newsletter report Telecom & Media sector in Europe of GPS tracker for Internet-of-Things applications

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1 Februari - Maart 6 7 de jaargag - r. verschijt tweemaadelijks afgiftekatoor: 2800 Mechele P2A6695 Veratw. Uitg.: Peter Simkes DSP Valley vzw., Gasto Geeslaa 9, 300 Leuve, Belgium tel. +32 (0) fax +32 (0) desigig smart products Preface 3 Techology Flash u KU Leuve imids - μpp: Plug-ad-Play Peripherals for the Iteret-of-Thigs u Itrisic-ID ad Ivesese develop the Trusted Sesor for IoT I the spotlights 4 u Altra - Strategic collaboratio with Jaguar Lad Rover & 4 report Telecom & Media sector i Europe u Imec supports Airobot with the commercializatio of a close rage flyig 5 system for droes u Imec supports Ghet-based start-up Sesolus with optimizatio 5 of GPS tracker for Iteret-of-Thigs applicatios u Barco Silex validates iteroperable VC-2 lightweight video compressio 6 solutio for ASIC/FPGA ready for UHD ad 4K trasport u Uiversity of Atwerp - NEXOR cosortium Next Geeratio of Heterogeeous 6 Sesor Networks, Iteret of Thigs (IoT) ad Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) u Sofics clippig circuit protects wireless iterface circuits agaist excess voltage 8 u Sigasi fouder featured i book about etrepreeurs 8 u itopix Hoored With The Prestigious IABM Peter Waye Award 9 u Xetal Named Oe of the 8 Most Promisig Europea Start-Ups 0 u MiDCet supportig STEM educatio i Belgium 0 Embedded corer 0 u KU Leuve ESAT-MICAS at the Iteratioal Solid-State Circuits Coferece 206 Cotact Iformatio 2 KU Leuve imids - μpp: Plug-ad-Play Peripherals for the Iteret-of-Thigs 5 Creatig, deployig ad cofigurig applicatios for the Iteret-of-Thigs (IoT) still remais complex. Micro Plugad-Play (μpp) tackles this complexity problem by offerig a ear-zero cofiguratio approach that empowers oexpert ed-users to quickly take their IoT ifrastructure olie. 6 cotiuatio o page 2

2 cotiuatio from page μpp i a utshell μpp offers a coheret hardware & software toolkit that eables the automated cofiguratio of ew peripherals ito the IoT. Key differetiators iclude:. Low-cost, low-power peripheral idetificatio. μpp automatically idetifies coected embedded peripherals ad istalls their correspodig driver software. Idetifyig a peripheral with µpp cosumes millio times less power tha USB. Ay existig IoT peripheral ca immediately be repackaged as a μpp-peripheral. 2. Remote peripheral discovery, deploymet & usage via stadard IPv6 Multicast. μpp coects IPv6 multicast addresses directly to physical pheomea to eable lowoverhead peripheral discovery ad remote access. Peripheral services The top figure shows µpp eabled devices with various peripherals for (temperature, humidity, motio) sesig ad actuatio (a buzzer or a switch). µpp eables automated IoT cofiguratio as evaluated i the server room of the Computer Sciece Departmet at KU Leuve. third-party solutios. I combiatio with Liear Techology s SmartMesh IP, μpp achieves 0 years of battery lifetime ad % reliability. Sciece Departmet (see Figure ). Curretly, imids-distrinet is preparig prototypes i agricultural automatio, trasport & logistics ad e-healthcare. ca be remotely accessed usig CoAP over both uicast ad multicast, allowig for efficiet ad easy itegratio with third-party techologies. 3. Global web access to cofigure all odes remotely. Global access to each μpp etwork is provided through a JavaScript library that establishes a NAT-proof coectio betwee cliets ad the μpp gateway. 4. Ultra low power ad reliable mesh etworkig. The μpp software stack is fully compliat to IEEE, IETF ad IPSO stadards, ad itegrates easily with μpp i actio μpp was awarded third place i the IPSO Challege 205, which evaluated IoT prototypes o their iovatio, breadth of applicability, marketability, ad ease of use ( ipso-alliace.org/, alliace.org/challege205/meet-the- 205-semi-fialists/micropp). The te semi-fialists preseted their prototype for a idustrial jury at the Desigers of Thigs coferece i Silico Valley. Beyod the IPSO Challege, imids-distrinet is takig μpp out of the lab ad ito idustrial reality. First step was to deploy a μpp eabled temperature ad humidity moitorig applicatio for the server room at KU Leuve s Computer imids-distrinet track record i idustry collaboratio imids-distrinet is a iteratioal research group at KU Leuve with extesive expertise i secure ad distributed software, icludig middleware. More iformatio: cs.kuleuve.be. Curretly, imids-distrinet is actively ivolved i about 35 regioal ad Europea projects, ofte i close collaboratio with idustry. The kow-how of imids-distrinet was at the basis of Ubize, a spi-off compay specialized i secure e-busiess ad related security services (ow part of Verizo). 2

3 TECHNOLOGY FLASH Itrisic-ID ad Ivesese develop the Trusted Sesor for IoT Iteret of Thigs (IoT) applicatios are ofte drive by data that is gathered by sesors i the field. Sesors are at the heart of ay IoT applicatio but util ow, sesor security has ot bee addressed because of cost ad size restrictios. With the icreasig awareess of IoT security this ca o loger be igored. TrustedSesor is the first sesor product that itegrates security without compromisig o performace ad efficiecy. Our solutio extracts a cryptographic key from the uique silico properties of the sesor chip, says Pim Tuyls, Presidet ad CEO of Itrisic-ID. This The TrustedSesor solutio will be available i early 206 for the IveSese FireFly platform for motio sesors ad will become a stadard feature i IveSese s sesor roadmap. Developers ad OEMs will be able to purchase the complete solutio from IveSese. I order to develop a strog sesor data security solutio that is easy to itegrate ito a device ad does ot affect the performace of the sesor or the device, IveSese partered with Itrisic-ID. Trusted Sesor Cocept Trusted Sesor booth at CES 206 eables secure ad reliable autheticatio of data from the sesor to a host processor ad prevets ayoe from maipulatig the iterfaces or replacig the sesor without authorizatio, all with miimal impact o the cost ad desig of the sesor. Itrisic-ID CEO Pim Tuyls at Ivesese Developer Coferece Prototype has bee showcased at CES, Jauary 206 ad at the IveSese Developers Coferece November 205. Silico Europe Alliace starts iteratioalizatio with ESCiP project After fiishig the strategic pla o how to improve the competitiveess of the Europea semicoductor idustry, based o a iter-cluster cooperatio model, the Silico Europe Alliace has ow started some first implemetatio activities of this strategic pla. A importat actio lie i the strategic pla is the support to iteratioal busiess developmet for the participatig cluster members. This iteratioalizatio will happe at 3 differet levels: A first level focuses o the parterig ad matchmakig i Europe betwee busiesses ad/or research istitutes from differet clusters i the Silico Europe Alliace. As such, this process aims at brigig together differet players, ofte techology providers, from the semicoductor idustry; The secod level emphasizes o creatig market value, startig from the available techologies ad competecies i the micro/ao-electroics as key eablig techology for a large area of smart electroic applicatios, ragig from health to automotive or eergy. Therefore, the clusters i the Silico Europe Alliace will look for cooperatio with more applicatio orieted clusters i Europe. Fially, the third level wats to reach out to cotiuatio o page 4 Preface 3

4 Altra - Strategic collaboratio with Jaguar Lad Rover & report Telecom & Media sector i Europe Jaguar Lad Rover parter to develop future software platform for itelliget vehicles ad machies Altra, global leader i iovatio ad high-tech egieerig cosultig, ad Jaguar Lad Rover aouced a strategic collaboratio to develop ad market a uique ad groud-breakig ope software platform. This platform will revolutioize traditioal Electrical ad Electroic (E/E) automotive architectures by brigig together cuttig-edge idustrial ad egieerig techiques with the processes, methods ad tools foud i the cosumer electroics idustry. Altra report o Telecom & Media sector i Europe The ew Altra report etitled Value migratio i the Telecom ad Media sector i Europe: a Europea tragedy? aalyzes the value migratio game over the last decade, with a global scope. The report examies the market capitalizatio of 4 compaies i 6 key Telecom & Media segmets: Telecom Operators, Telecom Vedors, Termial Vedors, IT Vedors, Iteret Compaies (OTT s), Media Compaies. The aalysis highlights how Europe was sidelied compared with major US ad Asia compaies i a market that could experiece its ext techological revolutio i the upcomig years. Some iterestig poits that are raised cocer the expoetial data traffic growth for the years to come which relies o FTTH as i 4G ad is the oly way to meet demad. Besides, the developmet ad operatio of FTTH etworks provide gais i efficiecy due to lower operatig costs. Icreases i speed, i both etworks, ope a rage of ew services where operators must ivest if they wat to compete. Amog them are TV services across multiple devices, music, games ad other streamig media cotet that operators must make available to their customers. They must also iclude services based o other techologies such as Cloud, iteret of thigs (IoT) or M2M where several strategies are adopted: ifrastructure ivestmets, or parterships with or purchase of compaies that already offer these services. While i this domai, telecom operators face itese competitio from curret players ad ew etrats, i particular from OTTs. Read the full report o the Altra website or via this lik: tiyurl.com/jz56tdr Preface cotiuatio from page 3 other regios beyod Europe. I the iteratioalizatio pla which is part of the Silico Europe strategic pla, two target regios already have bee selected: Taiwa ad the Uited States. For the third level with the iteratioali- zatio beyod Europe, targetig Taiwa ad the US, a team of six clusters of the Silico Europe Alliace, has bee grated fiacial support by the Europea Commissio, uder the COSME Go Iteratioal program. The ESCiP team ( ESCiP : Europea Semicoductor Cluster Iteratioalizatio Project) -with Mialogic (FR), Silico Saxoy (DE), mi-cluster (GR), High Tech NL (NL)ad Distretto Gree & High Tech Moza-Briaza (IT), uder the lead of DSP Valley (BE)- has started the preparatio of some first activities, which will result i a Europea Week i Taiwa i early Jue. Needless to say, these iteratioalizatio activities are beig orgaized at the beefit of the Silico Europe Alliace cluster members. We hope to get a lot of them o board of our activities! Best regards, Peter Simkes Maagig Director DSP Valley The ESCiP team at the project kick-off at the Corallia offices i Athes (GR) 4

5 IN THE SPOTLIGHTS Imec supports Airobot with the commercializatio of a close rage flyig system for droes Imec has supported Airobot, a Hasseltbased start-up that develops professioal droe performace equipmet, with the commercializatio of its Airobot Rager, a droe add-o module for the safe avigatio of droes. Whe ispectig or filmig objects at altitude with droes it is very difficult to judge the distace betwee the droe ad the object. Airobot solves this problem by offerig a distace meter, comparable to a parkig sesor for cars. The Airobot Rager clearly idicates o a tablet the distace to a object such that the droe ca capture detailed images of that object i a safe way. Applicatios are e.g. droes for ispectio ad surveillace, ad for professioal photography of buildigs. Airobot has the ambitio to lauch this solutio o the market ad has defied the techical specificatio for this techology. Thaks to its successful collaboratio with imec Airobot was able to select the right techology for the realizatio of a compact module for professioal droes. Together with Airobot imec has selected ad measured electroic buildig blocks years via tablet, pc or smartphoe, without havig to recharge or replace the battery. Projects are carried out i e.g. logistics, arts, sailig, ad eve for trackig herds of sheep. The tracker has credit card-size dimesios, ad serves as a istall-ad-forget solutio thaks the multi-year autoomy of the battery. The itegrated SigFox module eables log-rage low power wireless commufor the Airobot Rager, ad suggested several optimizatios. I the ext step, imec supported Airobot with the selectio of a proper low power wireless commuicatio module ad with the itegratio of this module together with ragig sesors ad a system processor o a PCB. Fially imec suggested improvemets for the cotrol of the sesors. Imec supports Ghet-based start-up Sesolus with optimizatio of GPS tracker for Iteret-of-Thigs applicatios Sesolus, a Ghet-based start-up that develops low power solutios for Iteretof-Thigs (IoT) applicatios, has collaborated with imec for the optimizatio of its sticktrack GPS tracker with itegrated low power SigFox commuicatio chip ( Imec has thoroughly reviewed the curret hardware module of Sesolus ad has made suggestios for future optimizatios. This collaboratio was eabled by the ESA Busiess Icubatio Cetre Fladers for which Sesolus has bee selected. Sesolus StickTrack solutios cosists of a gps module for localizatio ad a state-of-the-art SigFox low power commuicatio module, combied with a cloud-based platform o which Sesolus has built applicatios ad services for sesor maagemet. Thaks to the StickTrack tracker a customer ca locate his objects durig several icatio ad is specifically developed for IoT applicatios. Imec has performed a fuctioal review of the StickTrack tracker for reliability, maufacturability, testability, eergy cosumptio ad the quality of the wireless coectio (a.o. system architecture ad compoet selectio, atea solutio ad itegratio). Imec has made suggestios for future improvemets to the curret desig. This collaboratio illustrates imec s broad rage of collaboratio opportuities for the local idustry, ad for SMEs ad start-up compaies i particular. By providig access to imec s techology, kowledge, competeces, ifrastructure ad ecosystem, imec wats to support local iovative compaies i their desig of smarter, cheaper, more powerful products. 5

6 Barco Silex validates iteroperable VC-2 lightweight video compressio solutio for ASIC/FPGA ready for UHD ad 4K trasport Barco Silex, leadig provider of IP cores for the audiovisual idustry, has validated its hardware solutio for lightweight, low-complexity video compressio agaist the SMPTE referece. The low-footprit core is ow ready to be itegrated i both ASIC ad FPGA desigs without eed for expesive footprit. This opes up ew possibilities for equipmet maufacturers as they get a low-cost, iteroperable compressio solutio to upgrade video trasport to high-defiitio formats such as UHD ad 4K. Barco Silex solutio implemets the VC-2 Low Delay codec. Origially coceived at the BBC labs, VC-2 LD is a lightweight, low-cost, patet-free solutio that ca either be added to the existig hardware or ru i software. It compresses video 4: visually lossless ad allows for sub-millisecod delays, which is essetial for video applicatios Uiversity of Atwerp - NEXOR cosortium Next Geeratio of Heterogeeous Sesor Networks, Iteret of Thigs (IoT) ad Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) NEXOR strives towards the ext geeratio of autoomous sesor etworks that provide commuicatio, moitorig, ad cotrol of physical compoets ad processes. The cosortium members offer a uique mix of complemetary & iterdiscipliary expertise supportig idustrial compaies durig system desig ad developmet through a itegrated kow-how o heterogeeous sesor etworks ad cyber-physical systems that combies modellig, testig, sesig, data processig, etworkig, ad maagemet. NEXOR is a cosortium of the Uiversity of Atwerp, cosistig of the followig research groups: ANSYMO (Fladers Make); CoSys-Lab (Fladers Make); ENM - APL; MOSAIC (imids). Our expertise The NEXOR cosortium provides for a itegrated approach coverig the complete value chai of heterogeeous sesor etworks startig from a sigle sesor desig, distributed sesor commuicatio to complete system modellig, simulatio ad testig. Competece areas are: Software-itesive Systems (SIS) Foudatios, techiques, methods ad tools for the desig, aalysis ad maiteace of SIS supportig icreased applicatio complexity (e.g. computatioal resources, parallel computatio, iteractive behaviour, hybrid systems supportig iteractios of software with physical compoets, software evolutio). Software reegieerig: Evolutio of object-orieted software systems supported by quality assurace ad automated testig. Model-drive approach: Aalysis of the implicatios of techical choices durig the desig phase, i.e. quality ad safety guaratees as required by the IEC ad ISO safety stadards. Embedded techologies for CPS Software, applicatio ad system desig complyig with costraits such as limited performace, cost, safety, eergy cosumptio. Methods ad toolig: embedded codig, static code aalysis (e.g. MISRA-C), exploitig multicore ad fuctioal safety for embedded software. Model-drive egieerig: validatio of embedded software i the area of cotrol systems supported through modellig i differet formalisms, model trasformatios, (co-)simulatio, automatic desig space exploratio, code geeratio, test framework geeratio. IoT - Distributed systems ad commuicatio etworks with focus o: Embedded distributed heterogeeous systems: combiig etities ragig from low-level embedded devices to high-level cloud resources, focusig o schedulig, 6

7 IN THE SPOTLIGHTS that require (ear) real-time operatio. Most importatly, VC-2 LD has bee accepted as a stadard (SMPTE 2042), which esures equipmet supplier support ad iteroperability. To prove its solutio is ready for the AV market, the video experts from Barco Silex have ow validated their ASIC/FPGA implemetatio agaist the latest available VC-2 coformace referece software. I additio, they have prove the iteroperability betwee their implemetatio ad the BBC s ope-source software, ecodig through their IP core ad decodig with the software. We kept true to the desig goals of VC-2 LD ad created a IP block of miimal size ad complexity, says Jea- Marie Cloquet, product maager of Barco Silex video divisio. The result is a core that ca be itegrated o ay FPGA of choice, eve if that is a mid- or low-rage chip. With this core, addig VC-2 to your hardware toolbox has become a cost- ad time-efficiet way to upgrade your video trasport to the high-defiitio formats, without the eed to ivest heavily i ew ifrastructure ad storage. Barco Silex ships its blocks, with a fuctioal simulatio test bech, sythesis ad implemetatio scripts, ad full documetatio. The IP solutios have bee made with easy itegratio i mid. I additio, the experts at Barco Silex are ready to assist customers, be it to discuss ideas, help draw up efficiet desigs, eve dow to executig full itegratio projects. resource maagemet ad distributed software paradigms. Maagemet ad cotrol of IoT etworks: ovel etwork cotrol (e.g., MAC schedulig, routig) ad maagemet (e.g., fault detectio, security, resource allocatio, QoS) for highly dyamic, heterogeeous ad costraied wireless etwork eviromets. Low-power commuicatios: ultra-low power commuicatio, low power embedded systems, ad RF localizatio. Specifically ivestigatio of low power physical ad MAC layer protocols of, as well as localisatio usig Sub-Ghz trasmissio techologies. Sesor Processig Aalysis, desig ad implemetatio (hardware, software) of the complete iformatio extractio hierarchy coverig Low level, real-time sigal processig o the raw sesor measuremets; Sesor fusio combiig data from multiple heterogeeous sesors; Data miig extractig useful iformatio from large amouts of sesor data. Idustrial cases This expertise is deployed i socially relevat applicatio areas such as mobility, logistics, maufacturig, smart cities, home/buildig automatio, eergy efficiecy. Our offer NEXOR targets typical questios that arise durig idustrial system desig ad developmet providig added value i a itegrated way. Feasibility acquire ecessary kowhow through expertise ad ifrastructure to build coceptual prototypes. Sustaiability comply with costraits such as limited performace, cost, ad eergy cosumptio. Safety esure strict safety stadards. NEXOR is active i atioal ad iteratioal iitiatives with parters from idustry ad academia focused o EU programmes such as Horizo 2020, ECSEL, EUREKA, AAL, COST Actios. I additio, we offer a clear focus o idustrial valorisatio withi the strategic research istitutes imids (ICT) ad Fladers Make (Maufacturig). 7

8 Sofics clippig circuit protects wireless iterface circuits agaist excess voltage Last year, about 40% of ew smartphoes icluded Near Field Commuicatio (NFC). Aalysts predict that by 207 there will be billio NFC eabled phoes. Clearly, the use of NFC is rampig up because it ca simplify aspects as diverse as commuicatio, secure paymets, user autheticatio, ad retail loyalty programs for istace. Addig NFC fuctioality to a itegrated circuit ivolves coectig the wireless iterface pis to a atea/ coil. The voltage o those pads strogly deped o the distace betwee ad aligmet of trasmit/read devices ad the power of the trasmittig device. Simulatios by oe of our customers showed a worst case of almost 0V betwee pads, which is rather high for advaced CMOS techology. There are basically 2 ways to cope with this excess voltage.. Desigers use trasistors that ca tolerate voltage up to 0V. Fortuately, may NFC applicatios also require o-chip o-volatile memory (NVM). A typical, simplified NFC approach: Near field (max. 0m) commuicatio betwee 2 devices. Such NVM circuits typically use a thicker gate oxide ad foudries provide high voltage trasistors for such embedded flash process flavors. Several of Sofics customers have used those NVM trasistors for the first stage of the atea circuit. The problem is that high voltage trasistors are easily damaged durig electrostatic discharge (ESD) stress. A parallel o-chip ESD protectio circuit (with 0V tolerace) is the easiest solutio. Sofics has ESD clamps o several techology odes that are used for the protectio of NFC atea pads. 2. It is possible to reduce the excess voltage with a so-called clippig or limitig circuit. The simple approach is to use a set of diodes but due to the large amout of curret the diode perimeter is rather large. This leads to high leakage curret durig o-clipped operatio. Sofics Sigasi fouder featured i book about etrepreeurs Sigasi fouder Philippe Faes is oe of 2 etrepreeurs beig featured i the book Hoek Af from author ad startupexpert Eric Keis. All people with a story ad a idea slightly eccetric, diehards, headstrog who had ups ad dows ad still put their dreams ito actio. Philippe Faes ad his co-fouder Hedrik Eeckhaut are egieers, ad became etrepreeurs out of ecessity. They were frustrated with existig hardware desig tools like Emacs ad Vim, ad felt that there was a eed for ew ad better optios. They thought that the power of IDEs like Eclipse ad Visual Studio should be available to hardware desigers too. Nobody else was marketig their idea, so they decided to do it themselves ad became etrepreeurs. I retrospect, whe they started their compay Sigasi 7 years ago, they had little idea what creatig ad fosterig a compay was all about. So yes, they made mistakes - ad Faes talks freely about them i the book. After we gathered eough fuds to start Sigasi, we oly focused o developig our software. Our first mistake. Almost o oe kew what we were doig. Our product was good. The problem was that the market did t kow that we existed. We should have goe to the customer much faster. Test our product, our ideas, determie what was workig ad what ot. 8

9 IN THE SPOTLIGHTS itopix Hoored With The Prestigious IABM Peter Waye Award Award for TICO Lightweight Compressio used i 4K Over IP Workflows Without excess voltage limitig circuits the voltage ca get close to 0V. The Sofics clippig circuit limits the voltage betwee the +/- atea pads to 3.6V durig fuctioal operatio. The cliplevel ca be set at 2.2V for compatibility with low power.8v iterfaces too. itopix has bee preseted with the prestigious IABM Peter Waye Award for Desig ad Iovatio for its TICO lightweight compressio. With this game chagig techology, itopix ad broadcast equipmet vedors are easig the trasitio to IP ad UHDTV 4K i Live productio workflows while esurig iteroperability with existig SDI ifrastructures. The Peter Waye Award for Desig & Iovatio was iaugurated by the IABM i 990 i memory of a former deputy chairma of the associatio ad recogizes ew products ad techologies that offer a sigificat cotributio to the broadcast ad media idustry. Judged by a pael of reowed specialists, the award has become highly sought after as recogitio of outstadig techical achievemet. itopix was selected for this accolade from a lis t of 8 omiated compaies. has desiged a ovel clippig circuit to solve those issues. The clippig circuit was used to protect the NFC atea pads i a ultra-low power Bluetooth chip with Touch-to-pair fuctioality. The product, processed i TSMC 55m techology, is ruig i mass productio ad is used for all kids of home automatio ad IoT applicatios. We are hoored to have wo this award, says Gael Rouvroy CTO at itopix. It is a recogitio of our techology cotributio to ease the trasitio to UHDTV ad IP-based ifrastructures Sigasi CEO Philippe Faes (left), with his co-fouder Hedrik Eeckhaut Learig lessos ad passig them o All 2 etrepreeurs featured i Hoek Af, icludig Davy Kestes (Sparkcetral) ad Maarte Vadebroucke (Gatewig ad Ticto), talk opely about the lessos they ve leared alog the way. I leared a lot from biographies of famous etrepreeurs. Steve Jobs, Richard Braso, me who have achieved a icredible thigs, ad whose mistakes ca teach you a lot. A etrepreeur who idetifies his ow mistakes ad puts them o paper, that s always iterestig to read, says Faes. The book lauch comes at a sigificat time for Philippe Faes. At the same time his compay Sigasi is takig a ext big step. With a ew look & feel ad web site to support them, this group of dedicated tech ethusiasts have just released revised versios of their hardware desig tools ow called Sigasi Studio Starter, Sigasi Studio Creator ad Sigasi Studio XL. We are ow caterig to the eeds of every VHDL desiger worldwide, Faes proudly aouces. About Sigasi Sigasi (Ghet, Belgium) is the compay behid Sigasi Studio - a itelliget VHDL hardware desig tool that features advaced programmig assistace for egieerig teams who create microchips for strictly regulated ad safety sesitive eviromets. Sigasi Studio is sold worldwide to idustry leaders i medical, telecom, automotive, defese ad aerospace. It reduces developmet times, ehaces desig team efficiecy ad takes the maual labor out of hardware desig. 9

10 IN THE SPOTLIGHTS Xetal Named Oe of the 8 Most Promisig Europea Start-Ups OpeAxel is a Europea project -lauched i October 203- with the goal to support ICT compaies i acceleratig their busiess growth through iteratioalisatio ad cross-border fiacig. Oe of its key activities is to detect the 8 most promisig start-ups i Europe who will, amog other thigs, go to Silico Valley to meet top rated CEO s ad ivestors, ad participate to About Xetal Xetal is iovatig the way buildigs adapt to people s eeds. Xetal has developed Kisei: a iovative idoor people localizatio techology that does ot require a perso wearig or carryig ay type of device or phoe. Kisei relies o proprietary positioig sesors placed o walls, beds or door frames to detect ad track oe or more people with a accuracy of about 30cm. Whe such a accurate positio iformatio is used together with kowledge about the room itself, it is possible to uderstad what is happeig i the room, what people are doig ad determie, what is likely to happe ext. Kisei does ot use cameras, audio or ay other idetificatio techology makig it the perfect techology for cases which require respect for persoal privacy. the OpeAxel Showcase at the at the Mobile World Cogress i Barceloa i 206. Xetal has bee selected as oe of the 9 wiers of the secod (ad last) call amog more tha 00 europea start-ups. Makig Xetal oe of the most promisig Europea startups! to quote Agusti Moro Cañada (Wayra Telefoica) from the OpeAxel team. This is a amazig opportuity for us to be itroduced i Silico Valley says Fracesco Pessolao, CEO of Xetal, Ad it comes at a momet where we see sigificat sales growth especially i Italy thaks to our parter SeeigSmart. MiDCet supportig STEM educatio i Belgium The STEM Charter O November 22 th 205 MiDCet siged the STEM (Sciece, Techology, Egieerig, Mathematics) charter together with other selected orgaizatios, uiversities ad high-tech compaies. With this charter MiDCet wats to testify from practice how iterestig, useful ad socially relevat Sciece, Techology, Egieerig ad Mathematics are. The sigatories to this charter, the STEM ambassadors, wat to stimulate the iterest ad passio for STEM, to icrease STEM -ability ad expertise, ad reder STEM educatios ad professios more attractive. To tackle the challeges of tomorrow, we eed to collectively hadle sciece, techology, egieerig ad mathematics i a smart ad dyamic way. The STEM ambassadors will joitly support the visio STEM for tomorrow : php Come & See MiDCet i 206 MiDCet cotiues to develop ew products ad IP also i 206. As a traditio these ew developmets will be show ad demostrated at tradefairs ad cofereces throughout the world. Do t hesitate to visit our booth at oe of the followig evets: APEC (Applied Power Electroics Coferece) - March 20-24: APEC Log-Beach, Califoria, USA PCIM (Iteratioal Exhibitio ad Coferece for Power Electroics, Itelliget Motio, Reewable Eergy ad Eergy Maagemet) - May 0-2 Nürberg, Germay Electroica - November 4-7: (Trade Fair) Müche, Germay 0

11 EMBEDDED CORNER KU Leuve ESAT-MICAS at the Iteratioal Solid-State Circuits Coferece 206 I February 206, researchers from the KU Leuve ESAT-MICAS (Microelectroics Ad Sesors) research group have preseted 4 papers at the Iteratioal Solid-State Circuits Coferece (ISSCC), held yearly i Sa Fracisco. As the foremost global forum for presetatio of advaces i solid-state circuits ad systems-o-achip, ISSCC offers a uique opportuity The 94.6% Efficiecy, Fully Itegrated DC-DC coverter, desiged at ESAT-MICAS, that has bee preseted at ISSCC206 for egieers workig at the cuttig edge of IC desig ad applicatio to maitai techical currecy, ad to etwork with leadig experts. KU Leuve ESAT-MICAS has historically had a large impact o the field of itegrated power maagemet ad cotiues to do so with paper 2.2 A 94.6%-Efficiecy Fully Itegrated Switched-Capacitor DC-DC Coverter i Baselie 40m CMOS Usig Scalable Parasitic Charge Redistributio. We itroduced a ovel techique that sigificatly reduces the domiat parasitic losses i Switched-Capacitor coverters, commeted presetig author Nicolas Butze. This allowed us to achieve the highest reported fully itegrated DC-DC coversio efficiecy to date, without the use of expesive high-desity capacitors. Marco Vigilate, part of the mm-wave research group, preseted paper 20.0 A 68.-to-96.4GHz Variable-Gai Low-Noise Amplifier i 28m CMOS. He added: We demostrated with measuremet a low-oise amplifier that achieves the highest reported gai over the widest -3dB badwidth i the 70/80GHz bads, thaks to the circuit techiques developed i MICAS. This results i a record gai-badwidth product i excess of 0.8THz. KU Leuve ESAT-MICAS also showed the ext step i readout schemes for X-ray imagig i collaboratio with the Large Area Departmet (LAE) of Imec Belgium, with A flexible thi-film pixel array with a charge-to-curret gai of 59 µa/pc ad 0.33% o-liearity ad a cost-effective readout circuit for large-area X-ray imagig (paper 6.5). By usig active pixels i curret-mode istead of passive pixels, we were able to demostrate the highest reported gai ad liearity, said first author Floria De Roose. Paper 22.4 A 72μW Compressive Samplig Photoplethysmographic Readout with Embedded Direct Heart- Rate ad Variability Extractio from Compressively Sampled Data was preseted by Pamula Vekata Rajesh. He commeted: We demostrated a ultra-low power PPG readout employig compressive samplig (CS) with embedded feature extractio directly from CS data. The ASIC eables reductio of LED power cosumptio by up to 30 times without sigificatly degradig the accuracy of heart rate estimatio. Professor Wim Dehaee, head of MICAS, cocludes: Altogether, these papers cover a broad spectrum of topics ad clearly show how the MICAS research group at KU Leuve remais at the highest iteratioal level i the field of aalog, digital, mixed-mode, RF ad mm-wave IC desig.

12 CONTACT INFORMATION SAVE THE DATE Busiess-to-Busiess Forum Belgium, veue to be cofirmed DSP Valley expects you o the yearly B2B Forum! A etire day filled with iterestig -o- meetigs with some of the leadig executives of the smart systems idustry i the BeNeLux ad Europe, with a pre-screeig, guarateeig a high level of relevace for your busiess developmet. This very efficiet format allows you to have 0 to 2 high-quality meetigs i just day. Make sure your compay/orgaizatio is part of this must-atted evet ad already register by sedig a to shirie.irai@dspvalley.com All trademarks or registered trademarks metioed i this are the itellectual property of their respective owers. 2 Cotact Iformatio KU Leuve - imids - μpp: Plug-ad-Play Peripherals for the Iteret-of-Thigs p. Mr Sam Michiels, IOF Idustrial Research Maager or Prof. Day Hughes, KU Leuve Tel sam.michiels@cs.kuleuve.be or day.hughes@cs.kuleuve.be Itrisic-ID ad Ivesese develop the Trusted Sesor for IoT p. 3 Boris Kees, Director Product Maagemet Itrisic-ID Tel Boris.Kees@itrisic-id.com Altra - Strategic collaboratio with Jaguar Lad Rover & report Telecom & Media sector i Europe p. 4 Carolie Nicque, Iteral Commuicatio Officer Altra Tel carolie.icque@altra.com Imec supports Airobot with the commercializatio of a close rage flyig system for droes p. 5 & Imec supports Ghet-based start-up Sesolus with optimizatio of GPS tracker for Iteret-of-Thigs applicatios p. 5 Kris Hermus, Iovatio Program Maager Fladers, imec Tel Kris.Hermus@imec.be Barco Silex validates iteroperable VC-2 lightweight video compressio solutio for ASIC/FPGA ready for UHD ad 4K trasport p. 6 Mr. Geert Decorte, Sales ad Marketig Maager Barco Silex Tel geert.decorte@barco.com Uiversity of Atwerp - NEXOR cosortium Next Geeratio of Heterogeeous Sesor Networks, Iteret of Thigs (IoT) ad Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) p. 6 Dr. Ir. Aa Hristoskova, Research & Iovatio Maager Tel ; aa.hristoskova@uatwerp.be Sofics clippig circuit protects wireless iterface circuits agaist excess voltage p. 8 Mr. Bart Keppes, Director Marketig, Sofics Tel.: bkeppes@sofics.com Sigasi fouder featured i book about etrepreeurs p. 8 Mr. Philippe Faes, CEO Sigasi Tel philippe.faes@sigasi.com itopix Hoored With The Prestigious IABM Peter Waye Award p. 9 Mrs. Katty Va Mele, Director Busiess Developmet itopix Tel K.vamele@itopix. com Xetal Named Oe of the 8 Most Promisig Europea Start-Ups p. 0 Mr. Fracesco Pessolao, CEO Xetal Tel.: fracesco@xetal.eu MiDCet supportig STEM educatio i Belgium p. 0 Mr. Mike Wes, CEO MiDCet Tel.: mike@midcet.com KU Leuve ESAT-MICAS at the Iteratioal Solid-State Circuits Coferece 206 p. 2 Patrick Reyaert, professor ESAT-MICAS KU Leuve Tel patrick.reyaert@esat.kuleuve.be This publicatio has bee realized with the support of these orgaizatios.