting adds. “We’ve made a roadmap towards a data acquisition rate of one gigabyte per second, which means a full hard disk drive every two hours. Imagine running the system 24/7 for a couple of weeks. This will produce a huge amount of data. Moreover, all this data has to be processed. On top of all this, we have to make sure that the researchers preparing the samples can keep up with the machine.” 2 27

THEME FROM IDEA TO INDUSTRY

ITOM MEDICAL TRANSPLANTS ITS BIOMETRIC SENSING PLATFORM TO A CHIP Having proven itself again and again in medical research systems, the time has come for ItoM Medical’s amplification and signal processing technology to be cast into an integrated design. The move will improve cost and performance but also open up new possibilities. Paul van Gerven

yes wide open, forehead beading with sweat and chest heaving violently – as anyone working in an intensive care unit will confirm, patients on mechanical ventilation aren’t always as still as you might think. Even when unconscious, a (perceived) lack of oxygen triggers a violent reaction of panic in a patient, who instinctively starts fighting for his life. It’s a very distressing experience, for both the patient and the medical staff. ‘Fighting the ventilator’ has many possible causes. A patient’s condition can change, the ventilator settings can be wrong or a tube can get clogged by secretions in the lungs. But frequently, no such obvious causes can be found. In that case, asynchrony between the patient’s own breathing rhythm and that of the ventilator may have provoked the potentially life-threatening condition. “For years, people have tried to come up with a solution for this quite common problem, but it’s very difficult to solve. Typically, a pressure or airflow sensor in the nose is used to predict the breathing pattern, but since there’s a significant delay between the patient’s starting to inhale and detecting it in the nose, it can still go wrong,” says Jurryt Vellinga, co-founder and CEO of ItoM Medical, a Dutch electronics design house that has developed breathing monitoring solutions that have proven to be much more effective at 28

preventing respiratory distress on the ventilator. Now, ItoM Medical is gearing up to take the technology that underlies the breathing monitoring systems to the next level: a fully integrated application-specific standard product (ASSP) that will power a whole range of clinical monitoring systems as well as applications beyond the medical domain.

Cacophony

ItoM Medical’s main specialty is electrophysiology, ie performing electrical measurements on the human body. Building on technology that has had about 40 years to mature, the Dutch company supplies high-performance biometric sensing technology. “Through a combination of sophisticated amplification technology and clever signal processing, we can perform electrical activity measurements with unprecedented accuracy,” explains Vellinga.

The breathing monitoring platform aptly illustrates how good ItoM Medical’s technology really is, since measuring breathing patterns is a lot harder than most other electrophysiological measurements, such as the well-known electrocardiograms (ECG) and electroencephalograms (EEG). This is due to the fact that electrical signals from the ‘key breathing muscle’ – the diaphragm – are almost completely drowned out by the heart. One possible work-around is to bring a sensor in close proximity to the diaphragm by inserting a probe into the esophagus, but according to Vellinga, that’s not a good solution. “While it may seem like just another tube down the patient’s throat, mechanical ventilation is increasingly performed using a mask. It would be a contradiction to move away from intubation yet introduce another invasive probe.” Thanks to its amplification technology, ItoM Medical can pick up the ItoM Medical’s IC enables the design of extremely small and accurate medical systems, with a long operating time and a limited number of external components. Credit: ItoM Medical

ItoM Medical CEO Jurryt Vellinga working with a young ‘patient’. Measuring breathing patterns can also be used to analyze asthma, for example. Credit: ItoM Medical

diaphragm’s signal in the cacophony by using nothing more than a sensor-fitted band-aid that’s attached comfortably to the chest. After amplification and digitization, that signal is transmitted wirelessly for the ventilation equipment to process and take advantage of. “Our customers develop their own unique products based on our generic platform and signal processing algorithms. We supply a customized design based on their specific requirements and use cases, and stay involved during subsequent phases of product development. Every detail, like choosing a cover material or a connector, can be of crucial importance,” states Vellinga. This applies not only to breathing monitoring but to other electrophysiological applications as well. “One of our biggest strengths is our strict quality management system, which allows our customers to painlessly have their devices certified. This is particularly important now that European medical device regulations have come into force and the transition period has expired. Our goal is that devices based on our technology will be FDA and CE pre-approved. Not many companies can offer that.”

Daisy chained

Having built an extensive track record in the business, it made sense for ItoM Medical to move to integrated electronics at some point – to design a chip that does everything the discrete platform does, and even a bit more. “Integrated designs are associated with a number of well-known advantages, such as reduced cost and energy consumption and less worry about components being discontinued. In our situation, it also offers the opportunity to add functionality. In case of breathing monitoring, for example, we can measure the electrical resistance of the electrode-skin connection, which indicates whether or not the electrode is attached properly. This simply isn’t possible using discrete electronics.” The ASSP currently being developed packs 8 input channels for electrodes, 4 auxiliary inputs, 24-bit ADC and battery management in an 8 by 8-mm package that requires very little power and a minimum of external components. If all that doesn’t cut it, multiple ICs can be daisy chained to expand functionality. ItoM Medical expects engineering samples to arrive early next year, and mass production is scheduled to commence in 2021.

Technically, adopting the ASSP would transform ItoM Medical from a design house into a semiconductor supply company, but in practice, it will be a little of both. “The design services that design houses offer are rarely based on ICs they supply themselves. Conversely, semiconductor suppliers do not commonly offer electronics design services along with their ICs,” says Vellinga. “Still, it won’t make a big difference for us: we’ll still be spending most of our time working with customers to realize their products based on our technology.” Even for just the electrophysiological applications ItoM Medical is targeting, Vellinga expects volumes to be high enough for the ASSP to be cost effective. But in the future, he intends to leverage the IC to expand the scope of his company. Wearables, for example, are increasingly equipped with biometric measurement options. Surely there would be a demand for high-quality, medically certified features that ItoM Medical’s chip would enable. Indeed, professional and amateur athletes that want to quantify their training results may soon join doctors in reaping the rewards of the company’s amplification expertise. 2 29

THEME FROM IDEA TO INDUSTRY

REDUCING AN OPTICAL SENSOR INTERROGATOR TO THE SIZE OF A MEMORY STICK Fiber-optic sensing is gaining traction for accurate strain, shape and temperature measurement in aircraft, civil structures, high-tech machines and medical catheters and endoscopes. To support a higher market penetration, a cost and size reduction is needed. Technobis and Bruco Integrated Circuits have developed a memory stick-sized ﬁber-optic measurement system. Pim Kat Frank Vonk Marco Hagting Mark Gortemaker

iber-optic sensors have many appealing characteristics: they’re small, lightweight, inert to chemical substances, able to withstand high temperatures and immune to electromagnetic interference. As a result, they’re finding widespread use in a multitude of applications. For example, in structural health monitoring, the deformation and dynamic response behavior of objects are measured using optical fibers that are mounted on or even embedded in the structure being monitored. Successful applications have been shown and proven in the aerospace industry, performing standard strain and temperature measurement in the new generation of planes. In the medical domain, the technology is being applied in catheters, endoscopes and guide wires to gauge shape, temperature and pressure. There, the number of systems sold

typically varies from 1,000 to 50,000 pieces per year. Further market adoption requires a more compact and lower-cost solution, including disposables in medical and fiber-optic battery monitoring systems.

Fiber-optic sensing

Over the last years, fiber-optic strain sensors have been developed based on fiber Bragg grating (FBG). With this technique, light is sent through a fiber-optic cable and partially reflected by a microstructure inscribed into the fiber core. Strain on, or a temperature change of, the fiber causes a shift in wavelength of the reflected light, which can be measured very precisely and translated into strain or temperature values. Current sensor detection devices, so-called interrogators, are mostly based on free-space spectrometry. An optical spectrometer (spectro-

photometer, spectrograph or spectroscope) is an instrument used to measure properties of light over a specific portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, typically used in spectroscopic analysis to identify materials. Free space means that in measuring the reflection, the light will move through air. This approach has fundamental limits, regarding device dimensions, measurement resolution, accuracy and power consumption, for example. For improving the resolution, interferometry seems to be a promising approach. An optical interferometer can precisely measure characteristics such as length, refraction index and surface irregularities. It divides a light beam into a number of beams that travel unequal paths and whose intensities, when reunited, add or subtract – interfere with each other. For high-resolution wavelength

The Monadgator PCB module with SMD components

analysis, a fiber optics-based MachZehnder interferometer was developed, which makes the reflected light of the FBG interfere with itself, resulting in a phase change proportional to a wavelength change. However, since the system still has a free-space design, it has limited practical use for integration in demanding environments due to its high sensitivity and associated erratic behavior. As fiber sensing matures, device dimensions, power consumption and costs need to be optimized to serve

Spectrometry measurement using optical fiber grating

the increasing application requirements. Over the last ten years, new interrogators – spectrometer and interferometer based – have been developed using photonic integrated circuits (PICs), which combine multiple photonic functions in a single device. This second generation is on the market now. Technobis has been working on fiber-optic sensing solutions for many years, with module assembly as a vital core IP. Its current interrogators are based on spectrometry

and interferometry on chip, capable of detecting wavelength shifts down to 10 attometers – corresponding to about 0.2 nano-strain. These second-generation systems, called Ladygator, are now in production or the design-in phase at OEMs. Main characteristics include a temperature resolution better than 0.001 degrees Celsius and 2,500 unique sensors per fiber. For a medical application, the tip position of a 2.2-meter-long catheter can be calculated with an accuracy of 1 mm. Responding to market demands for a smaller form factor, work is now underway on a third-generation measurement system the size of a memory stick.

Monadgator

Last year, Technobis already took first steps to bring down the cost of the system by reducing the cost of the light source, package and PIC. This only left the electronics to be optimized. Together with Bruco Integrated Circuits, Technobis has developed the Monadgator system – “monad” means “single” and “gator” is an abbreviation of “interrogator”. Following overall specs that have been jointly drawn up by the system architects of both companies, the device integrates a PIC with discrete off-the-shelf electronics. It can have a readout of 1-200 FBG sensors and it spits out raw serial sen2 31

THEME FROM IDEA TO INDUSTRY

core. The photodiodes are connected to the inputs of a transimpedance amplifier (TIA), with a thermistor connected to a core input circuit. The physical interface is implemented by means of direct wire bonding instead of a connector interface. The host interface is used to control the Monadgator module, to power the complete device and to transfer sensor data and device information. This RS-485 interface also serves as a device control interface. To be able to load new firmware, a programming interface is included as well.

The memory sticksized Monadgator housing combines a PCB containing the electronics, and a photonic submodule with the ﬁber-optic interconnections.

sor data to be processed in the main processing unit. The Monadgator combines a photonic submodule, developed by Technobis, and a printed circuit board containing the electronics, developed by Bruco. Everything is assembled by Technobis in a small box, measuring 60 by 12 by 5 mm. The photonic submodule holds two light sources and a spectrometer section including photodiodes, integrated on a PIC. To measure the temperature of these three parts, three thermistors have been added. The electronics submodule consists of circuitry to transfer the photodiode current measurements to a host. It also controls the light sources, one at a time, and gauges the local temperatures on both submodules. The temperature data is part of the output stream.

The memory stick-sized box detects the reflected light that’s coming in on the fiber. The light originates from one of the two light sources inside the module, which inject it into the fiber. The photodiodes register the reflections and the electronics amplifies, filters and digitizes their output current by sampling a current-related voltage with a rate of 4 ksample/s. The result is sent via a serial interface to a host that’s attached to the box’s output connector, in frames containing sixteen data samples and four temperature measurement channels. The photonics interface connects the optics to the electronics. To drive the two light sources, two current outputs are used. The light sources each have a thermistor connected to an input circuit on the electronics

ASIC

The Monadgator block diagram

The current Monadgator module is an intermediate step, generation 3A, aimed at delivering demonstrators and low-volume production samples to develop the market and customer base. Still, the bill of materials for the electronics is already five times lower. The final goal for the thirdgeneration system, generation 3B, is to go to an ASIC for high-volume application, which will reduce the BOM by a factor of 50. Developing an ASIC from scratch is very risky because of the large investments and long development time, but by working closely together at an early stage, Technobis and Bruco pave the way for a seamless effort that mitigates the risks involved. From idea to working prototype took four months, with intensive communication. The complete working measurement system will be delivered within three months. The first industrial customer, from the oil and gas industry, has already shown interest. Pim Kat is the founder and CTO of Technobis. Frank Vonk is a system architect there. Marco Hagting and Mark Gortemaker work at Bruco Integrated Circuits, as a system architect and the sales and business development manager, respectively. Edited by Nieke Roos

pinion

FROM IDEA TO INDUSTRY Wim Bens is managing partner at Bens & Partners.

Inventions are not the outcome but the starting point

’ve been involved in many hightech innovation cases, at different stages and in different roles. In some cases, I was present when the idea was still on the drawing board, in others when project proposals or subsidy applications were being drafted, and in yet others when the program, project, startup or spinoff was getting off the ground. I’ve seen successes, but unfortunately, in my experience only a limited amount of innovative ideas or technical inventions actually make it – by which I mean that controlled and cost-effective production is possible, customers pay for the product, money is earned, profit is made and (new) jobs are created. You’d be surprised how many developers of great new technologies either have no plan at all, or if they do, a poor one. Having a plan doesn’t guarantee that there’s a business case (economic or social) underneath. Often, this is the kind of plan in which the technology or the invention dominates, and the rest is forgotten or underexposed. Many inventors seem to think: my technology is superior and everybody wants it. They often get disappointed. Sometimes the essential competencies and partnerships, not only for engineering and production but also for after-sales services, maintenance, repair and recycling, aren’t properly considered. People sometimes tend to think they can do everything themselves. Many factors determine the outcome, and if you can’t tick them all off, failure of technological innovation projects is a very real danger. On the other hand, failure every now and again isn’t all bad. How-

ever painful, it’s usually extremely instructive to evaluate and study a case or a project that failed. Take some time to do so! Those who had a part in it will for sure do better next time, so definitely don’t write these people off and don’t fire them! What they’ve learned needs to be put into practice in the next project. In other words, failure needs to be treated

Failure every now and again isn’t all bad as a normal part of the innovation game. I would even go as far as including it in business cases. Eventually, the rewards will be huge. There are many checklists available that sum up the elements determining success. These lists come in all shapes and sizes but generally contain the elements that need to be included in a sound project or business plan. Read one or two of these list, and you won’t ever again question why you actually need those plans. It takes time and energy, but you’ll find out, it will be worthwhile in the end. However, an organization-wide, well-communicated and thorough plan is the basis for success – still no guarantee, but if you know how to tick off all the elements and communicate them properly in your team and in your project, you do have a reasonable chance for success. Make sure you can answer all “what if” questions – if you can’t, work on solutions, mitigating measures and necessary answers.

Gather the necessary insights or organize help, otherwise failure will be lurking in the shadows. If you find all this too much and too complex, I’d advise to at the very least focus on the outside-in aspect of the innovation project: gauge the market and competition and consider, or even better, involve the customer who’ll soon have to pay, and have an eye for the distinctive value (proposition) that you’re going to add. Don’t simply focus on the idea, the invention or the new technology – those are the worst to take as a starting point. It’s all about the product-market combination. Technological inventions are not the outcome but the starting point. It takes a lot of steps and learning to get there. Success usually doesn’t come naturally; you really need to possess the right talents. Open innovation and co-creation may seem to be adding even more complexity and additional challenges, but take my advice: on your own you can go faster, but together you can go further.

2 33

THEME FROM IDEA TO INDUSTRY

FROM ENGINEER OF THE YEAR TO BANKRUPTCY She was named Engineer of the Year in 2019. A few months later, her company went bust. Growing up in Serbia, Maja Rudinac had learned as a child that you have to seize the day. Motivated by this awareness, she did everything possible for her innovation, the Lea care robot. All lights were on green, everyone loved the product and still, the innovation didn’t make it. Annet Veenstra

he summer of 1990. It was a sunny, carefree time and Maja Rudinac was a happy child. Her parents had made plans for that summer: the family was going on a long holiday. They decided to postpone the trip for a few months so that Maja, who would be a bit older by then, could appreciate it more. They would also be able to take additional time off from work. A few months later, civil war broke out in Yugoslavia. “We never went on that holiday,” Maja recalls. “What that taught me, as a child, was this: if you see an opportunity today, grab it with both hands. You don’t know what will happen tomorrow. Today is the day you can make a difference in the world.” Maja completes her studies in Serbia – electrical engineering with a specialization in AI – and is subsequently invited to do her PhD at Delft University of Technology’s Robotics Institute under the supervision of professor Pieter Jonker. In 2015, together with Jonker, she launches the Robot Care Systems startup and develops the Lea care robot. Lea helps people with Parkinson’s disease to walk again, to be able to dance and to enjoy life. The robot senses when the patient experiences a freeze when walking, brakes when the patient leans too far forward, keeps appointments and guides the user through physiotherapy. 34

In 2016, a consortium of investors – including Innovationquarter, Rabobank The Hague, CZ healthcare insurer and Lobeco – invests 5 million euros in the innovation. In 2019, Maja receives the Prince Friso Engineers Award from Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands. A few months later, the startup is declared bankrupt.

Starting up in the healthcare sector

What went through your mind when you knew your company was not going to make it? “We were devastated. Heartbroken. In January 2019, we were at Amazon’s stand at the CES innovation show and in March, we received the Engineer of the Year award. Everybody loved our product – patients, physiotherapists,

“The healthcare sector is an incredibly difficult market to tap into as a startup,” explains Lonneke Baas, a business developer at Innovationquarter. “Up to the day you start making money, as Maja says, you’ll have worked on your product for eight to twelve years. It’s easier for large companies to develop a new product alongside their existing line as they’re already making money or have a basic product. But a startup launching a new product still has to prove everything: effectiveness, safety, market validity and intended use. As a startup, it’s incredibly difficult to retain investors for long R&D phases and trial periods. The market is dominated by a small number of major players. You often see that startups eventually enter into a strategic partnership with a bigger party.” Baas continues: “We know that the healthcare sector is risk averse. And for good reason, of course. The underlying principle is that we want to keep healthcare accessible and affordable for everyone. To facilitate technological innovations in healthcare, we, as business developers at Innovationquarter, are working on stimulating change in this sector so that innovation becomes easier and part of the culture. To achieve this, healthcare must become more outcome based; that is, it must focus on the best outcome for the patient, take joint decisions and adopt a funding approach aimed at fewer people ill or more people better. Currently, you still get paid per illness or treatment.” “To make outcome-based healthcare possible, you have to innovate the entire chain. All stakeholders must take part in this conversation – from insurer to municipality, from general practitioner to patient. We stimulate new collaborations and business models through our Healthtech program. Healthcare technology developers can test the applicability of their technology through the program. Funding is also available for this. Projects that wish to qualify for Healthtech must have at least three types of chain partners: a tech partner, a healthcare partner and a field lab. For Innovationquarter, the latter is important as it will allow us to make joint use of the lessons learned as a region.”

healthcare institutions, investors, distributors, the government. Nobody could predict what would remain of that good fortune and our plans a few months later. I thought back to that summer in my youth. Seize the day because you don’t know what will happen tomorrow. You have to make a difference today.” Where did it go wrong? “The explicit reason we didn’t make it is that we couldn’t find any scale-up investors in the Netherlands. And every foreign investor who was willing to provide finance asked us to move away from here and bring the IP rights and all. But that’s not possible if you’ve received large investments from the Dutch government, which is only logical. So, we were stuck in a catch-22 situation.” “The healthcare system is also in a bind. Medical investments have an incredibly long life cycle. There’s an average period of twelve years from the time a product completely meets the relevant criteria to the point it’s fully reimbursed by health insurers. By the

Lea senses when the patient experiences a freeze when walking, brakes when the patient leans too far forward, keeps appointments and guides the user through physiotherapy. Credit: Zan van Alderwegen

time your innovation is finally on the market, it’s no longer an innovation. It’s this long turnaround time that makes it incredibly difficult to get investors on board. In the Netherlands, investors like to see that you can stand on your own feet with profits in the first year. Incidentally, what’s true for healthcare also applies to the energy transition. Those investments also have very long life cycles. Publicly funded investment funds could enter into even more strategic partnerships with private venture capitalists to enable these types of investments.” What more can investors do? “Obviously, you have to hit certain milestones to receive the investment tranches. But investors could be more flexible with those deadlines. If a company doesn’t reach a milestone at precisely the agreed date but two or three weeks later, that wouldn’t be too much of a problem for the investor. The startup, on the other hand, is immediately in big trouble, so the timing of the tranches is vital. If the money comes after you require it, you

can’t pay your suppliers; if suppliers deliver in three months, you can only get your product on the market three months later, which means your profits will be deferred and so on.” “We have a lot of smart people here, a lot of talent – the Netherlands has enormous potential. But what we’re not so good at is scaling up. This is when we scale up our startups, in which we’ll already have invested a lot of money, to a corporate business. We were extremely happy that Innovationquarter introduced us to several big investors. But this scope could be broader. Consider, for instance, a scale-up academy that links you to significant investors, helps you with pitch decks and financial decks and truly guides you through the whole process. Parties like Innovationquarter can play a huge role in this.” But even though the Netherlands has its stumbling blocks, you stayed. “I received many offers after Robot Care Systems went bankrupt and 2 35

THEME FROM IDEA TO INDUSTRY

The role of investors

“In the Netherlands, not all sectors and growth cycles receive sufficient growth capital,” notes Liduina Hammer, head of investments at Innovationquarter. “We often see that private investment funds choose to invest in a certain phase and a specific sector. However, Innovationquarter is a life cycle investor that invests in various phases and sectors from our three funds. We do this with financing instruments and conditions tailored to each of these phases.” “We’re aware that in addition to capital, guidance and access to talent and markets are crucial for entrepreneurs. This is why Innovationquarter launched the Impact Academy last year, a growth program for our scale-ups. We also rolled out an investor readiness program in which ten entrepreneurs work towards a successful application for funding within ten weeks. You can tell, from the participants’ enthusiastic responses, that there’s a great need for knowledge sharing and guidance. As an entrepreneur, you have to juggle many roles and responsibilities.” could easily have moved to a different place and continued my career there. But I want to make things better here. I don’t want to go to Silicon Valley – I want to bring Silicon Valley here. So I convinced a scale-up there to open a branch here and bring some of their production to the Netherlands, from where we now serve the European market. I want to empower the economy here and I’d like to spread the word to other parts of the world and tell them just how innovative this country is.”

So, you were heartbroken, the system had let you down. And yet you are still committed to strengthening the ecosystem here? “I don’t think the system let me down. Innovation is a voyage of discovery. The government, our shareholders, the distributors – everyone had the best intentions. I also received a lot of support through the Innovation Credit Grant of the Netherlands Enterprise Agency. Actually, I’m incredibly grateful for all that help. We wouldn’t have

been able to achieve all that we did without it.” “What our case shows is that we’ve not sufficiently covered the gap between startup and scale-up. This doesn’t mean that everything we do for startups is wrong; we have the World Startup Factory, CIC, Yes!Delft, many incubators, Amsterdam Campus, Brainport Eindhoven, Innovationquarter and the Innovation Credit Grant. I’d say that we do very well as a country during the R&D phase. We just have to learn from our experiences to do better for scale-ups and I’m happy to help with that. I’m now working with the Economic Board to improve the funding system for energy investments.” What makes being an entrepreneur so rewarding? “When you make something and deliver it to the user, you see how your innovation can improve lives. That’s worth everything. When I look back and see how much effort not only I but especially my fantastic team put into this... I’m still moved by it. We put in many weekends and often burned the midnight oil. Even in the darkest moments, even when they were not sure if they would get their salary at the

RFIC & analog/mixed-signal ASIC Solutions

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19-03-2020 13:32

end of the month, they continued to do their work with total dedication.” “You know, it doesn’t matter that we as a company didn’t succeed this time. Even if another firm picks up the innovation where we left off and helps people with Parkinson’s walk again, our experiences will have been worth it.” You didn’t walk away and aren’t bitter. You’ve stayed close to the Netherlands, your team and Lea. “Yes, but how else do you improve things? What do you achieve by wal-

Maja Rudinac (right) launched the Robot Care Systems startup and developed the Lea care robot to help people with Parkinson’s disease walk again. Credit: Zan van Alderwegen

king away? It would have been a different story if everyone had walked away from us. But this country has helped us so much with our innovation. Everyone was involved – from government to journalists and healthcare institutions.” “If everyone with a broken heart runs away or leaves the country, we shift the problem to the next innovation. We’re not the only ones with this problem. Hopefully, there will be hundreds of thousands more wonderful innovations that will change

the world. Let’s make it as easy as possible for these innovators. Your opportunity is today – grab it with both hands.” Annet Veenstra is a communication advisor at Innovationquarter. This article originally appeared on innovationquarter.nl. Edited by Nieke Roos

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THEME FROM IDEA TO INDUSTRY

HELPING BREAKTHROUGH STARTUPS ACROSS THE VALLEY OF DEATH Because they renew the regional industrial tissue and spawn new OEMs, startups that bravely develop new advanced technology should be cherished the most. However, their very nature makes them most susceptible to failure. Former startup entrepreneur Henk Zeegers offers advice on how to increase their chances. Henk Zeegers

n 2013, I, along with several partners, Eindhoven University of Technology (TUE) and health insurance provider CZ, started the company Rose. It was founded to provide remote care robot services to the elderly and people with physical limitations. In April 2015, we were only left with enough money to carry on for two more months. Shortly after, management and shareholders concluded that it was no use to go on and decided to discontinue the company. In early 2016, Rose was deregistered with the Chamber of Commerce: the end of a promising adventure. Many startups end up in bankruptcy or are forced to terminate. Startups are very special companies: they have to survive a long time without any operational income. During this period, they depend on private investors and public funding. If this funding is interrupted for whatever reason, their backs are against the wall: they get stuck in the infamous valley of death. Breakthrough startups, which focus on developing a completely new advanced technology, are most vulnerable. The question is: can we help them overcome the valley of death?

Explorers and appliers

What exactly are startups? Financial institutions tend to emphasize company growth and business model scalability. The economic bureau of ING Bank defines a startup as “an organization looking for a globally scalable business model.” However, scalability and growth could apply to many new companies. What sets startups apart is that they either apply a new busi38

Five types of startups

ness model or base themselves on a new technology. Therefore, a better definition would be: “Startups are new companies that use new globally scalable business models or new technologies or both.” That’s not all: to qualify as a startup, the new technologies that new companies concern themselves with must be cutting-edge. This advanced technology may be deployed both in an exploratory and applicational way. I like to call startups that explore and develop new advanced technologies “breakthrough startups”, and those that apply them “start-apps”. Rose and another TUE spinoff like Xeltis – which develops a biodegradable heart valve prosthesis – are examples of breakthrough startups, as were Google and Tesla in their early years. Airbnb, Uber and Netflix are examples of start-apps, as are the many, many developers of software apps. Yet another type of startup applies existing technology to a new business model – examples are Ryan Air and Starbucks. All in all, there are five types of startups – the new companies that do not use new business models or new technologies are copycats.

The general public doesn’t see the difference between startups that explore a new technology and those that apply it. To them, they’re all “tech startups”. However, these ‘explorers’ and ‘appliers’ are very different from one another, and the differences determine the challenges they meet. These differences are significant when it comes to increasing their chances of success.

Eras of ferment and incremental change

What exactly is the valley of death? To fully comprehend this problematic period, we must go back to the technology cycle as proposed by Anderson and Tushman. They divide this cycle in the “era of ferment” and the “era of incremental change”. In the era of ferment, new technologies are elaborated on and designs for new products emerge. In this era, there’s not yet competition on markets, there’s competition on the dominant design. The dominant design is the biggest in terms of the number of implementations; sometimes it’s called the “standard”. The coming about of the dominant design

marks the end of the valley of death and ushers in the era of incremental change, in which sales and the competition on market share start. The era of incremental change is, in turn, interrupted when another breakthrough ignites a new era of ferment. Whereas breakthrough startups start early in the era of ferment, start-apps only start at the beginning of the era of incremental change, when the first applications have been implemented. Also, there are tech startups in between these two extremes. The moment of entry determines the technological complexity, uncertainty and distance to the market. For breakthrough startups, these are much larger than for the typical start-app and ordinary startup. Breakthrough startups, therefore, require much higher investments, which, moreover, are incredibly difficult to get due to the high risk and long payback time. There are three options to bridge the long period of little or no operational income: raise enough funding to reach the market with the planned product ‘in one jump’, build up the value proposition to a certain value plateau – which mostly coincides with a technical readiness level – and sell the company, or generate early income with an intermediate product, which is based on the same technology as the planned ultimate product but offers simpler functionality. A thorough analysis of the situation at hand is

The Anderson and Tushman technology cycle

necessary to find the best option to use. Sometimes a combination of options is the best strategy to follow. However, even following the best possible scenario is no guarantee for success. From the perspective of society, failure is an issue when dropouts represent large economic or social potential – which is the case with quite many breakthrough startups. Also, breakthrough startups are exceedingly important for the continuous renewal of regional industrial tissue and the emergence of new OEMs.

Powerhouse

Therefore, we as a society should do all that’s necessary to help bridge the valley of death. In the Netherlands, access to knowledge and funding are the most important issues. First, we should find better ways to valorize the knowledge built up by universities – today, it’s overly difficult for outsiders to get access to research groups and profit from their knowledge. Secondly, governments should provide financial support consistently. During the debt crisis of 2008-2016, the expenditure on public research was cut back – which forced many startups out of business – despite it representing only a small portion of the government budget (approximately 0.75 percent of GNP). If, for instance, the government would have increased (instead of decreased) the public R&D budget during the crisis to the level of best in class (which

was South Korea, with 1.05 percent), government debt by the end of 2017 would have been only 1.7 percent of GNP higher than it actually was. Thirdly, governmental agencies should do more to guide startups to complex European subsidy schemes. A survey carried out in Brainport Eindhoven in 2013, showed that SMEs were unfamiliar with the schemes, and governmental support agencies operate single-mindedly, primarily focusing on their assigned EU scheme. The sheer number of available schemes and (semi)governmental organizations involved are like a jungle in which SME entrepreneurs can easily get lost. This situation could be improved by establishing one overarching intelligent back office, which matches startups with schemes. Moreover, this government agency should provide practical, handson, support regarding consortiumbuilding and drafting applications. Fourthly, the availability of private venture (and scale-up) capital is currently on an incredibly low level in the Netherlands. Public and private parties together should find ways to increase private funding for tech startups. One may think of governments (partially) guaranteeing equity investments in breakthrough startups. A capital return tax exemption would help as well to entice people to invest in startups. Another source, which so far hasn’t been tapped into, is the pension funds. Although the few hundreds of millions that are required per year in the Netherlands are peanuts, very little progress has been made here. Taken together, the measures could turn the already promising Dutch startup scene into a startup powerhouse. Henk Zeegers is a former research engineer, R&D manager and director at SMEs and (semi)governmental organizations. He’s currently an entrepreneur and consultant. His book “Start-up or start-app – why breakthrough start-ups often fail” is available now at startuporstartapp.nl. Edited by Paul van Gerven

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ORDER NOW

“ASML’s Architects is an impressive book, a curious book and a book for the curious. (…) Clearly a labour of love by Raaijmakers but nonetheless an easy read.” Peter Clarke, eeNews, February 1, 2019 “Rene Raaijmakers’ book on the history of ASML is a monumental work in its depth and breadth from ASML’s beginning through 1996. (…) No tech company’s history has ever been covered to such a degree.” Dan Hutcheson, The Chips Insider, February 1, 2019

techwatchbooks.nl/architects

pinion

FROM IDEA TO INDUSTRY Harmke de Groot is Group Manager Electronics Development for EUV Source at ASML.

A kite needs headwind to take off

must admit I’m not at my most creative right now, as I imagine many of you won’t be either. Working from home is one thing, working from home with two teenagers in the house is quite another. It’s pretty exhausting to sit in Skype and MS Teams calls all day while trying to keep up the family atmosphere a bit in times of bans and lock-downs. “No, you can’t go to X, Y and Z,” “the sports tournament, school trip and spring break are canceled,” “yes, we put on normal clothes because it’s a school day and we don’t stay in our pajamas all day” and of course the somewhat humbling “no, Mum and Dad’s work isn’t a critical occupation, it’s far more important that the garbage man and the restocker of shelves keep doing their job right now.” So at first glance, you’d think that this corona crisis is a very bad time for new ideas and products in the high-tech industry. Yet history shows that the opposite is true: under difficult circumstances, often special innovations arise. Due to the international sanctions during the apartheid regime, South Africa developed its own advanced medical equipment. During the Great War, paper handkerchiefs, which we now need so much, were invented, as well as stainless steel and the zipper. The microwave was invented during the Second World War when radar radiation proved capable of heating food. The invention of blood transfusion at the same time saved the lives of many soldiers and by the end of the Second World War, kidney dialysis was also possible. I certainly don’t want to trivialize the misery that the current pan-

demic is causing, but with history in mind, I see a silver lining. In less than a month, it proved possible to do things that have been talked about for years. Lectures can be given and (theoretical) exams can be taken online. Many universities will certainly keep this up until the end of the school year. And even if it creaks and squeaks a bit: online

Good ideas can be quickly converted to products and services during hard times

are rushing to develop simplified respiration equipment. Let all this inspire the high-tech industry. Just like kites take off thanks to headwind, good ideas can be quickly converted to products and services during hard times. Additionally, the pandemic created a sense of togetherness, boosted creativity to come up with out-of-the-box solutions and fostered a just-do-it mentality. People temporarily set aside their differences because the common goal of getting the coronavirus under control transcends all differences. Let’s hold on to that feeling, right now to fight the crisis but certainly when it’s over too. That would help enormously to convert great ideas into products faster in our industry. I wish everyone good health.

education at secondary schools also seems possible. Microsoft and other companies are bound to get more ideas for new features for their online collaboration platforms in a few months than they otherwise could have come up with in years. And what about the enormous stimulus to collaborate between different companies and government agencies? Suddenly, it’s possible to exchange research data at an early stage between different medical development labs because the need to find a drug or vaccine against COVID-19 is so high. Finding investment money – normally one of the most time-consuming things to get from an idea to a product – is no longer a problem for this higher purpose. In the Netherlands, with the help of the government, companies 2 41

B a c kg r o u n d

Aerospace

NLR takes the controls to bring propeller noise down As the number of aircraft continues to increase, noise is becoming a headache. As part of a public-private collaboration known as the Taste project, aviation propeller manufacturer Dowty is turning to NLR and its in-house developed technologies to precisely measure, and ultimately mitigate the noise at the source. Collin Arocho

ith drones of all sizes, personal air transport and smaller planes increasingly filling the sky, propellers will be a mainstay of sky-bound transportation. This comes with its own set of challenges – specifically in the aviation industry. One challenge coming to light is the noise generated by the open blades of these aircraft flying at lower altitudes. As a propeller rotates, it creates thrust due to the forces on its blades. This rotation also results in an acoustic field that’s perceived, particularly in the far field (at a distance from the source), as noise. The level of the disturbance directly correlates with the amount of force on, and the subsequent speed of, the turning blade and is seen as a growing nuisance, for both people

Taste

Within the Techniques for Acoustic Measurements in High-Speed Test Environments (Taste) project, the Royal Netherlands Aerospace Centre (NLR) is looking into possible methods to accurately measure and mitigate the noise produced by propeller-driven aircraft. Partners include UK-based Dowty Propellers and NLR’s sister organization GermanDutch Wind Tunnels (DNW). NLR participation is co-funded by Holland High Tech, Top Sector HTSM, with a public-private partnership grant for research and innovation.

Credit: NLR

on the ground, as well as those in the sky. Enter the British engineering company Dowty Propellers.

Taste

The UK-based aerospace experts, which specializes in the design and manufacturing of integrated propeller systems, wanted to investigate if these sound issues could be mitigated by identifying the sources. But before Dowty could set a hard goal of reducing noise, they first needed to determine if it was possible to get more accurate acoustic measurements. To do this, the British engineering company initiated a study, called Techniques for Acoustic Measurements in High-Speed Test Environments (Taste), and reached across the North Sea to the Royal

Netherlands Aerospace Centre (NLR) for assistance in the project. In this collaboration, Dowty would provide its knowledge and expertise on propellers and rely on NLR’s experience in algorithm development and industrial testing, before finally turning to the low-speed wind tunnel facilities of NLR’s sister institute German-Dutch Wind Tunnels (DNW), the third arm of this public-private alliance. “Essentially, Dowty turned to us to see if we could get more accurate acoustic measurements from the propellers in a highspeed environment, which is certainly not a trivial task,” describes Marthijn Tuinstra, a principal scientist at NLR. “To achieve this, though, we’ll need to advance the state-ofthe-art in measuring techniques.”

The NLR-AWT aeroacoustic wind tunnel.

measurement of velocity in fluids – which uses particle tracers consisting of heliumfilled soap bubbles,” tells Evelien van Bokhorst, the project leader of the Taste project and an R&D engineer at NLR. “With these particle tracers, we’re able to capture a large field of view, which is necessary as each model propeller blade measures 30 cm long. Recently, we developed a system at NLR exactly for this purpose.”

Acoustic processing

Credit: NLR

Acoustic array

One main issue with measuring in a highspeed environment is that these tests use scale models and take place in wind tunnels, which are in no way constructed to provide interference-free sound testing. “Ideally, you’d need a large-scale tunnel that’s completely covered with acoustic materials to block reflective sounds and ensure you’re measuring the desired sound source – a model propeller in this case. The problem is, for high-speed measurements, these facilities don’t really exist,” poses Tuinstra. Therefore, NLR is developing algorithms and measurement techniques to be able to

deal with the challenges coming with such a nonideal test environment. One of these acoustic measurement techniques to be employed is the acoustic array. “Think of the array as a camera, but the lens is replaced with an array of microphones. Employing digital processing techniques, all the microphones are focused on a fixed point in space and used to measure the sound,” illustrates Tuinstra. “The easiest way to explain it is, if you were to point two microphones in space to record a sound. The sound first will be picked up on one microphone, and at a different time on the second microphone, due to the location and trajectory of the sound waves. This is what we call a phase delay. With this phase delay, we can determine from where that sound is emanating. By using more microphones, we’re able to record much more accurate measurements.”

Soap bubbles

Credit: NLR

To avoid reflections contaminating acoustic measurements in a closed wind tunnel, NLR has another trick up its sleeve. Instead of measuring sound directly, researchers will look to measure the velocity field in the wake of the propeller blades. From this velocity field, blade loading – the amount of thrust on the propeller blades as they rotate – can be determined. By employing this method, investigators can measure the acoustic pressure fluctuations generated by the propellers. “To measure the velocity field, we make use of particle image velocimetry – the

Acoustic array and particle tracing, however, are only two of the innovative methods in the Taste project’s three-pronged approach. A third technique that collaborators are looking to utilize is another NLR innovation: in-house developed software systems and enhanced algorithms. “This is the really innovative part of the project. We’re designing tailor-made acoustic processing algorithms to measure propeller noise. These algorithms can then be modified to fit with a specific facility, allowing us to get more information out of the measurements,” highlights Tuinstra. Even with these advances in innovation, the Taste project is still in the early stages – the preparation stage. While wind tunnel testing is slated to commence in the summer of 2020, the team is still working on modeling and simulation aspects of the project – meaning there’s still quite some ground to cover. “Currently, our focus is really on data post-processing techniques and adjusting our algorithms. This will allow us to enhance our existing beamforming techniques and get a more accurate picture of the sound field,” expresses Van Bokhorst. “The next step is to move into testing at small scale in NLR’s research wind tunnel, NLR-AWT. After that, we’ll move to an industrial-scale test, but still at low speeds. For this, tests will be carried out at the low-speed tunnels of DNW. With these wind tunnel tests, we’ll apply and combine our traditional and novel methods to be able to measure and describe the sound field generated by propellers in the best way possible,” concludes Van Bokhorst.

High tech highlights

A series of public-private success stories by Bits&Chips 2 43

WHAT IF CITY

A profession in design or technology isn’t typically what most youngsters aim for when they’re in high school. Partly this is because of the lack of realization of what design and tech mean for the world. Actively confronting them with their own ability to design something that means a lot to others increases their motivation for an innovative study or job. This is exactly what the project “Invented by All” does.

hat if children were to build models of houses and other infrastructures? And then, after a while, bring their models to one physical area, combining them into one huge city? A city created and designed by youth. How cool would that be? Sustainable Development Goals In the “What if city” project, the Dutch Design Foundation and the Discovery Factory inspire children to design and present their own cities. Future-proof cities, which take the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations as a starting point. These goals are described as a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and in the future. So it’s only natural that children have a say in this. What if they can convert their ideas for the future into new designs? Quality time for families The intention was to execute the project primarily at schools. But due to the corona crisis, children have to stay at home. How to

deal with this? By making the best of a bad situation! History has taught us that crises can lead to innovation. In this case, children and their parents are looking for ways to spend quality time at home. So the project has been reshaped to facilitate families in building models out of everyday materials. Short films inspire them and invite them to present their creations online. Meanwhile, several designers reach out to the children by digital means of communication. So they too can stimulate and inspire youth to look at things differently and reshape our future habitat. What If City exhibition After the corona crisis, it will only be a small step to building What If City in the real world. But first, all created models together will form the What If City exhibition in the Discovery Factory. Participate? Check watalsstad.nl and share your vision of the future!

The Discovery Factory is there to inspire youngsters for a future in design and technology. Projects are supported by tech companies such as ASML, Brainport Industries, Daf Trucks, Frencken Europe, Hager, NTS Group, Philips, Stam en De Koning and VDL Group, and by Bits&Chips as the media partner.

discoveryfactory.nl

Credit: Xenomatix

NEWS MOBILITY

Thousands of beams light the way to the automotive big league While most lidar companies focus on miniaturizing existing technologies, Belgium’s Xenomatix created a multi-beam system from scratch, with the automotive industry in mind. This culminated in the recent signing of a development agreement with Italian top-ten tier-1 company, Marelli. Jessica Vermeer

eeing Google’s self-driving vehicle in 2013, Xenomatix founders Johan Van den Bossche and Dirk Van Dyck knew this wasn’t the way to go. In their eyes, the sensor dome sitting on top of the car was unfit for mass production. “Designers are all-powerful in the automotive industry. Even when those Google cars were technologically sound, no one wants a giant sensor on their roof,” explains Filip Geuens, the current CEO of the Leuven-based company. While competitors focused on miniaturizing existing technologies, Van den Bossche and Van Dyck decided to develop an alternative from scratch, with the specific needs of the automotive industry in mind: reliability, robustness, long lifespan – all for low cost. The result is a solid-state lidar module that’s small, consists of cheap components and easily integrates in a car. For sensing, Xenomatix has chosen multibeam technology, which has since been the company’s main differentiator. The efforts are now starting to bear fruit. Recently, Xenomatix signed a technical and commercial development agreement with top-ten tier-1 automotive company, Marelli. The Leuven outfit is going to provide its solid-state lidar module to the Italian company’s Automotive Lighting division. According to Geuens, the deal didn’t originate spontaneously. “We’ve been working

together for a while, visiting car manufacturers for example. That’s how they got to know and appreciate what we do.”

Lidar technology

The general principle behind lidar is sending out beams of light and measuring distance from the reflections. Usually, invisible light in the near-infrared spectrum is used. Essentially, distance can be measured in two ways: from the time difference between the light going out and the reflections coming in (direct time of flight, TOF) and from the phase shift between the outbound and inbound waves (indirect TOF). “Our approach is quite original,” states Geuens, without going into details. “It’s somewhere between the direct and indirect method.” Most lidar systems only send out one laser beam, or a few at most, and combine this with a scanning mechanism to pick up the reflections that are used to digitize the surroundings. These scanning mechanisms, however, aren’t very robust and incur high costs, which makes them an unattractive option for automotive applications. Xenomatix’ Xenolidar system uses thousands of beams, rendering the scanning mechanism obsolete. “That effectively eliminates the weak spot of traditional lidar,” says Geuens. “We’re able to get high-res images with a much more compact module.”

At present, lidar is hard to find in mass-produced vehicles. Geuens: “No one has been able to get to that level of mass production.” Xenomatix hopes to change this. “We’re now running trials in test vehicles and real-life conditions.” A few weeks ago, Siemens’ Simrod electric vehicle took a test drive using Xenolidar, as part of an ongoing project to develop self-driving cars.

Performance and costs

Xenomatix’ current challenge lies in optimizing performance and cost. Integration is another key aspect. “We want esthetically attractive cars with well-integrated technology,” clarifies Geuens. For example, his company is now working on a cover to be placed over the lidar. This product may eventually be integrated in the headlights or windshield. “We need to make sure we can still achieve the required performance, even behind that cover.” It will take a few years to get the Xenomatix technology verified and mass produced – Geuens is aiming for 2023. Eventually, he hopes to become a mature tier-2 company, delivering mass-produced components to tier-1 clients. After achieving success in the automotive market, the company could broaden its scope to other markets. “Robots, drones, shuttles – many types of autonomous vehicles will need these sensors.”

Credit: Google

NEWS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Envision sees clearer with Google Glass integration After a year of discussions with Google, Yes!Delft startup Envision is ready to announce the integration of its AI-driven software for the visually impaired with the tech giant’s Google Glass solution. Now, the Hague-based company is looking to expand assistive technology to serve other impairments as well. Collin Arocho

function, the information can be processed onboard the glasses or online if needed. The glasses connect to a smartphone, via Bluetooth, to access the Envision app, which allows users to adjust settings and connect to the Internet via the phone.

Change of scope

Since last speaking with Bits&Chips, Envision has continued to develop and enhance its software solution, particularly its optical character recognition (OCR), which can read any type of text from any surface (ie food packaging, posters, display screens and handwritten text – to name a few) in addition to scene and facial recognition and object detection. Furthermore, the Haguebased startup has received some financial support from EIT Headstart (50,000 euros) and MIT Haalbaarheid (20,000 euros) and has added two new members to its team. With the news of this integration with Google Glass, Envision’s ongoing pilot proj-

Credit: Google

I software company Envision’s assistive technology is now being supported on Google Glass, according to the Yes!Delft startup. The announcement comes roughly a year after the company started discussions with the tech giant to combine its AI solution with their smart glasses. The software, originally offered via the Envision app, was named the 2019 Best Accessiblity App by Google Play. Now, after a recent upgrade in hardware of the Google Glass Enterprise Edition 2, customers can preorder their Envisionenabled smart glasses. Envision’s software utilizes in-house developed AI algorithms to extract different kinds of information from images and surroundings and then speaks the images out loud to give its user a better understanding of the environment around them. The software was developed as a platform on Google Glass, which uses the same backend as the Android app. Depending on the

ect with the municipality of The Hague has now expanded its scope to include smart glasses. The project, which started last year, was designed to help blind and visually impaired job-seekers in the city to increase their employment opportunities with the help of the Envision app. The project will now see the introduction of the Envisionenabled glasses to a select group of pilot participants, comprised of both employed and unemployed citizens. “The goal of the pilot is to determine the impact that the Envision app and glasses can have on the employment opportunities, workplace productivity and social integration among the visually impaired citizens,” describes Karthik Mahadevan, co-founder and CEO of Envision.

Product expansion

Going forward, Envision is looking to further develop its AI software to provide support for a broader audience and over additional platforms. “The way we see it, the Envision glasses are an addition to our offering on a smartphone. In the long term, Envision aims to be a device-agnostic software that can function on any device with a camera,” explains Mahadevan. “Our next steps are to have a successful preorder while also determining supplier and distributor channel to scale our latest offering. Next year, we also intend to extend our features to enable people with cognitive impairments like dyslexia and dementia.” 12 PB 47

pinion

SOFTWARE ENGINEERING Han Schaminée is a product innovation consultant.

It’s all about cycle time and yield

ecently, I read in the newspaper 22,700 legal cases have been postponed because of capacity issues with judges and their staff. It reminded me of a discussion I had a few years ago. During a summer party, I had a chat with a judge who explained to me some of his challenges. At the time being involved with family-related conflicts, he mentioned a problem I was familiar with as an engineer: lead time. He told me that it took fourteen months on average to close a case in which one partner wanted to adjust the alimony. Being trained in project management, Lean and QRM (Quick Response Manufacturing), I asked him two simple questions. Do you have one person in the organization responsible for the progress of the case? The answer was a resounding “no”. Then, I asked how much time it actually takes to resolve a case. His answer: about 32 hours. The rest of the time the case was sitting on the desk of some expert, waiting for his or her input. I recognized the enormous opportunity to improve efficiency and suggested he should contact an expert in Lean and QRM I know. A few months later, I inquired whether any progress had been made. He replied there had been some consultations, but in the end, management decided there was no money available for a process consultant. You can imagine how I feel these days when I read about capacity problems at the Dutch courts. Improving efficiency requires more than just a focus on cycle time, though. There are many examples where such a focus led to huge performance wins without raising cus-

tomer satisfaction. One example I often encounter is when people diligently finish a task as fast as possible – even before they start a new one, but forget that real customer value is only created when the customer can use the feature and when all underly-

Buffers and specifications create an illusion of certainty ing tasks have been finished. Teams report impressive velocity figures, measured per task, but customers are unhappy, as they’re still waiting to use the full feature. This way of working also leads to a higher risk of having to redo things, as the ultimate validation of a task is when the customer signs off on the entire feature. Studies show a positive correlation between cycle time and defect density. Reworking defects is avoidable waste. And late customer feedback results in even more waste. A customer often doesn’t know in advance what he needs. This uncertainty is addressed by introducing buffers. Everybody knows time buffers, but few are aware that these buffers always fill up and don’t help. They create an illusion of certainty. The same holds for specifications: if there’s uncertainty about what’s required, customers will overspecify, suppliers will undercommit. The best way to overcome this is to implement

short cycle times allowing for fast feedback and adaption. I remember when I worked for an organization that had a huge annual meeting to plan next year’s activities. It was a terribly difficult, 3-day event. The CEO asked me how to improve and my answer shocked him: let’s do this every month! But it worked; we became far more efficient but also far more predictable: planning horizons became smaller and we needed fewer buffers to address uncertainty. So, whenever you struggle to make a build or even product release once every quarter, try to do it every week. But also with the smaller increments, make sure to deliver full features that represent customer value and allow you to verify the quality. As I learned from an experienced manufacturing manager: it’s all about cycle time and yield! It’s far more effective than adding resources. Back to our courts and their capacity problems. It’s easy to say that it’s all about cycle time and productivity, and that adding resources doesn’t help. But, of course, this is irrelevant when productivity is not the highest priority. No doubt, people in courts work very hard, but sometimes it takes something special to create a breakthrough. And that’s where leadership comes in.

INTERVIEW CEES MICHIELSEN

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS DEFINED BY CASCADES OF CREATIVITY With more than 30 years of experience with some of the top names in the Netherlands’ high-tech industry, Cees Michielsen reflects on his lessons learned and how he tries to relay this knowledge as the instructor of the “System requirements engineering improvement” training at High Tech Institute. Collin Arocho

Credit: Cees Michielsen

t was 1986 when Cees Michielsen got his start in the world of high tech. At the time, he joined the Philips EMT team, which would later become Assembleon and finally Kulicke & Soffa, to help build SMD placement robots. “Back then, our main customers were automotive companies like Ford, GM and Chrysler. We were completely selfcontained and had all the essential disciplines and competencies in our business unit,” Michielsen recalls. When he entered the team, Michielsen’s focus was on technical informatics, but early on, the trajectory of his career took a detour. “It was there at Philips that I started to develop into a systems thinker, and really got away from my own software discipline,” expresses Michielsen. “In hindsight, I can say that was the best start for me in my career; the experience gave me an enormous head start and is why I’m still so passionate about it today.” Now, after more than three decades in the industry, Michielsen is spending his days as a requirements engineer at ASML, as well as an instructor at High Tech Institute where he shares his knowledge, and his many lessons learned, with the next generation of engineers in the “Systems requirements engineering improvement” training.

Abstraction layers

In systems requirements engineering, especially at the system level, scoping the problem is the name of the game. It’s about determining exactly what functions the system should have, the specific properties that are tied to those functions and accurately defining the problem being solved. “If we’re, for instance, talking about projecting patterns on wafers, you can imagine that’s the main function of the system, and several companies might be doing the same thing. But it’s the properties of this function that distinguish one group from its competitors – the accu-

racy, yield, speed and reliability,” highlights Michielsen. For Michielsen, it’s these characteristics that make all the difference in the world, and requirements engineering is the art of identifying the right functions and quantifying their properties to define the problem. “Once the problem is well-defined, finding the solution is much easier,” Michielsen points out. “But you’re not going to find the implementation of your solution straightaway, so you’re probably going to go through a number of abstraction or decomposition layers.”

Cascade

During his training session, Michielsen explains that, in a system, the highest layer of abstraction is the level with the most general requirements, ie the system needs to be fast or have a certain look. But as you go down deeper into the system, it gets much more detailed. Suddenly, the layers are referring to different subjects or using different languages to express the requirements, which can be a little tricky for engineers to keep the information flowing. “That’s the real objective of requirements engineering, finding different ways to ensure that the data continues to cascade from top to bottom and from stakeholder needs to implementation, all without losing any informa2 49

INTERVIEW CEES MICHIELSEN

tion,” suggests Michielsen. “I think if I were to summarize the challenge for requirements engineering, I would say that it lies mainly in the cascading of information throughout each abstraction or decomposition layer.”

Quantification

According to Michielsen, one very important part of the method is to find the complete set of requirements for a system. “The question quickly becomes, ‘when is the set complete?’”, he poses. “The best approach we’ve seen so far can be expressed using an equation, which we share in the training. It allows us to fully define a system by its functions, properties and constraints, and can be applied from the highest levels to the components and parts at the lowest points.” He continues, “By specifying and quantifying these criteria, the true requirements can be derived. This is one of the main steps of the training, learning how to put a value on each of the properties of the system.” “Once the goals are defined, we can identify solutions – design options – based on assumed capabilities of subsystems. This is where creativity leads the product development process, as many different options are considered for solving the problem,” Michielsen depicts. “As long as we document the assumptions that are made during that creative design process, we can later translate these assumptions into requirements for the lower-level subsystems that we need in the solution.”

Justification

To Michielsen, this is one of the most powerful elements of the whole method. The ability to see the complete line of logic from a quantified system definition to the design decisions and finally to the specific implementation of a solution. That is, if 50

engineers are able to maintain coherence between system requirements, system design and system decisions – a crucial factor. “As long as the information feeds properly, we can derive requirements for the next layer and continue the cascade. That way we can ensure that whatever requirements we end up with at the lowest component level, through our method and our traceability, we can exactly come to the justification of each requirement and each decision made throughout each layer. That’s the whole essence of the method.” After more than 30 years in the industry, what do you most want to share in your trainings? “As a trainer, I want to help instill confidence in the process. Following the method is one way to achieve that, because the students get the feeling that the system can be complete, consistent and correct – in terms of specifications. That can really help it feel less daunting. Once you cross that hurdle, the students can almost immediately start determining the main functions of the system and decide what properties are related and which constraints apply at that level. By quantifying these aspects, they don’t just state that the system should be reliable, they say explicitly just how reliable the system should be.”

Lessons Learned

With his 30+ years in process architecting, Michielsen has developed several practical methods to keep the information flowing from layer to layer. His success in the field opened the door for him to work with top Dutch and European companies, like Prorail, Eurocontrol, Punch Powertrain and Vanderlande – and several others, to help establish and implement

processes for their own requirements engineering programs. “What I found was that there are enormous differences between each company, especially in implementation,” recollects Michielsen. “When I went to work for DAF, we put in place a complete requirements engineering process in three years’ time. We could successfully train hundreds of engineers and the method was paying off.” Noting the success of the DAF project, Siemens called to lure Michielsen to Germany to help establish the same approach for Daimler. “It was a huge step for me to be invited to implement the system, but it quickly became clear that the approach we developed at DAF wasn’t going to be transferrable to Daimler,” Michielsen calls to mind. “Daimler was just organized in a completely different manner, with responsibilities being spread among departments and people in a way that made successful execution really difficult. The inability to get something going there was disappointing,” he says, continuing, “It certainly was a big learning experience for me, and it came with a lot of tough lessons learned.” Are these lessons learned what drives you in this domain? “In part, yes. I have an enormous passion for this whole process. I want to help improve product capabilities and product manufacturing capabilities, especially in the area where I live and work. I want to make an impact on industry in that sense because we’ve learned so much and I want to spread this information,” emphasizes Michielsen. “It’s not all my doing, it’s all the companies I’ve worked for and all my experiences. I’m extremely grateful for being able to do that, and I’d like to spread that knowledge to make sure that the entire ecosystem can benefit, and we grow from it.”

INTERVIEW JEAN-LUC DI PAOLA-GALLONI (ARTEMIS)

SAVING EUROPE FROM DIGITAL COLONIZATION Embedded and cyber-physical systems are at the core of Europe’s future competitiveness. Value is shifting from components to systems and solutions. Artemis president Jean-Luc di Paola-Galloni explains how this upcoming market is both an opportunity and a threat to our continent. Europe needs to understand how the market is changing and gear up its investments to avoid getting digitally colonized. Jessica Vermeer

e’re on the verge of another industrial revolution. Embedded and cyber-physical systems will act as a bridge between the real and digital worlds. According to Jean-Luc di Paola-Galloni, president of the European industry association Artemis, the only way to achieve success in this upcoming industrial revolution is to create the best value chain we can on our continent. We need to make sure Europe is self-sustaining throughout the entire chain going to application software, while simultaneously being a global force to be reckoned with. “This Europe-inside concept is

what we need to protect more, also within our funding schemes. We need to build, enforce and protect our innovation.” Di Paola-Galloni knows how to deliver his concerns. “Do we want to get digitally colonized in this continent or what? Or do we want to grab the opportunity to resist?” The EU is being outspent by the US, Japan and China. The Chinese are investing heavily in key policies focused on the transition from being the world’s factory to becoming a self-sufficient leader in innovation. The US is also putting its weight behind R&D investments in software applications.

European private-sector R&D in embedded and cyber-physical systems seems to be falling behind, in both hardware and software technologies. “We need to resist. Private-sector research and investments are lagging.”

A splash of fresh water

Artemis is Europe’s association for actors in embedded intelligent systems. It aims to secure the whole value chain, from hardware to software. Last year, it presented the report “Embedded intelligence: trends and challenges”. Di Paola-Galloni launched the study two years ago, when he joined Artemis as president, 2 51

INTERVIEW JEAN-LUC DI PAOLA-GALLONI (ARTEMIS)

At the 2019 SoftwareCentric Systems Conference, Jean-Luc di PaolaGalloni discussed the outcomes of the Artemis study on embedded intelligence and gave an outlook on software development in Europe.

to assess what’s exactly at stake in the global competition for embedded systems and to determine the themes where Europe can create value. Specifically for embedded intelligence, which is the domain of the Artemis-IA community. “There’s an unstoppable trend,” says Di Paola-Galloni, who’s also an executive at the French automotive supplier Valeo. “Value is shifting from hardware to solutions and applications. The industry is going from less and less just mechanics and mechatronics to more and more digitalized.” Progressively, automation will be added and the industry will get its own revolution of softwarization. “At Valeo, half of our products are less than three years old. It’s as if you have a shop and change more than half of your stock every three years.” The value chain runs from raw materials to fully integrated systems and solutions. Simple components are located upstream and as a product goes through the chain, it gains value. The most advanced products such as integrated software and hardware systems are located down52

stream. Nowadays, as is stated in the report, value is mostly located upstream, but it’s expected to move downstream significantly, with a major shift from products towards solutions. The fully integrated systems and system solutions together with the embedded and enmeshed electronic systems will be key in creating value. Key application areas are transport & smart mobility, energy, healthcare & wellbeing, digital industry and digital life. Their market growth potential is huge and could be a signifi-

Jean-Luc di Paola-Galloni

Jean-Luc di Paola-Galloni is president of Artemis, the European association for actors in embedded intelligent systems. Next to this, he’s vice president at Valeo, responsible for strategy and external affairs. The French company is a global tier-1 supplier to the automotive industry, generating nearly 20 billion euros in sales. Valeo buys billions of euros worth from the software and chips supply chain to electronize vehicles. More than 30 percent of its turnover is invested in its 60+ research centers around the world.

cant growth driver for Europe in the years to come. This becomes apparent when comparing the projected domestic product growth per year, 2.3 percent, to the projected growth of these new markets, which is up to 65 percent for specific areas like augmented reality. In the meantime, value is shifting geographically as well. Over the last few decades, it has been moving away from the West towards emerging countries like China. This shift is expected to continue over the coming years. Looking at the value chain for embedded and cyber-physical systems, the final stage (systems of systems, applications and solutions) is expected to grow tenfold. It’s in no way guaranteed that Europe will be able to keep up with this tremendous growth. Given the rapid, ongoing changes and their expected scale, the cards are likely to be reshuffled. “We need to understand the world,” says Di Paola-Galloni. “We need to get a splash of fresh water in the face of many Europeans. Particularly in Brussels, where they only think inward, while they need to understand that we are in a global setup.” If Europe wants to succeed, we need to spend more on applications and increase public support. In terms of public R&D support relative to GDP, we’re being outspent five to six times by China, Japan and South Korea. Di Paola-Galloni’s main task is to educate those that can make a difference, namely politicians and decision-makers, about the ecosystem and the value chain. “We’ve been voicing the importance of making the right funding decisions and strategic choices to administrations and member states. We also underline the need of coherence in strategy.” Europe should collaborate with partners from outside while protecting certain innovations in order to sell and promote them across its borders.

A staunch believer

According to the recent Artemis study, Europe is leading the developments in transport & smart mobility, energy and digital industry but lagging in some of our historical strongholds, such as health & wellbeing. Di Paola-Galloni states: “We have real strengths. For example, we have the best in mobility. There’s no avoiding our devices there. We also have a strong position in manufacturing, digitalization and industry 4.0.”

On the flip side, Di Paola-Galloni sees Europe lagging in AI, cloud and digital applications. “That’s where I think we’re the weakest. We don’t have an IT giant here. We need to check where we’re strong and where we need to bring future strength. Our objectives aren’t just to create jobs but to build leaders. It’s about scalability, about size, but also about culture, mentality, approach.” Europe also needs to prepare for more convergence between the ap-

plications. For example, a bridge is being built between mobility and health with drowsiness detection in cars. “30 percent of deadly accidents with other vehicles are due to heart attacks. So there’s a huge opportunity to develop a functioning device that can recognize a driver having a heart attack.” The complete system should be able to move the car to the right lane, adapt its speed and eventually stop when the driver is unconscious, or worse, has died. “We can create converging applications like these because we can create a true ecosystem.” Unavoidability is key, Di PaolaGalloni emphasizes. “We can make sustainability with ethical value chains a key protective aspect.” To achieve this, Europe needs to stop importing rival subsystems from countries where the value chain is known to be lacking. “This is the message to link to the protection of sovereignty. We need to be more careful about what we accept.” Similarly, Europe needs to become a globally recognized force in software. “We need to create unavoidable pieces of embedded software, systems and applications with which we can grab a substantial piece of the market – 10, 15, 20 percent is enough. 0.5 percent doesn’t cut it, because then we’re running into problems. Our companies should be bolder.” Di Paola-Galloni is a staunch believer in embedded and cyber-physical systems being at the core of competitive growth for Europe. “These systems can have a long-lasting, positive impact, both in terms of economics and research, but also for society. We need to gear up our investments in software technology so that they’re at least on equal footing with those in hardware. The Artemis-IA community has a key role to play as a tool for European R&D&I environment to capture the upcoming opportunities in a structured way.” 2 53

B a c kg r o u n d

Industrial automation

Software savvy in the digital era As the electronics industry evolves into the new digital era, companies are working harder than ever to manage complexity and get to market faster. But with shortening product lifecycles, how do you stay at the leading edge? For Siemens, it’s about harnessing this complexity for a competitive advantage. Collin Arocho

ince its earliest innovation, which relayed telegraphic communications by using needles to point to a series of letters rather than utilizing Morse code, Siemens has spent the better part of two centuries at the forefront of technological development. But to become the high-tech titan of today, employing some 400,000 people globally, success hasn’t come without a willingness to change it up. According to the Siemens software group’s Vice President of Electronics and Semiconductor Industry Fram Akiki, it’s the company’s ability to continually adapt that has kept it on the cutting edge of technology solutions. “Over the last four decades, innovation in electronics and semiconductors have really propelled a tremendous evolution in products and services. I tend to break this timeline down into three different eras, the compute, connected and the current digital eras,” describes Akiki. “The progression to modern-day electronics started in the late 70s with the mainframe computer, and ultimately the PC and laptop. This was enabled by the development of microprocessors and memory chips. Similarly, in the 2000s, the connected era kicked off with the advent of the iconic smartphone device, pushing semiconductors to further develop communication technologies like cellular wireless – 3G, 4G and now 5G. As these technologies have matured and become widespread, 54

we’re starting to enter into the third phase: digitalization.”

Speed and complexity

But what are the trends that are driving this push to the digital era and how does Siemens stay at the leading edge? One way the technology juggernaut gets insight into the market is by engaging its broad customer base. “We hold a regular executive council and bring in around 20 senior executives, vice presidents and C-level-suite folks, from our customer base. We discuss opportunities and trends in the industry, as well as how they’re evolving,” explains Akiki. “Recently, we held one in Shanghai, China. What we learned is that, across the board, there are two key trends emerging in the electronics and semiconductor industry. First, the always important time to market, and second, the explosion of complexity.” From this council, it was clear that a main concern was that product lifecycles are getting shorter. Suddenly, getting a product to market as fast as possible isn’t just a luxury, it’s mission critical to succeed, or even survive, in the competitive market. “When we look at the mainframe computer, from the compute era, these products could have 5 or even 10-year lifecycles. Today, in the digital era, we see product lifecycles of less than a year. Any delay to the market can prove catastrophic,” says Akiki.

The second major trend to arise at the executive council was the explosion of complexity – on multiple fronts. “Of course, there’s technical complexity with products becoming smaller and smarter at the same time – packing more and more functions into a small space. But there’s also other complexities associated with diverse supply chains and the sometimes-unpredictable nature of consumer demand,” Akiki suggests.

Cooking

Dealing with this complexity can be tricky for high-tech companies, but one asset that Siemens uses to its benefit is its sheer size. With a broad reach across the high-tech industry, the company can look in-house for innovative solutions that can be used across its various departments and locations. “One of the big features for Siemens is that we eat our own cooking. One example is our software solutions. These are used for everything from design to manufacturing to analytics. It’s used quite extensively inside the broader Siemens, including roughly 250 manufacturing facilities worldwide,” highlights Akiki. “That offers a big advantage to our software customers, because we can bring in both existing and potential clients to a Siemens facility and show them exactly how it works – from Chengdu, China to Hamburg, Germany to San Diego, California. Siemens isn’t only talking the talk, but

we’re also walking the walk and learning from our own experience when it comes to our solutions.” As the big names in the industry are inundated with new trends and customer demands, placing a focus on R&D and new innovation projects isn’t always straightforward. Because of this, larger enterprises are increasingly looking for a boost from smaller businesses through acquisitions and investment. “A lot of the innovation in today’s electronics and semiconductor industry is coming from startups and small to medium businesses. Larger enterprises are starting to embrace this reality and are creating venture capital firms to incubate and often take a stake in exciting new technologies,” explains Akiki. “Siemens also has a number of investment arms. We recognize that, while it’s great to eat your own cooking, you have to find a balance to avoid the ‘not invented here’ type of mentality.”

Mentor

One recent acquisition to strengthen the Siemens software portfolio is that of

Mentor Graphics. With the addition of Mentor’s EDA platforms, Siemens now provides customers with sophisticated digital twin technology from the transistor level to the IC level, up to its performance and behavior within a product’s subsystems and end-product – simulating each element of a chip’s development, from production, to realization, to full lifecycle management. According to Akiki, this purchase had a big impact on the company’s transition to the era of digitalization. “The Mentor acquisition is big for Siemens. It allows us to expand our digital thread capabilities both horizontally and vertically. It enabled us to take our expertise in mechanical CAD Soon after speaking with Bits&Chips, Fram Akiki announced he was stepping down as Vice President of Electronics and Semiconductor Industry at Siemens. His departure came into effect on 17 April 2020.

software and fuse it with the electrical CAD software from Mentor. This offers a complete collaborative solution, including electrical, mechanical and even simulation – bringing that all together,” emphasizes Akiki. “This is very important for some of these markets where we’re seeing the digital transformation take off, like in smart-connected devices and the automotive industry.” As we approach the next big phases of the technology transition, toward 5G and Industry 4.0, as well as AI and autonomous driving, Akiki believes this is just a tip of what electronics and silicon will become. “The trend we’re seeing, as we move further into the digital era, is that semiconductors are delivering an increasingly higher percentage of the value in electronic systems,” he underscores. “The impact of semiconductors, in terms of what they deliver to an electronic system, is growing, and certainly with Mentor, and its EDA expertise, we feel that we’re uniquely positioned to be able to continue to drive that trend.” 2 55

An essential piece to the puzzle To achieve enhanced communication between units, Omron’s R&D manager Tim Foreman turns to trainings and courses. “We have some incredibly bright employees at Omron, all of them very technically gifted, be it in software, mathematics or electronics. “While especially skilled, our engineers sometimes don’t have the tools or experience to effectively convey their message. In the high tech world, that’s an essential piece to the puzzle.” From its first innovation of accurate x-ray control timers, to the magnetic strips on credit cards, early ATMs and digital blood pressure monitors used at doctor’s offices – Omron has been at it for more than eight decades. omron.nl hightechinstitute.nl/soft-skills

NEWS CHIPS

TUE researchers squeeze light from silicon The elusive silicon laser might be within reach now that researchers from Eindhoven University of Technology have demonstrated efficient light emission from silicon. Paul van Gerven

Cubic

It’s not particularly hard to build a semiconductor laser. Direct bandgap semiconductors such as gallium arsenide and indium phosphide are great at emitting light when tickled electrically. Unfortunately, these and other compound semiconductors don’t combine easily with silicon, necessitating attachment of the laser to the silicon circuit in a separate and very delicate step. While progress is being made in that department, creating the laser with the same process technology that’s already being used for manufacturing chips would obviously be a superior alternative. Research performed some fifty years ago predicts that silicon lasers are possible. The key lies within the crystal structure:

whereas ‘regular’ silicon organizes in cubic shapes, theory predicts that silicon, when alloyed with its chemical relative germanium, becomes a direct bandgap semiconductor when organized in hexagonal patterns.

Matter of time

Shaping silicon hexagonally, however, isn’t easy. By gently growing silicon onto nanowires made from a material with a hexagonal crystal structure, the Eindhoven researchers led by Erik Bakkers figured they could force silicon into the desired pattern. But even after they succeeded, already in 2015, the exotic silicon remained dark. It took another five years of careful tinkering with the growth process to reduce the numbers of impurities and crystal de-

fects to obtain the quality required for light emission – for excellent light emission, in fact. “We’ve realized optical properties that are almost comparable to indium phosphide and gallium arsenide, and the material’s quality is steeply improving,” says Bakkers. As a result, it appears to be a matter of time before a laser made from germanium-silicon alloys is developed that can be manufactured using conventional production processes. Bakkers: “If things run smoothly, we can create a silicon-based laser in 2020.” After that, the next step will be combining the hexagonal silicon with the cubic substrate used in microelectronics. The two forms are compatible in principle, but in this line of work, you expect the unexpected.

Credit: Eindhoven University of Technology/Nando Harmsen

or all the magnificent things silicon is capable of, emitting light (or absorbing it, for that matter) is not one of them. Being an indirect bandgap semiconductor, excited electrons in silicon’s crystal lattice return to their ground state by releasing their energy as heat, not as light. By carefully manipulating the crystal structure, however, researchers from Eindhoven University of Technology and colleagues from Germany managed to make silicon shine. Creating a silicon laser is now just a matter of time, the scientists think. The technological implications of that prospect are profound. Having access to a built-in light source means silicon’s electronic properties can be expanded upon with optoelectronic functionality, most importantly optical communication. Though electrons likely won’t become obsolete any time soon, being able to shuffle bits within a chip or between chips using speedy and energy-efficient optical communication would be a game-changer.

The nanowires coated with a hexagonal, light-emitting silicon-germanium shell were grown using metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE). 2 57

Credit: University of Twente

NEWS QUANTUM TECHNOLOGY

Secure communication with 7 bits per photon Fast development of quantum computing increases the risk of breaking cryptography. At the University of Twente, researchers developed a new method using photons for secure key generation, resulting in transmission speeds of up to 7 bits per photon. Antoinette Brugman

ryptography is a necessary step in securing communication of sensitive data. The fast development of quantum computing risks to break existing cryptography in the near future. This threatens the security of future communication but also of recent communication that has been stored. Therefore, new methods using quantum technology are being developed for data encryption that can’t be broken by quantum computers. The new method developed at the University of Twente (UT) is a more sophisticated version of an existing system: Quantum Key Distribution (QKD). Commercial QKD systems are available already from several vendors. They use single particles of light – photons – that can be transmitted over the fiberglass cable grid, in a grid of two polarization directions perpendicular to each other. One direction representing 0, the other 1.

Randomly switching between bases

The QKD system randomly sends its information using two different bases: one with a grid in the horizontal and vertical direction (rectilinear), the other with a rotated grid (diagonal). To detect the photons, the receiver randomly switches between the same two bases. However, correct detection is only possible if the right grid is used. After sending all the photons, both sides 58

exchange the sequence of the alternating basis they used – this can be openly done over the Internet. Thus, both the sender and the receiver know which measurements were done in the same basis and, therefore, which photons sent were properly detected. The receiver only keeps these measurements and deletes the others. As a result, both sides have a unique row of photon UT researchers, led by professor Pepijn Pinkse, developed a new method using photons for secure key generation. Credit: University of Twente

positions forming the secret key to encrypt and decrypt their communication. If an attacker intercepts the communication, either that particular photon is lost – and nothing is detected by the receiver – or a new photon is inserted that probably wasn’t sent in the right basis. The sender and receiver use a small fraction of the photons measured in the correct ba-

sis to check for errors. If the receiver has too many incorrect readings, although he detected the photons in the same basis as they were transmitted by the sender, he knows the information was intercepted. This enables him to judge whether the communication was secure.

Photon states increased to 1024

Because QKD only uses two states, 0 and 1, you might say the photons are encoded in an alphabet of two letters: a and b. This limits the data transmission to 1 bit per photon. UT researchers, led by professor Pepijn Pinkse, developed a system that increases the number of photon states to 1024. Their system directs each photon to a specific position on a grid of 32 by 32 different spatial positions. At the receiver side, detectors are positioned on a similar grid. These are able to localize the specific position of the incoming photon. Similar to changing the grid orientation in the QKD system – to make it difficult for an attacker to see what was trans-

Spatial encoding and decoding scheme and possible basis choices therein, using a 10-by-10 grid and creating an optical image I or its Fourier transform F. Credit: New Journal of Physics.

mitted – in the system developed at the UT, the sender randomly switches between two different ways of imaging the photon: by showing the optical image or its Fourier transform. This is done by randomly placing an extra optical lens in the light path.

Faster transmission rates

The new system theoretically should achieve transmission speeds of 10 bits per photon. Noise in the system limits this to 7 bits per photon. Unfortunately, practical implementation is difficult. The photons are imaged

and detected using a spatial grid, but this spatial information is lost when they’re sent through a fiberglass cable. The research did contribute to furthering the knowledge about QKD at faster transmission rates. “Our work has led to new insights that certainly can be useful in the development of other higher-transmissionspeed QKD systems, like systems using a method to separate photons in time or frequency,” states Pinkse. “We expect these systems to become commercially available within only a few years from now.”

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INTERVIEW STEFAN VOSSEN (HITTECH MULTIN)

HITTECH WANTS EMPLOYEES TO DRIVE THEIR OWN SUCCESS Training programs can be an effective tool for any high-tech company to attract new talent and help employees sharpen their skills. To Development Manager Stefan Vossen of Hittech Multin, training courses provide something much more important – a chance to discover your intrinsic motivation and realize your passion. Collin Arocho

n 1994, Cor Heijwegen stepped down as a divisional director within the Hoogovens Group. The group consisted of numerous companies that supplied Hoogovens, now Tata Steel, with tools and materials used in the production of iron, steel and aluminum. On his way out, Heijwegen and a couple of colleagues decided to start their own business comprised of several of the Hoogovens suppliers, which was called Hoogovens Industriele Toelevering (Hoogovens Industrial Supply) or Hit Group. In 2004, it was incorporated as Hittech Group. Today, the corporation consists of eight self-governing, but not independent outfits, managed by a small holding company. By design, the companies are kept small, less than 100 people, to ensure flexibility, entrepreneurship and a focus on the customer. One of Hittech’s subsidiaries, Multin specializes in the development and production of mechatronic products for the medical, semicon, measurement and analytical industries. These products are subject to high qualification requirements and are often associated with accurate positioning, optics, vacuum technology, cleanliness and medical regulations. To achieve this, the Hague-based Multin branch requires a staff with a strong technological background, as well as the desire to enhance skills through training. 60

“It’s no wonder that the majority of the development capacity of Hittech Group sits under the roof of Hittech Multin,” remarks Development Manager Stefan Vossen. “To work here requires the mindset and an urgency to constantly improve and the willingness to really engage with customers. That’s why so many of the technological advancements of Hittech are developed in, and with involvement from, this department.”

Philosophy

To maintain the customer-oriented focus, Hittech is continually looking to shake things up and employ out-of-the-box thinking to adapt and better fit its customers’ needs. After all, its mantra is “masters in improvement”. One tool the systems development company uses to ensure this is training. “I have a different kind of philosophy when it comes to training. I’ve noticed a number of times when attending my own courses, there’s a stark difference between those that are motivated to be there and others that are obligated to attend,” recalls Vossen. “The truth is, if you’re not intrinsically motivated to be there, you’re not likely to get anything out of it.” Vossen himself started his career as a scientist at TNO, specializing

in electromagnetism. While at the institute, he became interested in coaching others in their professional trajectories. “It was a rather steep growth track, but I attended multiple trainings on coaching. In these courses, I learned so much about myself,” illustrates Vossen. “That’s where I discovered that I really enjoy working with younger people and trying to help them further their career. That’s when I became a team manager and really found my passion for coaching and mentoring young talent. And ever since, that’s where I’ve tried to put my energy.”

Driver’s seat

Another aspect to Vossen’s philosophy on training is that there will never be a fixed course program in his group. Rather, training programs should be tailor-made to custom fit each member. “It really comes down to the needs of the person, of course, within their role on the team. I want to see them be enthusiastic about something and decide for themselves,” says Vossen. “I shouldn’t be in the driver’s seat of their career. That has to come from them, with their own vision and their own interests. I think taking courses is part of that.” It seems like the approach is paying off. According to Vossen, over the last

Credit: Fotowerkt.nl

few years, product development at Hittech has been undergoing a transition. When the company was founded, the focus was on materials knowledge and construction principles, but now, it’s centered on moving mechanisms and mechatronics, combined with optics, electronics and software. “As a company, we’re offering fully integrated products. But with this transition, we’ve really had to intensify the systems engineering within the group,” expresses Vossen. “This shift meant we needed to adapt and improve our capabilities and I had a number of our engineers requesting to enroll in training courses.”

ROI

Recently, there was such an interest in an EMC training course that Hittech decided to commission a company edition of High Tech Institute’s “EMC for mechatronic engineers”.

“When we select training courses, we don’t want a standard, textbook type of course. It’s important for us to find trainings that are taught by people with deep roots and experience in the high-tech domain,” highlights Vossen. “That’s really why we turned to High Tech Institute. Their trainings are designed for the industry by experts in the industry. It gives me a great level of comfort when arranging these kinds of trainings, as I know the content is always reliable.” A training, however, is meaningless if it doesn’t lead to results, and of course a return on the investment. Though this can sometimes be difficult to quantify, for Vossen, the data is clear. One specific place he’s noticed marked improvements is in the early stages of system design. Vossen: “I’ve seen that our engineers often come back from training with a fresh new perspective. I notice this

particularly in the beginning stages of project planning. For example, in the process of setting up error budgets, the engineers are taking more details into account, specifically with an eye to possible EMC-related issues, very early on. In the past, however, they might have missed these potential issues altogether.” “Another benefit that I attribute to my employees participating in training programs is that it seems to help foster communication. Specifically, between those working in groups that consist of engineers from the various disciplines. They seem to understand each other’s needs better and hence take each other more into account from the start. And while no project is perfect the first time around, the better your specs and conditions are at the beginning of a project, the better and smoother the project is sure to go.” 2 61

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Actuation and power electronics

SOFT SKILLS & LEADERSHIP

16 – 18 November 2020 (3 consecutive days)

Passive damping for high tech systems

How to be successful in the Dutch high tech work culture

17 – 19 November 2020 (3 consecutive days)

26 June 2020 (1 day)

Dynamics and modelling

Effective communication skills for technology professionals – part 1

23 – 25 November 2020 (3 consecutive days)

5 – 7 October 2020 (3 days + 1 evening

Motion control tuning

Starts 8 October 2020 (1,5 day)

Design principles for precision engineering

Time management in innovation

23 – 27 November 2020 (5 consecutive days)

Effective communication skills for technology professionals – part 2

23 – 27 November 2020 (5 consecutive days)

Presentation skills for powerful public speaking

Thermal effects in mechatronic systems

Experimental techniques in mechatronics

30 November – 2 December 2020 (3 consecutive days)

9 – 11 November 2020 (3 days + 1 evening)

1 – 3 December 2020 (3 consecutive days)

11 November 2020 (1 day)

Creative thinking – short course

OPTICS

12 November 2020 (1 day)

Leadership skills for architects and other technical leaders Starts 16 November (2 modules of 2 days)

Starts 18 September 2020 (15 weekly morning sessions)

Consultative selling for technology professionals

Modern optics for optical designers – Part 2

23 & 24 November 2020 (2 consecutive days + 1 evening)

Starts 11 September 2020 (15 weekly morning sessions)

Creative thinking – full course

Applied optics in Eindhoven

24 & 25 November 2020 (2 consecutive days)

Starts 27 October 2020 (15 weekly afternoons)

Benefit from autism in your R&D team 3 December 2020 (1 day) NE W E ONLIN UL E MOD NE W E ONLIN UL E MOD

SOFTWARE

ELECTRONICS

Object-oriented system control automation Starts 17 September 2020 (2+3 consecutive days)

Electronics cooling thermal design

Introduction to deep learning

11 - 15 May 2020 (5 consecutive afternoons)

8 October 2020 (1 day)

Advanced cooling of electronics

Object-oriented analysis and design – fast track

24 – 26 June 2020 (3 consecutive afternoons)

12 – 15 October 2020 (4 consecutive days)

Digital signal processing

Software engineering for non-software engineers

Starts 7 September 2020 (17 weekly Monday evenings)

Starts 29 October 2020 (2 evenings sessions)

Design of analog electronics – analog electronics 1

Multicore programming in C++

Starts 14 September 2020 (9 days in 16 weeks)

2 – 4 November 2020 (3 consecutive days)

Ultra low power for Internet of Things

Design patterns and emergent architecture

5 & 6 November 2020 (2 consecutive days)

9 – 12 November 2020 (4 consecutive days)

Switch-mode power supplies

Speed, Data and Ecosystems

Starts 11 November 2020 (2 modules of 3 days)

18 & 19 November 2020 (2 consecutive days)

EMC for motion systems

Modern C++

16 – 18 November 2020 (3 consecutive days)

Starts 7 April 2021 (4 days in 2 weeks)

Thermal design and cooling of electronics workshop

Secure coding in C and C++

18 – 20 November 2020 (3 consecutive days)

12 – 14 April 2021 (3 consecutive days)

Design of analog electronics – analog IC design NEW

SYSTEM

Starts 1 February 2021 (11 days in 18 weeks)

Solid State generated RF & applications

System architect(ing) in Zwolle

3 – 5 March 2021 (3 consecutive days)

8 – 12 June 2020 (5 consecutive days)

Design for manufacturing

MECHATRONICS

Starts 1 September 2020 (3 days in 3 weeks + assurance session)

System architect(ing) in Eindhoven

Mechatronics system design – part 1

28 September – 2 October 2020 (5 consecutive days)

System requirements engineering improvement

Advanced feedforward & learning control

30 September – 2 October 2020 (3 consecutive days)

Mechatronics system design – part 2 5 – 9 October 2020 (5 consecutive days)

Advanced motion control

26 – 30 October 2020 (5 consecutive days)

Metrology & calibration of mechatronic systems 27 – 29 October 2020 (3 consecutive days)

Basics & design principles for ultra-clean vacuum 2 – 5 November 2020 (4 consecutive days)

Modern optics for optical designers – Part 1

NEW N TIO LOCA

1 & 2 October 2020 (2 consecutive days)

System architect(ing) in Leuven (Belgium) 16 – 20 November 2020 (5 consecutive days)

Introduction to SysML 4 March 2020 (1 day)

Systems modelling with SysML

12 – 15 April 2021 (4 consecutive days)

Value-cost ratio improvement by value engineering 20 & 21 May 2020 (2 consecutive days)

UPCOMING ISSUES

Careers and leadership in high tech

Trends in software development

Bits&Chips 3 | 12 June 2020

Bits&Chips 4 | 4 September 2020

The need for engineers is as high as ever. Beginners and upward movers have plenty of jobs from which to choose. In this issue, experienced experts from small firms to major corporations reveal what it’s like and how to get ahead working in the high tech industry.

High-tech systems are increasingly dependent on software development for their quality, reliability, security and commercial success. What are the do’s and don’ts? What are the state-of-the-art methods and tools? This issue shares findings from the field.

Interested in contributing? nieke@techwatch.nl

Interested in advertising? sales@techwatch.nl

About Bits&Chips

Bits&Chips is an independent news magazine for people who work to make smart products and machines. Bits&Chips is a publication of Techwatch BV in Nijmegen, the Netherlands.

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Training courses Linda van Hoeij – course manager tel +31 85 4013600 – linda.van.hoeij@hightechinstitute.nl Petry Jansen – marketing and sales employee tel +31 85 4013600 – petry.jansen@hightechinstitute.nl Heleen Wammes – employee

Editorial Nieke Roos – editor-in-chief tel +31 24 3503534 – nieke@techwatch.nl René Raaijmakers – editor tel +31 24 3503065 – rene@techwatch.nl Paul van Gerven – editor tel +31 24 3505028 – paul@techwatch.nl Collin Arocho – editor tel +31 24 3503533 – collin@techwatch.nl Jessica Vermeer – editor tel +31 24 3503534 – jessica@techwatch.nl Antoinette Brugman – editor tel +31 24 3503534 – antoinette@techwatch.nl Alexander Pil – editor tel +31 24 3504580 – alexander@techwatch.nl Design Justin López – graphic designer and illustrator tel +31 24 3503532 – justin@techwatch.nl Sales, marketing and events Kim Huijing – head of marketing and sales tel +31 24 3505195 – kim@techwatch.nl Marjolein Vissers – event manager tel +31 24 3505544 – marjolein@techwatch.nl Mariska van Hoeven – marketing and sales employee tel +31 24 3505544 – mariska@techwatch.nl Bo van Gaal – marketing and sales employee tel +31 24 3505195 – bo@techwatch.nl

Administrative Mathilde van Hulzen – finance tel +31 24 3503532 – invoices@techwatch.nl Advisor Maarten Verboom External staff Ilse de Boer, Femke Veldhuis Contributing writers Wim Bens, Mark Gortemaker, Harmke de Groot, Marco Hagting, Pim Kat, Cees Links, Anton van Rossum, Han Schaminée, Annet Veenstra, Frank Vonk, Henk Zeegers Publisher René Raaijmakers tel +31 24 3503065 – rene@techwatch.nl ISSN 1879-6443 Publisher in Belgium René Raaijmakers Biesheuvelstraat 1 2370 Arendonk, Belgium Printer Vellendrukkerij BDU Barneveld

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Disclaimer Though the publisher and editors take the utmost care in creating, compiling and distributing the information in Bits&Chips, they cannot guarantee the information is correct or complete. The publisher and editors are in no way liable for damages that may arise in connection with the publication of information in Bits&Chips. Columnists and external staff write in a personal capacity. Reader responses fall outside the publisher’s and editors’ scope of responsibility. The publisher and editors are in no way liable for the content and signature of reader responses. The editors reserve the right to edit responses and to publish them in part or not at all.

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Cover Main photo: multibeam SEM consortium

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bits-chips.nl

Bits&Chips 2 | 1 May 2020 | From idea to industry

Articles inside

Secure communication with 7 bits per photon

Saving Europe from digital colonization

System requirements defi ned by cascades of creativity

Software savvy in the digital era

Thousands of beams light the way to the automotive big league

TUE researchers squeeze light from silicon

NLR takes the controls to bring propeller noise down

Envision sees clearer with Google Glass integration

Helping breakthrough startups across the valley of death

ItoM Medical transplants its biometric sensing platform to a chip

From Engineer of the Year to bankruptcy

Reducing an optical sensor interrogator to the size of a memory stick

Taking off might have been the easy part for CITC

Merger of European T&M providers powers

Multibeam SEM shifts 3D cell imaging into top gear

Semicon market screams for innovation in chip testing

There’s an app for that – Paul van Gerven

Corona noise

Corona crisis sparks Flemish fever scanner demand

Chip-based diagnostics device from Leuven