Doing more with always less: this is the leitmotif of modern microelectronics. This squaring of the circle is nothing new, but it becomes a little more difficult to resolve each year. First, because the “needs” are increasing exponentially. Artificial intelligence is intruding everywhere, cars are becoming electrified and automated, communications have definitively entered the era of very high speed, factories are becoming less and less industrial and more and more IT… All this requires electronic components of increasing complexity, whose design must be increasingly modular. But all this must also be powered by (increasingly) limited energy resources. For their twenty-seventh edition, the Electrons d'or, awarded by an independent and voluntary jury whom we thank more warmly than ever, once again testify to these contradictory injunctions, and to the imagination deployed by the semiconductor community to answer it.
On the power side, we find in the 2024 list the family of supercharged Balletto microcontrollers from Alif Semiconductor, which combine a Cortex-M55 core, an Ethos-U55 artificial intelligence accelerator and a Bluetooth LE and 802.15.4 compatible radio frequency front end. Microchip Technology's rugged 64-bit RISC-V PIC64-HPSC embedded embedded processors also fall into this category, this time aimed at space applications. On the sobriety side, we will remember for example the Golden Electron collected by the French Dracula Technologies for its printed photovoltaic cells which also ensure the storage of solar energy, or the NBM5100/7100 management circuits from Nexperia which promise to Significantly extend the life of lithium button batteries. With its DK8102/8202, the Scotsman Dukosi intends to make better use of electric vehicle batteries by characterizing them at the level of each cell, while STMicroelectronics facilitates the management of intelligent buildings by means of a presence sensor using an original technology combining Mems and thermal transistors. And to avoid wasting energy at the Wi-Fi 6E/7 antennas of smartphones, Murata has developed innovative coupling components. The list is completed by the QSPICE simulation tool, which facilitates handling the increasing complexity of assemblies, and by the Lyon start-up Netri for its organs-on-chips technology using microelectronics tools as well as than artificial intelligence.
The 2024 winners:
Digital Semiconductors : 32-bit microcontrollers with Bluetooth front-end and AI accelerator Ballet d’Alif Semiconductor
Analog semiconductors : Management circuits extending the autonomy of lithium button batteries NBM5100/7100 of Nexperia
Sensors : Infrared sensor with thermal transistors and Mems for presence detection STHS34PF80 of STMicroelectronics
Passive/Electromechanical : Coupling component improving the performance of Wi-Fi antennas Parasitic Element Coupling Device of Murata
CAD/Measurement/Tools : Free tool for simulating analog and digital montages QSPICE of Qorvo
Industrial electronics : Printed photovoltaic capture and energy storage cell Layer Vault of Dracula Technologies
Automotive electronics : Contactless battery monitoring and data collection circuits DK8102/DK8202 of Deficiency
Military and aeronautical electronics : Radiation-hardened 64-bit RISC-V processors PIC64-HSPC of Microchip Technology
Start-up of the year : Netri (organs on chips coupled with AI for clinical studies)
