The overarching goal of BEYOND5 is to build a completely European supply chain for Radio-Frequency Electronics enabling new RF domains for sensing, communication, 5G radio infrastructure and beyond.
BEYOND5 is first and foremost a technology project gathering most significant European actors covering the entire value chain from materials, semiconductor technologies, designs and components up to the systems.
BEYOND5 strives to bring together mobile broadband (5G), the Internet of Things (IoT) and automation connectivity for self-driving cars in a single technology platform based on the most advanced SOI technologies manufactured in Europe, namely RFSOI and FDSOI.
The project will manufacture SOI components in Europe (three pilot lines in two European countries), aggregate the whole RF-SOI value chain to demonstrate added-value of the technology at the user level (six demonstrators) and reinforce a design ecosystem in Europe using these platforms. The substrate and IC manufacturers closely cooperate with designers, chipset and system providers, test instrument suppliers and end users to enable high performance and low cost RF components in proper time and volume and accelerate the Time-to-Market.
BEYOND5 will drive industrial roadmaps in More than Moore (MtM) in adding connectivity features on existing CMOS Technology. The ambition is to accomplish sustainable Radio Frequency SOI platforms to cover the frequency range from 0.7GHz to more than 100GHz, and to demonstrate the technical advantage of SOI, which allows combining large scale integration, low power consumption, cost competitiveness and higher reliability; thus, resulting in high volume production of trusted components with low environmental impact in Europe.
This objective will be achieved using the 3 major work streams:
1. Technology enhancement:
• 300mm RF SOI substrates pilot line in Soitec,
• “Substrate Innovation Center” to prepare future generations, coupled with the 300mm CMOS line in CEA-LETI,
• 22FDX technology pilot line ready to use addressing Digital Signal Processing of radio module and RF reliability, in GLOBALFOUNDRIES,
• RF-SOI 65nm technology pilot line for 5G Front-End Modules (FEM) in ST. This RFSOI technology will address both sub 6GHz and 28GHz application domains.
2. European RF Network enhancement: to create IP, building blocks, design libraries focused on FD-SOI and RF-SOI using a large fabless community (Large group, SMEs and Academia)
3. Leading edge systems development for RF connectivity and sensing:
• NB IoT for Smart Asset Tracking (Traxens),
• Contactless USB for high-data rate communication (ST),
• V2X for autonomous connected trucks (Ford Otosan),
• 5G Low Power Digital Beamforming Base Station for Indoor dense spaces (Ericsson),
• Automotive MIMO Radar with embedded AI (Valeo),
• Car Interior Radar for passenger monitoring (Silicon Radar).
