High-speed, High-accuracy and Radiation-Hardened (Rad-Hard) Analog-to-Digital converter (ADC) in CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor) technology

ended

The global market of high-qualified Analog-to-Digital and Digital-to-Analog converters (ADC and DAC respectively) is dominated by United States’ (US) firms, all of them subject to “International Traffic in Arms Regulations” (ITAR), and therefore to important restrictions in export and use in aerospace and defence applications outside the US. First European companies in the market hold marginal shares, and what is most concerning, they offer poor-performing products. The loss of competitiveness of these firms in the face of US’ competitors and European Union's (EU) technological dependence are evident. Facing this situation, the European Space Agency, the European Commission and the European Defence Agency agreed on a list of actions for strategic non-dependence in the area of critical space technologies, such us the development of high-performance and high-speed DAC-ADC based on EU technology. 2SE is a start-up founded by experienced and high-qualified professionals coming from the research world and the electronics industry. This project is aimed at the feasibility assessment of a high-speed, high-accuracy and radiation-hardened (Rad-Hard) ADC in CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor) technology. It clearly outperforms all the competing products in terms of performance, features (including self-calibration tasks for autonomous systems), energy and cost efficiency due to its System-on-Chip design. This ADC is the result of a previous R&D project currently at a TRL6 and it is mainly targeted to specific applications developers/integrators and manufacturers of electronic equipment, whose main pain is the scarcity of a qualified offer. We will tackle space, aeronautics, automotive and medical segments, with EU as our first target, and international expansion through Asia-Pacific and America. This product unveils a business opportunity with an impact of €18.75M in our turnover, €15M of accumulated profit, 24 new jobs and a ROI of 7.47 for the 2021-2023 period.