Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ACTIVATING (Additive Manufactured Automotive Antenna for Autonomous Driving)
Reporting period: 2024-07-01 to 2025-06-30
The European Union's industry and research sectors have an excellent reputation in the field of mmWave and radar technology. This technology is used for autonomous driving, aerospace, medical technology, and 6G technology. Antennas are a key component in radar technology. The limiting factor for antennas is the established manufacturing processes, such as milling or plastic injection moulding. Since its founding in 2022, Golden Devices has been very successful in offering 3D printing as an alternative manufacturing process. The manufacturing process involves first printing plastic and then metallising it. The pilot customer projects were prototypes and small series. However, it turned out that there is a high demand for 3D-printed antennas within the European Union for mass-market applications such as radar systems for autonomous driving – a real mass market application. In contrast, 3D printing technology has not yet succeeded in penetrating mass-market applications. This means that there is a gap between existing market demand and the available manufacturing technology, or rather, the number of units that can be produced. This gap is being closed by the EIC-Accelerator project ACTIVATING (Additive Manufactured Automotive Antenna for Autonomous Driving). The project aims to develop a production line capable of manufacturing 3D-printed and metallised antennas for mass-market applications. The TRL level (Technology Readiness Level) of the prototype line will be 8 after the project. The biggest challenge is to automate the production line and to meet customer requirements for mass-market applications. These requirements primarily involve delivery reliability and consistent quality. The Golden Devices team is very confident that the ACTIVATING project will be a complete success. This will enable the European Union to manufacture a key component for high-tech applications in large volumes and build up expertise and jobs.
The main tasks of the project include project management, preparation of market activities in the form of commercialisation and dissemination, and technological development. The latter task involves industrialisation and automation of the processes and extension of applications. In the work package project management, the project has been successfully coordinated, and finances have been handled prudently. In addition, technical and risk management are carried out, as well as protection and competitor monitoring. The work package Commercialisation and Dissemination focuses on driving forward subsequent commercialisation. This includes incorporating the impact of technical decisions and changes in market conditions into the business plan. In addition, the sales network and corresponding structures are to be created. Another important aspect in this context is ensuring quality and internal processes. To this end, topics such as approvals and certification, supplier qualification and supply chain management, ERP and logistics, and dissemination and communication are being addressed. The above-mentioned goals have been successfully implemented so far. The core and largest work package is process industrialisation and automation. The primary focus here is on automating the work steps of 3D printing, cleaning, metallisation, and measurement or quality testing. This has already been implemented in the project. The next step is now the start-up of the production process and pilot production, and validation. The final work package during the project period focuses on extending the applications. The first area of work here is the extension of the frequency range in order to use 3D printing technology for antennas for frequencies above 100 GHz for large-scale production applications. Higher frequencies are associated with higher data rates and higher resolution in imaging systems. The second area deals with the development of high-resolution radar antennas. The main focus here is on increasing the number of transmitting and receiving channels. This is where 3D printing offers major advantages over established manufacturing processes. Initial results look extremely promising.
The result of the project will be that high-tech applications such as autonomous driving, aerospace, medical technology, and 6G technology will no longer be limited by existing manufacturing processes in terms of technology or price. It is important that the IP created during the project is protected. In addition, internationalisation is being sought shortly after the project, as major customers prefer local production in order to prevent supply chain difficulties.