DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The ENIAC Joint Undertaking announced that the project “Nanoelectronics for an Energy Efficient Electrical Car (E3Car)” received its 2011 Innovation Award, demonstrating 35% energy savings, lower costs, improved reliability and shorter time to market by introducing innovations at component and sub-system level, some of which are being adopted in real-life applications as early as in 2012. The announcement made at the European Nanoelectronics Forum in Dublin also highlighted the “E3Car” contribution as a pioneer and a role-model: it seeded a cluster of seven electro-mobility projects sharing the understanding of fundamental architectures and topologies defined in “E3Car”. With a combined R&D budget of Euro 180 million and more than 100 participants from the whole value-creation chain, these projects shall generate knowledge and product prototypes substantiating the European claim for electronic leadership in the rapidly growing electro-mobility sector.
“E3Car” is Europe's largest research project in the field in the last three years. It is executed by 33 partners from 11 European countries incurring total R&D costs of Euro 44.2 million, supported by Euro 14.1 million grants from the ENIAC member States and Euro 7.4 million from the ENIAC JU. The consortium is coordinated by Infineon Technologies, the largest European semiconductor supplier to the automotive industry. The European semiconductor market for automotive applications is the largest in the world.
“E3Car” applies nanoelectronics as a key enabling technology to innovate, demonstrate benefits and then drive standardization leveraging its Europe-wide consortium. It enabled numerous advances of the state of the art, establishing world records for example in device technology by achieving the highest intrinsic efficiency for 400V insulated gate bipolar transistors, or in managing the battery charge/discharge process with unparalleled efficiency by integrating advanced power devices and novel sensors.
Reiner John, the project leader of Infineon Technologies, said: “The E3Car project generated 22 innovative demonstrators driven by car manufacturers, their system suppliers and semiconductor vendors in cooperation with universities and research institutes; the supply chain partners are ideally positioned to develop holistic approaches towards energy efficient and affordable electric vehicles, from research-based approaches to demonstration and to manufacturing capabilities”.
The ENIAC JU Innovation Award
As the first projects supported by ENIAC JU grants enter the final
phase, the efforts of the research consortia are coming to fruition and
the impact of the results is becoming increasingly visible. The ENIAC JU
is now in the position to recognise the projects that have contributed
most to building an innovation-based future of growth and jobs in Europe.
To
this effect, ENIAC JU invited project coordinators to summarise their
achievements and asked the National Funding Authorities and the ENIAC
Operational Unit to vote in order to identify the project that generated
the most innovative and impactful solutions.
Andreas Wild,
the Executive Director of the ENIAC Joint Undertaking, said: “The ENIAC
JU Innovation Award will recognize each year the projects having
contributed most to building an innovation-based future of growth and
jobs in Europe. “E3Car”, the winner of this year, has created
world-class technology and device innovations, and convincingly
demonstrated their commercial potential in electro-mobility applications
responding to societal and environmental challenges.”
E3Car Participants
E3Car Partners: Alcatel Thales III V Lab; Atmel Automotive GmbH; Atmel Rousset SAS; AUDI Electronics Venture GmbH; austriamicrosystems AG; Centro Ricerche SCPA; CISC Semicondustor Design+Consulting GmbH; Commisariat à l’Énergie Atomique CEA – LETI; Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas; Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche; ELBIL Norge AS; EPYON BV; FH Joanneum GmbH; Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der Angewandten Forschung e.V. – IISB; Fundacion CIDETEC; Infineon Technologies AG; Infineon Technologies Austria AG; Institut Mikroelektronickych Aplikaci SRO; OKMETIC OYJ; ON Semiconductor Belgium BVBA; Philips Electronics Nederland BV; Robert Bosch GmbH; Siemens Aktiengesellschaft; STIFTELSEN SINTEF; STMicroelectronics SA; STMicroelectronics SRL; Technische Univeristaet Wien; Think Global AS; University College Cork – Tyndall National Institute; Valeo Études Électroniques SAS; Valtion Teknillinen Tutkimuskeskus ; VTI Technologies OY ; Vysoke Uceni Technicke v Brne
ENIAC member States participating: Austria; Belgium; Czech Republic; Finland; France; Germany; Ireland; Italy; The Netherlands; Norway; Spain
Further information at www.E3Car.eu
About the ENIAC Joint Undertaking: The ENIAC Joint Undertaking (JU) is a public-private partnership focusing on nanoelectronics that brings together the ENIAC member States, the European Union, and AENEAS (an association representing European R&D actors in this field). The ENIAC JU was set up in February 2008 and will allocate grants throughout 2013, executing the projects selected for funding till 31 December 2017. The total value of the R&D activities generated through this partnership is estimated at 3 B€.
Further information at www.eniac.eu